Condor Ridge. Going Deep.
What seemed like a never-ending battle with decades-old root systems and well-established post-fire chaparral was finally behind us. After pushing through the other side of the Ridge to Nowhere last month, we didn’t waste any time moving ahead. We are cleaning tread, adding drains, reshaping switchbacks, chunking out rootballs, vaporizing whitethorn, making sure yucca isn’t where it shouldn’t be, and reclaiming the trail corridor with our dedicated crew of Lowelifes. We are now making our way down Condor Ridge towards Fox Mountain.
The restoration project has gone especially deep as we tip off the deep end of Condor Ridge. We have beaten up our cars and spent around 100 hours on road maintenance this year on Mendenhall Ridge Road. Thankfully, the United States Forest Service has offered up their vehicles to sacrifice to the pinstriping gods. However, this doesn’t help us with how slow it is to drive the road versus riding bikes.
Now that the work area has gotten so far away we are going to try something a little different in December. We are going to camp on Condor Ridge next month so that means no campout at Lightning Point. However, it is still open for people to join in on any part of the weekend they want. BUT! You will be on your own to join if you do not roll Saturday morning from Lightning Point with us.
We are way out there. The amount of time it takes to access this area has left us with very few practical options. I must say that I couldn’t be any happier. Among other things, this is at the very essence of what I wanted to do with the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens’ Club. Plenty of folks are out there that love the hard work. I am thankful for who I have met so far. I’m excited to uncover more Lowelifes and welcome them to the family.
What a fun project this restoration has been. It is finally really coming together. Nearly all of the 91 different volunteers who joined us so far have never seen this section of trail before. I knew if we made it here, people would be blown away. I was right. Lowelifes is going deep next month: December 4th to 5th we are camping on Condor Ridge.