Hey y’all! Me and my new Muni-riding buddy, Jim Dugue, who lives in the Orange County (CA) area, had a great three hour Muni ride in the Aliso Woods Wilderness Park area near Laguna Beach, ca. It’s one of TONS of great MTB trails in the area, and it a mecca for serious DH mountain-bikers.
Here’s a quick description of two of the four trails we rode, quoted from Geoladders: “Most probably the quickest way to experience thrills here at Aliso Woods. The climb up Cholla is short but always breaks a sweat. Meanwhile the Rock-It descent is quite technical and consists of rock gardens, windy smooth singletrack and a plethora of ledges and challenging lines for the bold.”
We started on “Cholla”, the proceeded up…waaay up to “Top of the world” (Well, almost) and along the way spotted a 3-foot rattler smack dab in the middle of the trail! From a distance, it appeared to have been run over, but it was simply basking in the sun, stretched out and chillin’. I walked up to it cautiously, and it didn’t budge, as if to say, “you don’t scare me buddy!”. So, taking a cue from “Animal Planet”, and having many years experience with our slithery friends, carefully grabbed it by the tail, and gently “swung” him back into the brush! He was sure “rattling” now, and majorly Pissed off! But better that then getting squished by a MTB.
Most of the bikers were in AWE of us, and we really sensed their appreciation for us tackling their “turf.” We also met Lisa, a mid 20-something beauty who hung out with us for a spell at the near-top of the world summit! She later BLASTED down a long, super-steep section at break neck speed! Hot! We sure hope to meet up with her again soon!
So, here’s the vid, but don’t expect any amazing feats, but we sure had a BLAST though! There are plenty of UPD’s, and just so you all know, Jim has only been riding Muni for 2 weeks! Cheers!
http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=196948