It has been quite a few moons since I had ridden Mt Woodson so I decided to get back out there this week. I started out at Lake Poway and took the trails around the lake to the bottom of the Mt Woodson Trail. My exceptionally light and spry hardtail had a flat tire when I grab it to head out the door, so I grabbed my long-legged All-Mountain Intense UZZI rig instead. The heft of this rig, the above average temperature and the grade of climb had me getting workout in mighty early on. I was calling myself all kinds of bad names on the climb. I got a short reprieve as I neared the junction of the Warren Canyon trail.
I took the Warren Canyon trail. The west end of the trail is in mighty rough shape with severe ruts. The western end has always been kind of an absurd up and down affair, but the ruts take it to a new level. Reviewing my map and GPS data for this trail you climb 933 feet and descend 789 feet over the course of 2.36 miles. So why ride this trail?
Well I like this trail because it is a path less traveled with a much more outback feel to it. (It could use some more travel and bit of maintenance)
About halfway through the Warren Canyon trail there is a large tree that has fallen over the trail. There is a break through limbs but you will have to walk/scramble through at this point.
A cool little section of the trail near the east end of the trail just before the hike-a-bike up to Highway 67. Once I got up to Hwy 67, I pedaled about 1.4 miles into Ramona to get onto the access road to the summit of Black Mountain.
The access road climb is about 1.65 miles long and gains 1160 feet to top out at 2,894 feet. (Although I believe you have to climb up on a boulder to get to that elevation). There are some pretty views from up here. The highest point pictured above is Cuyamaca Peak. Yeah, the ONNNLY reason I stopped on this climb was to take some pictures to share. My camera was acting up so I had to stop a few times to get the shot I was looking for. 🙂
After a break at the summit, I started down the Mt Woodson trail proper. There was a bit of marine layer moving in from the west which made for some interesting light
The ride down along the ridgeline to the west was plenty of fun with some technical spots. The trail eventually turns to the south and starts loosing elevation in a hurry. There are a plethora of very tight switchbacks to contend with at this point. These clearly were made with hikers in mind which makes them exceptional interesting for mountainbikers. I was no longer wanking about having my big heavy bike at his point as it was helping out with steep and tight technical switchbacks. I wish I could say that I cleaned all of the switchbacks but that was simply not the case. I cleaned better than half of them. A good portion of the remainder I would need to gain some trials type skills like lofting the rear wheel around and pivoting in place. What was left after that is simply not executing on my part. (aka wussing out!) Once back at the junction of Warren Canyon trail, the return trip was a bombfest. When I got back down to the lake, I had cashed out 2,000 feet of elevation in 2.92 miles. Today’s ride was real beater with 3,160 feet of climbing in just 11.66 miles, but yeah what goes up, must go down. I certainly paid to play on this day. BEER:30!