Trail Wanderlust
I added the Mule Hill and San Pasqual Valley trails located near Escondido to the site. You may also hear these trails referred to as Raptor Ridge as that is the top of the climb. While this is for the most part a non-technical trail, the farmland scenery not typically associated with San Diego it offers is worth a look-see.
I did my first bike packing trip this weekend. A group of six of us set off to do the Coast to Crest trail leaving from Julian with the plan to end with our tires in the ocean on Del Mar’s Dog Beach. The Coast to Crest trail is a long way from completed and our route is basically follows the general corridor of where the trail should someday follow as best as we could follow it.
We pedaled out on Main Street/Farmers Rd for about 2.5 miles out to the start of the trail at Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve. Full disclaimer here, we did not climb all the way up to the top of the mountain as it is a steep out and back on double-track. The top Volcan Mountain is the “Crest” of the trail. From the Volcan Mountain Preseve we zipped down the paved Famers Road to the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve East.
It has been quite some time since I had ridden out here. I had nearly forgotten just how pretty it is out here.
The first climb was rather steep and all of the bikepacking gear quickly found myself out of clicks on my shifters.
The crew taking a break (Left to Right: Kevin, Carl, Greg, Chad and Ken) at our highest point along the trip. We did quite a bit of descent and a few short bit of steep climbing before we came out at the lower staging area of the preserve.
There is a massive section of trail that is not built from here. Our path from here was a quite bit on Highway 79 north and then a good long chunk of pavement climbing on Mesa Grande Road.
From there we left the pavement for some dirt road riding on Black Canyon Road. This was my first time on this section of the road. It was really awesome that this thing just seemed to descend forever. (Carl is in the photo above)
When we did reach of the bottom of the road, we turned onto the San Ysabel Truck Trail which is familiar dirt to me as it is part of the Black Mountain (Ramona) Loop near Ramona. This is part of the official Coast To Crest trail. There was some work to be done here as we worked over the south slope of Black Mountain before we had a very zippy descent down into Pamo Valley. We then pedaled south on Pamo Valley Road (mostly dirt road) before hooking up with Forest Service Road FS12504.
We chased down a spot to setup camp for the evening. We did a touch under 35 miles for day one. Tasty sprits seems to find there way into most of our packs. Since every ounce counts we felt it wise to lighten our load for tomorrow as much as possible 🙂 All of my gear worked pretty much as expected and there were certainly some lessons learned. I slept really well that night and awoke to the sounds of turkeys gobbling in the distance. Not long after that a lone gunshot rang out that reminded me it is turkey season. I did not hear any more turkeys after that.
I had under estimated my fuel requirements for my alcohol stove but I did have just enough to get a couple cups of coffee made to go with breakfast. Coffee just tastes better outside. We leisurely broke camp and were back on the trail. Forest Service Rd 12504 is referred to as the Lower San Ysabel Truck Trail by the San Dieguito River Park. After just a bit of climbing, we were treated to a very mild grade descent. Carl and Kevin are pictured above heading down a particularly nice covered stretch of the truck trail.
Kevin was doing this ride on his rigid single speed and was just killing it. He also had a killer ultra-light setup. The Lower Santa Ysabel truck trail took us down to the Orasco/Gueito Truck Trail. This truck trail is not part of the official Coast to Crest trail at his point. We did take this truck trail up to Highway 78. We had to cruise down the highway for a couple of quick downhill miles where we hooked with some farm roads along the orange groves.
These farm roads took to the Bandy Canyon trailhead of the San Pasqual Valley trail that is part of the Coast to Crest trail. The trail goes along the edge of orange groves, sod and dairy farms in the valley before it starts climbing.
Climbing up to Raptor Ridge was a good bit of work with the gear on the bike. After that we were back into the routine home turf of Lake Hodges and we made quick work to the Farmers Market and the gas stations near the I-15 trailhead for some resupply. Nichol joined us through the Lake Hodges segment. (I think see liked this ride as the pace was slower than our normal outing speed).
Nichol turned back at the dam while we continued on down the Del Dios Gorge and onto the Santa Fe Valley trail
There was some climbing bits to be done including a sizable set of switch backs. Once we got to the top of the switchbacks we were once again off of the official Coast To Crest trail. We ended up dropping into the Lusardi Creek area via some singletrack and then working our way up to where the Santa Luz Loop starts. From here we had to do a five mile stretch of pavement along San Dieguito Road and El Camino Real to connect to the next segment of the Coast to Crest trail.
The final segment is along the San Dieguito Lagoon and passes by the Del Mar Fairgrounds
Chad along the boardwalk. We would cross the Jimmy Durante Blvd bridge and follow the Del Mar River down to Dog Beach
Ahhh Bike Tires in the Pacific and the finish of 43.5 miles for day 2 for a total of 78.2 miles
We were able to squeeze out another 1.1 miles to Pizza Port Solana Beach for some yummy pizza and tasty beers! A mighty fine weekend to be on a bike.
UPDATE (April 22nd, 2105): I have added a page to the site detailing this route with maps, GPS files and additional blabbery. Coast to Crest Trail
I have been hitting up Lake Hodges as the after-work ride as of late. It is right on the way home at it only take a handful minutes to be out on the trail after getting off the freeway.
Here is Nichol working a log ride.
Critters seen along the trail.
Views from the trail behind and above the boat launch.
A mechanical on the Tuesday ride turned me into a reluctant single speeder. Of course it happened right after the apex of the ride.
So I have not dusted my night-time riding gear in quite sometime. As an after-work ride in January chasing the sun is always part of the equation. The sunsets have been pretty awesome as of late so “losing” the race with the sun is its own reward.
Where The Hell Have You Been? I have gotten that question a couple of times as of late. Yep I have been slacking on the posting stuff of my Blog.
I have been getting in some quality Hockey Dad time in with my youngest son on most weekends as he is playing on two In-Line hockey teams. One recreational league team out of Kit Carson Park in Escondido and a tournament team (The San Diego Stingrays). This works out to practice and games commitments of four days a week.
With both teams practicing out of Escondido I have been getting in quite a bit of riding in at Lake Hodges and the surrounding area as of late. Besides the stuff already on my site I have managed to find some cool stuff here and there like this patch of woods between Lake Hodges and Poway.
I have also managed to find some complete crap as well. This tripe located in the city of Poway is simply insulting. They dumped 4-6″ of gravel beside a stupidly steep road and called it a trail. The unprofessional asses that did this debacle did not even bother to compact the gravel down. This thing is so F’d up that had to put signs up ever 50 feet to try and convince people that it is a trail. City of Poway—This is not a F$%^ing Trail! If you would care to improve your trail building knowledge why don’t you spend an afternoon on the playground at Chaparral Elementary School. Pay attention to the six year olds with the Tonka trucks, they get it more than your “trail builders” do!
Enough about city governments wasting money, I managed to catch a baseball game with my girlfriend. The Padres even managed to win on the night we went.
Of course San Diego is arguably a Craft Beer Mecca so there has been plenty of outings to check out what the latest awesome offerings are from the over 71 (and growing) microbreweries in the county.
Recognizing that mountain biking is a preexisting condition with me my, girlfriend he has gotten onboard with the program and is coming up to speed quite nicely.
I have also managed to get in some dirt time at La Costa here and there. If for nothing else than to check out some advertising dollars well spent on the Copper Canyon Bridges.
My work schedule as of late has been conducive to grabbing some after work mileage out in South Bay. I have ridden out here numerous times and there are lots of trails to push the pedals around on. In the past I have nearly always been with somebody showing me around through the maze of canyons with interconnections through parking lots, culverts, streets and backyards. It has been kind of fun trying to use the “Swartz” on solo efforts to retrace some of my previously guided steps. More to follow as I continue to get semi-lost with that ongoing effort.
So as far as where the hell have a been? I’ve been around on my bike….
On Sunday Jake had hockey practice over at Kit Carson park in Escondido so I took the opportunity to get in some pedal time out at Lake Hodges.
I stuck to the North Side trails on this outing.
Updating the Lake Hodges pages on my website has been on my to-do list for quite some. Now that there is a pedistrian and bike bridge connecting the north and south side of the lake there are more ride options in the area on a single outing. Additionally, a few years ago I got a letter from some of the land owners and the western end of the easement road (known as the high road) that did not want anyone using the easement rsload for recreation and asked that I take down that information from my site. Well obviously I’m a busy guy and have not be able to get to that yet. It looks like it maybe all figured out by now since new signage has gone up. Of course that new signage has made things as clear as mud. Take a look at the picture above. The easement road sign says “No Trespassing” yet they installed a people tunstill beside the gate. New signs were put up telling you it is okay to hike and bike to the right, but no trespassing to the left. Looking at the sign above at the far western end of the easement road one would think it is okay to go through the gate and ride off to the right vice on the easement road that goes to the left. That is not the case at all. What the signs are trying to convey is that when you are on the easement road, everything uphill of the road is private property and everything downhill (towards the lake) is part of the park. This is also not entirely correct as the private property owners land typically goes some number of feet/yards downhill of the road. The park has put up private property signs at the bottom of the trails that connect the lower trails to the upper easement road. I find it odd that some of the land owners don’t want people on the eastern end of the easement road, yet nearly all of them have gates onto the easement road from their backyard. Presumably so they can use the easement road to get into the park. Hmmm so it is okay for those land owners to get onto the little sliver of the easement road they own and then trespass on their various neighbors property and then enter the park through unauthorized trails but it is not okay for the public to do so. Hmmmm, the best advice I can give is to do your best to make sense of the various “non-truth” signs you see and make your own judgement calls. Following the predominate and fresh foot and bike tracks is probably a safe bet.
The Benardo Mountain trail has no controversy involved with it. It just a nice trail that will work you over on the climb up to the peak. There are some tough grade sections and some technical bits as well that will test both skill and fitness. There was some nice purple blooms going off on the climb.
The view of the bridge connecting the North side to the South side from the peak.
Snow on the mountains to the east.
After Bernardo Mountain I rode out towards the dam until it was time to turn around and get back to the rink. I made it back just as Jake was get off the rink so two sweaty Porter Boys to funk of the truck on the drive back to Casa Del Bill.
This is the second year a group of advocates and friends got together to do a ride that has become known as the Archipelago Ride. Open Space in coastal San Diego County has become very fragmented over the years into a patchwork of “islands of open space”. The Archipelago Ride concept is one to demonstrate how these islands can be linked together into a rides of epic length.
This years ride started at the La Costa Preserve and went to Probuilt Wheels on the western end of Penasquitos Canyon. Getting there was by way of Elfin Forest, Lake Hodges, San Deiguito River Park, Lusardi Creek, Santa Luz, and Black Mountain.
The day started off early in the moaning with most folks grabbing a shuttle from Pro-Built up to La Costa.
Once we got up to the La Costa the gaggle of riders was even larger. I think the total rider count was 37. I thought for sure with this many people that the regroup logistics would make for slow going.
Slow going would not be a bad thing for me today. Jake had an ice hockey game going on that morning so the plan was to help get the ride started and then catch the game and grab onto the ride around Lake Hodges. I decided to grab some shots of the group from Harmony Grove Road as they went of the Escondido Sewer Easement and I was quite surprised at the pace the group was making as they got there quite earlier than I had expected.
Roughly about this same timeframe, I got a call for Jake’s coach that the game was later than what was orginally published, so there was little chance that I was going to catch all of Jake’s game.
I did however manage to get the ice rink for a bit before I got the call from the ride sweep letting me know the group was rolling into Hodges. I booked it from the rink and got setup below the Hodge Dam. To lead the group for a bit on a different route from last year.
The general consenus was that everything was going along smoothly…and then I took over 🙂 So this “new” route had a little “technical hike-a-biking” in it.
The climb-a-biking was a neccessary evil to get to a creekside trail that was pretty sweet with a bit of technical flow to it. This was a recent find for me so I was stoked to show it off.
After the creek side riding we followed Lasardi Creek for a short ways and then we took a different route from last year up to the Santa Luz Loop.
I like the congo line of helmets through the flowers above.
Once up to the Santa Luz Loop things went pretty quickly to Black Mountain Park and the waiting sag wagon. In addition to snacks there was mighty tasty fluids suitable for rehydration.
After Black Mountain Park we continued on the Santa Luz Loop and then took the connector over to McGonigle and Deer Canyons.
Our last major regroup was just before entering Deer Canyon. SDMBA had tried to get the permission to use one of the tunnels for this ride, but with all of the controversy with the area we were relegated to “Tunnel Zero” aka the God forsaken powerline climb up onto the mesa.
Once up on the mesa, everyone knew the way “home” so the proverbal hounds were released and everyone seem to move quicker.
There were tasty grub and brews awaiting back a Probuilt Wheels. It was a great way to end this 42 mile ride that had 5,000 plus feet of climbing. I was amazed at how close this group was in relative strength and endurance. The group was never really strung out and the group make good time over the course of the day.
Here is a photo album with all of the pictures I took during the ride.
For the last week and a half I have not been riding as I had gotten myself a mighty fine batch of Poison Oak. I had it in enough strategic places that riding a bike would not be fun. I’m still dealing with some of it, but I’m beyond the worst of it. This past Wednesday Matt came by Casa Del Bill with a whole bunch of bike goodies to rebuild and spice up his current bike.
The first order of buisness was to get out all of the proper “tools” for this project.
New wheelset, cassette, chain, headset, shifters, crankset, brakes, seat, and seatpost made for quite a revamp for this bike.
It did not take long before all the bits starting coming together. As usual, I found getting the front derailuer aligned properly to be a pain in the rear. Here is Matt trimming the brake lines.
This overall ended up going smoothy as a three-beer job and before you know it was ready to hit the trail. Matt ended up taking out first thing the following morning.
So Friday rolls around, and my various bits are are feeling up to try some saddle time so I swing by Matts place in Del Dios for a spin through Lake Hodges. He has just picked up a new singlespeed and needed to get it out on its maiden voyage. He had not been out to Raptor Ridge before so that was the destination. On the way out there we scoped out the Pedestrian – Bike Bridge across the Lake which is nearing completion.
After a lot of boring dirt roads being passed off as trails we reached the Raptor Ridge singletrack. It is a nice climb up to a ridge with some good views of the San Pasquel Valley. Matt got a good taste of singlespeed grindng on this climb. I was quite I had been off the bike for a bit as well.
After some chilling at the top we headed back the way we came. It was a fun descent that was over far too quickly.
I have been trying to think of something nice to say about the section between the I-15 and Raptor Ridge and while there is some scenery, it is mostly a low-quality yawner of a route on manicured dirt roads.
Over the last couple of weeks I have incorporated some night riding back into my schedule. Will has hockey practice at the Escondido Sports Complex on Wednesday nights from 7-9PM. The facility is only about half a mile from the north side of Lake Hodges so I have been hitting up Hodges while he is practicing. The first go around was a run up to the top of Bernardo Peak and back and the second time was a speed run to Hernandez Hideaway and back. After the first ride, one thing is for certain, my night time skills needed some brushing off. It did not help that I had not been on Bernardo Peak since the October 2007 fires. Sunset was approaching while I was climbing so I got a good look at the damage. The vegetation tunnel towards the bottom of the climb has been completely rerouted. This was a good call by the rangers. That section was just one big rut with the cool feature being the tunnel. Since the vegetation tunnel is gone, it was a good time to reroute the trail in a more sustainable manner. I enjoyed the watching it get dark from the top before coming back down. That is when I realized there were a bunch more loose rocks on the trail that I had remembered from the climb. The shadows from the lights can make things seem a bit more interesting and I’m sure my hiatus from night riding had something to do with it. The lack of vegetation on the hillside could have caused more rocks to erode into the trail as well. One other slight annoyance was that I my current handlebar mounts don’t work well the oversize bars so the best I could was to have the flood been slightly angled to the left. Either way, I had a downright gingerly descent off the peak. I’m leaning more toward the “I’ve become a night riding weenie” explanation that those other technical things.
The second ride the following week went better but I did keep it near the lake. I had not been on a speed run ride in a while so it was fun just to try and hammer around the lake and back. With both rides I was back about 30 minutes before Will was done, so I will have to add some more trail the routine. My goal is to get back with only about 10 minutes before Will is done. Gotta get in the miles when I can.
