Nf 5s08 and McGaugh Rd... Willow Valley..Rattle Snake Springs

This Saturday while the rest of the team raced at the Pheonix National, I hammered my thinny longgy leggsies in May Valley for about an 1 1/2...in the dark. FULL MOON folks. Yup. Left the lights in the car. Parked at the bottom of Cowbell Alley, and took Satin's gut into Southridge (I think) and back up more single track into May Valleee. Lots of Skunk. They were cool, tho, no trouble, considering. Just kinda checked eachother out...no one got hurt.
On Sunday, Dave See and I had quite the fun adventure (as is usually on a ride with Dave). Our plan was to make the connector to Bautista Canyon and then to Hixon Flats from Rouse ridge via a long lost trail that may or may not exsist anymore from Willow Valley( deep breath), and return back up Rouse Hill and descend Ramona and then get rescued by Dave's wife. Would have been big mileage. Ended up just being BIG time. 8 and a half hours. However, it was BIG fun (cheezy I know). But it wuz, B!
So we leave Dave's place in Pine Cove and take the back way into Hurkey. UBER FUN. The search for Control Road Nf-5s08 began, which we climbed to a dead end, supposedly to a so called Rattle Snake Spring. What we got was a dead end al'right, right into the impossing view of Willow Valley with Little Thomas and Rouse Ridge on the other side! "we can't depend on these satellite photos anymore...we need some stinkin' topos!" one of us said, in substance.











Here is Little Cahuilla Mtn way off yonder and that there is Red Mtn to its West. Hixon Flats Starts fairly close to that summit. Well, we had Willow Valley as it wer in our way at this point by the route we had chosen at that time in junction(huh?), which was appearently at the time a minor one, obstacle that is, to me. Being that, I suggested we go down anyway, which dave vetoed, which ended up being a good call. Thank you Dave See.
We did have a very good view of the legendary private trailer-park off of McGaugh road, though. Rumor has it that the residents and the owner are not too kind to strangers. It's hidden in a hundred plus acre natural valley with a body
of water at its furthest end.
Now we were thinking about linking up into
South Fork and get to Bautista that way.
The road leading into the Trailer-park splits up; to right of the lake is the actuall park, and to the left is a dirtroad that seems to disappear into the hill side. Hmmmmmm. What are the chances that might lead in right above South Fork (Nf-2e17)?

Turns out, the road doesn't. it's all a part of the property. And the residents, why they turned out to be pretty normal too. We meet the manager and part owner, Alma McGaugh Peters, who was very, very nice.

Appearantly, Alma herself was born and raised in PineCove, graduated from Idyllwild school when it was just one log cabin, and even was responsible for planting one of the cedar trees in the school yard when she was just 10 years old.

Alma gave us a tour, a history lesson, and even let us borrow the
keys to get into the meadow so we could see their natural lake up close! They're their own water company you know. At the drying McGaugh Lake we scoped out some single track that looked like it might head up to a spur that runs down from Rattle Snake. Checking it out later on sat photos confirmed it. Forget about accessing it through here though, I think Dave and I have made a friend, it would suck to lose that. She was pretty cool! Good news is we can still make this route happen! Alls it takes is a
il bit o' gettin lauss, digg?
If you find yourseld riding this way, stop in and say hello, but don't go any further without doing so, saying
hello that is. Though Alma was very hospitable an kind to us, I have no doubt she could and would handle her bidness.




After that bit, Dave and I headed to Mountain Center and connected with Subway and did more portions of the Idyllwild Challenge Course. Twas a challenge. Considerable climbing on tight singletrak with lots of step-ups and rock gardens. There are a few switch backs with the said variety in the climb, added with some toasty mid 80's temps, you got yurself a challenging track yo. Okay enough wit da cheez. Gotta think out my gearing. 32x15 may be a bit much. I plan to test it out next
Saturday afternoon, in the middle of the day
when it's nice and hot. The S-Works will be the Weapon of Choice on this one. Yeah I'm not sure how racing on the Specialized and wearing an Intense kit is gonna work out...workin' on that one.