The Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association

It's like a fantasy land. Pretty girls; perfectly manicured landscaping everywhere you go; perfect weather everyday; great food; nice people and a laid back vibe.

We landed to a nice sunny 82 degrees. Pretty much the norm. Got the F150 rental truck, met up with our friends and headed over to the Condo we rented which had a view of the ocean right out the window. Could almost throw a rock in the water. Sweet. We immediately started to put bikes together so we could get in a ride before sundown. We had a guide for the trip, our friend Adam who used to live less than a mile from me in Roxborough. We used to do trail work in Wiss all the time back in the day. He's been living in Socal for a little over two years and knows all the good riding spots. Perfect.

Our first ride was on his local riding spot: San Clemente singletracks. Flowy, swoopy singletrack, built by singlespeeders with loose over hardpack terrain. We ended up hitting this place three times, one of them a night ride, right about the time when you're not supposed to ride because of mountain lions. Did not see any.

The rides out here are very diverse depending on where you go, but it's mostly sandy and loose singletrack. There are cactus lining most of the trails, which is probably one reason for the constant singletrack. Pretty cool. If you go don't forget the sunblock cause there is not much shade.

In all we did nine rides over six days. They were all awesome, but the best had to be Noble Canyon. This place was incredible. It's a 30 mile loop that climbs up with incredible views on sweet flowing trails, and the reward was a downhill that rivals anything that I've riden so far. Amazing. Jaw dropping. Crazy fast and flowy in some parts, and then you hit these trails with steep knarly rock gardens that were amazingly ridable. One of the rock gardens was one of the sickest I've ever seen. It was a 3 legged swithchback similar to the one that climbs up to the indian in length, but it was jaged rocks and ledges and gaps the whole way on the side of a cliff. Sick. Jamie and I cleaned the whole thing. I was behind him going fast and just kept thinking "if he made it, I can make it" and I never stopped. When I got to the bottom and looked up at what we just rode, I was in total shock and awe. It was awesome. So awesome in fact that I'm still buzzing from it and it's been 3 days! I won't forget that trail, it took five hours to complete the loop.

Also did some surfing while out there. Very hard sport to pick up, and quite a workout. If I lived out there I would have to learn how to surf. It's pretty cool.

The pic is on our way to Noble Canyon. Sorry that's all I've got at the moment.