First Bikepacking / Overnight Trip in the San Bernardino National Forest
I am an adrenaline junky & love to live life. It all started with riding bikes with the guys after work & quickly snowballed into a passion. Whether it was mountain biking, road biking or leisure biking with my wife, I couldn’t get enough. I started researching different types of riding and racing & soon stumbled upon bikepacking. I ran into a guy at an event that sold gear for bikepacking. In speaking with him, I found out his wife actually rode the Continental Divide on a mountain bike with all of her gear; sleeping bag, tent, food & all, right on her bike! This of course led me to the Internet to find all I could about it, which wasn’t too much. But I found it so interesting & thought back to my days in the Marine Corps with the adventure & camaraderie. I started talking to my buddies about bikepacking and they expressed a general interest. So being the pleasure seeker I am, I loaded the wife and myself in the car to scout out some locations.Just to test the waters, a few of my faithful riding buddies, Hegie & Wes, decided to join me in an “epic” pre-ride just to calibrate the difficulty level for the rest of the gang. Call it poor timing on Mother Nature’s part, but we ended up walking in snow up to our knees, pushing the bikes & damn near hypothermia. We weren’t able to complete the ride due to the fact, we were cold, miserable & it was getting dark. Twelve hours later, we found our tires hitting the home base driveway. Being the persistent nut I am, I knew that it could be done in better circumstances. I started ordering my gear, researching techniques & tips & finally marked my calendar: June 22, 2012. I put the word out with a few takers & in the end, they all fell out like dominos. So it was just my die-hard posse & I: my lovely wife, Tiffany & my furry sons, Shadow & Jax. I packed my gear, which consisted of a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad, a tent, a compact stove, a small mess kit & some food for the journey. I initially was going to ride my single speed for weight purposes but my gear ended up weighing around 20.5 lbs & was able to load it onto my Cannondale Flash. Everything was a go & of course, with all the excitement, I couldn’t sleep & ended up sleeping through the alarm! Finally, at 7:25 am, I bid a-do to the homestead & began to pedal. What a beautiful morning for a ride! It was so nice & cool with a light morning fog. It was just what I needed to help out on my epic 30-mile uphill climb. I’m riding along, feeling incredible; people are waving…almost like my own personal send off!My wife had headed out after me with the dogs in tow in the loaded SUV. First stop, ice for the cooler. Then, the ranger’s station for a fire permit. Next, the bumpy fire road up to the yellow post site atop of Thomas Mountain. She set up camp & patiently waited.Now I’ve made it to the base of Baustisa Canyon Road where I see my photo-op.
For those who know me, know that I am a bit self-absorbed & love pictures of myself not only for me but to show & tell just like in kindergarten. “Welcome to the San Bernardino National Forest”. I pulled out my tri pond and took a few pictures & away I went.I started to see quite a few Cal-Fire trucks and hoped there wasn’t a fire. Luckily, it just turned out that they were just clearing brush. So they waved and I smiled and rode on. Maybe a mile or two down the road, out of the bush jumps this crazed guy that had nothing on but what appeared to be a loincloth. He was about thirty feet from me and he said, “Mister! Hey mister! Stop! Do you got any water? I haven’t had any water all day.” Since it was only around 8:20 am, the day hadn’t been too long. Plus, there is a prison right in the area. Who knows, he could be an escapee! I told the poor guy, I had to ration my own water & didn’t have any for him but will let the Cal-Fire folks know that he was in need of some water. He proceeded to follow me and the story elaborated into him being jumped & dumped out here. I guess his day was going to continue to suck because I pushed harder to put the distance between us.The surface streets came to an end & the dirt road begans.
Alas, the true fun! All of the sudden, the morning fog dissipates & the good ol’ Southern California sun rears it’s head, blasting right down on me.
The easiest gears started to feel like I was pushing led. I was mentally psyching myself pretty much ¾ of the way. It was hill after hill after hill! Imagine 16 damn climbs in row. That was my life for the next 6+ hours. Boy, did I gravely miscalculate my route’s difficulty. But if I could get through this, I would be a God…a Mountain God! I was on no time clock & would have all the time I needed to recover at camp & that’s what kept me going!Nature is an incredible thing! Outside of “Tarzan”, as we coined the loincloth man, things started to cross my path that led to awe & personal insight. It was so serene & peaceful. The lizards were quick runners & almost the size of small cats. Amazing types of colorful butterflies that I’ve never seen but I wasn’t fast enough to the camera so my mental pictures are all that I have. The picturesque views were spectacular! I could see the Palomar Observatory from the road.
Open fields & valleys surrounded by breath-taking mountains all around.
It was a little intimidating being in the midst of such seclusion & I began to think of my comrades & wish they had made the journey with me. As quickly as the personal reflection hit, so did the thought, ‘What the hell am I doing out here, in the middle of nowhere with just me & my bike & damn, it’s hot!’ My legs hurt. Hot! It was freakin’ hot & this bike just keeps getting harder to move. But there was no turning back. I said to myself, I am going to finish this thing or search & rescue would be recovering my body because, I never surrender! My philosophy is if you think it you must do it. So I pressed on and thought I have done a lot worse than this. Funny thing, the worse and best part was doing this ride by myself. I thought that I was doing something not many people can claim to have done but it would’ve been nice to have shared the experience with someone else. Kind of like, ‘Remember when we thought we were Great explorers…’I kept pressing on. I knew it was getting late and my wife probably getting worried and I needed to get to camp because guess what I forgot to pack…flashlights! I could finally see the area that I needed to get to but looks can be deceiving. The thought of my wife & dogs running to greet me & welcome me to a camp chair & cold beverage kept my spirits high. I started to get into a thicker, wooded area. I heard a loud noise come from the brush. I thought, mountain lion. Please no! I stopped, dismounted & kept quiet to see how this would play out. Well, it turned out to be herd of deer running. There were about 5 or 6 of them. I tried to get my camera out I snapped a fast picture.
So I got back on bike and continued on my journey. Maybe mile up the road I found out what the deer were running from. About 50 feet in front of me I saw this huge bobcat walk across the road and it had attitude. I got off my bike, put my bike in front of me, ready to toss it at him if I need to and made myself look big (imagine that!). The bobcat looked at me with a dirty look like this my hood, you best keep moving and then, walked into the forest. So I slowly walked my bike keeping bike between me the forest and kept looking all around until I felt safe. Then, I got my bike started riding as fast I as I could like the devil was on my tail! Now I was about 5 miles from camp and finally, my first human encounter. A motorcycle rider was coming down the hill and stopped to ask if I was all right and do I need him to call ranger or something. I told him I was fine (duh, I’m doing this on purpose…for fun!) and I was just going up to the camping area. I guess I must have looked pretty haggard or something for him to express concern. Apparently he was much nicer than I was to “Tarzan”!
It seemed like it took forever to get to the top of the mountain where camp was to be. I wasn’t sure which campsite my wife was at since it was a first-come, first-serve basis. Part of me hoped that she didn’t get the yellow post site that was at the tip of the mountain, even though that was our first choice. But by this time my legs were rubber and I was dog-ass exhausted.
I was pushing the bike at this point & I passed the top of the Ramona Trail, which is another journey for another day (which will come). Then, through the clearing, I saw my wife and dogs. The wife cheered & yelled, “Papa’s here!” to get the dogs rallied. I got back on my bike, excited I was just feet away from the finish & was met half way by the Boys. She snapped a quick shot with her cell phone and greeted me with a high-five.
She had a cold washcloth ready & an ice-cold beverage quickly served. I spent the next hour giving her the details the adventure.Once my bearings came to, I made my self some Recoverite of 4 scoops in my big water bottle because my muscles were screaming. I sat down and rested.
The wife told about her adventure on setting up camp.
She had trouble with the fly on the tent. So I proceeded fix that while she got out the chips and dip. I made a welcoming campfire
where we cooked hotdogs for dinner. After that we talked, watched the sunset
and made s’mores.
Once the sun set, it was down right cold & being the native Southern California my wife is, she had brought no warm clothes but luckily I had packed a few windbreakers in my gear. I was super tired & the cold air with little warmth other than the campfire gave me a good excuse to turn in for an early night. Of course, the wind was howling away & the air mattress that us rough campers brought had a hole & slowly deflated while we tried to sleep. We truly found how hard the ground really is. My wife slept on her shoulder wrong and conveniently couldn’t lift her arm to help take stuff down so I had to forfeit the ride downhill to pack up camp and drive us home. Since the family went camping, I didn’t use any of the gear I brought but at least I went through all the motions so when I convince all my buddies that together, this will be an unforgettable adventure!All in all, it was worth the sweat, the tired, rubber legs, the bobcat & even “Tarzan”. What I learned from this bikepacking experience is I definitely need a sleeping pad under my sleeping bag for comfort. I will give my compact one a whirl on the next go-round. I needed to bring a sweatshirt & sweats or some sort of pants for camp that is light to carry. Chili! And hot cocoa too! Also some more water and some kind mix for the water. And then there was a separate pair of shoes that weren’t bicycle shoes or flip-flops but a pair that I could keep my feet warm and wear around camp. Oh yeah, bug spray too! The bugs & flies on the trail were pretty bad. Other than those very few, minute things, all was good. I will just have to go on another bikepacking trip to hammer out this stuff out. Are you in? I look forward to pedaling the journey with you. See on the trail!
Here all the photos if you want to see them on FB
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.413881321987164.85694.100000958995763&type=1&l=2930768480Also here is the route
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/191898941
