Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Palm Springs, CA
March 12, 2005

Immediately upon viewing MTBBill's New Years Day Palm Canyon to Palm Springs epic video I knew I wanted to do that ride so I contacted him about doing it again. Not only did Bill oblige, but he set the whole thing up and provided maps, shuttle arrangements and even food for the trail! Today 15 of us, including MTBBill, Yeti_Rider, Miles, Sorni, Impy, Aosty, Hollywood, Adrienne, BillyGoat, Eric, UncleMTB, Winston, Nolan, Erik and myself repeated the Palm Canyon to Palm Springs Ride. This is an amazing ride through some very remote, beautiful, and very rugged desert terrain. It includes some very narrow, rocky trails with steep drop-offs, several stream crossings, some long sandy climbs and descents, and many sharp cacti lining the trails. Unfortunately, however, at 106 degrees F, it was unseasonably warm, and that made the trip pretty difficult.

About half way into the ride there is a three mile sandy climb which nearly everyone had to walk, at least the first two miles. About that time the temperature peaked for the day and some of us started dragging in the hot sun. It felt like the Bataan Death March. Adrienne began to show signs of heat exhaustion but she managed to find a bit of shade and I sat with her until she felt better (I could use a break too). A little bit up the trail we ran into Yeti_Rider taking advantage of a tiny bit of shade under a small bush. Some of the party had already exhausted their water by this point. When we reached the top of the climb there was a bail-out via fireroad and Adrienne took it. Hollywood eventually ended up taking it too because after proceeding on with the rest of us he realized he left his camera back there. A bit after that point there was a fantastic narrow rocky twisty descent, with steep drop-offs through mountainsides in full bloom, which went on for many miles. UncleMTB and I were trying to move at a good clip for a video and I nearly fell off the steepest cliff on the entire descent. I had to take a few minutes to collect myself and I took it a bit easier after that.

Along the way there were some mechanical breakdowns and many flat tires. Poor Miles had seven flats. Somebody had a crank or bottom bracket problem and one of Impy's pedals broke. The mechanical problems slowed the group enough so that I was rarely behind and Bill patiently waited at strategic places along the route to make sure nobody got left behind.  About the time Impy's pedal broke the heat had gotten to me and I was about out of gas. So Impy, UncleMTB and I took another bail-out via a very nasty fireroad. The three of us ended up doing 28 miles while the rest of the group continued on the singletrack. They did 29 miles and got back just a bit after us, and just at twilight. Apparently Bill had a nasty fall just a few hundred yards from the end of the ride and Impy administered some first aid to a badly cut knee.

Despite the heat this was a spectacular ride and if there were a way to avoid the three mile sandy climb it would be even better. Thanks to all for being so nice and special thanks to Bill for setting up the ride and watching over everyone. And thanks again to UncleMTB without whom I probably would not have been able to do this ride. Below are a few photos. Click here for comments and photos from others on the trip. 

Click on an image to enlarge it.

The start	Near start	Impy	Impy	Tim	Leaders down below
Miles	1st Creek crossing	Tim	Hike a bike	On the trail	On the trail
Impy	On the trail	On the trail	On the trail	Erik	On the trail
On the trail	On the trail	Tim	On the trail	Regrouping	Regrouping
Which way?	On the trail	On the trail	Which way?	Rode many washes	Rode many washes
Bataan Death March	1st bail out point	Hahn Buena Vista trail	Tim	We came up that	Welcome shade
Aosty fixing Impy's pedal	Last regroup	Adrienne Hollywood	Da Beer	Bill tends his boo boo	Graphic content

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