Cleveland National Forest Report

Howdy!

Just got back from a nice little 30 min ride up from Skyline to Bedford noticing how ugly the double track looks. I rode up with the rear tire howling in protest thinking that I need to try a different tire and thinking how nice a sunny day is in So. California...how lucky I am to live here and to ride this beautiful land.

Anyway, as I rode, I noticed all the new barricade work that has been done over the summer to prevent everthing but foot or bicycle traffic on the single track, and just past the new long ugly barricade system are signs posted welcoming you telling you stay on the single track. By the way, you can only get there if you are walking or if you carry your bike over. I guess they do not want the dual sport crowd riding on these trails any longer. It has occurred to me that if they are blocking the single track to prevent me to ride my motorcycle on this sacred ground as I have for 20 years, let's just get together and close the damn moutain...I mean clear off the freakin' towers, the radar, the fencing around all this mess. Then since all of this is gone, we will not need the gates or the roads. And if all that were gone and there is no need for accessing the mountain, we will not need the forest service to patrol up there and they can go look for another job. Smaller government oversight.

The point I'm trying to make is if they're trying to keep the land beautiful for future generations, let's just fix everything back to a virgin-like mountain and let no one go on the mountain. Who do they think thy are opening and closing the gates at their discretion to whomever they allow to use these trails and what kind of vehicle you can ride there.

Maybe we can get together with the forest service and have a gate opening day with the dual sport crowd and show them we can be responsible on the trails and have a nice singletrack system like they have in the Bass Lake area. It survives just fine!

Your thoughts?

Later.

Jeff

i think you an get to Santiago Truck Road off of Live Oak or Modjeska Grade Road?? check you maps to be sure but i think it is the only way in on this end of the OC besides Maples Springs .

This is freaking obsurd. If Maple springs is still closed this completely eliminates access from the west side of the Santa Anas. We have all waited patiently for over a year to get access, and now we find out that a year was not long enough.. what gives? :ddog

A year seems like ample time to coordinate any work that needed to get done. This seems like a bit of a management snafu.

I was up there this afternoon.

I went to the gate at Maple Springs Road but it was closed.

The gate across N. Main Divide that is just pass the Indian Truck Trail Junction is now open. Indian Truck Trail is open too. I rode as far as Santiago Peak but turned around so I can get off the mountain before it gets dark

The map shows Harding Road going from Modjeska Canyon to Main Divide. I was under the impression that that was closed since the 80s like Blackstar Canyon. I'm thinking there was some kind of bird santuary up there. I'll have to go check that out someday.

The road that goes to Holy Jim trail in Trabuco Canyon (6S13) doesnot go through to main divide. About 5 miles in there is a parking lot for Holy Jim trail and Horsethief trail. Motor Vehicle access ends a little way past the parking lot.

Only feet, horses, and mountian bikes allowed on the single track. It has been this way for at least a couple years. No change since the fire closure. There are quad sized trails at Wildomar OHV. I don't recall single track at Wildomar.

I'm a noob and I took my Vstrom up there. There are a few places with large rocks that I have to go slow because the strom only has about 4 inches of ground clearance. There are a lot of loose rocks on top of hard packed DG on Main divide once you get past Indian Truck trail.

I am fairly new to the Strom as well. I have not ventured north of the 74 yet. I have been trying to piece the paved roads from Temecula back to the South Main Divide using Tejana Truck Trail. That has kept me occupied the past couple of months. Once the trails north of the 74 (discussed here) are open, I would like to at least try it. It would be nice to get a little dirt mixed in with the pavement and extend my ride.

ok, so from my research the harding truck trail starts up modjeska by the tucker wildlife sanctuary and that IS closed, the trail up modjeska grade is Santiago trail (according to google) and they (oc register) says that one is open,? question is : Is it open all the way to the divide and where does it connect with it? also is motorized ok?
Ive been up there a bunch o times and havent seen where it might be, below beeks is a gate but thats blackstar and if you go north you hit sierra peak. Maybe its past Beeks somewhere? anyone know?
KEEP THIS THREAD GOING!!!!!!!!!

There's a bit of a discrepancy between Google and the OC register map. The OC register lists "Silverado Truck Trail" as being closed, on Google it's called "Silverado Canyon Rd". Between that closure, the Maple Springs closure, and the Harding Truck Trail closure, legal access from OC to the main divide has been cut off for motorized access. Blackstar was closed in '87 to motorized access.

I have a hard time believing that the limiting of motorized access from OC is not intentional. I'd be pretty coincidental that the only roads that haven't recovered just happen to be motorable. The "Silverado Truck Trail" closure is a prime example, it's a relatively short section linking to the main road network, and it's surrounded by opened roads! The only tenable reason for the closure is to cut off access to motorized vehicles.

Sounds like you are pretty clued in on these trails.. but for those who are not sure where these trails are......here's the skinny..

• Harding truck Trail - Status - closed to all users. Fire road starts at the end of modjeska canyon road (near the bird sanctuary) and heads up into the Santa Anas where and eventually intersects the main divide and Maple springs road. This fire road was closed to vehicle traffic (inculding motorcycles) before the fires and will remain closed to vehicle traffic even after all the closures are lifted. This trail is normally open to bicyles, hikers and equestrian use but it took a beating during the fires and is not even open to foot traffic right now (even after most of the closures were lifted).
• Santaigo Truck Trail - Status - open to hikers, bicycles and equestrian use. This fire road is very popular with mountain bikers and was closed to vehicle and dual sport traffic prior to the fire and will remain that way. (The entrance is gated off and there is a motorcycle barrier a few miles up the fire road so even if you decide to poach this trail you will either be beaten into a pulp by mountain bikers or you will hit the barrier). This fire road starts at the top of modjeska grade and heads east south/east up towards saddleback peak about 6 or 7 miles where it eventually transitions into a single track trail (the joplin trail). This single track trail eventually connects to the main divide about 2 miles below Santiago Peak. Even if the joplin single track trail was open to motorcycles you would have to be a world class trials rider to ride it. It's very loose, rocky and narrow and is pretty challenging even on a mountain bike.
• Blackstar Canyon Road - Status: Open to hikers, bikers and horse traffic. Was closed to vehicle traffic prior to the fire and will remain that way. This is a fire road that starts at the end of the paved section of blackstar canyon road (which intersects Silverado Canyon Rd). Where the pavement ends and the fire road starts there is an industrial strength gate. No way in hell to get around it. Blackstar Canyon road (fire road) heads up hill towards Corona and intesects the main divide just north of Beeks Place. The intersection of Blackstar canyon road and the main divide is gated and locked (has been for years)

This is awesome! So, could you possibly do the sam sort of list of the roads that are open so that we can stay on the right roads and not ride ourselves right out of a great place to ride? Thanks!

Today I rode from highway 74 (Ortega) up Main Divide, the gate was open by the Indian TT fork to continue up to the peak where the radio towers are. This part of the road has alot of loose rock but is otherwise in good condition. From the towers on main Divide going north there is a sign that says the road is closed due to the fire closure from 2007, but I assumed this was an old sign and continued on up Main Divide. I come upon a few rangers sitting in their truck talking to another rider, they confirmed that the sign was wrong and the trail I was on was indeed open. The gate going down to Silverado canyon was closed so I continued up Main Divide to the fork at Bedford road, this part of the trail is smoother than the 91 freeway. The gate at Blackstar was closed as well so I continued down to Corona where the trail ends up in a newer housing track near foothill street. Fun ride and great views today.

seeing how this is now open for the most part, maybe we should set up a day ride.

Nothing to set up...........just go ride. This is not the area to get 6-12 guys out riding. It's a great place for a half-day ride, and when open I try to hit it once or twice month. But there's just not enough there to ride all day and with a big group. Unless you count the hour before and the hour after of drinking beer at Hell's Kitchen.

So it sounds like ortega to Indian truck fork then up to santiago peak and down past beeks and exit at skyline is our only route, well its...... better than a sharp stick in the eye....
It will be better than it was before...
How far is it from the fork at indian truck to beeks , or oak flat/bedford??
thanks!
tryin to figure time?

Shleppy
Can you enlighten us on Bedford trail?
i see it on google and its about halfway between santiago peak and blackstar road(skyline)...no where near people are desribing it: i rode main divide to bedford. it was like the 91 fwy then down to a housing tract near foothill:
there are many trails up there that im sure are closed to motorized, when you get some time......pleeeze?
And eagle trail, is it part of main divide thats open now, it must be if mains open all the way to skyline...
thanks in advance
and thanks for the info on santiago trail, saved me a trip up modjeska grade
cby

I'll be er... breaking in my newly restored 05 KTM both Saturday and Sunday.

Pointman

Yes, well my first ride on the new-to-me 450 MXC went well enough until I realized my clutch was not working after riding about 9 miles. Back to the Rancho for a quick bleed, and we're good to go!

Great weaqther and excellent conditions. Can't say the same about my beat to shit Dunlop tires. Must call Blaine at SW Moto on Monday for fresh rubber before Tanksgiving weekend up in Gardnerville.

I also ran into my neighbor, Mark on his 950S, and met up with Robert on his KX-250, now 300.

You other FF's missed a great ride..... and the Heff's at Hells Kitchen!



Pointman

well hopefully the wind keeps the fire clear away from around there or we will all have to wait another year or two =(

Here is the latest on openings and fires.

Headed up to Santiago Peak yesterday. I checked in with USFS Dispatch and was told there would be smoke visable from a back fire over in Yorba Linda. that is now called the 'complex' fire and jumped the 91 Freeway. It was closed both directions yesterday afternoon.

so far, Bedford, and Skyline are stil open, but not sure for how long. Maple Springs (Silverado) is still closed for remediation and clean up of toxic mine tailings. No. Main Divide is open all the way over to Skyline...so far

Pointman

Sorry for the lag.. I was in Death Valley for 4 days playing in the dirt

Bedford Rd - Fire road starts on the east side of the Santa Anas just south of where Weirick Rd crosses the 15 fwy. You access this fire road by exiting at Weirick and then heading south on Knabe Rd (which parallels the 15 on the west side of the 15 fwy). Look for some This fire road should be open to dual sport bikes. This fire road climbs up the east side of the santa anas and intersects with the main divide about a mile north of where maple springs, harding truck trail trail and the main divide meet.

Here's a map that shows all the trails on the north 1/2 of the Santa Anas. All the trails in this map with the exception of maple spring should be open unless they have decided to close things again due to fire danger.



If anyone is curious what the terrain looks like you can check out some of pics in the ride reports below..

Linkola Uno
Linkorino dos
Linkorama Tres

You can also check out these two vids filmed on SB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpLbEOh2gOw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVKVqmF095I