Fresh back from working in the Puget Sound area it was time to hit up some of the local stuff. I got up at O-Damn Early to hit up a new bit of trail and the Black Mountain Truck Trail near Ramona.
Ramona this time of year can get really toasty and Pamo Valley can really turn into a pizza oven. The plan today was to get some elevation on me before things got to really cooking.
I made it out to Pamo Valley good and early. The new staging area is quite large and can accommodate plenty of cars and horse trailers. I made quick work of getting ready to roll as it was only going to get warmer. The trail starts out in the northeast corner of the lot and parallels the road for a short bit before crossing over. A word of caution, the first section of trail near the road was ate up with goat heads. If you are not running some type of sealant system you may find yourself having a frustrating day right from the get-go.
This new section of the Coast to Crest Trail eliminates the need to ride along the Pamo Road to connect the Lower Santa Ysabel Truck Trail to the Black Mountain Truck Trail. It is 3.2 miles long and overall I think it is a nice addition to the trail system. It undulates on the hillsides following the general route of the road but is not just paralleling the road. It does cross the Pamo Road several times but I really don’t consider that much of a detractor.
Shortly after I got onto Black Mountain Truck Trail, my dropper seat post started acting up. It started sagging about 1/2″. I was able to just raise my post up some in the seat tube to compensate, but it was not long before it dropped about 2-2.5″ down. I did not have enough seat-post to compensate for this. The first thing I tried was wrapping some duct tape around the upper part of the post. It worked for just a short amount of time before the whole tape mass just slide up the post. Next I tried reposition the table and give some extra clamping power with some zip ties. This worked better but not for long. Trying to do a long climb without full leg extension can be rough. I was about to throw in the towel an head back down the mountain when I saw a sizable stick. I was able break and trim the stick to just the right length to wedge between the seatpost clamp and the bottom of the seat. Once I got it jammed in place I zip-tied the stick to the post. This fix held up and I was back in business.
The remaining five miles or so of climbing I had ahead me after fixing the post when well enough and while the temps were climbing they were not bad at all. I was joined at the summit by a couple of jeepers and their dog and I had an enjoyable time shooting the breeze with them for a while before heading back down the mountain.
As I descended you could feel the temps climbing and it was really hot down at the valley floor. I opted to not take the new connector trail back at this point and just zipped back on the road. I did a total of just at 20 miles and 3,300 feet of climbing.