Cyberdos and I decided to check out Bulldog Canyon Sunday before the heat sets in. We decided to meet at the staging area off Usery Pass Road, south of Bush hwy. On the way, this guy passed me in his chrome Lamborghini. I guess if you can afford the car you can make it whatever color you wish, but chrome? Cmon man. Italian cars should be red. Black is acceptable, but red is better. Staging with the horse peeps. You need to get a permit to enter this area and they have a locked gate to keep you honest. (We also saw 3 enforcement vehicles leaving about the same time we were leaving, so they mean it.) From this gate, things start out with a long, sandy wash. (FR3554) Lots of interesting rock formations. Rode the trail up to the North Gate at Blue Point, part of the Great Western Trail. Then backtracked on FR10 all the way to the south gate, Wolverine Pass. If you want to check this area out on a bigger bike, start at this end and there is plenty of non-sand, semi-rocky road to explore. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> From there, back to FR1356 to the east gate, aka Cottonwood, which is on Hwy 88 to Tortilla Flats just before the curves start on that hwy. From here things got interesting. A couple with horses came over to chat with us, asking about the trails etc. They asked if wed been on the one just down the road, (we later learned it is called Willow, or Willow Springs. Since we hadnt and they said it was gnarly, we had to try it. Apparently, this road, FR12, is also part of the Bulldog Canyon area, and you must still have the permit to be riding in there. It starts out sandy, and pretty much stays that way with some rocks mixed in for fun. We made good time going in, and at the first real rough spot, stopped for a break to enjoy the rugged scenery. We didnt realize how badly we were going to need that rest! A couple of jeeps came in, so we got back on the bikes to get ahead of them. Looks like THE END of smooth sailing. Cyberdos heads in Some parts were nice because the rock provided good traction. Cyberdos drops back into the sand off a big slab Of course there was water mixed in to help make the rocks slippery and the sand soft. This is the best definition of the trail we saw the rest of the way in, or at least as far as we made it. We found it was sometimes easier to skirt the stream bed by staying up on the side rocks. All was good as long as you could keep your balance and not get tipped away from the wall. A couple of the drops were bigger and a bit intimidating. Some of these were just commit and hold on. As we got farther in, we started to think more about getting out. We had dropped off some rocks that might be tough to get back up. The main problem was the sand on the approach. It was really tough to gas it and get the front end light, the rear would just spin and sink. (For those of you keeping score, that would mean lifting, and neither of our bikes were featherweights.) Taking a break to pick a way through. Cyberdos still had enough energy to joke around, but we were fading by now. After about 45 min of wrestling down this canyon, we threw in the gloves here. Cyberdos checked the GPS and found that we had covered a whopping 0.7 miles in the last 45 minutes. Bad news was it was going to be harder going out. I had stopped about 30yds behind Cyberdos when we decided wed had enough. While we rested and contemplated the ride (push) out, at least we had some nice rocks to look at. Turned around and heading out, the first obstacle of any size turned out to be a lift and push opportunity. Too much wet, soft sand at the bottom meant no momentum and you had to hit this rock just right to make it. We didnt, but were able to push over the top. The path wasnt much better once over the top. This one we were able to cling to the rock better because it was dry. It was another commit and hope situation. I went around this big boulder first and promptly got stuck in soft wet sand with rocks all around. I tried to manually lift my front wheel over a smaller rock, but my boot just sunk in about 10 inches while the front wheel stayed on the ground. I turned to ask Cyberdos for a hand, but he was stuck on a different rock. We decided it was a good spot for a break. Break over, and we were able to get my BRP spun around. Here is Cyberdos getting personal with my bike. We finally made it out of the rough stuff and hit second gear again. Ive never been so happy to see relatively open sand wash! I think we had actually ventured off FR12 when we went down the canyon. Ill go back there, but not on a 650! We both agreed a tiddler bike would be best! We finally came back to hwy 88, which this culvert crosses under. We went back down to Bulldog Canyons Cottonwood entrance and scooted back to the trucks at Usery Pass. I was happy to get out of there, but it was a very scenic canyon. Thanks Cyberdos for the punishment!
Man, I missed a great ride! I swear, next time! And you'd better have a smaller bike, cause I want to try that canyon, too! Thanks for the report.
Your pics are a lot better than mine. I had a smudge on my camera lens and didn't find out until I downloaded the pics when I got home. Here are some of the better ones. A lot of riders in this area. Gotta keep your eyes out for horses. (and dune buggies) more on that later. No matter how many times I see this stuff I never get tired of it. Of course the picture does this place no justice. The colors yesterday were real nice. Off of trail 10 and into trail 1356. 1356 is shorter than the 10 but a lot of fun. There are several sections where you can really get into a rhythm and catch real nice air off of some sweet jumps. We had the scala riders on and azredline was following me most of the day so he had a heads up every time there would be a jump. All he needed to do was listen to the magic word: WEEE!!!
:huh Looking at it in hindsight I think it was a saving moment when we stopped for that brief break before venturing into the pits of trial 12. I'm glad you took a lot of pics because I hardly took any. I was more concentrated on holding on to the bars. did a lot of scouting for the perfect line. and every time we'd take the worst. Finally out of the nasty stuff azredline does a fist pump. A silty sand wash has never looked so sweet.
Believe it or not, even with that little trail kicking our butts we were able to log on 50 miles for the day! We touched all 5 gates at bulldog. I'd say we rode at least 70-80% of it. There's still some exploring to be had in there. Not to mention we still have unfinished business with lady 12. here's an "as the crow flies" view of how far away we were at from the point we turned around to the lake. Remember when I told you we're only .9 miles away? GPS is really accurate. Don, I'm never giving this thing back to you. I made a path on Google Earth zigzagging the canyon to figure out exactly how far away we were. Turns out we were exactly 1.4 miles away from our destination. We might have made it. but we would have never made it back. Next time.
a little video I put together. Unfortunately, by the time we ran into 12, I was out of batteries. <iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/61070068" width="500" height="375" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/61070068">Bulldog Canyon 3-3-13</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user12919799">cyberdos</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Great RR guys... It makes my Li'l trip to Swansea on Saturday and then meeting up with DR650Eddy and his gang on Sunday a walk-in-the-park compared to your excursion... Again great report and Pix's.
looks like a great ride. i'm bummed my plans fell apart and i couldn't join you. but there's always next time! cyberdos, that gps works great in the proper hands! i do need to come out for a class.
I forgot to add the dune buggy bit: I was nearly plowed down by one as we were heading out of trail 10 back to the trucks. I was hauling ass down a trail and as I crested a hill, the buggy was coming straight at me. We both went into panic mode and I tried to go around his right side but he was too wide. We locked up the brakes and I was able to get the bike sideways, narrowly missing his bumper by inches. His wife who was riding with him was almost in tears. We both had a good nervous laugh about it and we chatted for a minute before continuing on our way. Gotta keep on your toes out there.
