The Dirty Chain Gang Rides Again, 19 July

And a more ornery bunch of mudslingers you're unlikely to ever see.

I am afraid I have probably gone and made a mess of the Apple Dumpling Gang theme song, but so be it; if you're going to hang me, you'll have to catch me first:

Well they saddled up in Claremont Town, knob tires and all them gears

And they rode their way across the sage frontier

As they sought their fun and glory, their legend up and sprang

And they soon became the Dirty Chain Gang

And they called them the Dirty Chain Gang.

It wasn't long, they'd been gone from the city line

And people knew their names from far and near (Far and Near!)

Well they shook up Marshall Canyon and Claremont Hills to boot

Some folks was out to hang all the riders of the Dirty Chain Gang

And they called them the Dirty Chain Gang.

It wasn't Jesse James or old Black Bart for whom the posses rode

Even though there was a price upon their heads

It was Pete, and Trish, and Matt the town folk up and sang

And all them other riders called the Dirty Chain Gang

And they called them the Dirty Chain Gang.

And they called them the Dirty Chain Gang.

The bunch stayed extra close to home this weekend - riding up through Burbank Canyon in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park and then down through Marshall Canyon over in La Verne. All that highly unusual July rain that hit yesterday made the trails extra fun today - the surface d.g. was extra grippy, while Marshall Creek and the puddles in shady hollows along that down hill run existed entirely for us to splash through and arrive home covered in mud and grit.

More photos can be found in the Flickr album (the same photos in the slideshow below).

Created with flickr slideshow.