You can't get to Bob Hope's house from here.
I love that that the ease of bringing a bike along on trips makes it fun to go find new trails to explore. My plan this trip was to take a side trip to Big Bear Lake after an all day seminar in LA.
This is the lovely Google Map pic of the area I was hoping to ride. The trees and bike paths seemed worth the inconvenience of driving an hour out of the way.
The actual view from the car. reminded me that unlike Phoenix, everywhere else actually has weather, and late springs, and something called rain...
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| Another view from the freeway. More rain and clouds and I think fog.... |
But no worries. What I love about the southwest is all you have to do is drive another 20 miles and exit to the right o instead of the left and your back in desert. A quick google search and Palm Springs Goat trails became the new side trip.
Except - What I don't like about just dropping into a trail is that you have no ideal what your getting into.. This was a great view... It was a great view at my back while I hiked the bike up a steep hill. It was also a great view walking the bike back down same hill as I thought the trail was just to steep. And then back up the same hill when we were told that the trail just went around and you ended up at Bob Hope's House.
"Maybe if we go straight down this hill we will find Bob Hopes house"... was a thought we did not follow through with.
Saw a couple of these. Not sure if its Sagebrush at rest
After flying through the only single track we found. It was great fun while it lasted. Gus liked the sage bush and thought he would try the same pose.
This "fat" guy was at home in the desert. It was fun watching him fly up and down the trail. But after several more attempts at finding a better trail that did not climb like crazy, a nice, helpful hiker appeared out of nowhere to give us great advise... Turn back!!!! You will never find Bob Hope house. So back down the hill we went, through washes and single track and very very steep hills....
Map My Ride couldn't seem to keep up with where we went.
Getting back to the van we decided we still had enough in us to ride to lunch. Palm Spring is an odd town mixed of old hollywood and alternative living. But nice weather and great views of the mountains made it a good ride.
Good for us, the bikes are well trained to find great lunch spots. Good bikes! Good bikes!
We never did find Bob Hope's house. But even better, we found Shermans. The best pickles, soup and sandwiches Deli one could hope for!
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Oh And on a side note, it gets a little boring driving back from California. So we made up a new game called Semi-drafting. It's loads of fun. The rules are simple.
Step 1 Forget to fueling up before leaving town.
Step 2 Time the gas gauge to read empty just as you pass the No service for the next 40 miles sign
Step 3 Immediately fall in behind the slowest semi and drive as close and slow as you can for what seems like an eternity.
Step 4 See how close you can get to the next service station before having to pull out the Fat bike for a brisk jaunt to the gas station...
We never made it to step 4 but the first 3 were great fun!
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