Trail Wanderlust
Trails in General
Ahhh more stuff from Duthie Hill
I was here earlier in the year and since then the trail elves have been busy working on Phase 2 of the Duthie Hill Park. I like this over-under setup, cool.
The real reason for this post it that I did a tweaks to the blog software and only way to fully test it is to make a new post.
So isn’t these much better than some “This is only a test” image?
So I have been in Seattle for a couple of weeks on a work gig but just managed to hit the dirt. Man can not live in the dirt alone so I have been enjoying some of the other wonders of the Pacfic Northwest, thier great microbrews. In addition to the 10+ brewpubs in the Seattle area I have swelled hoppy goodness at, I attended the Bremerton Beer Festival. The following weekend was spent in Portland for the 24th Aniversary of the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. In addition to the madhouse that was the Brewer’s Festival some of the local goods were also sample directly at the source. Deschutes, Bridgeport, Widmer, Tugboat and Amensia Brewing were on the “tour”. Needless to I was stupidly happy about sampling some of the best beers around. My liver on the other hand felt differently after taking more than one for the team.
So I have been in Seattle for a couple of weeks on a work gig but just managed to hit the dirt. Man can not live in the dirt alone so I have been enjoying some of the other wonders of the Pacfic Northwest, thier great microbrews. In addition to the 10+ brewpubs in the Seattle area I have swelled hoppy goodness at, I attended the Bremerton Beer Festival. The following weekend was spent in Portland for the 24th Aniversary of the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. In addition to the madhouse that was the Brewer’s Festival some of the local goods were also sample directly at the source. Deschutes, Bridgeport, Widmer, Tugboat and Amensia Brewing were on the “tour”. Needless to I was stupidly happy about sampling some of the best beers around. My liver on the other hand felt differently after taking more than one for the team.
As part of the MTBBill Liver Recovery Act of 2011, it was time to get some pedals turning. The I-5 Colonnade MTB Skills Park is less than 10 minutes from where I’m staying so it is always good for a quick afterwork fix.
Working part of the weekend is part of the work gig for this project, but Green Mountain was close enough to where I was working to allow for some grunting and grinning in the dirt after work.
Duthie Hill Mountain Bike Park is the Seattle areas second MTB Skills Park and it is simply awesome. With 120 acres to work with they are produced a trail network that caters to nearly all types of riders. Wither you are looking to get your wheels in the air…..
Or wither you want to get that natural outdoor experience on a meandering trail through the trees. This place has all of that right in Seattle’s backyard.
One of the lines I did not hit out here 🙂 I believe this trail was Semper Dirticus. The freeride double black diamond trails here are quite impressive. On this trip it was mostly from a spectactor perspective. I got the bike, I just need to develop the skills and get some testicular growth happening. I did hit some of the stunts and tagged my largest gap to date to thier is hope that I will get intouch with my inner hucker at some point.
One of favorites from a trail with features perspective was Ryan’s Eternal Flow. It is more of XC trail with stunts and features more so than a series of features with a trail between them. Considering how close this place is I will certainly be back a few more times before this work trip is done.
So I know some people who know some people who …….
That is typically the start of a really good bit of story telling. It ranks right up there with “This is a No-Shitter”. Of course any story that starts off with either one of those opening lines is to be treated as suspect and the phrases are synonymous with some kind of embellishment disclaimer. (NOTE TO SELF: Remind the viewers of my site, that nearly all my website work is done while enjoying tasty west-coast style hop-infused micro-brews that forces me into heavy reliance on the spellcheck function. With that in mind the readers should expect the wong word two bee used from thyme too time and possibly a complete would be missing here and there 🙂
So a freind of my mine in Norcal had a friend of his talk to a friend of mine, then that friend and I came up with a plan to take that friend of our friend onto a trail that a mutual friend had shown us some number of years ago. Yeah I know some people who know some people who….
So after meeting up with Vincent we dropped off a truck down at the lower elevation and made our way up towards the back side of Big Bear. About an hour later we were doing the final gear checks and headed off up “a trail”. The trail started off at 8,700 feet and we would be climbing to just under 9,000 before pointing the forks downhill. It is was immediatly clear we were not a sea level. It is pretty awesome how clean, clear and crisp the air feels at this elevation. Which is a good thing as I was using a lot of it!
We were not long into the ride before it became quite evident that the wet and late winter played havoc in this area as there were plenty of deadfall to deal with. We made a little roll action here and there and cleared what we could but for the most part we had some flow bustage to deal with when up in the pines.
So we were already in the “Back 40” so to say, but there was this off-shoot remenant of a trail that Bill and I had been eyeballing for some number of years so we decided to check it out. Checking it out meant some granny gearage and some hike-a-biking. The remenant ended up going where we thought it might and it was soon time to point the bikes back downhill for a quick bit of raw and untramelled excitement.
We expected cooler temps up higher but it soon became apparent that some unexpected weather had rolled in and had the entire area covered in clouds. The good news for us was that as we shedded of the elevation the temps were not climbing like we expected. We were living good!
We got in some great backcountry trail action before having to commit to a bit of dirt and paved road action that would take to the Santa Ana River Trail.
The SART was in good shape and the lower temps made for some nice riding conditions for this time of year. I was especially feeling in the zone and was having an incredible time on all of the sidehill goodness this trail has to offer.
Vincent rolling by
There was quite a bit more water than expected at all of the creek and feeder stream crossing.
This was the final creek crossing of the day and soon after this it was time for tasty beverages full of tiny bubbles and chit-chat about today’s adventure. We had barely rolled back to truck when the clouds cleared and the temps quickly climbed into the hot zone. Like most days on a mountain bike near the middle of nowhere, today did not suck.
Ahhhh, Wednesday, time for something different. Uhhhh, maybe next week. This week it was time for another session of Wednesday stoke in Alpine. While warm, it was not stupidly hot so the climb was not quite the usual summertime brain boil fest.
The lack of death heat was good thing as my legs has some sting in them from the ride yesterday. I actually felt better on the second half of the climb than I did on the first half. I’m thinking I worked some of the kinks of the legs from the day before. Steve was climbing strong as usual and I’m pretty sure he had litte something extra in the tank today.
Before long we were at the top and with our offering to the gravity gods giving it was time point the bike downhill.
Steve flying the “Garth Gap”
I was mighty happy to join Steve in getting both wheels a little further off the ground today. It has been a good while since I had hit “The Corndog” and while I had no style, grace or even looked okay in the air, it was a successful landing.
Further down the trail I gave the 911 roll a few dry runs but could not pull the trigger. Maybe next week.
Picture of the Day – – I am pretty stoked to have gotten this shot. It came out pretty much how I had envisioned it the techncial aspects of the shot worked out for a “one and done” shot.
There whould be no pictures taken on the final descent as way too much fun was being had. The evening was finished off with a recounting of the day at Alpine Beer Company while enjoying one of the guest beers. The Double IPA from Hollister Brewing Company apted named “Crosseyed and Painless” was a might tasty beer.
Today did not suck!
Tuesday, I opted for spin through Penasquitos Canyon with the hardtail. After riding the UZZI around for that last while, the hardtail felt like a flatland rocketsled out a PQ. It felt really good carry a good grip of speed under your own power without the assistance gravity. I knew I was going to be riding the following day, but I could not help myself, I rode like I was not going to ride the next month.
Of course that was all fine and dandy until about 3/4th of the way the ride, my body reminded me that I’m at least a couple dozen jelly doughnuts and a growler full of Imperial Stout shy of being “In Shape”. It was just about this time that I ran into one of my friends out on the trail. There must be some kind of quantum physics formula that shows that if you meet a friend on the trail and your legs are at least medium rare on the “cooked” scale, said friend will be a hammerhead who will crush your punie little girly man legs into jello. (Make sure to read it with the “Hanz and Franz” accent)
So there was no cool down cruiser back to the trailhead for me. I was able to hold on (for the most part) and I felt good, good and worked over, back at the truck. It good afternoon ride on a bike.
WEBSITE NOTE: My PQ page is way way out of date. With all the crap with the “Tunnels”, Del Mar Mesa, and the destruction of “Intestines”, I have opted to staying out of that politically charged mess (at least from the website perspective). If the dust ever settles I will update will update the page then.
This past week was such that I could get out a little more often but for not as long. They were the kind of windows that you don’t want to burn up too much of your time driving far to get to, you know, maximize your time on the trail and minimize your time on the road.
Monday was a spin through the Black Mountain Open Space Preserve. I started off on the east side of the preserve and did some tough climbing and a bit of hike-a-biking to get up onto the East Ridge. From there I did a sizeable loop that had me pretty pooped by the end of the ride
The loop included the Miner’s Ridge and Liliac Canyon trails as well as the service road up to the peak and some more trails back over and down the East Ridge.
Wednesday evening was the monthly San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDBMA) advocacy meeting so a group of us met up and did the La Costa trails prior to the meeting.
I was able to get out a couple of hours before the rest of the usual suspects so I did a couple of loops out there before the group ride. I was feeling pretty worked by the time I finished up the last loop.
Friday afternoon after work I squeaked in spin out in Santee near Mission Trails and Sycamore Canyon. Normally I am a stop and smell the flowers kind of guy but I have to admit that I somewhat enjoyed the pressure of having to be somewhere later and the “push” it forced me to do on the trail. Charge a hill here, push a harder gear there and general keep the engine rev’d higher than I normall would. It was a short ride that ended up feeling longer on fatique and quad burn at the end.
The weekend was pretty awesome as well, but it did include any biking. Hockey and quality time with boys were the story of the weekend. I took them to thier first concert Saturday night which was simply epic. Rush on thier Time Machine Tour. I have had a lifetime of missing Rush shows and this was my first time seeing them as well. They blew the place down and both the boys and I were completely stoked. It was a good way to finish off the week.
How many bikes do you have? How many bikes to you need? Well now, those are a couple of serious questions that simply can not be answered simply. Yes these are some of the things that keep me awake at night. Don’t ask me why. I don’t why. These are just some of the stuff that floats around between my ears from time to time. There are a multitude of sects in the tribe of bike riding tribe. I think the largest group is the one bike – because well I got one bike crowd. These folks are not really tied to having just one bike, but that is what they have. There may of course be “The Old Bike” (or part of it) hanging from the garage rafters but for the most part they are the one-bike folks.
Then there are the one bike purist camps. I’m not even going to go into the the sub-group of the one bike – one gear folks. It is not that they could not have another bike in the stables, they only want one bike. I have to admit that I like the concept of one bike and the simplier (and often more challenging) experience of riding in a one bike world. I even know a guy who rides a rigid singlespeed fixie. He even rides it on some gnarly trails, bottom line is the guy has mad skills to do such a thing.
Me, well I think I am in the more reasonable group (okay not more reasonable, let’s go with more common). I have multiple bikes. There is the XC Full-Suspension rig, the hardtail, the singlespeed, the old long-legged bike, the new long-legged bike, as well as a couple of frames waiting to be pressed back into service. Yep, plenty of bikes in my garage. Bikes are like a good handcrafted beer. There are plenty of great ones out there and what kinda of person would not like to enjoy all different types of the them. I mean I love a good IPA, but you know I also like Imperial Stouts, Porters, and all sorts of other yummy beverages. Some days I want reach for that Lagunitas Little Sumpin Sumpin Ale but then there is the Dogfishhead Squall IPA. Or maybe its the Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout, ohh I know the Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale. They choices go on and on and on over the tasty dark malt beverage horizon. A couple months ago Bicycling Magazine did a piece on Sam Calagione, the owner of Dogfish Head Brewery, discussing his love for brewing and cycling. He made a comment about the microbrewing competition out there that I thought was really awesome. “…I embrace it. Craft-beer drinkers are promiscuous–I drink plenty of other beers.” Well I think mountianbikers much like craft-beer drinkers (amazing how many mountainbikers are also craft-beer nuts) are a promiscuous bunch as well. If we can get away with it, for the most part, we will have more than one bike.
Such was the case this past Sunday, not just about beer, but about bikes. Sure I have a brand new UZZI that I am complete digging, but Santa Cruz was having a demo day out at Lake Hodges so I felt the urge to see what the new stuff was from these guys. Santa Cruz and BikeBling were putting on the event together and when I got there they were doing some hustling to keep the 30 demo bikes rotating with sizable of pool of folks looking to get onto the latest two-wheeled Santa Cruz creations.
Of course with any such kind of MTB gathering in San Diego County, some of the usual suspects were on the scene and lots of chatting occurred about bikes, trails, potential roadtrips and even some of the latest craft beers to hit the market. It would have been a good morning of socializing even without the new shiny bits to galk and paw over. So how many bikes do I need and how many bikes do I own? Well the answer that question in the simplest of terms in I have have one more bike than I need and one less bike than I want.
I needed to get some iron in my diet so the Saturday morning ride was Iron Mountain and Ellie Lane.
This place is well known as a serious chunkfest and I was looking forward to seeing how the UZZI would feel in this stuff.
Steve was the usual suspect today out playing on the clown bike.
I was pretty effing stoked about how well this bike was handling in the goods out here. Both and the fork and the shock were responding nicely with not bucking or squating in the travel. I certainly optested out the bashguard a handful or so of times.
Steve playing in the chunk. That is a 3.8 tire on the front if your wondering.
Another chunktastic section of trail. Steve accused me of cheating with this bike.
This drop into the switchback was not the problem. It was turn afterwards that took me nearly a dozen attempts to get. Geez, I really need to work on my happy face, I look way too serious in these shots.
See now this clown looks like he is having fun!
Some stairstep chunk
Playing on the rocks. We did not do many miles today at all but the terrian certainly made for a pretty high effort to mile ratio. Good stuff.
I’m catching up on some of pictures and such from my recent Washington trip. One of the places I could hit up right easy from work was Japanese Gultch located in Mukilteo. Plenty of singletrack right in town and a good way to burn off the workday stress.
One of the things I like about this area, is minutes onto the trail and it seems like you are far away, even though you are right in town.
Yep there is narrow singletrack to be had.
Both hardtails and long-legged bikes can be enjoyed out here.
One nice thing about this right is that just a quick jaunt from the bottom trailhead is the Diamondknot Brewery which has some mighty tasty creations to finish off the ride with. The Industrial IPA is mighty yummy and always ask if the they have a seasonal batch of the Shipwreck IPA brewed up. It is not to be missed.