Our mountain bike organization, the Warrior's Society, had the 2nd ride our in our 2025-2026 event season "Lone Wolf's Hunt" named after club member Ned "Lone Wolf" Reynolds (it was a poker ride with games). The ride was up Black Star to Beek's Place with a stop at the Native American village.
We are a non-profit organization that under the direction of Trail Director Keith Eckstein and his co-Director Darshan Ahluwalia, maintains the multi-trails in the Trabuco District of the Cleveland National in in the Santa Ana Mountains east of Ortega Highway. We have been maintaining these trails for 25 years through the use of club members and volunteers, many of them are competitive althletes.
Thanks to Keith Eckstein, Darshan, and Lubos for helping set up and spending the night with me up at Beek's Here's the story:
Our inaugural Lone Wolf's Hunt event was a great success!
We had perfect weather and a great group of legacy and associate members of the Warrior's Society. This is our second event of our 2025-2026 calendar year of events. We had our beach ride in August and have our Saturday, December 6th Christmas Tree Ride and our Saturday, April 26th Counting Coup and Vision Quest. These events are only open to legacy and associated members of the Warrior's Society. If you like information on how to become an associate member email us at: >Sanofan.chris@gmail.com
Trail Works Director Keith Ecstein, our Event Course Director Darshan, Lubos and I (Chris) spent the night at Beek's Place the night before the event with Chas Beek's, the great grandson of the builder of the cabin. It was an absolutely beautiful night with clear views of both Orange and Riverside Counties. Keith took off in the morning to join Mary, who was starting with the ride at the bottom of Black Star (the ride was up Black Star to Beeks with a stop at the Native American Village where we had a ceremony to transfer ownership of Ned Reynolds' founders ceremonial pipe to Erik and Debbie. Ned died tragically this year and he would be proud to know his friends Erik and Debbie now hold his pipe. Mary Huth, our event director had this to say about the ride:
Keith Eckstein and I, rallied the riders, Gerry en tow. We took head count, saw smiling faces and fresh legs, we shoved off at 8:15 to see if any stragglers. But instead picked up a lost Trail Angel who had never ridden up Black Star. She rode with us to Native American village spot, we were given poker cards, looked for hidden toads for extra points in the poker game then off we went to Beeks Place. Upon arrival, we got more poker cards and got a chance to throw an axe for extra points. The axe throwing proved to be popular with riders throwing the axe well after the contest. We were met by our co-executive director Chris and he and Lubos treated us to yummy tacos and Chas Beeks joined us in the festivities! Chas brought out a corn hole game and more fun was had. Thanks to Chas and his family for allowing us to enjoy their property. The weather was nice and the views beautiful. We enjoyed adult beverages and water. Appreciate the fun items after the poker hands, toads & are scores counted. Good time was had by, then clean up time & ride out back Black Star, good memories made, until next Warrior ride for decorating the Christmas tree at Beeks on Saturday, December 6ht to celebrate the season and spending time with fellow Warriors!
Darshan, who does not do short rides, met up with Blaine, Ty and Vision Quest record finisher and legend Frank Cain and met up with us at Beek's Place. Darshan had this to say about the day:
Shout out to Blaine who could not attend the event but he still managed to squeeze in a good ride to the summit of Hagador with his dad. Shout out to Frank and Ty for starting early to join me for an adventure to the top of Pleasants peak. We enjoyed a wild descent down from the summit to the east side with over 2500' vertical. Estelle relished the fact that I was cramping on the return but she was just regretting she missed out on the suffering. The beer and fish tacos revitalized me for the ride out of Blackstar, which I enjoyed with Bob, Debbie and Erik. We gleefully sent all the singletracks together. They called me various appliance names like fridge and microwave because I had to carry out my overnight sleeping gear. Highly recommend sleeping out at Beeks if the opportunity arises in the future. The sunset and moon rise were incredible. Just don't drink too much of Lubos' liquid or you'll be cramping for the next day's ride at the amusement of your friends.
Thanks to all who participated and helped with the event. Thanks to Adam Nazeroff for helping with the cooking.
Here's a link to a video of our ultra endurance event, the Vision Quest. It was called "Off the Charts" in a Competitor Magazine article on the 10 toughest events in the U.S.
The 2004 video has original music, a 3D tour of the course and shows the skill of the participants on the challenging course. It starts slow as the riders start and begin the first climb but then the pain begins. We will be having this event, the Vision Quest, in April with a different but just as difficult course:
See you at the Christmas Tree Ride and lunch!
