Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Category: Trails

Trails in General

San Juan Trail

Last weekend I decided to roll up to Orange County and hit up the San Juan Trail which I have done in quite some time.    It weather called for cloudy but I figured it might be different once I got away for the coast.   It was a bit misty as I traveled up I-5 before turning inland on HWY 74.    The misting stopped but it was indeed cloudy all the way to the trail head.    After getting all the bike and clothes bits all setup I started up the six mile climb to the first decision point “Cocktail Rock”.

As I climbed I could see a soupy cloud layer in the mountains up and ahead of me.   I knew that I would get some cloud riding but I wondered the ceiling of the cloud bank was going to be as riding above that clouds can be pretty awesome.    As I worked my way up the trail the clouds got closer and closer.

I did not start this ride at the ass crack of dawn by a long shot (think leisurely brunch time roll out) so as expected and meet a handful of folks on their way down that mentioned that it was clear up top.   As I continued my climb I soon entered the clouds and visibility go down to around 50-100 feet which was kinda cool to be riding through.  Moisture in the air was collecting up on my arm hairs giving me what looked like a water droplet sweater.    By the time I got up to cocktail rock the clouds had moved up higher in the mountains so there was not sunshine to be had for me at the top.

From Cocktail Rock I decided the “Lollipop” at the top which is comprised of the Old San Trail and the current or “new” San Juan trail.    There are merits to doing the loop in either direction on this day I decided to do the counter-clockwise direction.    The clouds settled in amongst the old groves along this route made for a ride that a very ethereal feel to it.  The cloud riding continued for the remainder the loop as well as most of the descent of back down from Cocktail Rock.      By the time I finished the loop I was quite ready for six mile return to the trail that was all downhill except for one “bump” near the top.

As I neared the bottom of trail the sun even decided to make an appearance which was a nice way to finish off the ride.

Guajome Park

So off and on I get asked where are good places to take kids riding.  On my website to-do list for quite sometime has been to create a where to take a kid guide.   Lake Hodges, Big Laguna Trails, Penaqsuitos Canyon are places on the list but I had been thinking about some of the smaller places that would be good for the MTBer with little wheels would be.  Guajome Park is one of those places good for the grommet MTBers to get a taste of dirt.

Guajome Park (Or as my kids like to call it “Yo Hommie Park” is located on the east side of Oceanside right off of Highway 76.   It is a county park that has a campground, a couple of small ponds and a series of trails that are no so overly engineered with split rail fencing and compacted non-native soil dirt sidewalks like are prevalent in many of the county parks near the urban environment.   This place still allows for kids to interact with the environment instead of just look at it.  When my kids where younger we used to hike out here often and go just out the little nooks and crannies of the place.

Last week I was talking to youngest son Jake about the park and that I wanted to get a webpage together so Jake decided to join me on the photo, map recon effort.

With about 4.5 miles of trail out here it can be quite fun for newbie kid.  Even an a newbie adult who is willing to do a lot of hamster wheeling can find the place fun.

There are mainly fireroads here but there are also enough singletrack bits to keep a kid well engaged.   There are two different playgrounds at the park as well as large population of resident ducks that quite fond of stale loaf bread.   This would be a great place to take a little kid out for his first “big” MTB adventure as there are lots of opportunities to do other things besides ride the bike.

When I say “little” kids I’m generally thinking newbies on bikes with less than 26″ wheels as once they get to that big, this place can get rather small and you would have to get creative at this place at that point.   Here is Jake working on riding this telephone pole skinny.   It took him a while to get the technique down but he eventually was able to hop up on the log at the skinny end and ride the whole thing.

This was an after school ride for Jake and we played around here until we ran out of daylight and had to head back for things like dinner and homework.  Good midweek stoke.

A Nippon Weekend In Review

So I’m back in Japan for a couple of weeks of work.    This marks the first time I have been here in the late January, early February timeframe.    With the highs in the low 40’s and the night time temps below freezing it is downright cold for this San Diego Weather Weenie!   Wednesday was spent playing planes, trains and automobiles but with the international date line thing after getting some sleep in the hotel I woke up to Friday morning.   Friday was spent setting up for work that was start to start on Monday, give a presentation and make rounds of gripping and grinning.     In the middle of all that I picked up a mountain bike rental that not only would be my primary means of transportation while here in Japan, it was also be my recreational vehicle.    Friday evening was marked by the full blown onset of  Jet Laaaaaag!   

I have found that nothing helps to beat your body clock into a new time zone like some exercise.    After some early morning work preps it was time to set off on the bike.     Cold is cold, but the breeze was just downright biting so there was plenty of layering when donning my MTB apparel.   As in all of it!   I was pretty stoked with the hardtail rental I got.   I was the first person to rent one of the newest members of their rental fleet, a well equipped (for a rental) Jamis Durango 1 hardtail. 

 The plan for Saturday was not to do any exploring, just stick to a series of trails that I know and love in the  Fugatoyama area.   It is a rather large chunk of mountainous open space that is for the most part quite rugged.   It has been the source of many memorable head scratching intersections and brutal hike-a-bikes.

One nice change about riding here in the winter time is that you can see a lot more stuff as some of the trees have shed their leaves.    The picture above would be of mostly a veggie tunnel in the summer.   I had a good time out on the trails but was fairly skimpy on taking pictures. 

The final segement of trail along this route dropped me out into an area called ghost-town for the number of old vine entwined buildings that are rusting back to mother nature.    The little paths and streets quickly takes you back down into civlization where one can obtain tasty hot coffee out of a can.   This is straight up yummy caffiene crack in a can!  A nice warm can of coffee in the middle of a cold ride.    Good Stuff!   After the caffiene recharge there was a series of street riding back to my hotel.    I caught up with old friends over a home made dinner that night.   A mighty nice start to trip.

 

I did not get an early start on Sunday so as to let mother nature warm things up a bit before I went out.    I had been wondering about a different route into the Fugatoyama area that in theory would cut out a bunch of the street riding.    There is a foot bridge over the Yokosuka-Yokohama Expressway that seems to go from nothing but woods on one side of the expressway to nothing but woods on the other side of the expressway.    There has got to be a trail there.   I had never been able to figure out how to get down off the Fugatoyama ridgelines to this footbridge.   I was going to figure this out from the opposited direction on this outing.  The plan was to start from town and get up to the footbridge and then get up onto the ridgelines, where I should know where I am at at that point (That was the theory).   So after some Google Earthing, some exporting and file conversions I had my GPS uploaded with with some waypoints and tracks to investigate.    While not the most direct route to where I wanted to go the route took me through a pedistration tunnel.  Pretty cool. 

After a bit of here, there and to and fro I ended up at my first objective, an entrance into the Taura Plum Grove.  Just after the spot pictured above I got in some stairway to heaven action. 

The Taura Plum Grove is a park and while for the most part it is a rock sidewalk affair it was pretty cool looking.   Springtime here when the plum trees are blooming must be a really awesome sight.   Things are not flat here and my route was taking me to the upper west end of th park so it was a climbing affair. 

Up near the top of the park the views open up.   Tokyo Bay is in the distance and the large building in the distance on the left-hand side of the pictures is the Landmark Tower in Yokohama.

 At the top of the park is a viewing tower where even better views of the area can be taken in.

I was more interested in what was just beyond the tower.  Finally some dirt and the trail that would take me into the Fugatoyama/Muira Alps area.   The trail became a skinny singletrack as soon as it left the park and before long I was across the footbridge and headed west towards the ridgelines.

I had a stupid grin on my face at this point. 

 Some nice little technical rooty bits to contend with.   Big smile on my face here as well.

 Okay, the smile on the face was about 50 feet back behind me at this point.  The trail turnned sharply up a mega-steep ridge side.   The picture does not do the steepness of this section justice.   The good news was I was gaining elevation quickly even if I was not riding the bike.   I was thinking that if this gets me up on the ridgeline where I think it might I will have lots of mostly downhill goodness to ease the kinks out of my hike-a-bike calves.

 I did recognize the trail when I finally did make it up on the ridge.   It was promptly followed by a big “Oh Shit”!  I was much further to the south than I thought I would be and I was exactly at my most southern point of exploration along this particular ridgeline.    The Oh-Shit was because I knew that I had three technical hella-steep hike-a-bike sections between me and the full-time ridable “money dirt” to the north.    My GPS said I had one hour and 23 minutes before sunset.  Farting around was no longer an option.

There were some exposure bits that are hidden very well by the flora, but wintertime has allowed them to me a bit more revealed.   I had only ridden the section above only during the summer months before and I while I knew there was a bit of drop of here I had not idea just how freaking far one could tumble from here until today. 

I made good time through the hike-a-bike bits and was soon back on the money dirt.   I took the shot above and put away the camera and enjoyed some sweet flowing trails that was nearly all downhill to the north.   I popped out of the woods just before sunset and enjoyed an extremely brisk street ride back to my hotel.    A mighty fine way to get primed for a week of work ahead.

Daley Ranch Hack-O-Rama Ride

Being sick sucks!    I have had a lingering cough/congestion for going on two weeks now they is really getting annoying.   My get well plan is based on schedule of copious amounts of NyQuil, Vitamin C, Cascadian Hops and English Two-Row Barley.     I have found it works quite well for either improving ones symptoms or reducing ones attention to the symptoms. 

I have been getting in some rides but not to either the length or intensity that I would care to do.  I have been feeling better for the last few days so I decided to do a larger loop out at Daley Ranch today.   There is plenty of climbing to do out in this area so there would a good bit of effort-per-mile here.

It was a great day to be out and about and I was not the only one with the idea.   The parking lot was packed and there looked to be lots of folks out who were obvisously trying to keep to thier New Year’s resolutions.     That is all great for people wishing to improve themselves but I think there should be a federal regulation banning the manufacture of Spandex apparel in sizes greater than 18.   Ladies, if  your waist/arse is measured at 325/85R17 or greater then maybe a nice cottton baggie short and fluffy blouse would be a good starting point.    It is like dudes in Speedos (in the US) if you ain’t sporting six-pack abs and could make a living in the adult film industry stick to board shorts cause nobody want to see that kinda stuff!

Post tramatic apparel viewing stress aside I had an alright ride despite not being 100%.  I had plans for doing a 23 mile ride out here, but the hack-o-rama was taking it toll and I snipped off the last segment to make it an 18 miler.   It was still a good day to be on a bike.

La Costa Stroll

Rancho La Costa Preserve is really close to Casa Del Bill so it is often on the menu you when I only have time for a quick fix of dirt.    Despite its close proximity it had been sometime since I last rode out here.  It seems like Elfin Forest, Lake Calvera or Daley Ranch had been getting more play as of late.

Some nice new trail markers can be found throughout the trail system.

Strolling up the switchbacks trail

Flag at the top.    There was some drama a couple months ago as the flag up here (which was put up with permission of the land manger) kept getting stolen by some unpatriotic Jack Ass.  It is awesome that we live in a country where even the idiots are free to express thier views in any manner they are willing to accept the consequences for.    Too bad the Jack Ass was also a monumental coward as I’m quite certain the general public would have expressed themselves in a manner that he would not enjoyed.  I’m thinking getting your ass whooped with a flag pole is adequeate consequence.   

Dumbassness aside the trails were in fairly good shape and fun as always.    Vista Del Mar Trail goodness above.

Daley Ranch Gruntage

Life has me way behind on all sorts of things these days and the blog has been taking a hit on the priority list as of late.  I have been getting in some rides but at the end of the day the pictures have been having a tough time finding thier way off of the memory card.    Here are a few pics from an outing out at Daley Ranch in Escondido.   

Stanley Peak.   There is quite a bit of grunt work required to get up here but the views are nice from the top.

The old water tower as seen from the fire road that takes up to Stanley Peak.

The Old Water Tank trail that connects the fire road up to Stanley Peak to the water tank.  This trail has erroded nicely into a fun little snippet of a trail.

These pictures were taken fairly early in the ride and before I knew it I was chasing daylight.  I’m no fan of the short days of this time of the year but something about being mindful of the remains of the days to push your pace of a ride.

A Rising Sun Ride

Work has me in Japan for a few weeks so it was about time to get out and hit the trails.    The fall weather here is pretty nice so I opted for a crack of dawn ride as my Saturday midday was already booked up.  The previous day had been remarkably clear and tomorrow was supposed to be overcast so I was hoping to catch a window to see Mount Fuji at dawn on top of Ogusayama the tallest peak on the Muira Peninsula near Yokosuka.  It was still pre-dawn when I rolled out of the hotel at 5AM but not by much.   The ride along the city streets was really quite and almost surreal.  It was pretty much just me and the cats along with couple of early risers like myself.

The street riding to the trails is mostly uphill the entire way.  Before long I turned off the primary streets to smaller and smaller secondary streets as things became more rural and I started passing little family farms.   I was nearly to the dirt trails when the rising  sun joined me on the ride.

In 2004, I spent the better part of year living over here and I rode the Ogusuyama trail network numerous times so this place is kind of like home away from home dirt.  Fall is just thinking about starting here so the colors are not happening yet but the leaves on some of the trees are starting to get a little sparse so views occur a little more often.  This typically reveals just how steep some of the hillsides are that the trails cut across. 

 

I made pretty descent time to the top of Ogusuyama, but there were some distant clouds so Fuji was in hiding.   So while the planned far-view scenery was not to be had, the nearby stuff was pretty awesome as a clearing near the top of the mountain was flush with flowers.

After the stopping to smell the flowers break, I opted to continue heading west down the other side of the mountain to the Segami Bay side of the pennisula.  The trail I took has a lot of fun flowing sections but it makes you work for them as thier are some really rooty sections that require all of your bike handling attention.    If the roots alone were not interesting enough the soil in this area is mostly clay and with the rains a few days prior the bare clay sections had traction qualities that are best described as “I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter”.     There were many times along this trail where I’m sure my facial expression would be best described as being that of a “terrified smile”.  

Below is one of the sections that was just blissfully fun.

Eventually the trail came out on a tiny litte street about the size of the golf cart path that feed to a series of other streets each a little wider than the last until I came out onto the main two-lane street down by Segami Bay.  I did a bit of flat-land street riding to connect up with a another street that would turn into a fireroad that would take me back up into the Ogsuyama area.  Before getting back into the climbing gears, I had to grab a bit of morning coffee.   The vending machines over have canned hot coffee which are simply awesome.   I am big-time addict of these coffees and being able to grab a quick fix on a ride is pretty awesome.    Coffee Crack in a can — Good Stuff!

After getting my coffee buzz on I was climbing back up the mountain. The grade was a bit steep in spots and it felt good to get some burn in the legs. Once back up near the top of Ogusuyama I took a different set of trails that would take me to southeast and down into the community of Kinugasa.   As I rolled off the trail I was quitely in the town which was fully awake now with lots cars and people fluttering about getting their day taken care of.   It was a little bit taken back by it at first due to the  juxtaposition of the sleepiness of the streets a few hours ago.  From there is was quite a bit of street riding back to the hotel and before long I too was fluttering about getting the rest of my day taken care.   I think I am going to have to do another rising sun ride before I leave Japan.

Playing At Iron Mountain

Friday I met Brian and Steve from some TGIF chunkage out at Iron Mountain.

After spending the last month riding (between work stuff) in Washington state it was nice to get back onto some turf/chunk.   Of course it is always good to catch up with friends.  The light was good and the temperatures were great in comparison to the mega-hot temps from just a couple of days earlier.

Steve playing

Brian rocking out

My turn

Trickier than it looks.

Newberry Hills

Here are a few pictures from one of the last rides I did while up in the Seattle area. 

This place was pretty close to Bremerton and was a mesh of tight and twisty XC trails.   

The trails were for the most part fairly atechnical  but I have to admit that muscling around my slack and long wheel-based bike around the twisty bits was a bit challenging ing spots.

The trail elves have been at work out here.

While I had a good time riding out here, I would have really loved to have had my snappy hardtail to flick around this trail network.   Right tool for the job or not anytime you can get out in the woods is a good time in my book.

Kachess Ridge, WA

This past weekend, I headed out over the Snoqualmie Pass area about 70 miles east of Seattle to check out the Kachess Ridge trail.  I have passed through this area a handful of times over the years between MTB and flyfishing trips and I had eye-balled the mountains through here on every occasion.  The ride is billed as dirt road climb that seems to go on forever followed by a singletrack that you wish would go on forever.  It was time to find out first hand.

   

The first part of the ride is along a mildly undulating dirt road that heads north above the eastern shore of Kachess Lake.    The lake is quite large but its rather difficult to see the expansive view due to all the trees.    It was kinda fun keeping an eye out for the open spots in the trees here and there than offered views of the lake.  This was a good mellow six miles or so of a cruising warm up. 

The cruise fest was soon over as I turned up onto a forest road that started working its way up onto the mountain.   The grade was fairly steep in places and I was reminded that my UZZI is optimized for festivities in the downhill direction.   I would gain around 2,700 feet in just under the next five miles.  There were numerous little brooks along the climb.  I’m nearly always surprised at how loud even just a little bit of moving water can be.  I couple of times I was expecting a torrent of water ahead only to see just a little spit of water in a real hurry.

The further up the climb I went the better views kept getting and with the lake as a reference below it was easy to see how much elevation you were gaining.  I’m pretty sure I was past the halfway point when the iconic Mount Rainer starting making an appearance above the far ridgeline.  While working up the climb and stopping here and there to take some pictures, I met up with a couple local riders, Mike and Justin, working thier way up as well.   I was pretty happy to see that they were also working some long-legged bikes up the ridge as well as it gave some hints that maybe the downhill had some terrain worthy of the rigs.

We would leap frog each other a couple of times before the forest road eventually went up to a saddle on Kachess Ridge.   The photo above completely fails to capture the true beauty of the landscape.

From the saddle it was time to the leave the forest road behind and hit some singletrack.  Here is where Mike and Justin’s local knowledge came in mighty handy as the published route does not include a newer trail that is more contouring and a good bit of fun. The kind of fun you have when narrow trails test your ability to stay on line while wildflowers brush your legs on both sides.  This first bit of trail was a sweet little descent  that all too soon rejoined the main trail and turned into a tough hike-a-bike over the 1/3rd of a mile or so up to the saddle between the spires in the photo above.

Above are some of the views along the hike a bike section.   The hike-a-bike was both steep and rocky with some scree to contend with.   Some of my best epic adventures ever have included hike-a-bike bits so I tend to view them with a sense of optimism for trail goodness to come.  Then again I have had some nearly former friends threaten to eviscerate me on the side of the trail for some “new stuff” exploration gone wrong.  

For this SoCal boy, anytime a hike-a-bike across snow in mid-August is required, it automaticaly puts the ride soundly in the cool category.  

Once over the saddle, sweet trail goodness was indeed in bountiful supply.     It was good.  Real Good.   So much so that I selfishly (and unapologetically) blazed past a ton of Kodiak moments as the trail shed elevation through alpine meadows and evergreen forest goodness.  

 For you SoCal Peeps, there were sections of rocky chunky bits that conjured up thoughts of Noble Canyon  while other sections would make you think of the steep hillsides of the Santa Ana River Trail except the trail was pointed in a much more downhill direction.   Of course this trail had the awesome Pacific Northwest forested feel to it with lots of greenery.   Yeah it was good!

The final section of the trail gets pretty steep as it cashes out over 1,000 feet of elevation in a little over a mile.   There are plenty of switchbacks through this section and some of them can sneak up on you.    Additionally there are a couple of these switchbacks where you simply do not want to blow the turn due to the  exposure.   I wish I had more pictures of this section to share but the little devil on my left shoulder was whispering evil things in my ear like “EFFF Everyone Else –Ride You Fool, Ride!”.  The only thing I was able to make out over all wind noise coming from angel on right shoulder was lots of giddy giggles and “Whaaat heeeee saaaaid!”     This was not a suckie day to be on a bike!