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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 12:33 am 
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For a lot of riders Palm Canyon Epic has become one of the must do rides in Socal. But with a shuttle service, a million wheels riding it and a lot of sanitizing it isn't as epic as it used to be. It used to be an all day affair with broken parts, broken bikes, or broken bodies as regular occurrences. But now you're more likely to encounter bro's claiming a 3 hour ride time, brah. To bring the epic back I climbed it from the bottom a couple times last year which made for an awesome, full day ride. But looming above has always been Santa Rosa Mountain, reaching a further 4,000ft above the top of PCE. I've ridden up Santa Rosa a couple times which is a beat down on its own, a 10mile fire road slog. In the back of my head the ultimate Palm Canyon Epic would have to go up and over Santa Rosa.

I've actually planned to do this ride a couple times before but missed the weather window. It's an intimidating ride making it easy to find excuses not to try. Spring is a no-go due to snow pack. By the time temps drop enough down low in fall there may have already been storms dumping snow up high. We had such a storm a few weeks ago but warm weather since then meant there shouldn't be much left. I didn't want to miss out again so I put self doubt aside and pulled the trigger last weekend.



230am start time so I wouldn't be at the chilly high point at dark.

Trailforks calls the trail I'm on here Creeping Bob Hope. That's the Hope Mansion on the hillside below.

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One of the coolest things was looking over towards the San Jacintos and seeing hiker's headlamps on Skyline trail. They are heading toward the peak or just to the tram, which is at the green light you can see up top. They'll be doing 10,000+ft too. Good to know I'm not the only crazy one out on the trails at this time of day....

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I opted to climb singletrack on Hahn instead of Dunn Road, and was soon at the top.

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The first hint of dawn appears while I have a snack

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Dropping down to the tractor at the Oasis

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And now for my fill of Dunn Road. Dunn Road has an interesting history, bulldozed in illegally in the 1960s by Mike Dunn, maintenance is now prohibited and it is only used by hikers, horses and bikes. https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/media-archive/DunnRd12-31-07.pdf

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Sunrise approaching, I checked out a side road I'd never noticed before that went to a cool lookout

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First rays hit the San Jacintos

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Looking down to the east over the Salton Sea

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Onward.... I was starting to feel twinges of cramps in the back of one leg and bit of knee pain in the other. The latter is my bigger fear, I've been having bad knee pain after 20miles or so on rides lately. Fortunately it came and went sporadically rather than getting worse.

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I reached the top around 830 and stopped to eat half my breakfast burrito at the campground.

That's Santa Rosa peak up there, doesn't look far but it's another 3,800ft higher.

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I was starting to feel some warmth in the sun so any bit of shade was welcome. I was in survival mode, stopping every 100-150ft gain to give legs and butt a quick rest.

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Whoever painted these messages was ahead of their time

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Thankfully Santa Rosa hasn't burned recently, hopefully people are paying attention

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And....finally the summit. There was an old lodge up here that did burn, all that remains is the chimney. Makes for a good fire pit these days

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The view looking south over Anza Borrego. That's Toro Peak on the left, which is about 500ft higher than Santa Rosa but is off limits being on Tribal land

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Appropriate summit beer selection

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There are a bunch of dispersed camping sites on the mountain, all shut down at the moment. This one at the top is very nice

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Time to go, I back-tracked a mile down the road and picked up Sawmill trail, which drops about 1,300ft in a couple miles on super raw singletrack

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Nice views open up, that's Asbestos Mtn on the right which I navigated around earlier

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Most patches of snow on the trail showed I had first tracks. Something beat me to this one

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Back in the day the DH crowd caught wind of this trail and a bunch shuttled up here with their big bikes. But they were sorely disappointed to find there was some climbing involved. Judging by how little traffic this trail sees they didn't find it worthy of a return trip lol

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Sawmill kiln at the end of Sawmill trail

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Looking down at Hidden Palm Canyon, a view not many people get to see

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I got back to the campground right at 4:30. 20min til sunset, so I grabbed some water and headed out.

50mi and 11,000ft into the ride, and now I just have to ride the Palm Canyon Epic to get back to the truck :D


Not a great view down here but sunset was still nice.

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Last light as I drop into Palm Canyon proper

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I made decent time down canyon. Temps were perfect, just a bit cool with the breeze. Super quiet. And dark, with just a sliver of moon. With the descent and some easier pedaling, my legs were feeling better than they had all day. Perfect


Final stretch on Wildhorse

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Finished around 830, feeling tired but good. I had wondered if I'd pass 12,000ft gain on this ride. GPS stats looked impressive but are overstated. Computer showed 71.5 miles and +/-12,500ft when I got home. Big day, either way

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Great day on the bike, one of my best ever. Things really couldn't have gone better except it would have been nice to finish faster : ) Temps were perfect all day. High in Palm Springs was supposed to be 84. But the early start meant I got cool temps as I climbed higher throughout the day so I probably didn't see anything higher than 70 all day. At the same time it was never cold. There was a bit of residual snow on the road climb and on Sawmill trail but no ice. I think if I did this again I'd try to do it in the weeks before the time change so I'd have more afternoon light, and do it on a full moon, with start time to optimize moonlight.


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ajdonner, b5driver, Belizean, Big Clyde, Canaan, Dirt Pedaller, Dirtrider, GForce, Kimba, Ld00d, MoFlow, OhNooo, OldDogDan, tfitz
PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 10:18 am 
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Mere mortals gasp at a ride like that. I was gazing up at Santa Rosa last weekend, possibly at the same time you were riding it, while having a picnic lunch at the Cahuilla Tewanet viewpoint along that wonderfully winding road, shortly after using up half a roll of paper towels cleaning dog vomit out of the console cup holders. I saw it posted that the campgrounds were closed and wondered. Just temporary, fire danger.

But I digress. You did a similar ride a few years back, yes? Must feel great to still be able to do that, even with some aches and pain. Something to be thankful for!

But the important question...no Ibis!? You bought a Transition?

Thanks again for another great TR.

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:51 pm 
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Wow!

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:49 am 
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Very impressive Ev.

"Sunrise approaching, I checked out a side road I'd never noticed before that went to a cool lookout"

You were on a huge ride that most only dream about and still took the time for a little explore!

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 1:59 pm 
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^^^ ...and brought along a summit beer. Were any boxes left unchecked?!

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 27, 2020 6:22 pm 
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Damn, dude...you crazy. I sweat riding the standard (and apparently dumbed-down) PCE and you go and do something like that....

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:26 pm 
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Thanks again Evan for the awesome TR. Your posts are a highlight here for sure. The Santa Rosa part of your TR brought back some good memories. It's been a decade plus since I've been there and the painted trees are the same, as well as the other parts of the rarely used Sawmill trail. And I've never done the PC "mini epic," but I plan on fixing that this season.

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PostPosted: Sun Nov 29, 2020 8:43 pm 
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And super impressive ride, stats are off the charts for most of us.

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:58 pm 
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What cool TR. What you do would take more than strength and stamina, for me. It would take a courage that I am not sure that I have. I imagine that you built it gradually. But it's pretty far outside of my comfort zone. Thanks for continuing to inspire Ev!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:08 pm 
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OldDogDan wrote:
You did a similar ride a few years back, yes? Must feel great to still be able to do that, even with some aches and pain. Something to be thankful for!

But the important question...no Ibis!? You bought a Transition?

Thanks Dan! I've done the climb up from town to Pinyon CG before but never the full meal deal with Santa Rosa. Definitely felt great to cross it off the list! I actually felt really good at the end.

And yes, picked up a spur. With covid it seems most bikes have long wait times right now. I'd called around and one came in to the Path in OC which was not spoken for, so I snapped it up. It's fast!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 8:23 pm 
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Kimba wrote:
And I've never done the PC "mini epic," but I plan on fixing that this season.

Do it! Probably my favorite ride in socal. I'd be happy to give you a tour if we can find a time, otherwise you'd get lots of takers if you posted up a ride.


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PostPosted: Sat Dec 05, 2020 10:26 pm 
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I'm interested in your climbing route from the bottom.
Just straight up on Dunn? Then to Pinyon Flat?

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