Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Aliso and Wood Canyons

Bill O’Neil and I met for a cruise through  Aliso and Wood Canyon Park in Laguna Hills of Orange County today.  My last ride out here was cut short due to a mechnical so today was really my first time seeing the majority of the trails in some number of years.   I found it amazingly depressing how bad some of the trails have been widened with go-arounds that seemed to be at nearly every minor obstacle.   The Cholla trail for example is just a complete mess compared to a handful of years ago.  I wish people could just check their ego and get off and walk the stuff they can’t ride instead of making or taking the go-arounds.   (I know preaching to the choir here) 

 

Here is a shot at the top of the Rock-It trail. Plenty of go-arounds here as well.  This was a mighty fun descent (following the original lines).   Once down Rock-It we worked our way over to Mathis.  My memory of the steepness and length of this climb has been dulled over the years.   It was quite vividly refreshed today as it took quite a bit of gruntage to get my Intense UZZI up this climb.

Once up to the top of Mathis we continued up along the ridge fireroad to “Top of the World”   This was a good place to take a breather and enjoy the views of the Pacifc and Laguna Beach.   From here we went back down to Mathis and picked up the “Car Wreck” trail.

This was my first time on this trail and it was quite a bit of fun.  I managed to not get any pictures taken of the technical bits.  The picture above is just after all of the technical bits along with the namesake remains of an old vehicle.  This trail feeds right into the Oak Grove Trail.   A pretty section of trail.

The next trail we hit up was the Dripping Cave trail.   There were some nice tree lined bits as well as some short grunt working climbing in the direction we were going.

We farted around a bit at the at actual dripping cave

Some of it was just downright photo posing.    It was right about this time we thought we heard the sound of tiny bubbles trying to escape from finely crafted brown glass bottled far off in the distance.    We set out to investigate the sound and found the offending bubbles (in my truck).    Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA and Mission Brewing’s Dark Seas Russian Imperial Stout were tasty accompaniments to post-ride chit-chat.   Another NON-Bad day to be on a bike.

Longest Day of the Year Ride

With Wednesday being the longest daylight day of the year it only seemed right to get out on a bike.   My Wednesdays are normally booked up but this particularly day was open so it was time to hit the trail.

While the temps were nowhere near what they are going to get, they were enough to cause this weather weenie, to suffer on the climb up out of Alpine to the “playgrounds”.  Clearly I have been enjoying plenty of tasty beverages without earning them and the climb was making me pay!    Long climb story short, I sucked on the climb but  I climbed non the less.  

While Steve was up to his usual airborne antics…

I was content just to keep the wheels on the ground and play in the chunk.  

The chunk and rocks were where it was at with me today.   The dirt is definitely in “Summer Mode” which means there are combinations of exceptionally loose dirt combined mega-compacted hard pack that can make for some interesting turns here and there.   It is quite a contrast from the “Hero Dirt” seen out here in the winter time.    There was a bit of relearning to do on some of the trail.   The rocks however are for the most part a know value.  

  

Of course for those that play here all the time it was Perfect Flight Weather.

The “Three Miles of Smiles” descent offered up both adrenaline giggles and a few Oh Crap moments due to some loose bits.   Coming hot out of one corner Steve thought this was a rattler at first but it was a Rosa Boa instead.  These things are pretty cool snakes that are quite docile.   After our feel of Boa fondling we were along our way to the trailhead and onward to Alpine Beer Company for some yummy grub and tasty beverages.   Not a bad use of Summer Solstice in my mind.

Big Laguna Meadow Cruise

The weather was pretty freaking awesome this past weekend out in the east end of San Diego County.     It was a wonderful time to head out to the Laguna Mountain Recreation Area for some playing around on the Big Laguna trail.

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While just a few days away from the offical start of summer, there was plenty of green and patches of wildflowers here and there.

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While riding technical stuff and challenging yourself is always fun and exciting sometimes just getting out on a nice sliver of singlerack in some beautiful countryside good for the soul.  Such was the case of on this day.

Tasty Beer from Alpine Beer Company afterwards does not hurt either!

“Practicing” at Lake Hodges

My youngest son is playing on a tournement inline hockey team right now and he has practice at Kit Carson Park in Escondido every weekend.   The rinks are just up road from Lake Hodges  so I have been grabbing a ride there while Jake is practicing.  You can grab some mileage out here and if you include Bernardio Mountain you can get in some good grunting.   Here are few pics from a couple of weeks ago.

Here is a view froma bit of singletrack on the south side of the lake. 

 Out near the trails on the side side of the lake

Good springtime prettiness.

Alpine Return

It had been far to long since I have have been out to play on one of my favorite tech play grounds out in Alpine but I finally got back out this week.  This ride was nearly called off due to impending rain, but since San Diego attracts on the sharpest weather guessing minds, the afternoon turned out to be a go.

There was some new trail side decorations on the climb up.  Silly 4x4er, this is a bike trail!

It is funny how after a bit of time away for this trail the rocks look gnarlier upon your return.   

The storm was coming in and the clouds made for some interesting backdrops for pictures that we typically do not see much of here in SOCAL. 

Front row seats for Circ-de-Soul-Steve.   In a rare moment seldom caught on camera Steve did prove that he is indeed not a green blooded alien from a far away solar system in the  in the Dirtus-Major Constellation. 

A mighty fine afternoon on a bike

San Juan Trail

Last weekend I decided to roll up to Orange County and hit up the San Juan Trail which I have done in quite some time.    It weather called for cloudy but I figured it might be different once I got away for the coast.   It was a bit misty as I traveled up I-5 before turning inland on HWY 74.    The misting stopped but it was indeed cloudy all the way to the trail head.    After getting all the bike and clothes bits all setup I started up the six mile climb to the first decision point “Cocktail Rock”.

As I climbed I could see a soupy cloud layer in the mountains up and ahead of me.   I knew that I would get some cloud riding but I wondered the ceiling of the cloud bank was going to be as riding above that clouds can be pretty awesome.    As I worked my way up the trail the clouds got closer and closer.

I did not start this ride at the ass crack of dawn by a long shot (think leisurely brunch time roll out) so as expected and meet a handful of folks on their way down that mentioned that it was clear up top.   As I continued my climb I soon entered the clouds and visibility go down to around 50-100 feet which was kinda cool to be riding through.  Moisture in the air was collecting up on my arm hairs giving me what looked like a water droplet sweater.    By the time I got up to cocktail rock the clouds had moved up higher in the mountains so there was not sunshine to be had for me at the top.

From Cocktail Rock I decided the “Lollipop” at the top which is comprised of the Old San Trail and the current or “new” San Juan trail.    There are merits to doing the loop in either direction on this day I decided to do the counter-clockwise direction.    The clouds settled in amongst the old groves along this route made for a ride that a very ethereal feel to it.  The cloud riding continued for the remainder the loop as well as most of the descent of back down from Cocktail Rock.      By the time I finished the loop I was quite ready for six mile return to the trail that was all downhill except for one “bump” near the top.

As I neared the bottom of trail the sun even decided to make an appearance which was a nice way to finish off the ride.

Guajome Park

So off and on I get asked where are good places to take kids riding.  On my website to-do list for quite sometime has been to create a where to take a kid guide.   Lake Hodges, Big Laguna Trails, Penaqsuitos Canyon are places on the list but I had been thinking about some of the smaller places that would be good for the MTBer with little wheels would be.  Guajome Park is one of those places good for the grommet MTBers to get a taste of dirt.

Guajome Park (Or as my kids like to call it “Yo Hommie Park” is located on the east side of Oceanside right off of Highway 76.   It is a county park that has a campground, a couple of small ponds and a series of trails that are no so overly engineered with split rail fencing and compacted non-native soil dirt sidewalks like are prevalent in many of the county parks near the urban environment.   This place still allows for kids to interact with the environment instead of just look at it.  When my kids where younger we used to hike out here often and go just out the little nooks and crannies of the place.

Last week I was talking to youngest son Jake about the park and that I wanted to get a webpage together so Jake decided to join me on the photo, map recon effort.

With about 4.5 miles of trail out here it can be quite fun for newbie kid.  Even an a newbie adult who is willing to do a lot of hamster wheeling can find the place fun.

There are mainly fireroads here but there are also enough singletrack bits to keep a kid well engaged.   There are two different playgrounds at the park as well as large population of resident ducks that quite fond of stale loaf bread.   This would be a great place to take a little kid out for his first “big” MTB adventure as there are lots of opportunities to do other things besides ride the bike.

When I say “little” kids I’m generally thinking newbies on bikes with less than 26″ wheels as once they get to that big, this place can get rather small and you would have to get creative at this place at that point.   Here is Jake working on riding this telephone pole skinny.   It took him a while to get the technique down but he eventually was able to hop up on the log at the skinny end and ride the whole thing.

This was an after school ride for Jake and we played around here until we ran out of daylight and had to head back for things like dinner and homework.  Good midweek stoke.

Map File Links Back Up

So of you may have noticed that my National Geographic TOPO! files were showing up as broken links.broken_link

 Turns my ISP had made some tweaks on the server setting that caused the file not to be recognized (MIME Type Associations for the geeks) even though the files were indeed on the server.

I have the issue all cleared up now so they are once again downloadable.  For those of you who also asked about if I had KML, GPX or CRS files for the various places, the answer is maybe.  As I get around to updating the various pages on my site I’m revamping my GPS files as well.  In the interim you can convert them yourself through some many conversion utilities that are out there on the interweb.    

Take a look at my FAQ on GPS and TOPOs to get yourself throughly confused on some of the conversion processes I use.

On a related note, I have had a new GPS for the last six months that I have been tinkering with.   The Garmin Oregon 450.  I pretty darn happy with it and will try to get some more verbage out on in the future.   Finally on the subject of GPSs, sooner or later your GPS will stop working, wither it is due to dead batteries or a tumble off your pack, it will be a pricey brick on one of your rides.   Be prepared to navigate without it.    Now go have some fun getting lost! 🙂

Arrrgh….Swabbies get yer CPO Jersey

Okay so quite a few of you know I spent a couple hundred moons or so kicking around in US Navy.   Wither you have already joined the ranks of the quitters like myself or you are still the country’s good work at the pointy end of the spear, here is a jersey you members of the Goat Locker might like.   Some active duty folks have put in a good chunk of work with primal to get this custom jersey put together.     

The front view

The back view. 

“NAVY”  is printed in nice and big letters on the yellow side panels.  This will allow all your Army buddies to know exactly what happened when you shred past them on those downhills.   (At least if there is a bar at the bottom the hill) 

If you dont know what size you wear in the Primal apparel line check out their handy dandy sizing chart.

You can order these jerseys directly from Primal from now until March 9th.  Orders placed by March 9th will be delivered the week of May 21st.   Like most custom orders, they need to get a minimum order together the make the deal go through without someone taking in in the shorts

Here is the link for the Men’s Jersey and here is the link for Women’s Jersey.

I already have mine on order.  Even if you are not interested pass this along for those that maybe. 

I had to get one as it matches one of my bikes quite nicely.

A Nippon Weekend In Review

So I’m back in Japan for a couple of weeks of work.    This marks the first time I have been here in the late January, early February timeframe.    With the highs in the low 40’s and the night time temps below freezing it is downright cold for this San Diego Weather Weenie!   Wednesday was spent playing planes, trains and automobiles but with the international date line thing after getting some sleep in the hotel I woke up to Friday morning.   Friday was spent setting up for work that was start to start on Monday, give a presentation and make rounds of gripping and grinning.     In the middle of all that I picked up a mountain bike rental that not only would be my primary means of transportation while here in Japan, it was also be my recreational vehicle.    Friday evening was marked by the full blown onset of  Jet Laaaaaag!   

I have found that nothing helps to beat your body clock into a new time zone like some exercise.    After some early morning work preps it was time to set off on the bike.     Cold is cold, but the breeze was just downright biting so there was plenty of layering when donning my MTB apparel.   As in all of it!   I was pretty stoked with the hardtail rental I got.   I was the first person to rent one of the newest members of their rental fleet, a well equipped (for a rental) Jamis Durango 1 hardtail. 

 The plan for Saturday was not to do any exploring, just stick to a series of trails that I know and love in the  Fugatoyama area.   It is a rather large chunk of mountainous open space that is for the most part quite rugged.   It has been the source of many memorable head scratching intersections and brutal hike-a-bikes.

One nice change about riding here in the winter time is that you can see a lot more stuff as some of the trees have shed their leaves.    The picture above would be of mostly a veggie tunnel in the summer.   I had a good time out on the trails but was fairly skimpy on taking pictures. 

The final segement of trail along this route dropped me out into an area called ghost-town for the number of old vine entwined buildings that are rusting back to mother nature.    The little paths and streets quickly takes you back down into civlization where one can obtain tasty hot coffee out of a can.   This is straight up yummy caffiene crack in a can!  A nice warm can of coffee in the middle of a cold ride.    Good Stuff!   After the caffiene recharge there was a series of street riding back to my hotel.    I caught up with old friends over a home made dinner that night.   A mighty nice start to trip.

 

I did not get an early start on Sunday so as to let mother nature warm things up a bit before I went out.    I had been wondering about a different route into the Fugatoyama area that in theory would cut out a bunch of the street riding.    There is a foot bridge over the Yokosuka-Yokohama Expressway that seems to go from nothing but woods on one side of the expressway to nothing but woods on the other side of the expressway.    There has got to be a trail there.   I had never been able to figure out how to get down off the Fugatoyama ridgelines to this footbridge.   I was going to figure this out from the opposited direction on this outing.  The plan was to start from town and get up to the footbridge and then get up onto the ridgelines, where I should know where I am at at that point (That was the theory).   So after some Google Earthing, some exporting and file conversions I had my GPS uploaded with with some waypoints and tracks to investigate.    While not the most direct route to where I wanted to go the route took me through a pedistration tunnel.  Pretty cool. 

After a bit of here, there and to and fro I ended up at my first objective, an entrance into the Taura Plum Grove.  Just after the spot pictured above I got in some stairway to heaven action. 

The Taura Plum Grove is a park and while for the most part it is a rock sidewalk affair it was pretty cool looking.   Springtime here when the plum trees are blooming must be a really awesome sight.   Things are not flat here and my route was taking me to the upper west end of th park so it was a climbing affair. 

Up near the top of the park the views open up.   Tokyo Bay is in the distance and the large building in the distance on the left-hand side of the pictures is the Landmark Tower in Yokohama.

 At the top of the park is a viewing tower where even better views of the area can be taken in.

I was more interested in what was just beyond the tower.  Finally some dirt and the trail that would take me into the Fugatoyama/Muira Alps area.   The trail became a skinny singletrack as soon as it left the park and before long I was across the footbridge and headed west towards the ridgelines.

I had a stupid grin on my face at this point. 

 Some nice little technical rooty bits to contend with.   Big smile on my face here as well.

 Okay, the smile on the face was about 50 feet back behind me at this point.  The trail turnned sharply up a mega-steep ridge side.   The picture does not do the steepness of this section justice.   The good news was I was gaining elevation quickly even if I was not riding the bike.   I was thinking that if this gets me up on the ridgeline where I think it might I will have lots of mostly downhill goodness to ease the kinks out of my hike-a-bike calves.

 I did recognize the trail when I finally did make it up on the ridge.   It was promptly followed by a big “Oh Shit”!  I was much further to the south than I thought I would be and I was exactly at my most southern point of exploration along this particular ridgeline.    The Oh-Shit was because I knew that I had three technical hella-steep hike-a-bike sections between me and the full-time ridable “money dirt” to the north.    My GPS said I had one hour and 23 minutes before sunset.  Farting around was no longer an option.

There were some exposure bits that are hidden very well by the flora, but wintertime has allowed them to me a bit more revealed.   I had only ridden the section above only during the summer months before and I while I knew there was a bit of drop of here I had not idea just how freaking far one could tumble from here until today. 

I made good time through the hike-a-bike bits and was soon back on the money dirt.   I took the shot above and put away the camera and enjoyed some sweet flowing trails that was nearly all downhill to the north.   I popped out of the woods just before sunset and enjoyed an extremely brisk street ride back to my hotel.    A mighty fine way to get primed for a week of work ahead.