Anza-Borrego Dual Sports Ride

[98Virago1100]

Anza-Borrego Desert Dual-Sports Ride
January 18, 2009
230 miles round trip

It was another great day in Southern California to spend a day under a gorgeous sunny sky. Three dual-sports riders Byron on his Suzuki DR650, Amir on his Honda 650L, and Gery on his Yamaha XT225 gear-up and agreed to take advantage of this comfortable 72F environment temperature. Our quests are to check-out some of the dirt trails within the desert floor of Anza-Borrego which is the largest desert state park within our 50 States.

We meet at the Coffee Bean by Mira Mesa Blvd Saturday the 18th of January 2009. Kick stand off @ 8:30 AM and roll onto twisty Highland Valley pave road and continue to play onto Old Julian Highway. A gas refill at Santa Isabel then continue to play on narrow pave Wynola Rd until we get to Banner Grade along scenic Hwy 78. Here we set our tire pressure down to get a better handling traction on dirt trails.
First dirt we explore is the well know Rodriguez Spur Track Trail for a few miles then we convert onto challenging down hill trail of Oriflamme. Said trails is about 11 miles long on a bumpy and occasional big rocks that we rolled over. The challenges on loose big rocks, water crossing, dirt mud, steep climbs, and lots of technical downhill are SMILES we gain that no one can get from us. At the bottom of the trail becomes sandy and we were welcome by gorgeous wild vegetations spread around on the desert floor. It’s time for a quick break to recap our enjoyments and the Stagecoach Store along Highway S2 is a perfect place to revive our energy.

Second part of our adventure took us along the well popular 4x4 truck trail known as the Grapevine Canyon which is about 15 miles of scenic desert floor trails. The sandy canyon trails wind through huge rock formations, traverse cactus covered hills, and offered us it’s dramatic vistas of lake beds, canyon geographic tracks, and panoramic view of Anza-Borrego desert floor on it’s mountain peak. We couldn't help appreciating it’s wilderness and admiring the desert's peaceful blend of colors, rocks texture along the trail, boulders, wild cactus, and other shrubs set against our blue sky. Life is good….

Please take a pleasure of our photo stories that will relate our entire Anza-Borrego adventure. Please play the slide show to enhance your viewing with music. Enjoy…

Photo Stories: http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/21397023

Ride safe,
Gery

[Tri2Fly]

Good shooting, Gery. Thanks for posting. I need to get down there soon.

[98Virago1100]

Originally Posted by Tri2Fly

Good shooting, Gery. Thanks for posting. I need to get down there soon.

Thanks for the compliment. If you are planning to visit Sourthern California, plan it during Spring time. You will be amaze when the desert flowers blooms...

Ride safe,
Gery

[Mike Benzon]

Gery,
Great ride reports. I just finished looking at this report and your Death Valley report. One can't help but feel the fun you have on your rides.

[98Virago1100]

Originally Posted by Mike Benzon

Gery,
Great ride reports. I just finished looking at this report and your Death Valley report. One can't help but feel the fun you have on your rides.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the compliment. I know that were very lucky here in Southern California as we could ride almost the whole season. Tomorrow is another day to work for gas to play....


Gery

[calikatoom]

What a great looking ride Gery!

[navy8ret]

Great photos!!
You guys had some good fun on this ride and it shows in the pics