Trail Blazing
DISTANCE
11.5 MI
ELEVATION
1461 ft
RIDE TIME
2h 20m
I took a trip to Idyllwild CA and had a nice time in the cute little mountain town. Of course I also had to plan out a route through the wilderness. The trails were wild, spent some time blazing in the forest.
At first, zero trails showed up on my usual app. Then I switched to “mountain biking” and voila! I found a nice 15 mile route that looked amazing. As you might imagine, this turned out to be both incredible and super trouble.
It quickly became clear my chosen route wasn’t very popular. The numbers on this ride aren’t very impressive, the major reason is that I spent quite a bit of time making sure I was on the right trail. In many places its was difficult to determine if I was on any kind of trail at all. Not to mention that these were apparently mountain bike trails; I was riding a wonderfully uncushioned gravel bike with 40mm tires and road gearing, solo. It didn’t really occur to me to be worried until I was deep in the woods.
Thankfully I never lost connection and my navigation remained useable for the whole ride. I also carry a backup battery for my phone, a compact set of tools, and plenty of co2 cartridges. Always prepared! Needless to say, there was plenty of hiking along with the biking. But I would do it again in a heartbeat. The views were astonishing and it felt like I had the entire mountain to myself.
Of course I found my way back to town as morning was ending. After my ride I spent some time with the family in the shops and talked to the different vendors in the market. One very nice lady explained that they often have to send helicopters out there to pick up cyclists who get lost or injured out on the trails. :thumbsup: