Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Tag: Bonita

All Hail – Daylight Savings Time!

If there is ever a shortage of good times while riding in Bonita, I have note seen it yet. Yesterday, I hooked up with the Bonita Bikers crew for some South Bay riding. I actually recognized a few of the trails on this trip, but was still treated to trails I had not been on before.

It was an awesomely pretty day out and the greenery of spring is here.


(Don and Kimie strolling across a hillside)

Our route for the day?  Hell if I really know.   Bob and weave here.  Cross a street there.  Drop into culvert other way over there.   Oh yeah cool trails between all of that stuff.  

With all of the grow, some of the singletrack is tricky as it easily hides rocks that can give you a little trip up if you are not paving attention.  Hoserr working a climb. 


Gill gruntin’ over the top of a rise.

Ahhhhhhh  Singletrack!

Greg cruising up “Seven Bitches”

Kimee styling on a bridge.  Daryl was rather elusive for getting pictures on this ride as he was always out in front making us all look bad on his singlespeed.  I did manage to catch him off the bike here.

In addition to the seemingly never ending cool trails down here, it was awesome to that extra hour of daylight freedom with the time change.   There is nothing wrong with night rides, but having that late in the day sunshine to play in is just killer.    I have no idea how many miles we did, but it was sizable and felt more like a weekend ride than a midweek ride.     If you are interested in catching this ride during the week, it goes down every Tuesday and Thursday at 3:30pm from the the parking lot at the Performance Bike Shop in Bonita.

More Bonita Goodness

While Wednesdays are my normal weekday MTB day, I could not make it, but guess what?   The Bonita Bikers also have Tuesday and Thursday afternoon rides so I decided to head over there.   Know on Sunday they guys showed me about 20 miles of coolness.   Today we rode a long 15 miles or so and only overlapped about a mile from the weekend.  This place is freaking amazing.   I was cameraless on this day so no pictures, but if you like the looks of the stuff from Sunday that I posted, you can get idea of the trail goodness I had today.   In addition to see a good chunk of the Sunday crew, I meet a few knew folks as well as some folks I had not ridden with in quite sometime.  The old pal in question was Don with whom I had last ridden with in Palm Canyon about a year and a half ago.   I knew I knew him from somewhere until the conversation jogged my memory.  You see Don, had gotten a new bike since then.  I know I’m not the only one who does this but, helmet, bike, face and voice are my primary memory recall mechanisms for remembering my riders from the trail.    Swap out one of those and I have a tough time putting the pieces together.  Lame I know.   Anyway great freaking time once again out on the South Bay trails and I am told there is still much to see.

I have been emailed by at least half a dozen folks on trail directions…. I’m not BSing when I say I could not tell you it is a big maze.  I follow, I grind and I grin.    Stay behind Hoserr when hook up with this group.  That all you need to know.

Bonita “Locals” Tour

Today I had the pleasure of riding with the Sunday regulars down in Bonita in the south bay area of San Diego.   Boy what a great time I had.   I would be hard pressed to try and describe any kind of route.  It was one of those just follow along and enjoy yourself kind of day.   The trail network is pretty extensive with stuff everywhere.    I could easily take a aerial shot of the area, hang it on a wall and then throw a saucy plate of spagetti  on it and be pretty close to the actual trail layout.  

There were some pretty interesting descents here and there over the course of the day

bowl

We got in a little bowl action as well.  I was told the record is seven bikers in the bowl at once.  This is pretty tricky when you are zipping around and another rider gets into the bowl.  It is even more fun when one person goes opposite direction!    I have to get back here with the video camera. 

Bridge Action

A little bridge action.   I forget how many of these things we crossed.

Bushy

There were some bushy spots on most of the trails.  The branches are a lot stronger than they look.   I tried to moose my way through one of them and it stopped me dead in my tracks and pushed me backwards.  (I could hear it laughing at me)

Into the G

There were a few G-Outs to contend with.   This was the most interesting one.

Gout

This was not an uncommon exit of the G-Out (Myself included)

Smiles

Nobody got hurt and snickers and laughs all-around was the result of any G-Out flubs.

2nd time

Of course second time around was usually the charm.

Karen

There was some double teeter-tooter action to be had as well.   The guys sure seemed eager to help when Karen wanted a spotter. 🙂

single teeter

Pete on Single teeter

There was some single teeter action as well. 

Diving Board

Even got to play around on a diving board (some creative trail-building material)

Da Group

This was a hell of a fun group of folks to ride.  I guess we did around 20 miles or so, but it sure feels like more.    There is some nice as well as challenging trails in the area.  I stopped counting my dabs early on and I even managed to take a soil sample or two to add to my collection.   It had been at least a couple of years since I last caught the 8AM Sunday morning group ride out of the Bonita Performance Bike parking lot.  I don’t think I will be waiting that long again. 

Here are the rest of the pictures from the day.