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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Mark Logrbrinck
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Monday, 16 July 2007 |
Nazi Summer Camp Ride
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Matt Hersey called me and said he needed a MTB ride. I did tell him before he moved to San Diego that there is not much riding down there. He had to find out for himself. Do get me wrong it is a nice town but no riding equates to no fun. As sucky a LA is the, riding is pretty good.
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We met at the Caballero Canyon Trail in the south end of the San Fernando Valley. It is one way to get up in the Santa Monica Mountains. The Santa Monica Mountains are one of 4 Mediterranean Climates in the world. The range is 40 miles long and encompasses some 450,000 acres. I have hear through unconfirmed sources that there are some 500 miles of trails and fire roads here. We were riding in the Topanga State Park section. This area is 11,000 acres and is the largest state park within city limits. You are bounded by the San Fernando Valley on the north with Santa Monica and West LA on the south. This is where Victor Vicente did his famous Reseda to the Sea race. Victor Vicente was inducted in the Mountain Bike Hall of fame in 1989. Gary Fisher won this race in 1981. More history later.
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We got an early start at around 7:00 am. It has been hot here, really hot, like super hot. My bike thermometer or bikemometer has maxed out this week at 114 F. There is a welcome marine layer and temps in the low 60’s. Nice. We planned a route that takes us up and over the top towards the ocean the back. Nice and long with abundant single-track, some treacherous downhills ( which some individuals walked) and many feet of climbing.  | | click to enlarge |
We climbed to the “the Hub Juction” where four different trails come together in the middle of the park. This led us to our Holy Grail, the Backbone Trail to Will Rogers State Park. This section in a mostly downhill single-track, sweet. We dropped in an un-named trail which was more difficult and longer than I remembered. I had fun though, can’t say the same for everybody else. Here is where the history gets really interesting. I won’t try to say it in my own words here are some excerpts from various writings. All I will say is it is an old Nazi encampment or Murphy Ranch which nature has taken back over.
From Wikipedia:
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The Murphy Ranch was the home of Herr Schmidt in the 1930s and 1940s. Herr Schimdt was a Nazi sympathizer who helped organize self-defense, sharpshooting, and physical training exercises at the ranch. This continued until the OSS intercepted communications between Schmidt and Nazi officers in Mexico, South America, and Europe. These communication interceptions led to Herr Schmidt's eventual arrest.
From the LA Times I believe:
PALM LATITUDES
BODY POLITIC
Retreat of the Master Race
By Lionel Rolfe,
The remains of a Nazi utopia lie eerily quiet at the bottom of Rustic Canyon. For years, the L. A. Department of Recreation and Parks has wanted to bulldoze the site and make it into a picnic area, but a constant shortage of money and staff has left undisturbed the dream of Winona Stephens.
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In 1933, Stephens, heir to a mining fortune, created the Murphy Ranch on 50 secluded acres near what is now Topanga State Park. The evil genius behind it all, according to Pacific Palisades historian Randy Young, was a Nazi spy named Schmidt. Herr Schmidt persuaded Stephens to invest more than $4 million to create a self-supporting community where a chosen few would live until the day anarchy fell on the United States after a presumed Nazi victory over England. They would then emerge to govern a California hungry for order.
By 1940, they had built a garage with living quarters overhead, a huge concrete water tank, a diesel fuel tank and a dual-generator power station. Stephens, Schmidt and 50 other future master racers lived on the site, cultivating a vegetable garden and waiting for the New World Order. Guards stood at the gates, and the sounds of military drills often rang through the canyon.
The day after the United States entered World War II, Schmidt was arrested by the FBI and the community soon began to disintegrate. Now the buildings lie in ruins, littered with the remains of bonfires and plastered with graffiti, including swastikas. The canyon walls above are cut by four staircases of crumbling, treacherous concrete.
To get to Murphy Ranch, hike a couple of miles down the Camp Josepho fire road, which starts at the west end of Casale Road, until the big flagstone gateway appears. Simply walk around behind the right side of the imposing structure; it's only a mile or so more down the roadway made dark with thick ponderosa pine stands, bougainvillea and overhanging eucalyptus, to the ruined Nazi mecca.
The rest of the ride consisted of some more climbing and by the way the sun came out and it was 95 F. I tried to get the remaining riders (a couple bailed) to go down one of my favorite technical downhill single-tracks but they had enough. Oh well maybe next time. Overall the ride was 25+ miles with about 4000 ft of climbing. No wonder my legs are tired. After the finish we had some Mexican food. We talked about traveling, riding and hopefully getting together again before the “guy from Maine” goes home.
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