The Bros' Guide To Stoke: March 21st. Tampa Trail.

When your weather forecast involves the words "torrential downpour" and "hail", mountain biking, hiking, and river crossings are on the minds of few. It's not too often that we see weather like this in the San Fernando Valley. Temperatures usually range from the mid 70's to upper 80's and we are fairly comfortable with this. So when the weather changes it's pace, so do we.

I'm at starbucks studying and I get a text from BillyC, "Mud mountain biking in aliso?". How could I pass this up? We throw around a few locations- there aren't many in the Valley- so we decide on what we think is a smaller trail off of Tampa and Chatsworth. We pack our bikes and meet at the trail head.

Above: BillyC plowing through the run-off

Above: JoshW tryin' to stay upright.

We make our way through the designated trail but soon find that it has been washed out. There are two options. Either we turn back, or we follow the river upstream.

Above: How could we resist?

Upstream we go. We were sure surprised.

Above: Nearly 1/4mile upstream and there are rockwalls 30ft tall.We catch each other asking,

"Where are we?"

Above: Waterfall? WHAT!? Up and over.

Above: The stream/river rushes past. Some parts take you up to your waist.

For nearly three hours we carry on, upstream, rock-hopping. Some sections of the river have you hugging the wall, while others have you scaling fallen trees. As the sun sets, we begin to question our location. We are nearly certain we've trekked miles into the hills. Scenery changes, there's no more track housing. As we look for a way out, we only notice the 10ft walls of dirt that surround us. There's only one way out, up. We grab hold of some tree roots and climb our way out. Looks like we ended up only a few miles north of Rinaldi. We were disappointed to say the least, yet impressed that all this adventure was only miles away.