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Boy Scout Trail is one of my favorites in the Wrightwood area! |
Wednesday's ride included 40 glorious miles of high altitude singletrack and fire roads, followed by a great veggie burrito in town. We rode most of the Wrightwood 50 route, minus one epic descent and heinous climb. Wrightwood is one of those super close to LA hidden mountain gems that I think everyone should visit to ride at some point!
Wednesday evening Menso and I drove up the hill to camp at Blue Ridge campground, which we never found. We ended up pulling over at a random spot next to the Abominable Snowman, where Menso slept tent-less under the stars, and I in the van.
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Yeah, Menso slept right next to this... just a little spooky if you ask me :) |

Post ride we met a bunch of rad locals and roadies, used a bit of coffee shop internet and headed to Lake Gregory for a lake swim 'shower' (our hygiene has been less than perfect on this leg of VanLife, most days we consider a lake swim good enough...). Neither Menso nor I had ever been to the town of Crestline, CA before, where lake Gregory is located, and we were both blown away by how cute of a town it is/how great the lake was!
After our lake shower we drove on to Big Bear, where we parked up on top of Radford Rd, at about 8,000ft and camped in what ended up being one of my favorite camp spots yet. We had a view of Mt Gorgonio, and were surrounded by giant pines and green grass full of wildflowers. We also had two huge downed trees to sit and cook on, and extra bonus, Menso got to ride down from our campsite to the ski area on singletrack on Friday morning to get to the lifts and do some lift access trail riding!
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You can kinda see a peek of Gorgonio through the trees. |
I already blogged about the race Saturday, but I didn't mention that I rode lift trails Sat afternoon because WHY THE HECK NOT! They were wicked fun on Brendan's Decree, and a bit scary, just how I like it. Post race I washed my hair in the bike wash, like shampooed it and everything and felt almost like I had taken a shower!
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This drop off had a ramp... but look how far down that guy is down there! |
Sunday evening Menso and I showered again (we are on the every other day program) and then drove to Sherman Pass to camp above 8,000ft again. We didn't spend much time at this camp spot off a forest service road because Menso wanted to start riding early Monday morning. I dropped him off at the top of Cannel Plunge trail (10,000ft!) and did a bit of yoga/stretching/core in the warm alpine early morning sun.
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View from the end of our ride. |
After the ride Menso hitch hiked back to the top to retrieve the van while I reconsidered my life, and then we swam in the Kern River... which made everything better.
And then we were off to Mammoth! The Mammy installment of VanLife will have to wait till tomorrow because we have more places to be!!!
Have fun!
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