Neil and Martin Confer before the Ride

Lisa Starts Her 250, Note Racing Number Plate

It started as an all too familiar posting from Neil to Ridenet suggesting that Lisa and I plan a Lake Silverwood ride. He suggested that we might want to consider a more challenging route, consistent with the ability of the riders that had agreed to come. Since it had been at least a year since I had done the Devil's hole loop (see attached map), I suggested that we give that a try. Several of the people were concerned about being able to make a loop of that length without having fuel problems, but we were assured by fellow Off-Road.com Staffer Mike Hobbs that it was less than 70 miles and that most dirt bikes were easily capable of making it without having to resort to the reserve setting on their fuel tank.

The Devil's Hole Loop in the San Bernardino NF Arrowhead Region

As we often do, we agreed to meet at the MacDonald's restaurant at the intersection of SR-138 and Interstate-15, at 8:30 Saturday morning, and Lisa swung by my house at about 6:30 to pick me up. As we were driving towards Cajon Pass, the weather was looking really ominous, with dark clouds hanging over the mountains. While we didn't run into any showers on the way, we began to consider alternatives to a 60+ mile loop that would take us into the heart of the mountains and require the crossing of Deep Creek at least twice. We considered just riding at nearby Baldy Mesa, or even driving an additional 60 miles to the Barstow area for desert dash to the Slash-X. After some discussion we decided that we would take the approach of still staging at Miller Canyon, and would ride up into the Arrowhead area. If the weather continued to be threatening, we would ride the various loops available there, but if it started to clear up, we would press on "To Deep Creek and Beyond".

Off-Road.com Staffer Mike Hobbs Battles Early Morning Fog on the WR450F Project Bike

Parking Area before Devil's Hole Crossing

The weather continued to look threatening as we headed towards Silverwood Lake, with dark clouds hugging the pinnacles and visibility reduced. However, once we climbed onto 2N33 and started into the Pilot Rock Ridge area, the clouds began to abate and temperature began to rise. By the time we reached the Pinnacles, we were beginning to shed the layers of clothes that we had piled on at the staging area in fear of getting soaked, frozen or worse. I had expected to run into Joe Meyer and some OHV Volunteers at the Pinnacles putting some finishing touches on the water lines they have installed to bring water to that staging area, but I'm guessing we came through too early to see them. At any rate, we were treated to a pleasant ride on 3N34 all the way down to the Devil's Hole parking area.

Once there, Neil Wyenn broke out the dozen-cookies he had baked and offered them around. They disappeared very quickly and Neil apologized for not bringing more. He noted that he had actually baked two dozen, but that half of them had turned out sort of crisp on the bottom. He said that his wife and kids were adamant about not allowing him to bring these less than perfect cookies for our consumption and proceeded to eat the evidence to prevent their embarrassment. It sounded like a tall tale to me, but then beggars can't be too critical now, can they?

Neil Breaks Out the Cookies as Lisa Watches

Group Portrait with Cookies in Hand (Off-Road.com Project WR450F)

At any rate, the next obstacle ahead of us was the actual crossing of Deep Creek itself. While the creek was not particularly deep, this crossing is always a challenge to riders because of the rocks and holes that lie in wait for the unwary riders. Lisa was daunted enough that she let me ride her bike across the stream while she rock-hopped her way across the creek. Neil had a somewhat novel approach to making the crossing, he put a "Steel-Sack" plastic bag over each boot and waded across the stream, pushing / driving the bike as he went. He was to note that he needed to write a letter to the company that makes the bag as both his boots were wet by the time he made it across. The rest of us didn't have any particular problem with the crossing, but everybody dabbed at least once, and Allen had two boots full of water when he finished his crossing.

Neil at the Crossing with His Better Idea

An Inventive Man Takes On Mother Nature

Once we made it across the stream and regrouped, we started on what is, in my opinion, one of the most fun single-track sections in the San Bernardino National Forest. 2W01 twists and turns its way up from Devils hole like a trail possessed. There are a number of tight turns that keep the rider awake and on the pegs. While the area is still in the recovery stage from the Willows fire of few years ago, the views as one climbs out of the Deep Creek Canyon are well worth the trip.

Lisa Waits On Neil to Negotiate a Tight Corner

Martin Motoring Smartly On the Single Track

After we finished 2W01, we stopped at the staging area at the start of 3N59 and discussed how we wanted to work through the next section of this loop. Most of the riders wanted to do the hard way option, that is, to take 1W17 (Redonda Ridge) from the Big Pine Flats area down to Crab Flat. Lisa and I, on the other hand, were up for the more leisurely scenery ride on 3N14 and down 3N16 to Crab Flats. We agreed to split up and meet at the intersection of 1W17 and 3N34 for lunch. As it turned out, Mike had a real challenging ride in mind for them. At Horse Springs, he veered left on 4N16 and then took 3N17 to 3N11, thus climbing and then descending White Mountain before he ever reached 1W17. Our ride was uneventful, except that I had to stop and recover Lisa's $300+ steering damper that had decided to loosen up and fall off on the road. The boys had quite a different adventure in front of them.

Looking Back toward Deep Creek On 2W01

Picturesque Rock Formation in Big Pine Flats

As Neil recounted to me later, the climb up White Mountain was a real son of a gun, with deep, silty powder interspersed with rocks of all sizes, and he was whipped before they even hit the beginning of Redonda Ridge trail. Actually, he joked that the Redonda run was challenging as well, but couldn't hold a candle to the White Mountain Trail. Hearing this Lisa and I were really glad that we opted for the easy way on this part of the loop. Due to the relative difficulty of our two routes, Lisa and I had a good half an hour to 45 minutes to wait for the rest of the group to show up for lunch. Lisa didn't let that time go to waste, and she grabbed a quick 40 winks in the sun by the side of the trail.

Waiting for Hard-Way Boys to finish 1W17

Allen Finishes 1W17 Section of the Loop

After lunch, Mike Hobbs high tailed it back to the staging area as he had to pick up his son. The rest of us took a more leisurely ride down to the Deep Creek Crossing at T-6, which was surprisingly low, considering the amount of rain and snow that we had recently. On the way down to T6 on 3N34, we encountered some 4X4's at an area known as "The Falls" or "Dishpan". This is a very rocky section that the bikes can easily pick their way through but is a significant challenge for the four wheelers.

4x4's pick Their Way through the Rocks

Neil & Allen On 3N34 South of Deep Creek

Our final destination now in sight, Lisa led us through her favorite part of the ride, the forest trail in the Arrowhead area. She chose a pretty direct route, since we were a little concerned about Allen and his thirstier two-stroke running out of fuel, but we still got in a nice ride. We took 2N27Y to 2N28, then onto 3W12 and 3W11 (which is Ridenet's adopted trail and is scheduled for its semi-annual maintenance on April 26). The trails we took were generally in good shape and appeared to have survived the winter season quite well, with only a nominal amount of maintenance required to keep them in condition for the summer riding months.

View From 3W12 (Lots of Brown Trees)

Lisa Finishes One of The Climbs On 3W12

One of the big concerns in the Arrowhead area (and the San Bernardino forest in general) is a massive bark beetle infestation that decimated the tree population in this area. There are literally hundreds of the trees in this area of the forest that have been killed by a combination of the last several years of drought and an invasion of the Japanese Bark Beetle. This foreign pest lays its eggs on the trunk of the tree, and when the larvae hatch they burrow their way into the living layers of the tree, eventually killing the tree and then hatching and moving on. In normal years, the tree defends itself by drowning the pests in sap, but during drought years the tree doesn't have enough moisture to defend itself.

This problem will manifest itself in the next few years in terms of hundreds of dead trees that will have to be felled and removed (or otherwise disposed of) in order to address the problem of fallen trees and a greatly increased fire danger. There is already talk of forest crews or commercial loggers moving in to address this problem and the possibility of lumber sales to help remove the dead wood.

At any rate, we finished up the ride without incident, and made it back to the trucks by 4 PM. After saying our goodbyes and loading up, we hit the road and made it home in plenty of time to have dinner with the family. This was quite a switch from our concerns in the morning about being stranded in a storm in the mountains, and brings home the point that you need to stay flexible in your planning and respond to the changing conditions in the forest as they arise.