RR: LPQ Tunnels

Like most of my rides, I found myself with some unexpected free time in the afternoon this beautiful Memorial Day, so I had to decide what nearby ride I was wanted to do. I have gotten a little bored with my regular local haunts, and have been itching to do some exploring. One of the spots I've wanted to explore for a while is the purported entrance to LPQ/Tunnels from the Camino del Sur trailhead. That trailhead is significantly closer to home for me than Canyonside Park, so if I could figure out how to get to the good stuff from Camino del Sur, I'd be pretty stoked.

I drove over to the trailhead and parked next to the Mobil station. There were a few other cars there, but no other people to ask for directions, so I looked around and took the only trail out of trailhead. It was a short, steep down hill, which quickly led to a medium length uphill. Without the benefit of any warm up, I found myself HABing last part of the uphill.

From there the trail turned from rutted doubletrack to singletrack for about 1/4 mile, and then I spotted the entrance to a tunnel I had never seen before. It had all kinds of garbage littered around the entrance, and there was an old road bike hanging from a tree at the beginning of the tunnel. I remembered reading something on STR about a tunnel with a bike hanging at the entrance, and there it was.

I was pretty excited to have actually found this mythical tunnel, and was particularly happy that it was so close to the Camino del Sur trailhead. I rode it along, and it actually looked a lot like the tunnel I had ridden in the past. There were some stream crossings that were fun, and I always enjoy the sweeping feel and relatively lush surroundings of the tunnels. After about 1/2 a mile, I came to a fork, and initially decided to go to the right. I rode that section for just a few minutes, and found myself at a short loop that I had ridden a couple of times in the past that was off of main tunnel trail. I looped that trail back around to the fork I had passed a few minutes earlier, and took the fork in the other direction this time.

That trail quickly went uphill, and pretty soon I found myself exiting the tunnel and riding in the open air. The trail became pretty steep, even requiring some HAB as it continued East. Eventually it crested, and I found myself up on the mesa. I then rode along the mesa, following the singletrack that seemed most traveled when presented with different options. After another 1/2 mile or so I ended up on some wider doubletrack, which I realized I would have hit if I kept going South at the beginning of the ride and had not entered first tunnel. After meandering around for a while, I was just happy at that point to be oriented.

Instead of heading North back toward the entrance to the first tunnel (and eventually my car,) I followed the doubletrack South, toward the main mesa. Again the doubletrack turned to singletrack, which I followed as best I could as it wandered over toward the mesa that I had ridden before. As I rode along the mesa, the trail I was on began to lookvery familiar, and I figured I'd eventually see the drop-in for main tunnel trail at some point. It turns out that I should have seen it, but passed by it on my first time through that area.

Because I unwittingly missed the main tunnel entrance I was looking for, I kept riding around singletrack, which still seemed really familiar (since I had ridden it before in the past.) I spotted a gap in the fence to my right (North), and decided to explore it. I rode through the gap, and followed some more singletrack for a bit. I arbitrarily went right at a fork and quickly dead-ended in an old dried up vernal pool. I backtracked and took other fork, and then was quickly presented with yet another intersection.

One trail went down into another tunnel, and the other seemed to stay up on the mesa to the North. The trail I was on also continued to the left (West). Because I love the tunnels, I took the tunnel trail, and saw a rocking horse on the right. This was yet another mythical tunnel trail I had heard about on STR, and I had finally found it. There were bees living in rocking horse, which was a little creepy.

I rode down rocking horse, which was a really fun trail. It had several small to medium jumps (that I alternately rolled or avoided, it was awfully tight quarters for jumping). There was also a short ladder bridge that was fun to ride across. After a short distance, the rocking horse tunnel then met up with main tunnel trail that I had ridden in the past. I realized at that point that I had definitely missed the drop in entrance to the main tunnel.

Out of curiosity, I decided to ride back UP main tunnel trail the wrong way to the mesa to see where I had missed the drop-in. I rode up the main tunnel back the mesa, and then back along the mesa singletrack, past the opening in the fence that led to rocking horse, and over to main fire road trail on mesa that I had always come through in the past. I was once again oriented, and pretty pleased about it.

From there I doubled back to rocking horse, but instead of dropping into the tunnel again, I took the trail that headed North along the mesa instead. That trail was narrow singletrack, and meandered along the mesa sort of along the rim above the tunnels. It rejoined a wide fire road after going in about a 3/4 circle. As I rode along the fire road, I spotted a trail heading East, and figured it would hook up with the trail near rocking horse. I took it, and it did.

From there I dropped into rocking horse again, and rode that trail back to main trail once again. Then I took the main tunnel trail North, back toward the very first tunnel I had ridden with the bike at the beginning.

After exiting the bike tunnel, I rode the double track up to where I had been spit out after the long climb out of the second tunnel I had ridden. This time I was going to ride it downhill, which I figured would be a lot more fun. It was. Riding it this direction was way better than climbing it. After I rode the downhill section and the short tunnel section at the end, I then hooked back up with the main tunnel trail, and once again took it to the bike tunnel.

I rode the bike tunnel again for the last time, and exited back to the singletrack and back up the hill to the Camino del Sur trailhead.

I had a really fun ride, with an easy pace. I always enjoy exploring, and this was a nice day to meander a bit and see some spots that I had never ridden before. The "breadcrumbs" feature on my Garmin 205 GPS was invaluable, and I referred to it many times to orient myself, especially while down in the tunnels where there weren't many landmarks.

After all that wandering around, I think good route would be to take the singletrack from the trailhead past the first tunnel, and ride that fire road up to the downhill trail that leads into the tunnels. From there I wold join main tunnel trail, and climb that back up to the mesa like I always had in the past. Then I would ride back along mesa to rocking horse, and take rocking horse to the "bike" tunnel trail and back to the trailhead. That's not a long ride at all, but it would have some flow and would cover most of the good tunnels without any backtracking or repetitions. And if I wanted to, I could throw in more trails up on the mesa for bonus mileage.

Here are the stats for my Memorial Day Magellan Excursion:

Total Distance: 8.52 miles
Total Time: 1:43:59
Ascent: 1029 feet
Average Speed: 4.9 mph
Top Speed: 13.8 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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