This weekend I decided to head out for an overnighter in the San Jacinto Mountains. There are a lot of great trails around here and we were interested in messing around in some lesser ridden areas. Bill O’Neil and I met up fairly early in the morning and the temps were already quickly climbing.
We did a bit of driving around on some of the back dirt roads to finalize our game plan and investigate all of the options. This gate showed much promise so we decided to add this area to the two-wheeled investigation efforts.
With a plan negoiated that included such phrases like “Do you think those thin brown lines are too close together on the map”, “It sorta flattens out after the first seven miles” and “Just for the record, this segment is your idea” we started turning the pedals into the dry 90 degree heat.
After what I would consider a rough opening bit of terrain, heat and grade we got up onto a small plateau were thoughts of tasty steaks and carne asada burritos started running through our heads.
This small herd of around 10 or so cattle were following the old ranch road we were taking. Special note on Trail Etiquette – Bikes yield to horns.
The old ranch road turned out to be a nice route that we took. We soon worked our way over to the next segment that turned out to be a bit brutal when combined with the growing heat and pockets of dead air. My hiking calves got some work in here and there on this segment.
As we neared the top of the ridgeline sadddle we were shooting for we got into some trees and a breeze picked up which made a huge difference. We were already considered with rationing our water considering how far we had to go still.
Once at the saddle we proceeded along a trail that followed the ridgelines for quite a long way. There were some great views along this route.
This was most definitely a pretty cool trail.
Cool rock formations on the ridgeline. The wind was often howling up here which was great for beating the heat but it was enough to blow me off my intended line a time or two.
This was really cool bit of exploring we did but it was certainly no cakewalk with the heat that was out. By the time we got back down to the truck, we were more interested in our first liquids being water more so that tasty hop and malt goodness. After a bit of truck-side recovery we were off to the Paridise Valley Cafe were some excellent baby back ribs with the fixins were chased with a couple of tasty beverages. After that we found a back corner of the Garner Valley area to set up camp in the dark. We spent the rest of the evening recounting the festivities of the day while sampling tasty San Diego area micro-brews.
The view from my tent when I first opened my eyes.