End of the 2018 Ride Carnegie SVRA

[HadesOmega]

Quick end of the year dirty ride report here. So I almost went to the track for some supermoto action but my front brake pads were low and when I went to install some new ones I realized bought the wrong ones! My KLX140 has a KX85/100 front end and well the brakes are slightly different unfortunately. The track gobbles up pads like crazy. So I figured hey let's go dirtbiking then so after having swapped the Supermoto setup on I swap the dirt setup back on again. Then I figure hey let's go to Carnegie! I also want to mention I bought this KLX from someone in Modesto so Carnegie is where this bike probably rode most of it's life before I owned.




I've ridden Carnegie I think twice. Once when I was a dual sport noob in my 1991 Suzuki DR650S and twice on a quad my Warrior 350. You want to ride Carnegie on a dirtbike it's not good for anything else. I don't even recommend dualsports, maybe a light one. For quads you are really limited in where you can go, I saw a bunch of quads today and I would see them turning around because the trail get's too narrow. Carnegie's trails will suddenly become single track. Literally all the trails are like that. There'll be a choke point. Side by sides even worse. Anyway let's go!



The BattleVan with the KLX in tow we arrive around 1400. Not much time let's ride! I'll tell you now it rained last week and there some mud puddles and stuff about but it was HERO DIRT all day! And Hero Dirt gives you great traction so you can do wheelies on uphills hah! Also hardly any dust! Oh BTW if you've never been to Carnegie before it is hillclimb central. That's all it literally is, in my opinions the trails are not very good. So my goal is to hitup as many of the trails as I can. I would like to do some of the black diamond trails too since I have my trail weapon KLX140 with me. And if you look at the last picture you can see I accomplished that goal

[HadesOmega]

First trail I hit is the Water Tower Trail, yeah it was EZ but great view!


Dude in the Honda putting on a show for me front wheel into the sky.


So I'm riding around the Hillclimb training area and I decide hey let's go down this really steep hill. So I did. I made it down that barely, it was so steep. About half way down I just locked up the rear and skidded down dumped it about 1/4 way down because I lowsided it hah. That was totally sketchy at least for me haha I looked at the hill I just came down and I'm like hell no it was that steep!? Also where I went down the hill on the Pottery Loop trail there was an Ambulance and the Ranger cordoned the trail off and made me ride around it the hill the other way. I wound up going up a less steep than the one I went down earlier hilclimb.




Shot of these dirty hairpins. I hitup a couple black diamonds already. Yeah not really my thing I but I did it.


Best picture spot in my opinion in the whole park. This is from the Juniper Trail where all the trails intersect kinda.




So it's become evident the KLX doesn't have a lot of climbing power. Carnegie has all these steep hillclimbs you can test you and your machine's climbing power. It took me 3 tries to clear the hill. It's steeper than it looks.






This is that last hillclimb.


This is the Los Osos Hillclimb area. I've never been here before pretty interesting they have a Green, Blue, and Red Hillclimb. I went up and down the Green and Blue hill climbs. It's like they give you steep downhill runway to get speed to bomb up the hillclimb. It's just reminds me of those ski jumps. The KLX did horrible going up the blue because I tried to go up in 3rd. 2nd and 1st are the ticket on the KLX.





So I didn't intend to draw a wiener with my GPS it kinda just happened HAH!

[HadesOmega]

Hitting up more of those black diamonds they are plentiful here. I want to mention that the trails are really confusing in Carnegie. Carnegie is notorious for having a trail that says it's easy then becomes harder later on. It's not like Metcalf or Hollister where a trail is usually the same difficulty through the whole duration. Even look at the park map it like that it's go green, blue, then black It's definitely challenging terrain. Also the trails are 2-way so you can't really speed through them cause you might hit someone going up the other way.



Took this picture after riding the Grizzly Black Diamound.

[Eric in Davis]

Nice I rode Carnegie on Saturday. So on that hill climb where you have it layed on the side, what did you do? I did a hill climb by myself while waiting for my friend to arrive (near the water tank) and made it about 80% of the way up then stalled when I lost speed spinning the rear on dry loose dirt. I looked down and said nope to trying to ride it down due to all loose dry dirt = no slowing down. And going up the hill from being stopped sideways seemed unlikely. So I tired myself out by baby-step walking it down with the front wheel locked and tucked sideways the whole way down

[byke]

Fun! Did you make it to the hill with all the whoops? If you're facing it, there's a little hillclimb area to the right that I like quite a bit.

[HadesOmega]

Ok I save the best for last! It getting late and I just got off this Grizzly Trail. It spits you out on Kiln Canyon. My plan was to ride it up to the park boundary and ride these trail named after birds but I get to the top and gates closed. I don't think I've ever seen this open. That Black Bear trail is closed too.



So I go back down a bit and I'm eyeing this singletrack that is paralleling Kiln Canyon Trail and it looks gnarly in some places. So I said F'it let's try it I got the KLX! Boy did I not know what I was getting myself in to. So the good thing is I went down it and not up it, I kinda just crawled my way through the rough sections. There were like 3 or 4 waterfalls. Rocks everywhere. Very narrow squeezes! That HARD ENDURO stuff. Not really my cup of tea. Unfortunately my action camera dies half way through it also. But yeah it was literally the hardest trail I rode in the part. No joke. After the waterfalls I knew if I had to turn around later that it would be tough going back up. I definitely shouldn't have gone here alone. After the the 4th waterfall I see a bailout. It's getting late so I decide to bailout. Also I'm a little bit in panic mode, definitely riding out of my comfort zone here. It's was a short but steep climb. I get to the top and OH SHIZNIT I'm gonna loop the bike! So instead of backing off I pitch the bike sideways and literally throw it over onto Kiln Canyon Trail. I made it! Also it turns out that I made it 80% through it. If I had kept going I the easiest hillclimb was at the end. Oh well. Sorry about blurry pictures it was getting dark I guess it wasn't focusing so well.







My bailout





These were the other bailout further down the road.







The end of the trail not far off, it was a short trail also probably not even a 1/4 mile but it was slow going.

[HadesOmega]

Originally Posted by Eric in Davis

Nice I rode Carnegie on Saturday. So on that hill climb where you have it layed on the side, what did you do? I did a hill climb by myself while waiting for my friend to arrive (near the water tank) and made it about 80% of the way up then stalled when I lost speed spinning the rear on dry loose dirt. I looked down and said nope to trying to ride it down due to all loose dry dirt = no slowing down. And going up the hill from being stopped sideways seemed unlikely. So I tired myself out by baby-step walking it down with the front wheel locked and tucked sideways the whole way down

Well like I said the hero dirt. There wasn't much spinning going on all day. Basically the front came up and I back off and stalled and dumped it. Or I tried to turn the bike around and it fell down. I'm glad that bike is so light I have been practicing hillclimb recovery techniques. I think what i did was when its sideways like that it's easiest to just drag the bike to get it pointing downhill. Then pick it up while it's in gear so it doesn't go rolling down then ride or drag it down the hill. I'm glad the KLX has good brakes too. Also if you can pick it up in that position, pick it up and wiggle the handlebar so the front slides down and ride the bike down. But yeah if it's really steep it best to walk the bike down by locking up the rear wheel and using the front brake. Similar to how you mentioned.

[HadesOmega]

I made a video of that section, I'm not sure someone I know told me this is what's called the "Devil's Buttcrack" (It's not the Devil's buttcrack I watche a couple videos the buttcrack is worse O_o')

youtu.be/TgM9s6wvmws

[HadesOmega]

Originally Posted by byke

Fun! Did you make it to the hill with all the whoops? If you're facing it, there's a little hillclimb area to the right that I like quite a bit.

I'm not sure. There was a whoopy climb at the Hillclimb training area near the watertower. It wasn't very steep though.

[HadesOmega]

So that was pretty much it. I rode that Kiln Canyon Trail down to the main road. I did one lap on the MX track and was having really bad arm cramp so I stopped. I think I was dehydrated. Then I stopped by the ATV/MX track and had a lot of fun chasing another bike on the track. Fun little track especially on the KLX140. It looks like a TT track on the map but it's got some jumps and stuff.



GPS Stats for the day




KLX all strapped up and ready to go home. Thanks for ride!



I got one boo boo on my knee here. When I mentioned I chucked the bike onto the trail on that singletrack my knee landed on a rock sideways, kneepads didn't help >.< Little bruised up but nothing bad.

[HadesOmega]

Tracks of that gnarly singletrack






More tracks to oogle






I had a lot of fun but I have to say Carnegie is my least favorite OHV park in the area. The trails just all over the place. There's some pretty fun one's though. Only dirtbike friendly also. If anyone is planning to ride an adventure bike or heavy dualsport here think again or just take it really easy. There's not many GREEN trails, it's all BLUE SQAURE or BLACK DIAMONDS. It was a great riding conditions today with the hero dirt and all and it was nice and cool. I know it can get hot and dry here in the warmer seasons. But if you like to do hillclimbs this is the place for you!

[Butch]

Nice. Thanx.

[HadesOmega]

I'm really tempted to buy one of those Sur Ron bikes and come back here, I think it would be a lot of fun, all that torque on tap and no stalling. Not to mention it's so light you could carry it off a trail if you wanted to.

[ScottRNelson]

Originally Posted by HadesOmega

You want to ride Carnegie on a dirtbike it's not good for anything else. I don't even recommend dualsports, maybe a light one.

I had no problem at all riding my XR650L (350 pounds with half a tank of gas) on every single blue trail in the park and a few of the black diamond ones. This is off of my GPS:



I've even had fun on a KTM 990 Adventure there a couple of times as long as I stuck to the roads and stayed off of the single track stuff.

[HadesOmega]

I did with my old DR650S also still would rather not ride a big bike here if you have to pick it up. It's very easy to wander into a black diamond. Drop your big bike down the hill now what?