My fellow steel bike enthusiast Noel got a rare mid-week day off work & kid duties so we planned a ride up Saddleback. The highest peaks in Orange County are Modjeska & Santiago, at over 5,000'. They are informally referred to as Saddleback. Last week the snow level in Southern California dropped to around 3,000' in places, and Saddleback looked to have a nice dusting but was clear within a few days. We never expected to ride in snow. For those familiar with the area, our route was out Santiago Cyn from the El Toro area, over Modejeska Grade (a speed bump on the way) then up Modejska Cyn to the end where the Harding Truck Trail is the dirt road up to Saddleback. One the way we met a trail runner who let us know to expect snow & ice if we planned to go over the ridge & drop into Silverado Cyn, which was our plan. Sure enough, as we gained altitude, the temp dropped & we slogged thru a few inches of snow & broke thru crusts of ice on shaded, north facing sections of the road. Amazing how little snow it takes to cover rocks that one wishes he'd avoided. A bit of skating here, rear wheel spinning there, and some pushing but we slogged thru without getting our feet seriously wet or falling over. Noel's bike is a custom 650b with Rohloff hub and my Atlantis uses 40 mm tires, just right for trail blazing.
The top out at the main divide is over 4,000'. We elected not to try the last 1,000' feet or so to the absolute top of the mountain but plunged down into Silverado. More snow & ice lurked in the protected areas. We were passed by one MTBer who said he was not enjoying that part one bit. Maybe he had the wrong bike? Lunch at the Silverado Cafe was at hour 5 & mile 23. I'm not a good descender (heck, not much of a climber either!) but Noel was kind enough to wait up for me. We finished up back at Noel's house for a total of 31 miles. No idea on total elevation gain but let's call it "good enough". And neither of us carry a camera so no photos to prove it really happened. We both agreed photos of a couple of So Cal natives in shorts & T-shirts, on road bikes in the snow on a dirt road would have been worthwhile. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow just for the pix (NOT!). dougP -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
