- The Cannell Trail Downhill -

At(..yawn...) 6:00 a.m. Malcom Bader, Bob Morris, "Toby" (from Rancho Cucamonga), & Wiley left the Starbucks in San Bernardino, loaded up and headed for Kernville and the start of the Cannell trail ride. Ray Williams came along and generously offered to drive the ride up to the start and returned the truck back to the finish in Kernville. The ride to the start was about 35 miles and went through some beautiful remote forested areas leading to Sherman Pass (elev: 9,000 ft) After Unloading the bikes and enjoying the spectacular view from the start, the ride started down a dusty sandy single track trail that wandered through the forest for several miles with rolling climbs and then turned into a rocky technical downhill trail for several miles, ending up in a large meadow area, appropriately called "Big Meadow". After losing the trail for a few minutes and looking around for the right direction, Some local yahoo rednecks drove up and promptly drove over malcom's rear bike wheel. They apologized (sort of) and gave us the directions for the trail head. After spending a few minutes to fix the wheel, the ride went up and over another pass and continued on some more rolling terrain single track trial along the side of the mountains. The trail then proceeded to wander through a variety of meadows and heavily wooded forest area before finally arriving at another large meadow area called "Pine Flat", there we met some more local rednecks that informed us that hunting season had started and they's goin huntin for bears. After leaving these Einsteins, we started the best part of the downhill trail that led back to the finish area. For what seemed like a very long time, the trial just wandered downhill through the rocks and desert hillside brush, making its way down the face of the mountain. It varied between screaming-fast sandy sections to very technical rocky sections. After about two hours of this, the ride finally finished back at a horse stable area in Kernville, where it was a short pavement ride back to the truck. It took about 4 hours riding time, but at least that much time also in enjoying the area as well. We ate at the Italian restaurant in the town square and then headed home, arrived back in San Bdno at 10:00 p.m.