Sunday Ride: 02-14-2010 Aliso Woods & Laguna Wilderness Park

This past Sunday, Kim, Tony, Steve, Josh and myself met up at Aliso and Woods Canyon Wilderness park to ride what I consider one of the best Orange County All-Mountain rides.  We set out from the lower lot at 9am to pedal up Meadows to Top of the World park, descended and crossed Laguna Canyon Road to pedal up Willow Canyon Road, Descend T&A, cross Laguna Canyon Road again, ascend (walk mostly for me!) Stair steps and finally descend Rock-It to head back out to the car.

Tony entering the Trail

This was a maiden voyage for Tony’s new ride, a Pivot Firebird and he was diggin’ life until a pivot bolt for the upper rocker backed out and caused a failure of the upper rocker.  The bike performed well up to that point and we were able to rig a make-shift repair to avoid a long walk back to the car.

Joshua descending the last bit of T&A

Joshua is a newer rider, but did pretty amazing on this ride.  Not a whimper or complaint the entire way, no angry accusal of attempts to end his life by taking him to trails this challenging, instead he was a great riding partner, he realized if he really had to think about it, it probably would be better to walk down some sections and by the end of the day his skills had increased.  Way to push your riding Josh!

Steve leading Tony at T&A

Steve is always a hoot to ride with.  He’s got endurance to burn, a penchant for holding conversations uphill as my lungs burn and Steve’s always excited to hit new trails (this was his first ride here).

Kim near the bottom of T&A

Kim also was new to this trail and man she impressed me.  Kim will roll over or through most anything!  It’s funny that though I may look like I’m doing something faster or better than Kim…the reality is that I’m trying to jump over, hop or avoid the obstacles that Kim is riding on top of.

I took some video with the awesome Vholdr Contour HD 1080p camera, check it out below.  The camera has been awesome, however I’m disappointed in how much the vented helmet mount rattles around, though I think I can remedy that by adding some foam to the mounting surface.  Enjoy the vid!