Unearthing Arrastre
Heading north from Condor Peak the Orogenesis route followed a collection of jeep roads and truck trails before reaching the LA aqueduct and Mojave Desert. It was decent, and quite scenic, but notably lacking in singletrack. Then we heard about Acton.
Another gem we can thank Evan Sollberger for sniffing out, the Arrastre Canyon Trail (or Acton Trail) was an old section of the Pacific Crest Trail before being abandoned for the current route, and then further lost to obscurity in the devastating 2009 Station Fire. Recently it’s seen some use and local maintenance so Evan, myself, and Rob from Lowelifes/CAMTB decided to give it a go. The question mark was the short connection between Mount Gleason and the Arrastre Saddle. It is short on the map, but certainly not short in person. Even in the downhill direction we spent a couple hours navigating (and occasionally throwing) our bikes through the thick fire-secessional chaparral. But once we hit the trail we knew we were onto something gold, even the cloudy skies opened up and draped the valley below us in dappled light.
Home of the Tataviam people.