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| You are here: Home : Mountain Biking |
Last Updated on 11/14/2004 |
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Hesperia to Johnson Valley Area
a road ride without the road |
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Location: High Desert, Mojave Desert, Southern California
Region: Hesperia Region
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Total Distance: 72 Mi
Elevation Gain: 2,200 Ft
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Season: Sept-April
Type: Out & Back |
Start Elev: 2,920 Ft
Peak Elev: 3,300 Ft
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Total
Time: 6.25 hr
Time In: 4 hr
Time Out: 2.67 hr
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| Driving Directions |
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Take I-15 to the Hwy 138 exit below the Cajon pass. Take Hwy 138 EAST toward Silverwood Lake. Continue on 138 a few miles after the road straightens out. Make a left onto Hwy 173 toward Hesperia. Take 173 to the only major left turn at Arrowhead Lake Rd. (If you stay on 173 until it becomes dirt and starts winding up the mountain, turn around, go back a mile and make a right onto Arrowhead Lake Rd.) Take Arrowhead Lake Rd about 4-5 miles to Hesperia Lakes on your right. Park in the main lot by the store. This is probably the better way to go if you're coming from I-15 North. |
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| Route |
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From Hesperia Lakes, ride North on Arrowhead Lake Rd to the first street on the right, Calpella Ave, and make a right. Ride to the end of this paved road at the Mojave River and cross the river. At the other side you be at the only east-west portion of Deep Creek Rd. Ride east along Deep Creek Rd, watching for traffic for about 3/4 mile. Leave Deep Creek Rd by continuing east up a steep dirt road. Just as you crest the first short steep portion of this road a diagonal road takes off to the left that follows a buried gas line. Follow this road. Continue on this road for some distance, up and down a few small hills, passing Kiowa until it meets up with the powerline road. Make a slight right onto the powerline road and follow the it over two gravel/asphalt roads. The third asphalt road is Sagebrush Rd. Make a left here and ride to Roundup Way. Make a right at Roundup and stay on the wide dirt shoulder for 1 block and make a right on Yucca. I actually went a few more block and took an unmarked road, but Yucca is better because you don't have to go over the hills. Make a right on Yucca and go about 1 block to Navajo (dirt), may be unmarked. Make a left and you'll eventually come to some RR tracks, hop the tracks and continue a short distance to Tussing Ranch Rd. Make a left onto the dirt path that follows the road. After maybe a couple of miles Tussing Ranch Rd becomes unpaved and is called Desert View Rd. Stay on the path to the right of the road or on the road, but I find the path a little smoother. Continue for miles on this road/path. The main roads you will pass are Milpas Dr. and High Road. A short distance after High Road, the road gets smaller and unkept and goes across a dry lake type area with some nice hardpack. Keep going straight and the road eventually dead ends at Highway 18. Ride a path along the side of the Highway for 1 block to Christenson Rd, paved. Make a left onto Christenson and ride 4250 feet to Rabbit Springs Road, which has a speed limit of 55mph, no paved shoulder and a loose dirt shoulder, and moderate traffic. Make a right and go 2850 feet to an intersection. Make a left onto Kendall Road (what the map calls it but I don't remember this seeing this name on this road). Ride 3000 feet, around a small bend to Gobar Road which is paved at first. Ride Gobar Road as far as it goes and the it kind of disappears into some large extinct development with palm trees that never was finished. Continue cross country and eventually come to a N-S dirt road, take it then make a right at the first road and keep going however you can to Locust Road, which is the next main road. I think I was on a road called sunny something er other or sun.. something. Head down to the powerline towers and, look to the right, there's no road. So go a little further to th next dirt road and make a right. Maybe this road was the sunny.. something road. I kindof lost the map in this area, there's more trails/roads than the map shows, USGS Lucerne Valley 7.5' Quad. Make a left onto Midway Ave and it curves around to the right onto Cambria Ave. Continue to Lincoln Rd and keep going straig on Cambria, it kindof turns into a dirt bike trail pretty soon. I think this place called Sons Farm was on the right here. This trail runs into the powerlines, which now have a road underneath them. Take the powerline road to the left to Camp Rock Road where the powerline road on the other side of Camp Rock is marked with about a dozen No Trespassing signs. So, make a left onto Camp Rock and go 4050 feet to the main intersection at Granite Road. Make a right here on the dirt road that heads due East, not the paved road that goes to the North East. Follow the signs and the trails of moterhomes to the Johnson Valley OHV area. Now this ride gets annoying cause some jackass drives by at about 20mph with the sewage from his moterhome splashing all over the road. Close your mouth, hold your breath and continue on. This road is mildly sandy, enough for some slipping around here and there, but still rideable. From the intersection with Granite Rd, it's a shallow 2 mile climb up this sandy stretch and unfortunately, the sand doesn't end for the rest of the ride. At 2 miles, the powerline road takes off with a slight left. I followed it about 3 more miles, climbing 2 small hills and a little further to where it intersects with a signed, graded harpack road, apparently, although ya never can tell with a graded road. It's too slow and sandy to be much fun. Turn around and head back to the Johnson Valley OHV entrance at Camp Rock Road x Granite Rd. I then took Granite Rd to Lincoln Rd, made a left and followed the paved road to Cambria, to Midway, just like going. But I went right past the Sunny... something road which now I realized is the small segment of dirt road between Locust Rd and Midway Rd, just south of Cambria Rd by about 950 feet. I was looking for a road to the right and finally came to one after about a mile more on Midway Ave. I made a right just past this house onto a dirt/road trail that didn't look to be private property. I took it to a dead end. The next road down to the South seemed to be Rabbit Springs and I didn't want to ride that because of the traffic so I made a right, backtracking toward the powerlines, hoping there would be a road underneath them. The road I was on ended up at a dead end so I road cross country on some dry lakebed like soil that sunk in a little with some weeds here and there. There was a road under the powerlines so I made a left and road to the next paved road with some sheep farming going on across the road. I took this paved road, called Post Office Road on the map, but I never saw a sign that said this, about 1.2 miles south to the first dirt road on the right, made a right, went 1/2 mile to it's dead end at another dirt road and made a left. Took this about 1/4 mile to that same development area that I rode cross country in on the way out and figured I'd ride it again because now I was only 3/4 mile from Rabbit Springs Road. This time I found an abandoned gravel road through it with curbs that curves around and back to the paved section of Gobar Road then I took the same route all the way back. |
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| Details |
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This ride was kind of a bummer. Not to fun, slow, and boring. Had about 4 dogs after me during the day though, which always adds some fun and these guys were running good too and didn't give up quick. The only other highlight was this puddle I hit on the way back on Desert View Road, got mud all over me. My bike didn't like it though, lost my high gear in the rear for most of the way back. I tried cleaning it with my knife, but this stuff was gunky. I stopped at my friends house in Apple Valley for about 45 minutes, then headed on back.
Orignially had planned to see how far I could get riding towards Pisgah Crater. With the sand, riding was slow and I fell short by about 60 miles. Nice cool day though.
The wind was blowing backwards today. Had a 10-15 mph headwind all the way out, from the start to the turnaround point. About 40 minutes after I turned around, the tailwind of 10-15 mph started to fade, but it was still about 5 mph tailwind all the way back. This made the trip back quicker, which isn't usually the case. |
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| Trail Condition |
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Mostly flat, boring dirt roads. Washboards here and there, a couple puddles on Desert View Road east of High Road, sand here and there, lots of sand, but still rideable east of Camp Rock Road. |
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| Notes about this ride report |
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Computer Readings:
Distance: 72.02 miles
Odometer: 6207.1 miles
Max Speed: 31.5 mph
Ride Time: 6:14:54 hours
Average Speed: 11.5 mph
Distance on new computer: 1100.50 miles
Start Time: 8:40am
Turnaround Time: 12:45pm
End Time: 4:40pm (with a 45 minute stop at my friends house)
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