5th day
Looking at a trailhead kiosk map the day before reminded me of another trail I had been wanting to check out - Middle Sespe trail. It's the only trail along Sespe creek that is open to bikes. Everything else along the Sespe is either in Wilderness or in the off-limits-to-all-public-access Sespe Condor Sanctuary. This is another trail I had never heard of anyone riding.
As a bonus I could also ride this one from camp. The elevation profile favored starting from the Hwy 33 side, so I'd get all the pavement riding out of the way first. You can see some twists and turns on Hwy 33 from this viewpoint. Not much traffic on the highway, thankfully
Dropping in, things looked promising. There were even some tire tracks in the dirt.
The "big" climb would be about 500ft up and over a ridge before dropping back down
The trail became a bit more raw as it climbed up onto the hillside, with narrower tread and lots of leaf litter from the bushes. Had to push a few sections.
Then it would get nice again and I was back on the bike.
Rounding a corner on the ridge top, views opened up to the east. You can just make out some pine trees far in the distance a bit right of center, below the low spot in the mountains. That's the Piedra Blanca trailhead where I'm headed, about 5 trail miles away.
I continued around the corner and met a wall of brush. It was obvious the trail doesn't see much traffic, and north facing slopes often have thicker growth. So it wasn't a surprise the trail was overgrown. But the abrupt wall of brush was a bit shocking.
Those are full size bushes growing in the middle of the trail tread.
I pushed through the wall and the trail got better again, briefly. This cycle continued a few times and the optimism that it couldn't be "that bad" all the way sucked me in.
Next the trail bench disappeared. Then the brush returned as well. The good sections became almost non-existent. "Good" came to mean I could at least see where the trail went. I missed a number of switchbacks because I couldn't tell when the trail turned.
By the time I got down toward the valley bottom I was committed to going forward. No way was I going to fight my way back up that hill willingly. I still figured it would get better once off the north facing slopes. At least going forward it wouldn't be uphill. It was around that time I lost the trail completely. : )
After a few minutes I found what could be a path through the brush over to a stream crossing. The only confirmation I was on the right path were cairns spotted sitting on each side of the stream on a big rock. The path leading away from the far side of the stream was barely visible.
I found a spot in the shade along the stream and had some lunch before continuing on.
Heading away from the stream. That's the trail between me and the bike. Lots of cursing, pushing and dragging ensued. I soon got smart and took the pedals off. Much easier.
I don't recall how much further it was until the trail opened up. Not that far probably. I put the pedals back on here. Made it maybe 1/4 mile before the trail dropped down into another drainage where the thick brush came back and the pedals came back off. Literally.
After another climb I put them back on as the trail opened up again. It felt like I was tempting fate. Leave them off and it would be rideable, or put them back on and I was guaranteed another wall of brush. I just wanted to move. I think I took them off a third time and soon put them on again for good. The trail started to look more like this. Generally rideable but you had to hop off and push through short sections.
The trailhead getting closer, but still out of reach.
I started picking up lots of ticks as I brushed past tall grass and bushes. Like 5-10 at a time. Said to myself at least there's no poison oak. No sooner had I said that then I spotted this PO bush right next to the trail. Thankfully that was it.
The last mile of Middle Sespe to the Piedra Blanca trail was overgrown in spots, but clear enough I could ride through. That was an incredible feeling of freedom after busting through so much brush. The mile on Piedra Blanca Trail back to the trailhead was good as well. I expected to get hassled by hikers on that stretch since it's the main Wilderness trailhead around, but didn't see anyone.
Rather than take the road back from Piedra Blanca TH I checked out an equestrian trail that short cuts a pavement switchback. It said horses only at the bottom but hike/bike/horse at the top. Not great for bikes though, it was mostly hike a bike on the climb.
Kept going up the Lion Canyon Trail as I wanted to check out the Rose-Lion Connector trail I'd skipped the day before. As a bonus this would bring me back to camp with minimal pavement.
The bottom of Lion Canyon is pretty scenic running above the stream here, so I didn't mind the bit of climbing.
The connector trail started off nice but had a couple sections of steep hike a bike. Then a steep switchback descent. Each side was only about 300ft gain/loss but seemed like more than that.
Was pretty happy to get back to the truck as that day took a lot longer than I expected.
The climb up to the ridge on Middle Sespe took about 30min. It took about 1:15 to get down the other side to the stream. Including that descent, bushwacking the 3.5 miles to where I could continuously ride took about 3.5 hours, not counting the break at the stream. The final 8 miles back to the truck took less than 2 hrs. After good luck the day before it sure ran out on my today!
It's too bad this trail is in such bad shape. Most hiker traffic starts from Piedra Blanca trailhead which is the main Wilderness trailhead in the area, so it's unlikely anyone will spend much effort on bringing Middle Sespe back to life. For now, cannot recommend trying to ride it. If you do, bring some loppers and go nuts where the brush is worst.
Stats - 20mi, +/- 2,400ft