Jawbone Ride O' Death

[kelsorat]

Just kidding, not a death ride, just some good single-track,sand-hill, mountain exploration riding set up for this Sunday. :nod:

Place: Jawbone Canyon
Meeting Spot: Denny's Parking Lot in Mojave--off of HWY 14
Time: 8:45AM Denny's Mojave

If you are running late just stay on HWY 14 out of Mojave. Jawbone Canyon entrance is approx 20minutes North of Mojave off of Hwy 14 Left Side. We are staging around the Blue Hill. Can't miss Blue Hill. After turning left to Jawbone Entrance continue until the paved road becomes dirt road and look for a Blue Hill off to your right.

Come on out, Jawbone is worth the drive. Great mix of terrain,nice weather, elevation changes, naughty cheerleaders, beer, and the smell of premix.

 

[the Eel]

See you this Sunday, April 3rd !

WOOO HOOOO !!!
I'm in .... see you on Sunday !

 

[thumbs]

naughty cheerleaders, beer,

I miss all the good rides.

 

[2strok4fun]

Come on out, Jawbone is worth the drive. Great mix of terrain,nice weather, elevation changes, naughty cheerleaders, beer, and the smell of premix.

Sweet (Napolean dynamite quote)

Ill be there, anyone breakfasting?

Dont forget time change.

 

[the Eel]

Sweet (Napolean dynamite quote)

Ill be there, anyone breakfasting?

Dont forget time change.

I'll bring some tater tots.

 

[2strok4fun]

You going to eat your Tots? :rotfl:

Ill plan to go out a little early and get some breakfast and the Dennys.

 

[oldandslo]

I will try and make it. As long as Kelso is bringing the naughty cheerleaders and beer I will try harder to get out their. You plan on leaving Denny's at 8:45 or meeting their for breakfast at that time?

 

[2strok4fun]

Greg, I was thinking 8:00 for breakfast.......
Were do you live? Is it worth a carpool? Im in Yorba Linda.

 

[the Eel]

:) :)

 

[kelsorat]

8:45AM Mojave Departure

 

[KiwiBird]

You guys living?

Report please!

 

[Boodac]

You guys living?

Report please!

Was wondering that myself. Suppose they are stranded on Gilligans Jawbones Island and cant escape? :laugh:

 

[Ol'89r]

You guys living?

Report please!

WHAT! Everyone went to jawbone and Kiwi didn't??? :yikes:

What's up with that??????? :coocoo:

 

[oldandslo]

Here is a quickie, I have to get back to work. Kiwi was a little to tired or sore to go riding so he set us up with his friends. We went a total of 50 miles, at least 30 were fast fireroads. The single track was a lot of fun. I got stuck in 3 or 4 big snowdrifts and one mud hole that I didn't see it was covered with leaves.
It was tuff but fun, I am ready to go back as soon as the soreness (from lifting an xr400 out of snowbank) goes away.
Later

 

[KiwiBird]

Kiwi got his ass KICKED on Saturday and was unavailable on Sunday due to inability to recover.

 

[2strok4fun]

inability to recover.

Ya know, I got to quit letting the office know I am going out on weekend rides because the above excuse isnt getting me out of work. :)

Great trails, love the single track. :cool: Thanx Kiwi for setting us up with "The Squid" and company to take us spodes on a tour.

I think we got a taste of the area and would like to see more when the snow melts. I was thinking before that some of the snow would be gone, but it is still going strong at 6600 ft ele. I did manage to "stick" myself into a mud hole and subsequently bind up my chain (which was too loose). After Kelso helped me out of that mud hole, I got stuck in another, this time it must have taken me 20 minutes to get myself out of that one. It was wierd, what looked like a 2" deep bit of moving water was really a over the hub wheel sucking pit of quick sand.

Cant wait to do more.

here are some pics from my cell phone, so excuse the quality and poor color.

 

[2strok4fun]

More pics,

Trail side tire repair.

BTW, sorry I missed you guys for dinner, I was looking forward to it, but time was a problem with my length of drive.

 

[2strok4fun]

Where's the trail?

 

[the Eel]

More pics,

Trail side tire repair.

BTW, sorry I missed you guys for dinner, I was looking forward to it, but time was a problem with my length of drive.

Cool pics ... they came out not too bad after all.

We were wondering if you had just missed the turn for Graziano's .... then I remembered you giving me the "thumbs up" when you passed me earlier and eventually I put 2 and 2 together.

That was a really fun ride ... it's hard to believe we rode that much fireroad though. But I guess we did. I think the quality singletrack and all the trailside hi-jinks just made me forget that we only did like 20 miles in the woods after all.

I have no idea where we were or what trails we were on, though I did recognize one section from the last time I rode there. Quite an entertaining group - we met the Squid, the Donkey (really nice guy), the Worm, and the Bombardier, among others, plus a 15 year old who was just amazing on a CR 500.

We held the train up more than once but made it through pretty much everything. The snow drifts were a pain if you broke through the crust, which you usually did. Then you just got stuck and your back wheel would eventually dig a hole to China. Did that a few times ... in the mudholes, too. This was a woods ride - tight singletrack, ducking under trees, hopping small logs, mudholes, ruts, and not much was on level ground - we were climbing or descending, one or the other. The shot with the flowers is Kelso Valley. It was quite a view when we started to drop down into it. Yellow and blue flowers everywhere. The weather was just perfect. :cool:

We even got to assist in a trailside tire change, which was entertaining to say the least. You can see Bombardier kneeling over his tire in the last 2 pictures. IT was quite a sight. To say the least. In fact, when the Donkey kneeled down to help him out, it looked kinda like this: :moon:

And of course Bombardier was teased AND taunted unmercifully by his "buddies" because of the super crappy tube he had been riding on, and also because he took a long time to change it. I should add that that not one of them lifted a single finger to help him change it. But then again, how could they ... they were too busy taunting him. :p

I think Scott and/or Chris GPS'd the route. We need to go back when the snow melts and explore some more. Good times ... we even hit some sweet jumps. :laugh:

 

[2strok4fun]

Yep, my GPS got the whole route from inside the backpack. I loaded it into TOPO this mourning, seeing it on a map helps me get my bearings. The final drop into Kelso valley, had a section that droped 1000 feet in .9 mile, cool stuff.

Some printed maps and a few waypoints and I will be good to go for next time, and Ill tighten up my chain :)

 

[kelsorat]

We arrive at Jawbone's Blue Hill at around 9ish Sunday morning and find Kiwi lounging by his camper. Explaining that he is fairly beat to hell, I think to myself..Well if Kiwi is sore and tired maybe just maybe he will take it easy on us and we all will go for a nice warm-up ride...but suffice to say, Kiwi just set us up with his buddies for a nice ride/adventure.
I knew his riding buddies were hard-core as they start to stage up, wearing chest protectors duct-taped from past uses, serious trail riding accoutrements strapped to every body part, and wild assortments of bikes that looked as if they spend very few weekends in the garage being polished and admired.
14 miles of 4x4 roads through Butterbredt took us up toward the Piute Mountains and some extremely sweet single track. All the times I have been to Jawbone I never knew those trails were out there. At about 5000 ft the water was running at the bottom of every pass, truly great trail. As the elevation continued to rise the snow started to appear, and since I had never ridden in the stuff, I continued to get stuck until Eel told me to stay in the snow ruts instead of attempting to blow new paths through the 2 foot blankets of white stuff. I also let alot of air pressure out of the tires to get better traction.
Oh did I mention that the others, always ended up waiting for my butt to catch up.
One of the riders(Bombadier) gotta flat so we stopped to rest and wait for the tire change . Then things got interesting.

 

[Boodac]

Excellent ride report, would like to hear the rest.

 

[kelsorat]

After the flat tire change the group had to decide how to get back down. With trail names like Kelso Impossible, and comments like, "well if we take so and so trail down and find the bottom filled with snow we will be trapped", I'm thinking, I hope they just decide to go back the way we came.
Well, that was the decision, back the same trail. Now riding up the mountain was much easier because all of the rock ledges and step-up's were actually going down-hill. See the trail up was a variation of twist and turns, uphill and downhill, but the main direction was increasing in altitude. Going back, the rock sections were now nasty uphills that required skill or just picking the bike up and over. We all stopped at a clearing for an incredible view of Kelso Valley, and instead of continuing down the trail, one of the guys says, "this is getting boring, let's go down this way". We all "bike-skied" down the mountain through the wildflowers, truly a blast. At the bottom of the first ridge though things got tough as there were tough rock sections to negotiate in order to get over to other ridges that would put us closer to the bottom of the valley.
As rides go, this trail was right up there with Kennedy Meadows, with desert,forest,mountain trails,snow drifts, and perfect weather to compliment a great ride. I'm glad I saved the route in my GPS for future return trips.

 

[KiwiBird]

Kelso, do you have that in a Garmin format? If so, could you send it to me please.

 

[a454elk]

Nice pictures my friends, sounds like a great ride!