Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Haynes Canyon on My Mule

I rode Haynes Canyon/Grizzly Flats from Big Tujunga to the 2 on sunday.

From Haynes Canyon Ride


Google's directions gave me a bum steer by telling me to take Camp 15 Rd. That turned out to be a Youth Probation Camp. Appearently there used to be access to the fire road. I found another route through a private horse ranch. One of the ranch hands let me cross the 200 yards from where I was to the road. He said not to do it again though.

There were a lot of hikers and mountain bikers so I rode slow. Above the Haynes Debris Basis I came across a barrier. There was a burm on the hill that mountain bikers were using to get over the gate so I followed them. After that view started getting really nice. You could see all the way to Long Beach.

From Haynes Canyon Ride

From Haynes Canyon Ride


Surprisingly, most of the hikers waved at me. I expected some hateful stares.

At the top where all the raido towers where I ran into three 50 year plus women who had hiked from La Canada. Pretty impressive.

From Haynes Canyon Ride

From Haynes Canyon Ride

From Haynes Canyon Ride


Anyone know what these things are? They have names; Sister Elsie and Hoyt.
From Haynes Canyon Ride

From Haynes Canyon Ride

From Haynes Canyon Ride


Then it was down Grizly Flats. This is where I came across two Forest Ranges on Mountain Bikes, one dude, one dame. They didn't wave me down or anything but I stopped to talk to them anyway. The dude was cool. He asked me to take it easy because of the hikers. I told him that I was riding slower than I would on my mountain bike. Then the dame said in a somewhat terse voice "Do you have a Green Sticker?" I told her that I had just bought my mule and the Sticker was in the mail, but I had the receipt. That was settled so I started chatting again. "You're lucky" Ranger Dame interupts, "Its a $10,000 fine if you don't have it." She didn't seem to want to drop it.

I rode on.

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