Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Category: Trails

Trails in General

More Bonita Goodness

While Wednesdays are my normal weekday MTB day, I could not make it, but guess what?   The Bonita Bikers also have Tuesday and Thursday afternoon rides so I decided to head over there.   Know on Sunday they guys showed me about 20 miles of coolness.   Today we rode a long 15 miles or so and only overlapped about a mile from the weekend.  This place is freaking amazing.   I was cameraless on this day so no pictures, but if you like the looks of the stuff from Sunday that I posted, you can get idea of the trail goodness I had today.   In addition to see a good chunk of the Sunday crew, I meet a few knew folks as well as some folks I had not ridden with in quite sometime.  The old pal in question was Don with whom I had last ridden with in Palm Canyon about a year and a half ago.   I knew I knew him from somewhere until the conversation jogged my memory.  You see Don, had gotten a new bike since then.  I know I’m not the only one who does this but, helmet, bike, face and voice are my primary memory recall mechanisms for remembering my riders from the trail.    Swap out one of those and I have a tough time putting the pieces together.  Lame I know.   Anyway great freaking time once again out on the South Bay trails and I am told there is still much to see.

I have been emailed by at least half a dozen folks on trail directions…. I’m not BSing when I say I could not tell you it is a big maze.  I follow, I grind and I grin.    Stay behind Hoserr when hook up with this group.  That all you need to know.

Bonita “Locals” Tour

Today I had the pleasure of riding with the Sunday regulars down in Bonita in the south bay area of San Diego.   Boy what a great time I had.   I would be hard pressed to try and describe any kind of route.  It was one of those just follow along and enjoy yourself kind of day.   The trail network is pretty extensive with stuff everywhere.    I could easily take a aerial shot of the area, hang it on a wall and then throw a saucy plate of spagetti  on it and be pretty close to the actual trail layout.  

There were some pretty interesting descents here and there over the course of the day

bowl

We got in a little bowl action as well.  I was told the record is seven bikers in the bowl at once.  This is pretty tricky when you are zipping around and another rider gets into the bowl.  It is even more fun when one person goes opposite direction!    I have to get back here with the video camera. 

Bridge Action

A little bridge action.   I forget how many of these things we crossed.

Bushy

There were some bushy spots on most of the trails.  The branches are a lot stronger than they look.   I tried to moose my way through one of them and it stopped me dead in my tracks and pushed me backwards.  (I could hear it laughing at me)

Into the G

There were a few G-Outs to contend with.   This was the most interesting one.

Gout

This was not an uncommon exit of the G-Out (Myself included)

Smiles

Nobody got hurt and snickers and laughs all-around was the result of any G-Out flubs.

2nd time

Of course second time around was usually the charm.

Karen

There was some double teeter-tooter action to be had as well.   The guys sure seemed eager to help when Karen wanted a spotter. 🙂

single teeter

Pete on Single teeter

There was some single teeter action as well. 

Diving Board

Even got to play around on a diving board (some creative trail-building material)

Da Group

This was a hell of a fun group of folks to ride.  I guess we did around 20 miles or so, but it sure feels like more.    There is some nice as well as challenging trails in the area.  I stopped counting my dabs early on and I even managed to take a soil sample or two to add to my collection.   It had been at least a couple of years since I last caught the 8AM Sunday morning group ride out of the Bonita Performance Bike parking lot.  I don’t think I will be waiting that long again. 

Here are the rest of the pictures from the day.

Bill and Will Roadtrip Day 3 – Mount Pinos

Man, the things we do for our kids.   I got up at around 7AM and loaded up all my gear in the truck while Will was still sound asleep in the tent.   All of Will’s biking gear had been staged in the tent last night.    I drove down to the bottom of the mountain at 6,400 feet and started a 6.5 mile pavement climb back up to the campsite at 8,200 feet.  Will certainly has it in him to do this climb as he had tackled Palomar Mountain earlier in the year which encompassed 4,700-foot climb over 11.1 miles.  I wanted this ride to be more about fun than fitness today so I cut out most of the climbing for him.  The climb back to camp was not a steep one and I found it pretty easy to keep a pretty descent pace even with 2.6 Stick-E rubber tires.   I thought about taking the McGill trail up but I wanted both Will and I to experience a “new” trail together.  When I got back to camp, Will was already up and making himself some breakfast.

Views in the morning

I had left a few things back at camp so I would not have to climb with them, mainly my camera.  While I was getting that stuff in my camelbak, Will (who had already gotten geared up) commenced to start talking a little smack about Dad being a fiddle-fart.  So, I set him up.  I snippedly told him to “Go on ahead, you know I’m just going to catch you, even though I already climbed over six miles this morning”.   Well that was all it took, Will took the bait.  He casually said, “See you up the road” and pedaled off at a normal pace.  I yelled at him as he rode off, “Don’t start off too fast or you’ll be sorry!”  The hook was set.  Just when he thought he was out of view (but not quite), I saw him drop the hammer.   Nothing left to do now but reel him in a few minutes after the pace, grade and the thin air above 8,200 feet get done with him.

I finished up what I was doing and got rolling.   After a couple of turns in the road and Will still being out of site, I was impressed.   One turn later and I saw him, hunched over his handlebars on the side of the road.   The voice of Phil Lidgett came through my head, “Oh my, the young rider has cracked! There will be no hopes for a mountain top win for him today.”    Will got to rolling when I neared, but his pace was mighty slow and he complained of not feeling good.   We took an extended break for him to recover and I could not help but get a devilish grin on my face, when I told him to come on and stop fiddle-farting.  I wish I had my camera out to catch the look on his face when it dawned on him that he had fallen for a parental version of a Jedi Mindtrick.

View from Pinos

After he recovered, we soon left the pavement to continue climbing on a fireroad up to the Mt Pinos summit at 8,830 feet.   It was a fairly mellow climb and the views were pretty nice even with a bit of lingering haze from the NorCal wildfires.

Bill and Will

From here it was a mostly downhill affair back to the top of the pavement where we hooked up with some pretty nice and mostly buff singletracks that included the Harvest and Southridge trails.  These bits of goodness took us back by our camp and down to the McGill campground.

Harvest Trail

From the McGill campgroud, we picked up the amply named McGill trail which was an absolute heavenly bit of singletrack that worked its way down the mountain.  The grade was never steep and it was virtually buff the entire distance.   I rolled through hundreds of Kodiak moments and only captured a few.

Will in the trees

This picture provides very little justice to the view.

Killer View

Will had one of those moments of inattention that caused him to take a soil sample on a switchback.   After the initial uggh following the thump, he chuckled and dusted himself.   He then went back up the trail and nailed it the second time around.

Dusting Off

The blissful descent was over far too quickly and we were soon back up at camp and packing up.   Will has not learned much about repairing flats and other mechanicals yet so a solo descent down the McGill trail was not on the table.  I did let him ride the road down.  He thoroughly enjoyed the speed-fest coming down the mountain on the pavement.  We spent the rest of the day getting home and chatting about what a cool week we just had.   Once home it took all of about 15 minutes before Will was out the door to skate and hang with his friends and basically get back into his busy routine.   I’m sure as the teenage years roll in and along the competition for his time will get tougher so I am really thankful to have the time with him now.  ¦lt;/p>

Bill and Will Roadtrip Day 2 – The Central Coast

We woke up fairly early this morning to some nice sunshine over the Laguna Seca Recreation/Raceway Area.   Will reluctantly said his legs were sore and he did not think he would be up for riding today.  I’m glad he told me as I would not have wanted to push him into riding and then not enjoying himself.  We were orginally thinking of going to Montana Del Oro State Park and get in some riding.  

Laguna Seca

The nice thing about working off of an idea vice a schedule is that you can change things pretty darn easily.  After a bit of breakfast, we broke camp and hit the road.   It was just earlier in the week that the Pacific Coast Highway was reopened after being shutdown for nearly a week due to wildfires burning in the Big Sur and other areas of the Los Padres National Forest.   It has been quite a few years since I had been on this highway and I had forgotten just how pretty this drive can be.

PCH

 We stopped at many places along the way early on to take in the sights.  This was a good thing as before long the coast became completely socked in with thick fog and we could not see much at all until we were near San Simeon about 90 miles south of Monterey.

PCH

One of the really cool stops we did was at vista lookout about five miles north of Hearst Castle right off of the Pacific Coast Highway.  Here you can check out a large colony of Elephant Seals.  These are some big critters and the males make some mighty deep and throaty noises when other males get around their babes.

Elephant Sea

This fellow reminded me of a disgruntled Walmart customer say a earlier in the week.

Elephant Seal

We continued down the coast until we neared San Luis Obispo.  Instead of going to Montana Del Oro State Park we turned inland and made our way to Mt Pinos near the town of Labec.    We ended up at the Mt Pinos campground that sits at 8,200 feet and we had the pick of the place as we were the only ones there.  Later that evening two more groups would come in, but for the most part we had the great views virtually all to ourselves.

Camp sweet camp

We had several hours of daylight left after we got everything setup and the next thing you know Will was bucking to get on the bike and mess around near camp.   I joined in on the action and played around on a log.

Log Ride

The South Ridge trail starts right from the campground and goes down to the McGill Campground a couple of miles down the mountain.   I had to see the camp host down there so when I drove down, Will took the trail.   He was pretty darn excited when he came off the trail and proclaimed it was the coolest singletrack EVER!   The trail is setup as a cross-country ski trail and has plenty of small rounded jumps that are just the perfect size to catch some XC sized air.  Will really dug those and I was stoked to see him stoked.

Will Air

Back at camp, we enjoyed the last night of being able to have a campfire as a ban on them would start the following morning, due to the dry conditions.   We climbed into the tent an hour or so after sunset.  When we are back at home, Will is always trying to fight off going to bed.  It is like the world is moving too fast and he is going to miss out on something if he is sleeping.  It was nice to have him so easily climb into his sleeping bag.  I was reading a book and I had barely turned one page when I looked up to see him already down for the count.    Tomorrow we would get in a good chunk of riding in.

Camp fire

Bill and Will Roadtrip Day 1 – Santa Cruz

Will and I spent the earlier part of this week in San Jose where Will’s hockey team was competing in the National Roller Hockey Championships (NARCH) in the San Jose. While the teams bid for the championship ended earlier than planned we had other things ready to go. We would take the slow route home to San Diego and get in some camping and riding. We did not have a set schedule just some general ideas.

Our first day was a ride in Wilder Ranch State Park in Santa Cruz. I have ridden here several time before and I knew Will could handle the place. We started off near the park headquarters off of Pacific Coast Highway and started working our way up to the top of the park using the Engelman Oak and Long Meadows trails (fireroads). Will has not been biking much lately so that and the recent hockey made for a good bit of effort on his part.

The Climb

Once we got up to the top of the park we ventured over into the UC Santa Cruz area. Since this included some gravity-assisted riding, Will was having a heck of great time.

UCSC Cruising

After the UCSC fun, we popped back into Wilder Ranch and worked our way over to the Old Cabin trail which is one of my favorites out here. I was pretty stoked to see that Will cleaned everything on this trail. While he might be getting pretty descent on a bike, he is a pretty horrible “model” in front of the camera. If given a chance he will make a silly face everytime. I pretty much have to sneak attack pictures of him.

Goofball

While Will was starting to feel a little tired, after describing the Enchanted Loop to him, he was game. Once again the boy surprised me with how easily he picks up new skills. On a tricky switchback into a rooty ledge he got up one of the smaller ledges without even blinking. We then sessoned it for a bit and he cleaned one of the bigger ledges after a couple of tries.

Ledge Up

After this we took the Baldwin Loop down to the ocean. Will complained that the trail was really bumpy and that is when I realized that Will had spent the entire ride with the rear shock locked out. This was his first real ride on a full-suspension rig and he did not realize it was locked out. Will is really tall for his age and has been growing like a weed lately. Having already gotten taller than his Mom, he can now fit on my medium Spider by swapping out the seatpost and stem.

Down to Ocean

Down along the ocean we followed the bluff trails back to the park headquarters. Will was getting pretty darn pooped by now so the breaks came a little more often.
Break time

I did manage to get in a “sneak attack” picture during the break
sneak picture

We finished off the rest of Ocean Bluff trails at a reasonable pace due to a strong tailwind which made it pretty darn easy to tick over a big gear. When we finished up we had logged in just over 20 miles and the boy was pooped. On our way through town we hit up a little hole-in-the-wall Falafel shop that I love and introduced Will to some new cuisine.

Will at beach

It was getting pretty late in the day and we knew we would not get too far down the coast this evening. I had a “Camping California” guidebook with me and while I drove south, Will would read out the description of spots down the road from us. The Laguna Seca Recreation Area ended up sounding pretty good so we swung by there and grabbed a spot. The Red Bull Moto Grand Prix was starting to ramp up for the weekend, but there were plenty of spots still open. I packed my smaller camping gear so that that it would not take long to setup and break camp each day so we had camp setup in no time flat. After some chillaxing, hot chocolate and a few snacks we hopped in the tent and were soon crashed out.

Camp at Laguna Seca

First Ride with the new bike

I got my first ride in today on the new 6.6 rig and while I’m still working a extensive review, the bike really felt great.

Here are a few shots from the day on a trail system attached to Los Penasquitos Canyon.

This is a big as air as I ever expect to get and the shock and fork were pretty close to dialed for it.

Greg
Greg getting a little air in the trees.


Brian in the air.

Stay tuned for a full review.�

The Portal Trail in Retrospect

I am in the process of putting together my video of the Poison Spider Mesa and The Portal Trail.  For those of you who read my review you should have noticed the unusual amount of attention I paid to how dangerous this trail is in the exposed sections.  Standing on the edge there knowing that three mountain bikers have fallen to their deaths is quite an experience.   I thought we were quite cautious in what we rode and what we walked on that infamous and precarious trail.   While reviewing the footage I had a couple of OMFG moments when I saw a couple of spots that we did ride.   While these couple of sections were flat and tame with some ground buffer between us and the edge I’m pretty sure I would not ride them again.   Too much of the hebegebes put in my head now.    For me there has only been a few trails that have gotten into my head like the Portal Trail.   If you have ever had one of those dreams where you are falling forever, this could be that place.    I’m not sure how this thought process with effect the final video, I’ll just have to see where it takes me. 

Bill O'Neil on the Portal  �

Herkey Creek and May Valley

Springtime riding around Idyllwild is some of my favorite stuff around SoCal.  Unfortunately due to some ill-timed (like there is ever good-timed) injuries and a horrible bout of poison oak,  I missed the spring riding in the area.  Even though I knew it was going to be hot I met one of my regular riding buds who was in the area for a wedding this weekend.   Considering that he was going to be up late with the reception and all, we opted for a 9AM start time from the Herkey Creek Campground area.  We knew it would be even toastier with that start time.   Hot it was but a fairly consistent breeze kept it just hot vice blistering.  We brought plenty of extra water and electrolytes and kept to a “heat management” pace on all the significant uphills.

The trails can get pretty loose here during the summer.  I was quite impressed with how well the trails are holding up and I am pretty sure it is due to the care that most of the locals take when riding this system.   You can not rail this stuff like you can during the spring and moist times and it is impertive that you hold the lines and skillfully use the brakes.  The trails simply can not hold up to skidiots and turnblowers.  There was plenty of evidence to show that some of the people who do blow a turn took the time to stop, go back and make an effort to repair their damage, or at least brush out their off-trail tracks.   I hate to say it, but you just don’t see that generalized level of trail ownership by the routine-users in the more urbanized areas like Orange County and San Diego.  We should all take a lesson from the Idyllwild folks.

 Bill Gets Air
In addition to enjoying the flowy twisty singletrack goodness that this place is known for, we played around and a few rocks.

Bill O twisting
Here is one of the twister rocks bits that is nearly a maze.  Hats off to the builders of this.    

This was a great finish to a good week of riding, which included some of my local stuff, and the Santa Margarita River Trail (aka SMaRT).  I was slacking with my camera for those rides, but here is a ride report on the SMaRT ride on SocalTrailRiders.org.

-Bill

Beat down at Iron Mountain

I should have known better.    One of those days when I was too stubborn to follow my own advice, and I paid for it with some suffering on the bike.   I decided to ride Iron Mountaintoday.  It was nice and cool with a thick marine layer at my home and Vista so I thought what it will probably be okay out in the Ramona/Poway area where the trails is at.   I got out to the Ellie Lane trailhead around 9AM and it was already warm.  I took Ellie Lane over to the Wild Horse trail and then cutover to the Iron Mountain trail.  I was not even up to the T-intersection with the other end of the Ellie Lane trail and Iron Mountain and the heat was already getting up there.    I had forgotten how the rocky terrain here just radiates the heat back at you.  At the saddle here,  I contemplated that 100 ounces of water may not be enough to do both the Ellie Lane and Iron Mountain trails today.   I thought about just hanging a left here and doing just the Ellie Lane loop.   (This was the smart side of brain thinking).  Instead I decided that I’ll push the decision to later and make my way up Iron Mountain.

Iron Mountain   

From this spot it is only 1.45 miles to the peak.  But it is a beater even on a cool day and today was not a cool day.   Until you get fairly close to the peak you spend most of your time on the east side of the mountain.  The key thing here is that the onshore breeze is blocked resulted in the bake factor being even higher.   This climb is a pick your battle kind of ride, and I hiked a handful of sections.   The heat was sweltering and sapping my energy.

The views at the top were nice as usual and the onshore breeze was taking the edge off of the heat.   I had also slogged up my pads and full-face helmet up the mountain on my pack in preparition the return trip. (I had worn my normal helmet on the climb)  This was my first ride with the new full-face helmet so I was interested to see how it would feel.   A couple of quick thought:  Good field of view, when you are moving there is plenty of airflow and it is a little harder to hear the outside world while you can hear your on breathing very well.  

The descent off of the peak went really well as I cleaned plenty of stuff I had not before.  It was not the chunk that was giving me the troubles, it was switchbacks.  Often times clearing the chunk leaving with little to nothing to work with for getting through the switchbacks.   I sessioned some sections, finally getting some while having to let a couple wait for another day.

Back down at the T-intersection I once again had to think about my options.  The smart choice would have been to skip the Ellie Lane trail as it was freaking hot right now.  I decided to be a big dummy and take the Ellie Lane trail.   I felt good about my decision early on as I got a bit of descending before the trail turned back uphill.   At this point I was once again blocked from the onshore breeze and the temps jumped up.  I was also reminded who bike unfriendly and poorly laid out the numerous waterbars on this trail are.  At nearly ever switchback there is a treated log waterbar that is placed right through the apex of the switchback.   This is no big deal if you are a hiker or an equestrian but these things have the biker approaching them in a nearly parallel direction forcing near-trials like moves to get past them.  Skills I don’t so there as plenty of hiking up to the Ramona Overlook and the saddle.

Yes this is the trail
Yes this is the trail

I was pretty much roasted back the time I got the saddle above the Ramona Overlook.    After slapping back on the protective gear, I had a good run down off the saddle.  Once again really tricky stuff, but I did not session much stuff as I was feeling the need keep moving towards the trailhead.   After this descent there was some more suffering to be had to get up to the tablerock area.  I moved into fully blow survival mode as my water was terribly low the terrain was basically a large rock bowl.  I felt like I was in a brick oven.    I hiked most of the climb up to the tablerock to avoid overheating which I could tell I was close to doing.   I started to be a bit more generous with my water rationing at this point as I was close to peaking out on the last significant climb.   I had the early stage of a headache brewing, not good.   At the saddle there was a little relief from the breeze, but it was not much help at this point.   The full-face helmet would stay in the pack for this section as I felt heat stress was a bigger risk than a header into a rock.

 I got down off the saddle fine, but I could tell my technical skills were not crisp due to my fatigue.  The rest of the ride out was okay and I drained the last bit of my water about a 1/4 mile from the trailhead.  I was beaten down, and hella-fatigued for the rest of the day.  The mileage count was only 11 miles, but I felt like I had done 40.   I think the riding season at the Iron Mountain/Ellie Lane combo is rapidly coming to a close as summer rolls in.

National Trails Day at Lake Calvera

Today was National Trails Day and the City of Carlsbad put together some events that included a hike and a bike ride.  The San Diego Mountain Bike Association asked for mountain bikers to support and what a great showing of support the Mountain Biking community did today.  My rough estimates, Mountain Bikers were over 2/3rds of the participants present.  With some city officials present, it was apparent that we got their attention.

Briefs
SDMBA’s Coastal North County Liason, Erik Trogden give a quick brief. 

There was a quick round of briefings and waiver  signings that have to occur for these types of events and then we were off for a quick ride.  

Adult Group
Most of the Intermediate Group

There were two ride groups, an intermediate and a beginner ride.   I was going to led a third kid-friendly ride.  As it turned out all of the kidless adults went for the intermediate ride, so the beginner ride became the grommet ride.

 Free Rider
This gadget is cool.   This connect the seatpost of th big bike to the head tube of the little bike.  It lifts the little bikes front wheel off the ground so Dad can steer a little easier.  Both ends have quick disconnects so that either bike could be used as normal within a minute or two.

The kids were riding well ,so the loop ended up being just a bit bigger than planned.

Grommet Crew

The Junior League

It was really great that so many people took the time out to represent Mountain Bikers to the City of Carlsbad.  I know that Saturdays for many is often the only chance during the week they have to get in a big ride.  So THANK YOU to all who gave up the “big ride” to help further our interests here in North County.