Due to the record dry conditions we've had in Southern California in this last year and the consequent nasty forrest fire that started in Williams Canyons in the Angeles National Forrest, the USFS closed the four national forrests i the Southern California area in August to reduce the chance of another fire until we get at least 2 inches of rain. Mother Nature finally obliged by pouring on Southern California for two continuous days the evening of startting November 7 to the early morning of November 10. The USFS openned the forrests! Those of us suffering withdrawal symptoms because we couldn't ride any mountains for the last 3 weeks went out to have some fun.
Some of my friends and I went to the Main Divide road in the Santa Ana mountains between Orange and Riverside Counties in the hopes of riding two trails. The first one is called East Horse Thief, a path that is on the ragged edge of the description of "trail", as it is composed mainlyt of erosion channels, some of which are large enough to swallow a biker and his bike whole. The other is the more popular San Juan Trail, which is more recognizable as a trail most of its length.
Our start at the top of East was sort of punctuated by Shidan's very skillful handling of the first drop off at the base of the first section. That and the stupified looks of everyone else as they were intimidated by how nasty it looked. I was able to capture it in a short video clip. It was just the first of many exciting moments in a memorable ride.
Since I was such a wimpy rider compared to the others, I let Shidan use my helmet camera setup so he can video tape his ride while he chases the other guys down hill. It made for some much more exciting videos than I what I usually took on my rides. Unfortunately, I do not have enough space on this site to store much of it.
Here's a shot of my helmet camera setup. The little foam balls are wind blockers for the microphones. Without them, the wind noise can be so intense as to make the microphones useless. The outputs from these are connected to a Sony D8 camcorder that I keep in the backpack. The remote control hanging on the chest strap allows me to...control the camcorder remotely. It's very clunky, but it works.
