Invasion Of The Sunflowers

Mark and I hit Corner Canyon this evening.

We started with BST north as an out-and-back warm up. This trail was closed for a while after heavy rains caused mudslides back in July. A lot of work was done to stabilize the soil and prevent further erosion. Most gullies had terraces of these fabric/plastic dams:



It seems the recent fire and perhaps the July rains were good for Sunflowers because they were tall and all over.







The BST was in good shape and fun to ride, just watch for a few sandy spots and don't let the sunflowers hit you.

Next up was Clarks. It's in good shape and quite smooth. I didn't feel like pushing it, but I was able to stay in my middle ring. Perhaps I should TT it again since I seem to be in better condition than this May when I did it in a sluggish 14:53.

At the top we saw a newly cut trail just to the left (north) of Clarks so we decided to try it. I'm pretty sure it's Jamie Pouge's trail. I believe this top part was cut Saturday. It's rough and very soft with a lot of switchbacks. Tough to ride right now, but hopefully we'll get some rain to settle it down. It basically ends at the intersection with the Pipeline trail. Mark went up Pipeline and I continued on the unfinished trail - I just had to see where it went (yes, Jamie, I'm a bad man, a very bad man). The trail peters out into partially cut scrub oak so I pushed the bike up to the new connector trail between the upper Clarks trail head and Canyon Hollow (the trail formerly known as Brocks Point).

This connector trail is new but already good to ride. Coming up Clarks just keep heading east and look for the gap in fence. It Tees into Canyon Hollow a few hundred yards from the top.

We went down Canyon Hollow and I couldn't understand why the trail dozer had been up/down this way since the trail was fine. When we joined the Ghost Falls south trail it made sense - they are creating a new section of trail to bypass the two steep slopes that are tough to climb and often washed out with loose rock. In a strange way I liked those steep spots, but the new trail should be good.

We made it back to the equestrian center right as it was getting dark enough that it was hard to see. Even though it's cooler to ride up higher, Corner Canyon is not as hot as I expect and is a good riding option even in Summer. Always nice to get out for a ride as it never fails to lift my spirits.