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| 05-24-03 |
Alvin Meadows, also known as The Control Roads,
is located in Idyllwild California. The only other riding I have ever done in
Idyllwild was for the 24 hour race at
Hurkey Creek but I had heard
great things about this area. Another friend of mine had gone up to this area
before so he was more than eager to lead another ride for those of us who hadn't
made it with him the first time.
It turns out this network of trails consists basically of sweet downhill
single-track that all connect to the same fireroad. The down hills aren't super
fast or technical, but they're a blast to ride on. You simply decide which
single-tracks you want to take and head down them. Then, you loop back by the
parking area once or twice until you've done enough riding.
We explored a couple of trails that my friend hadn't done before. One was a lot
of fun but would have been better if we had done it in the reverse direction.
This was a pretty short side loop that didn't lose or gain much elevation from
the car but had some great views so it was well worth it.
The other trails we did all headed downhill which required a healthy climb to
get back out of the valley. We did explore one trail in particular, Webster
Trail, that my friend said he had heard was fantastic and very technical. He
assured us that at the bottom of the trail was a stream and not too far at the
bottom a fireroad intersected with the stream so we'd have to climb back out.
We went along and the trail was wonderful. About halfway down we realized that
the trail didn't see too much bicycle traffic. About 2/3 of the way down we
started thinking that the trail didn't get too much hiking traffic either. The
bushes were spreading across the trail and the grass was as high as your
handlebars in places. All of this made it even more difficult to see the trail
let alone ride it without crashing on the hidden rocks and holes. Eventually we
made it to the stream and lost all sight of a trail.
We started walking across boulders in the stream which is not too simple a feat
in wet cycling shoes. After walking through the stream for a bit, we found what
looked like a trail heading up the hill. we started pushing (it was unridable
at this point) and pushing and pushing. After about an hour or so we finally
made it to the fireroad. We stopped to rest, pick the grasses out of our shoes
and socks, and generally just recover from the hike before we took off again.
It was still all uphill back to the vehicles at this point. 5 out of the six
riders on the ride had run out of water at this point and the temperatures were
in the mid to upper 80's so we really just wanted to get back to the cars.
Since flowing streams are such a rarity in Southern California, nobody had a
water filter or Iodine tablets to purify some of the stream water (I will now
have some tablets in my pack for just such an opportunity though)
We all took off on the climb at our own pace and eventually made it back to the
cars in one piece. It turns out that with the hike, a few stops for flat tire
repairs, and just general stops for regroups and sight seeing, we were away from
the vehicles for over 5 hours! All in all it was a lot of fun but I don't think
I ever need to do the Webster Trail ever again when I go back!