Fellow Treaders.....I was in Ojai, CA this weekend visiting the parents and some old friends. For those not familiar, Ojai is in Ventura County about 1 hour north of LA and 15 minutes inland from the coast at Ventura. Woke up at 5:30 AM on Saturday a little groggy from the celebration the night before but determined to get in an epic ride. The plan was to catch a ride to the Gridley Trail trailhead and start riding by 6:30. Gridley Trail is 5.75 miles of singletrack climbing leading to Nordhoff Ridge Road. From Nordhoff Ridge Road it is another 1.25 miles to Nordhoff Peak. In the 7 miles from trailhead to peak you gain 3,735 feet. Gridley Trail is singletrack and doubletrack with some technical and exposed sections. To me it is most like the San Juan Trail here in LoCal. I had ridden to Nordhoff Peak before and descended the way I came up. Today it was time for some new adventure. After taking in the views at Nordhoff Peak there was a 1 mile fire road descent along Nordhoff Ridge Road to the Upper Pratt Trail trailhead for a singletrack descent. Upper Pratt Trail was steep, loose and exposed. It was also overgrown in places and not well traveled. The views on the descent were amazing. It was hard to decide between stopping and taking in the views and maintaining the speed and flow of the trail. Upper Pratt Trail reaches a junction after 4 miles of descent and I head toward Cozy Dell Canyon via Cozy Dell Road. Cozy Dell Road was a fast fire road descent, but nothing too special. It links to 2 miles of singletrack on Cozy Dell Trail. I was pretty tired by now and feeling the Sierra Nevadas from the night before. The temperature was also creeping toward 85 degrees. Needless to say I wasn't prepared for the climbing on Cozy Dell Trail which I had assumed would be all downhill. After the climb, Cozy Dell Trail becomes a rocky, techncial decent that at any other time would have been a blast. However, I was so spent by now that I just wanted to survive and get to some shade and a cool drink. I made it out to Highway 33 and called for a ride home. 15 miles and over 4,000 feet of climbing before 11:00 AM. I was beat for the rest of the day, but it was worth it. Please see the Picassa slideshow I put together at the link below.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sdmoondogg/ ... DellTrails-CHEERS
