Ridgecrest, CA

Ah, the desert. Something magical about it. It attracts artists, loners, writers, and lots and lots of military base families. Ridgecrest (RC), California, is no different. I was here on a weekend with Ivan and Jenise, to check out the legendary RC. We had all heard the stories...ah, the stories. I had to find out for myself.

I imagine if you had to grow up there...you might hate it. As my colleague Craig kind of did. He got out as soon as he could and moved to the beach in San Diego. He also advised me not to ride trails above the college.

"Hey Ivan, where we riding?" "Above the college!" Well, we were trying to bust out a morning ride. No time to drive to something epic. And this was the local network of trails, people have been biking, hiking, 4xing, trucking, and squatting here for as long as Ridgecrest has been in existence. I love riding local loops.



Desert riding usually means getting up at the crack of dawn, or slightly beforehand. In September, it can still get above 30 degrees in the daytime. Hot. We met up with one of Ivan's old riding buddies and set out on the climb, stopping shortly thereafter for Ivan's ritual mid-climb stretch.




We climbed and climbed, getting a pretty good view of the valley. After some steep double track rollers, we went onto some new singletrack that was oh so tasty. It was not super long, but long enough for a local loop. Technical, tight, rocky, rocks to play on - everything you want out of desert singletrack.

Afterwards we had a huge american pancake breakfast. Good day.

Admittedly, I look like shit at 7:30am on the trail


Old mines around here. Pick your line carefully.


Some local hessians had built some hugemongous stunts.


Ridgecrest lies down below