Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Tag: MTRP

Mission Trails Northeast (Spring/Oak)

I grabbed an after work ride on Tuesday out at “Mission Trails Northeast” aka Spring and Oak Canyon.    

 SpringOakCanyon-05MAR13-13f it.

While there was some weather starting to roll in but there it was plenty nice out on the trails I was cruising on. 

SpringOakCanyon-05MAR13-16

It has been awhile since I had last been here and there was a lot more out here than I previously remembered.   The plants were blooming which made for some pretty sights while grinding climbs and grinning on descents. 

This entire area was burned out in 2003 so it was nice to see the continuing regrowth and the colors of spring out here. 

SpringOakCanyon-05MAR13-20

There were far worse things to do after work on just about any given Tuesday.

The Local Stuff — Week in Review

This past week was such that I could get out a little more often but for not as long.  They were the kind of windows that you don’t want to burn up too much of your time driving far to get to, you know, maximize your time on the trail and minimize your time on the road.

 Monday was a spin through the Black Mountain Open Space Preserve.   I started off on the east side of the preserve and did some tough climbing and a bit of hike-a-biking to get up onto the East Ridge.  From there I did a sizeable loop that had me pretty pooped by the end of the ride

 The loop included the  Miner’s Ridge and Liliac Canyon trails as well as the service road up to the peak and some more trails back over and down the East Ridge.

 Wednesday evening was the monthly San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDBMA) advocacy meeting so a group of us met up and did the La Costa trails prior to the meeting.

 I was able to get out a couple of hours before the rest of the usual suspects so I did a couple of loops out there before the group ride.  I was feeling pretty worked by the time I finished up the last loop.

Friday afternoon after work I squeaked in spin out in Santee near Mission Trails and Sycamore Canyon.    Normally I am a stop and smell the flowers kind of guy but I have to admit that I somewhat enjoyed the pressure of having to be somewhere later and the “push” it forced me to do on the trail.   Charge a hill here, push a harder gear there and general keep the engine rev’d higher than I normall would.  It was a short ride that ended up feeling longer on fatique and quad burn at the end.

The weekend was pretty awesome as well, but it did include any biking.   Hockey and quality time with boys were the story of the weekend.  I took them to thier first concert Saturday night which was simply epic.  Rush on thier Time Machine Tour.   I have had a lifetime of missing Rush shows and this was my first time seeing them as well.  They blew the place down and both the boys and I were completely stoked.  It was a good way to finish off the week.

Midweek Cowles Mountain and Pyle’s Peak

Wednesday was a mighty fine day in San Diego so an after work ride was in order.  The ride today was Cowles Mountain and Pyles Peak.  I have done this ride quite a few times and I always enjoy the technical as well as cardio beat down this place can put on you.  I started the ride at Mesa Road on the Santee side of the mountain and hooked up with the Mesa singletrack.  This singletrack has a bunch of railroad tie waterbars that can really help you work on your uphill ledge climbing skills.  The nice thing about them is you can usually pick how much ledge you want to attempt as the waterbars are a uniform height all the way across the trail.

I still have no idea how many of those waterbars are on the trail, but it is a lot.   It has been some number of years since I cleaned this trail and today was no different.  I suppose if started taken the easier lines I would had a much better chance of cleaning the trail but what is the fun in that.  Yes the singletrack kicked my ass but I certainly felt a little polish on the ledge skills by the time I came out on the fireroad.

It has also been some number of years since I cleaned the freaking steep fireroad up to the top.  However I did just that on this day.   I can’t say that it was physical prowess that got me up the fireroad, nope wisdom was the primary factor in cleaning the fireroad.  Right from the get-go I put the bike in the granny gear and paced myself up to the top.  Having done this climb some number of times I knew right were the easier spots were and I made a point to go even easier through these spots to try and get the heart and lungs under control.   The fireroad is steep enough that in quite a few spots I had my nose just inches above the handlebar to keep enough weight  on the front wheel to keep it from popping up.  My the time I got to the top I was microseconds from a cardio meltdown but was glad to pedal it out.  It was not the most macho way to clean the fireroad but it counts. 

The views from the top were pretty darn nice with quite a few people out on the mountain.

After I was able to get my lungs back into my chest.  It was time for the out and back trail to Pyle’s Peak.  I am a big fan of the trail.  It sees a ton less use than the rest of  the trails and has quite a bit of technical character to it.

The Pyle’s Peak trail is not too long but it is a lot of fun.  Above is the view from end of the Pyle’s Peak Trail looking back Cowles Mountain.   Yep there was some work to be done to bet back up to Cowles from here.

The sagebrush seem to be digging the wet winter.

Once back up to Cowles things were pretty zippy the rest of the way.  The fireroad is so steep that you really can’t enjoy it as much as you should because you have to keep the on the brakes to maintain control.  Once back ont the singletrack of the Mesa Trail life is grand with lots of micro-chunk and  small jump opputunites.  It got even better when I split off onto the Big Rock trail which has even more of the rocky goodness.  This is a really fun in town trail that some often refer to as “Little Noble”.  One thing for certain it was a nice bit of fun.  The Big Rock trail took me back to Mesa Road and my truck.  A mighty fun weekday ride with a really good workout through in as well.

A week of SD Weather Weenie Whining

Okay, so we San Diego folk are self-admitted “weather weenies”, particularly us coastal types.   You get us out of our typical weather of 65-75 and sunny for more than a few days we start whining like a jet turbine.   There was a lot of noise happening this week.

Wednesday, I met Steve for an after work MTB stoke at Anderson Truck Trail.   I knew it was going to be warm as this was our first really hot day of the year.    I was ready with extra fluids and electrolytes.    When I pulled into the trailhead the temp gauge in my truck read 100 degrees.    My first thought was that can not be right.   Within seconds of stepping out of the truck, I knew my truck was not lying to me.   Really rough but manageable was my overall assessment for the upcoming ride.    As I’m pulling out all my gear, I realized I had left my cycling short, shirt and socks at home.   I normally keep an emergency stash of  cycling clothes stashed for just such an occasion.   Opening up the under seat compartment revealed that I had not resupplied my stash after the last time I forgot my digs.    Crap, I was in my work clothes which would not do at all and my after ride clothes consisted of a heavy black cotton Tee-shirt and a thick pair of cotton shorts.   I did find a dirty cycling socks that I missed taking out of truck after the last ride so they were called back into service.     The cotton shorts and T-shirt would be the apparel for the day.


This was the only smile Aqua would make on this climb.

It was readily apparent that these clothes were not going to help me out much at all.  These was zero cooling happening with this outfit and it was blistering already.   The heat of this climb makes you suffer pretty good on its own but the my stifling apparel took it to a whole new level.   I thought about just not wearing a shirt at all, but even high SPF sunblock would not be able to help my glowing white-boy torso out whatsoever.  I would have been fried in no time so the shirt stayed on.   I have to take lots of breaks and had to spin in the granny ring for the overwhelming majority of the climb.   Even with lots of breaks, by the time I reached the top I could feel I was close to some heat stress coming on.      Amazing what the right apparel can do for you – More importantly what the wrong apparel can do to you as well.  

After cooling down as much as to be expected  I felt better and we set off on the descent.   Steve was doing just fine, but I soon realized that I was off-game.  My reaction time was off just a little bit and on this terrain that can cause problems.    I made a point to stay well within my normal limits.   

Brian soon joined us,  he started later in the day,  so he did not get as cooked as we did, but it was still freaking hot.      By the time we finished up the ride, it had cooled off to a “balmy” 90 degrees which felt pretty descent after what we had already suffered through.    I was pretty much a wreck and completely drained.

The following day was the San Diego Mountain Biking Associations annual Beer and Burrito ride.   I was still feeling a pretty beat from the heat the day before, but I had volunteered to help with pictures so I could not back out.  This was a work for your supper event where you do a ride and then got to kick back with a tasty burrito from Chipotle and some tasty brews from Lagunitas.  

Over the course of the day leading up to the event the temps start to drop and a monsoon storm started to peculate.  It was  cloudy with ominous rumblings in the sky in the distance.    This event was capped at 70 RSVPs and it looked like everyone of them made it out.   There were lots of new faces and lots of folks I had not seen in a really long time.  It was good times before we even started rolling.


At a regroup spot

In the middle of the ride, we actually got rained for awhile.    It nice to get the trail patted down right in front of us.  The rain did not last long but it was certainly enough to register as “rain” for San Diego.

Before long we had all did enough to qualify for dinner and the with rain gone, it was time for some kicking back and socializing for a couple of hours.   It was a mighty fine event.   A good chunk of the photos from the event are on SDMBA’s facebook page.

Friday and Saturday were back to the summer toastiness, so Mark and I planned on beating the heat with a crack of dawn ride and the San Clemente Singletracks (aka weekpatch).      Sunrise was at 5:52 so we met at 5:45 and were rolling at 6:00AM.   The morning temps were cool and the  marine layer held off the sun long enough that it was just starting to think about punching through as we finished up the ride.

It felt pretty wierd being done with my ride so early in the day.   I’ll finish of the weekend with a little bit of honey-dos and a lot of lounging (in the shade).

A quick spin at Spring Canyon

Yesterday, I decided to hit up the SDMBA advocacy meeting.  The meeting did not start until 7pm and since I work in San Diego and live in North County what to with all that time between work and the meeting.  Ah yes, the ole standby….go for a ride.   The destination was Spring Canyon just north of the 52.    This canyon is eventually going to be annexed into Mission Trails and link Sycamore Canyon/Goodan Ranch to Mission Trails but right now it is well “social” in nature.  These trails have been for decades and it is such a poorly guarded secret that most of the public has no idea it is not a fully endorsed trail system.   More often than not people assume it is part of Mission Trails Regional Park.  The same folks also think these are by far the best trails “in” Mission Trails.

Okay enough with the history and issues, this is nice place to ride on real “Preserve Quality” trails, aka singletrack. 

The weather was pretty darn great and the greenery and the flowers blooming was just awesome.

I decided to take the single speed out today, and while it is generally a good choice for out here, there was one hill that put a beat down on me for a bit.  It is all good, as I need the beat down.

The return trip back to the trailhead was an all gradually downhill affair that was a bunch of swooping fun.  There was enough turns that I only spun out on the singlespeed in a few sections.  I’m no racer so it was just set back and enjoy the cruise through those sections.  Good stuff. 

While I could not stay for the entire SDMBA meeting (Had to pick Will up from Hockey practice) it was a good meeting with lots of exciting things brewing in SD County.  We have multiple cities interesting in MTB Skills Progression Parks, corporate sponsors getting more involved, and the IMBA trail crew coming out this coming weekend.  Lots more stuff as well so stay tuned to tby signing up for the thier free Trailnews letter.

On a more painful sidenote, after the meeting, I became aware that I have gotten into some Poison Oak on a “scouting expedition” the day before.   Yeah!!  At the time of this typing, I’ve got the stuff in a bad way and I’m down with the full regime of Zenfel and the various other products for dealing with the stuff.   Not so good times, but hey it sometimes is the price you pay when looking for hidden trail gems.

Oh…Almost forgot, I saw two rattlesnakes on this ride and managed to get an picture of one of them.  It is only March and I have already seen more snakes that I have in an entire year before.   

SDMBA Volunteer Appreciation Gala

Saturday the San Diego Mountain Bike Association had it’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Event at the Visitor’s Center of Mission Trails Regional Park.

The event started off with an afternoon ride through the park.   A sizable crowd showed up for the pre-festivities ride that included three different routes for various skills levels.

I ended with the group that I believe should have been called “Should have known better group”.

We decided to climb Jackson to Suycutt Wash and then up to the saddle between North and South Fortuna Mountain.  There is some steep freaking fireroads on this route.  Somewhere near the top of the saddle, I remembered why I don’t ride much here.   Freaking fireroads everywhere trying to be passed off to the public as trails.  Just because you designate something a trail does not make it a trail.  I did chuckle pretty hard later in the day when someone said this place should be called  “Missing Trails Regional Park”.   The rumor/good news is that the management is starting to see the light on sustainable multiuse singletracks.   Okay rant aside,  after making it to the saddle we hung a right and climbed up to the peak of South Fortuna Mountain were we got in some cool views of downtown, Point Loma and the Coronado Islands.  From here we got in some mighty zippy descending that included some hike-a-biking down a portion of “The Steps” trails   Before long we were back to Jackson Drive and dumped a lot of hard earned elevation down the gravely fireroad.

Back at the visitor’s center, I along with a bunch of trails rats and dirt divas enjoyed a good time hanging, grubbing and conversating with each other.  Some of these folks I only see during trailwork events.   It was certainly a good time.  

Some people looked to be planning for world-wide singletrack domination.

It was a pretty lively crowd and there was a rumor that a gang sign or two might have been thrown around. (I think I caught the highly secretive “Sparticus” sign in use)

Later in the evening, there was some absolutely funny awards and killer swag handed out.  Many Shimano shiny bits, cool clothes and various assorted goodies found there way to good homes that evening. Nobody left empty handed.

There was one huge item left to the end for SDMBA’s Volunteer of the Year.    For that Dave Turner was on hand to present Mike MacGregor with a brand spanking shiny new Turner Frame!   Mike logged a grunch of trailwork hours at SDMBA events over the past year, established and headed up the new Trailwork committee and devoted a mountain of time off the trail to help out SDMBA and the MTB community at large.   

Congratulations Mike!    

Special thanks to Andy, Minette, the Social Comittee and rest of the folks that put this thing on.  I think everyone that was there would say it was a really great event.