May 30th, 2011, 12:48 pm
Big Bear day ride...awesome except for a broken arm!
Started off a little later than would have normally liked to as the high for the day was to be 50 degrees. Would rather be riding in the "heat of the day" 
Picked up Larry and his son Henry on the way and made a quick stop at Chaparral to drool.
Parked the truck at 2N93 along hwy 38 in Sugarloaf to stage. Very nice ride through the mountains to lunch in Pioneer town.
After lunch the "FUN" began.....
We tracked back to find an opening to Rattlesnake Canyon that I saw on Google Earth. Really like finding trails, creek lines or who knows what it is until you get there. This one turned out to be holy hell!
On the way....lots of Joshua trees.
I had found a little trail that was next to the Rattlesnake Canyon creek line that lasted about 100 yards before the rock fun began. Was a little reluctant as this was Henry's first time in Big Bear and the rocks in areas can really wipe a guy out.
We decided to "Go for IT"!
I was at the bottom after going down our first rock garden....here is Henry and Larry traversing down.
After that first drop....we were committed! There wasn't a lot of mileage but there was a lot of time involved. Check out the Spot shared page
Spent a lot of time in that canyon!
We were following these Jeep or ? tracks for awhile....then they seemed to disappear. Thinking they found a turnaround spot and GTFO!
Lots of steps to get down....here's an easy one
After this step I sped on ahead to see what was in store for us. After going down a few more steps and up and over more rocks the trail got much narrower. I stopped to shed some layers and wait for the guys.
I staged myself at the last drop / rock area I had just went through waiting for the guys to come on through. Their motors stopped and then I heard Larry over the radio...."Mike, I fell back here and got myself hurt....gotta see what is going on"
Here is the spot I was waiting for them....
I walked up to where Larry and Henry were and Larry was nursing a wrist pain. He showed it to me and the first thing I thought was that his wrist / arm was broke. It didn't look too straight
. I wasn't about to tell him that it didn't look straight as we were "stuck" in a nasty mess.
We talked about our options...keep going and hit the "road" or try and make it back up the rock steps to the road we came from. I decided to walk back to my bike to see how much more we had to traverse in this section. GPS looked as though we only had maybe 1/4 a mile to go. So I walked down to make sure.
After a ways down I found a 15' waterfall....wish I would not have left my vest with my camera as it was beautiful! Found one option to get down...a two foot ledge on the left side. You would have one chance to get down....any screw ups and you are gonna drop. Not gonna happen with Larry's busted arm and Henry is vertically challenged.
Larry said he was going to try and get out after turning around. I had a few rock steps to climb on my way out to get back to where they were. When I arrived Henry was having trouble picking lines to get up a step. I told him to follow me and then smelled something......looked down only to find transmission oil running out of my bike
A rock had bent my brake pedal and it pierced my side case cover just past my side case guard!
Set my bike on its side and tried to JB Weld my leak. While searching for my JB Weld (didn't have any...used Larry's) I checked my phone...1/2 a bar! Texted Jonnybags and DSFox (she was up in BB with Jonny) they checked me out on Spotwalla....texted me back when they were on their way. During that time I was getting Larry and Henry's bike up and over the rock steps and through the rock gardens. Thank God for hydration tablets and 100 oz. of water! I think the burger at Pioneer town gave me some extra power as well
The JB Weld never did get hard enough to stop the leak completely but I was able to ride it out to the road. Johnny showed up with the two mountain babes
at about 7:30....10 minutes after I had got all three bikes up to the road. Loaded my bike and Larry in Johny's truck then headed back for my truck. Had an hour drive in the dirt before pavement.
Henry and I took off on the bikes for the truck. I was riding Larry's bike.....NO headlight for the last half in the dirt! Bummer is that was the section that was in the dark! When we made it to the asphalt...I wiggled enough wires to make it work for the last 7 miles on the pavement.
Found one fun water crossing on the way.....hard to see as it was dark at this point, but fun when the element of the unknown goes along with it!
28 degrees when we made it to the truck! BIG thanks to Spotwalla and DualsportMoto! Without that we would have not been found for a long time! Especially huge thanks to Johnnybags and DSFox for rescuing us!!
Picked up Larry and his son Henry on the way and made a quick stop at Chaparral to drool.
Parked the truck at 2N93 along hwy 38 in Sugarloaf to stage. Very nice ride through the mountains to lunch in Pioneer town.
After lunch the "FUN" began.....
We tracked back to find an opening to Rattlesnake Canyon that I saw on Google Earth. Really like finding trails, creek lines or who knows what it is until you get there. This one turned out to be holy hell!
On the way....lots of Joshua trees.
I had found a little trail that was next to the Rattlesnake Canyon creek line that lasted about 100 yards before the rock fun began. Was a little reluctant as this was Henry's first time in Big Bear and the rocks in areas can really wipe a guy out.
We decided to "Go for IT"!
I was at the bottom after going down our first rock garden....here is Henry and Larry traversing down.
After that first drop....we were committed! There wasn't a lot of mileage but there was a lot of time involved. Check out the Spot shared page
Spent a lot of time in that canyon!
We were following these Jeep or ? tracks for awhile....then they seemed to disappear. Thinking they found a turnaround spot and GTFO!
Lots of steps to get down....here's an easy one
After this step I sped on ahead to see what was in store for us. After going down a few more steps and up and over more rocks the trail got much narrower. I stopped to shed some layers and wait for the guys.
I staged myself at the last drop / rock area I had just went through waiting for the guys to come on through. Their motors stopped and then I heard Larry over the radio...."Mike, I fell back here and got myself hurt....gotta see what is going on"
Here is the spot I was waiting for them....
I walked up to where Larry and Henry were and Larry was nursing a wrist pain. He showed it to me and the first thing I thought was that his wrist / arm was broke. It didn't look too straight
. I wasn't about to tell him that it didn't look straight as we were "stuck" in a nasty mess. We talked about our options...keep going and hit the "road" or try and make it back up the rock steps to the road we came from. I decided to walk back to my bike to see how much more we had to traverse in this section. GPS looked as though we only had maybe 1/4 a mile to go. So I walked down to make sure.
After a ways down I found a 15' waterfall....wish I would not have left my vest with my camera as it was beautiful! Found one option to get down...a two foot ledge on the left side. You would have one chance to get down....any screw ups and you are gonna drop. Not gonna happen with Larry's busted arm and Henry is vertically challenged.
Larry said he was going to try and get out after turning around. I had a few rock steps to climb on my way out to get back to where they were. When I arrived Henry was having trouble picking lines to get up a step. I told him to follow me and then smelled something......looked down only to find transmission oil running out of my bike
A rock had bent my brake pedal and it pierced my side case cover just past my side case guard!Set my bike on its side and tried to JB Weld my leak. While searching for my JB Weld (didn't have any...used Larry's) I checked my phone...1/2 a bar! Texted Jonnybags and DSFox (she was up in BB with Jonny) they checked me out on Spotwalla....texted me back when they were on their way. During that time I was getting Larry and Henry's bike up and over the rock steps and through the rock gardens. Thank God for hydration tablets and 100 oz. of water! I think the burger at Pioneer town gave me some extra power as well
The JB Weld never did get hard enough to stop the leak completely but I was able to ride it out to the road. Johnny showed up with the two mountain babes
at about 7:30....10 minutes after I had got all three bikes up to the road. Loaded my bike and Larry in Johny's truck then headed back for my truck. Had an hour drive in the dirt before pavement. Henry and I took off on the bikes for the truck. I was riding Larry's bike.....NO headlight for the last half in the dirt! Bummer is that was the section that was in the dark! When we made it to the asphalt...I wiggled enough wires to make it work for the last 7 miles on the pavement.
Found one fun water crossing on the way.....hard to see as it was dark at this point, but fun when the element of the unknown goes along with it!
28 degrees when we made it to the truck! BIG thanks to Spotwalla and DualsportMoto! Without that we would have not been found for a long time! Especially huge thanks to Johnnybags and DSFox for rescuing us!!
Mike
12' KTM 500EXC
05.5' KTM 950 Adventure S model
06' CRF250X Plated
In the trailer fun bikes:
03' 250EX
03' 400EX
86' Rancher
05' Eton 90
You cannot be anything....if you want to be everything
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark.
12' KTM 500EXC
05.5' KTM 950 Adventure S model
06' CRF250X Plated
In the trailer fun bikes:
03' 250EX
03' 400EX
86' Rancher
05' Eton 90
You cannot be anything....if you want to be everything
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that amateurs built the Ark.
..holy heck man!! sounds like you all made it home, whew! 
![:)]](./images/smilies/100.gif "On the phone")
and we were quickly on our way to johns house to get ramps, tie downs and check DSM/spotwalla for coordinates... when I logged in to DSM I had your location in about 60 seconds!!! Very Cool 
...(john is now committed to get a GPS AND a spot)...we picked Tracy up and got on the way for what would be about an hour 4WD trek out there!!..racing to hopefully make it before dark .....Great leadership Job on Mikes part getting the guys/bikes up and out of those rocks so we could get to them...those pics are KNARLY......and Good Job helping the group maintain the upbeat spirits too, considering the circumstances....they were all smiling when we got there....PROBABLY because we got there!!! 
