Dual Sport Ride Fall Frolic in Frazier Park

Nov. 01, 2005 By ORC STAFF
A RideNet Ride!
 

It all started with a Ridenet posting by Neil Wyenn inviting us to join him on a Saturday ride in the Frazier Park area near Gorman. Neil had planned out a 60-mile loop that would take us across the forest from Chuchupate Ranger Station to Half Moon Campground, and then return via Piru Creek to the jeep trail going to the top of Frazier Mountain. To add frosting to the cake, a long time friend of Neil and mine, Dick West, was going to come down all the way from the Sacramento Area to ride with us.

At around 9:00 AM, a total of 6 riders met at the Jack in the Box in Frazier Park for the ride. There were two ladies, Lisa Pogue (XR250) and Julie Angell (RT180), as well as four guys, Dick (DRZ400E), Neil (XR250), Jeremy Briggs (XR650R), and me (DRZ400S). Both ladies are excellent riders and required little or no assistance to cover some of the more challenging trails the area has to offer. Neil, Dick and I have been riding for decades (in fact, I believe that Dick and I have ridden with each other for some 30 years, this year), whereas Jeremy had only been riding about six times, and struggled a little with the motorcycle that he had chosen to buy. All in all, it was a well-matched group, and we helped each other through the tougher spots in true dirt-rider fashion. The weather was perfect, with blue skies and temperatures in the 60-70 F range.


Julie, Neil, Jeremy and Lisa

Dick and Ron on the trail again

Neil had done a lot of planning and prep work for this ride, and the terrain he chose was generally right for the group, with enough of a challenge to keep the seasoned riders happy but without too many challenging sections to get our newer riders in over their heads. He billed it as a scenery ride and he certainly delivered on that promise.

Julie contributed to the ride in a most pleasant way, as well. She had baked a bag of crumble-proof lemon cookies and passed them around as we were unloading the bikes. My good buddy, Dick, (the snake) offer to carry them in his backpack during the ride. While we had more at each break and during lunch, Dick conveniently "forgot" to split them with us at the end of the ride. I'll wager that he enjoyed them all the way back to Sacramento.


Serious scenery rides in the Frazier Park area

We rode about 60 miles and generally followed the course that Neil had laid out, but we did turn back without completing the Piru Creek section of the loop. Jeremy's 650 was just too much for him to handle in the alternating boulder gardens and deep sand of that creek bed. The morning and early afternoon part of the ride is the loop shown in solid red line (Chuchpate to Lockwood to Half Moon Camp and return via Piru Creek), while the late afternoon portion of the ride is shown in dashed red line (Lockwood to Long Valley and up Maxy Jeep trail to the top of Frazier Mountain and back to Chuchpate via the road). See the map right:

Dick and I took the less seasoned riders under our wing and suggested different riding techniques that we had learned over the years. Jeremy, who originally hails from South Africa, was doing a credible job of handling that monster 650. We later found out that he was also recovering from surgery on his arm, which explained some of the numbness that he complained of. Lisa has really improved in the couple of years that I have ridden with her, and Julie did a great job on the little 180 CC two-stroke Yamaha. This is probably because she usually rides with her brother who shows her no mercy on the trails he takes. It turns out she also works for Yamaha, but for the music/piano part of the company.


Dick gives Julie and Jeremy some tips

Lisa and Jeremy confer before rocky uphill

One of the first stops for use was the stunning Lockwood Valley, with its breathtaking panoramas and year round stream. Many riders take a dirt road this far, and use the valley as a staging area. (Back before the Sespe Wilderness was created, Dick and I used to stage here for the ride down Johnson Ridge into the Sespe Gorge and Hot Springs area. The trail into Sespe Canyon started from Half Moon campground and turned into a single-track that switch-backed down a steep narrow ridge into the canyon. Some of the corners were banked but others required muscling the bike around, and one had a 2-foot step just after the turn. Year ago, at the bottom of the trail, we would sometimes encounter a party of hippy types skinny-dipping in the hot pools. I don't think we ever joined in however, because the thought of having to ride back up the ridge after getting all hot and relaxed in the mineral water was just too daunting.)


Snedden Ranch Panorama from trail

Lockwood Creek

Leaving Lockwood valley the trail (7N15) is a rugged jeep road that climbs over several ridges and eventually comes to an overlook that surveys the Guillermo Valley, and then drops down to tie in with 7N03. Along this trail were many hunters camped out or actively seeking deer. Most gave us a friendly wave as we went by. The trail has some cobby hills but generally is fairly easy. At one corner, we encountered an abandoned mine that Dick couldn't resist posing in front of.


Lisa rounds the corner after uphill

Dick checks out an abandoned mineshaft

The overlook had an interesting memorial (grave marker?) as well. Alongside the cross was a small pine tree and picture of the person being honored, Jimmy Espinoza. Jimmy was obviously a hunter as the picture tied to the tree showed a person in camouflage and carrying a rifle, but it wasn't clear whether he died on this spot and was buried there, or whether it was just his favorite place in the forest and he was being remembered with a marker there.


View from overlook into Guillermo Valley

Memorial/burial site near the overlook

From this point on, we were mostly on graded dirt roads taking us to Half Moon Campground and our lunch stop. At the campground were some friendly hunters that we cooking up their lunch. Their little dog appeared to want the contents of our sack lunches more than what they were preparing.

After lunch, we started on a trail taking us through the Piru Creek drainage. The first part of the trail was a relatively easy and scenic ride through some open canyons, but as we progressed, the canyon walls grew steeper and the trail degenerated into a barely perceptible path through very rocky sections broken by sections of really deep wash sand.

I'd estimate that we made it about half way down this trail. After a trailside conversation, we decided to turn around and head back the way we came. Our other concern was that we might run out of daylight without being able to complete our planned Frazier mountain loop.


Lisa and Dick attack a rocky section

Lisa, Dick and Jeremy on a downhill section

At any rate, we turned around without finishing the Piru Creek leg of the trip and retraced our path back to Lockwood Valley. This wasn't all bad because we saw some scenery that we had missed on our way in. It was interesting to note that the Los Padres Forest has implemented an Adopt-A-Trail program for the trails in this area. This program allows the forest to maximize the use of scarce Forest Service Funds and labor by encouraging clubs to adopt and maintain their favorite trails in the forest. In this way, the trails can be kept up and kept open instead of being closed for budgetary reasons. We noticed that the adventure pass was also required to park in the forest. Funds derived from this program are used to fund improvements in the forest and buy tools and equipment used by the volunteers in maintaining the trails


Scenery on the Way back to Lockwood

Lockwood Trail Adoption Sign

When we made it back to Lockwood, Jeremy decided to cut the ride short and head back to his truck. After escorting him to the highway, we continued on towards Frazier Mountain. The trail to the mountain took us through several very picturesque meadows and offered some additional trail challenges. By this time it was getting late in the day, so we hustled along and I didn't have as much of a chance to take pictures.


Meadow on the way to Frazier Mountain

Hustling for home as the dark closes in

The trails to Frazier Mountain were fun but not as challenging as the Lockwood Trail. The Maxy jeep trail up the backside of the mountain was steep and had a few twisty turns, just to keep it interesting. By the time we made it to the loop road that circles the top of the mountain, dusk was definitely upon us. It was starting to get real nippy and we decided to head for the trucks. We were treated to a spectacular sunset as we dropped down the road and headed for the ranger station and our vehicles. Even though we had lunch at Half Moon campground, we were famished by the time we got the bikes loaded and changed out of our riding gear.

We decided that a fitting end to our day of riding and discovery would be to share dinner. We noticed a small Italian Restaurant in Lake of the Woods and decided that a steaming plate of Spaghetti or a tasty Calzone would be just the thing to cure our hunger and prepare us for the long ride home. It was neat to be able to spend some time getting to better know the person that you just spent the day riding with. As we ate, it was obvious that Neil was already planning the ride for the next week. He was already hitting us up for Jawbone or El Mirage.

At around 7:00 PM, we hit the road with full stomachs and pleasant memories of our Fall Frolic in the Forest.


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