Sulphur Mountain, hike, bike, geocache

No big mystery for this one. Sulphur Mountain is off the 33 right after Casitas Springs and before the little hill going up to Oak View. My goal was to get to the end of the trail (actually a wide dirt road), then work my way back while getting some geocaches. On this trip, I left the backpack home and went light, all the necessities like water, phone, GPS, and an old Nikon Coolpix 46oo camera (still works). The end of the road apparently is 10 miles in. I made it about 1/8 mile past mile marker 4. Needless to say, I did not bag any geocaches.

For that entire 4 miles (one way one direction) it was uphill. Not a very steep climb, just a steady climb. I started at 09:30, turned around at 11:15. Guess I had enough. Pretty much I pushed the mountain bike up. There were several places where it got sort of flat I was actually able to ride. This depicts just myself. There were others that apparently are able to ride up.

At this one section where I could ride, I looked forward to see that it sloped down a bit, rounded a corner, then back up. I got a good drink of water, packed everything up good, then started down the this slight hill. Picking up speed, things got really bouncy, but managed to maintain control. So, I'm clipping along fairly well, keeping good balance, being tossed all around and what do I see in front of me, a rattle snake.

Things like that don't normally freak me out a whole lot. This one did. By the time I was done freaking out, I was already several yards past it. That is a good lesson learned. Take it easy and plan on snakes. It has been awhile since I've come close to that type of wildlife. Unlike the furry ones, snakes are scary.

So, I'm pushing the bike up the hills and all and I get past that mile 4 marker. It's 5 to 11. It's hot. The sun is out. I turn on the GPS and point to the first nearest geocache. It's over 2 miles away. Well, I'll keep going until 11:15 to see how I feel and how the road it turning out. It's not getting any less steeper, it's still hot and the sun is cooking, and it's 11:15. So time to turn back.

This part was easy, 4 miles downhill on a mountain bike. The snake was gone (thankfully - but I was ready), stopped a few times to drink the rest of the water and to take in the scenery. I guess it was about a 10 to 15 minute decent. No speeding, had the brakes on most of the way - just to be safe. Better that way.

Overall, leaving at 0930, heading back at 11:15, is 1 hour 45 minutes and covered 4 miles. Not a fast rate, 2.3 mph. Again, this is pushing a mountain bike uphill (mostly), some moments of actually riding, and stopped many times to rest. No geocaches this trip, bummer.

Malibu Canyon, hike, bike, geocache

It's been awhile since the last hike, bike, geocache blog. Last time it was not so fun. This time was ok. Today's adventure took me to Malibu Canyon State Park. In particular I wanted to go to the the MASH site.

There are folks that have taken good care of the MASH site and it's worth the effort getting there for a look around. Along the way I was able to get 5 geocache's, all with little trouble.

The hiking part, as usual, pushing the bike up anything that even resembled a hill. As the trail narrowed and got really rocky, it was carry the bike time. So that lifting exercise portion was good. The biking part saved some time when the trail permitted it. Good thing that was the majority of the trail. Geocaching turned out good with 5 finds. I guess a find is a find, these were straight forward and not too hard once GPS said 10 feet away.

This was the first time I used the bike rack on the back (trailer hitch) of a car. It worked out really well. Funny, I did not have the bike mounted correctly going and determined that while I was on the freeway. Coming home, I had the bike mounted correctly with those little mounting thingies positioned so there was contact with the two parts of the frame (the corner below seat post) and contact below handlebars.

Overall, the level of effort was about at the 80% range since there were a few changes in elevation. The cloudy, overcast morning kept the temperature down. If I do this again, I need to either research where the bike trails are and stick to those, or stick to the hiking part only. The good thing about bike is more area is covered in less time.