A Random Epic Adventure: El Grande

The other day I heard that someone was organizing a ride from the very top of the mountains in Big Bear to the very bottom. The plan was to put together some of the best single track in SoCal to make one of the greatest descents around. In theory, it looked to be between 10,000-11,000 ft of descending.

So how could I resist, I'm always up for an adventure! Not knowing any of these guys, I sent an email out and asked if I could join in.

When I got in touch with the organizer Paul Romero, I knew I was in for something special. Paul edged me out at the last 12hr solo, so I knew he and I were on the same page when it came to "big" adventures.

He described the ride like this:

We'll be parking on the North Side of Sugarloaf Mountain....(Greenspot,
it's called...), HWY 38, and Hatchery Road.....From there we'd all ride up to the Summit... (maybe 1.5-2 hour climb). Then Begin the 6-8 hours of descent down to Mountain Village. Mostly all singletrack.

Here's a map and profile of the route.

NOTE: I started my GPS a little late off the top, so you can easily add a couple hundred more feet and some mileage to the profile. See GPS info here.

The Gang
When I arrived I was greeted by Paul (our fearless and slightly insane leader), Billy (a crazy trainer on a psycotic 29er), Casey (a 15yr old biking prodigy that's as good on as any of us), and Clay, another local crazy man.

Since the ride was going to be mostly descending, I decided to take my big bike (Nomad). Good move right? Wrong! Most of the crew had XC and/or slightly beefed-up XC bikes. Woops!

The Climb
It was just a few minutes into the ride and we started the brutal ascent up Sugarloaf trail. No warm-up or anything, just straight up. Some parts were climbable, but it took absolute full-out efforts to get up most parts the trail. This turned into a bike-push-bike section.

We basically fought through the rocks and got our bikes up to the intersection with Wildhorse Trail. From there it was more of push-ride-push to the top.

In the end, it was about 3400ft of climbing. See GPS info here.

So where was the decending I was thinking to myself? And man, did I have the wrong bike!

Top of the World
Once we were at the top the views were epic. We took a few snapshots and started our 11,000 ft decent to the bottom.

The "Descent"
One thing I've learned about the single tracks in the San Bernardino mountains; where there's down, there's also a lot of up. The descent off the very top was knarly! There were lots of fist-sized boulders and technical switchbacks the whole way. It was fun however as you could jump and hop off sections to clear the nasty stuff. Good times.

The descent down Wild Horse was absolutely "wild". Not knowing the trail, I was in tow most of the way but had a ton of fun. Most of it was downhill but there were a few 10 min climbing sections along the way; just enough to remind you that this wasn't a trail for a DH bike.

The crew were all equally skilled and we kept the show going the whole way; minus a few flat tires and seizing brakes. The "little man" Casey was killing it. This guy is going to be a super star someday!

SART
We eventually made it down to Hwy 38 and turned left to climb up to the top of the SART - a section I had never ridden before, and now I know why. This was basically a horse-beaten, sandy section with quite a few climbs that was completely working us over.

After a little grumbling, we survived this section and refueled at South Fork.

From South Fork on, it was just a blast. Just miles of some of the best single track (SART) in SoCal. We were switching off positions leading and having the time of our lives. The only issues was I was having a ton of trouble with my bike because my free hub was locking up and by brakes were seizing badly. After a little surgery however, we managed to get bike semi-functional.

The last nasty section (for me anyways) was Middle Control Rd. I usually love this climb, but by this time, I was totally worked over. My big bike was killing me.

Anyhow, we made it to Angelus Oaks and rolled in for some food at "The Oaks" restaurant.

Decision Time
From there, we had two choices:

1) Finish off the last part of the SART by climbing to Thomas Hunting Grounds and then Morton's Peak; or

2) Blast down Old Hwy 38 (on dirt) and roll through the wash back to my place where there was cold beer and pool waiting.

We were all pretty wrecked so we unanimously picked option 2.

NOE: If you've never done the Old Hwy 38, it's actually a blast. You can ride down old Hwy 38 to the actual Hwy 38 and then catch a bunch of single track at the wash at the bottom, so that's what we did.

New Friends
We finally made it back to Redlands where my wife had cold beer waiting for us on ice and the pool was ready to go. We all jumped in and had a celebratory beverage. This was definitely one of the most "random epic adventures" I've ever done.

When you think about it, I didn't know any of these guys, but we all proved we could work together to overcome the elements including 5+ flat tires, siezing brakes and hubs, and the best of all, about 11,000ft of descending on some of the best single track in SoCal.

El Grande Totals
Climbing: 6200+ ft
Descending: 11,000+ ft
Distance: 53+ miles
Time: ~9:00 hrs

So the next time you have a chance to hook up with any of these guys, you have my word that you'll be in for an epic adventure.

Thanks again for the experience!
AL

http://www.donsbikesraceteam.com/