Santa Ysabel – The Ramblings of MTBBill

Black Mountain & SYTT

Last weekend I managed to get back out to the Santa Ysabel Truck and the Black Mountain near Ramona.

(Along the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail)

The weather guessers were call in for a storm to hit the area in the afternoon, so I packed up the rain gear before heading out. Typically I do about a 29 mile loop that includes Santa Ysabel Truck Trail, Black Mountain, Pamo Valley and a bit dirt road and pavement interconnects. Today I was going to be doing an out-and-back variant of the ride.

(A section of the area spared from the 2007 wildfires)

I parked at the east end of the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail near the bridge on Black Canyon Road and headed out west. The climbing is very mild but considering how much of a slacker I had been as of late I could tell there was some rust in the legs. The last time I had here was when I did this as a section of the Coast-to-Crest trail.

(Pamo Valley from the lower parts of the Black Mountain Truck Trail)

Once I hooked up with the Black Mountain Truck Truck, I turned uphill and started the sizable climb.

(Climbing Climbing Climbing, Pamo Valley getting smaller)

I was not sure if I was going to go all the way to the top or not. I planned on turning around if the legs cried uncle or if I got caught in a sustained pummeling of rain.

The weather was starting to deteriorate around me as I continued climbing. I could see it raining in the distance on either side of me but my little patch of the world was dry. About 3/4ths of the way up my legs were getting to wank but I was able to keep going. It was also getting colder and the wind was kicking up. I was too hot with the wind breaker on and my chest was a bit cold without it and just the short sleeve jersey. I always keep a bandana in my pack and it came in pretty handy in this case. I unfolded it about halfway and stuff inside my jersey as an additional layer in the front.

Now most of Black Mountain has been covered in scrub in the past put the top of the mountain has some pine trees. These pines were originally planted as part of the ongoing Penny Pines program that started in California in 1941. Some of those pines were burned in the 2007 wildfire but a patch of the them at the very top were spared.

(View from the summit with Lake Sutherland in the background)

It was a bit chilly up on the summit and the wind was whipping pretty good. I typically enjoying hanging out up here and enjoying lunch but the wind made it pretty uncomfortable so after snapping some shots I made my way over to spot back along the trail that offered some shelter from the wind to have my lunch. While taking those pictures, it came pretty clear to me that my luck with the rain was going to run out soon. I hurried up with the snacks and then headed back down the mountain. It was quick work back down to the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail. There is some climbing to be done on the way back along that truck trail and my legs were pretty shot at this point. With about 15 minutes left in the ride a steady light rain started. My windbreaker/raincoat was doing its job quite nicely and I spun my way back to truck. About 30 seconds after I was all packed up and sitting in my truck the “bottom fell out” and a pounding rain last for most of my drive back into Ramona. I felt pretty lucky to have snuck in a ride before the storm and was happy to get back out this little corner of the county. A great day to be out on a bike!

Coast to Crest Bikepacking Trip

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

New Year’s Day in Pamo Valley and Black Mountain

I decided to start the New Year off with a solo ride through the Black Mountain area near Ramona. There is something about the combination of a ride with lots of climbing, great vistas and solitude to help get things straight in your head. I done the 30 mile loop I had planned a couple of times before, but I decided to do the loop in the opposite direction today (clockwise). I parked at the corner Pile St and Black Canyon Rd and took Pile St west over to Pamo Road as a brisk 48 degrees with a slight breeze that a had a bit of bite to it.

The descent down into Pamo Valley was very zippy which is typically super fun but on this morning the self-induced wind chill factor wiped a nearly frozen smile off my face.

At the Santa Ysabel Creek brige there was quite a bit water flowing which had me wondering what the crossing I would have to further upstream later in the day was going to be like.

As I proceeded up Pamo Road (now dirt) I was astounded by the amount water that was in and the earlier flood water level of Temescal Creek. Mother Nature has been done some landscaping in this area as of late.

Pamo Valley was green as I expected at this time of year but the rains had added a little extra pop to the colors. As I worked my way up the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail (FS 12S07) the views of the valley below kept opening up and trend continued after I switched over to the Black Mountain Truck Trail (FS 12S04) to continue the climb up the mountain.

This entire area was burned during the 2007 wildfires but it making a fairly swift recovery. Throughout the climb there were many spots where the recent rains sent some boulders down onto the truck trail. In the past the truck trails were open to vehicles but both the truck trails are closed due to “soft roadbeds”. Bummer for the four-wheelers but it is nice to not have to worry about vehicles on the descents.

I was quite happy to see that most the oak trees along the route had survived the fires and with the exception of some charred bark they seem not too worse for wear. The shade of these oaks were quite a welcome treat last time I was here during a summer month.

While the sun climbed as my ride went on, so was I and the temps gradually got a little cooler and the breeze made things a little more nipplely. Thanks goodness for quality techncial apparel as I stayed comfortable for the most part with some minor adjustments here and there.

The views at the Black Mountain summit (4,051 feet) were exceptional. Oakazanita, Cuyamaca and other peaks to the west were clearly seen and amazingly the Coronado Islands as well as Catalina Island could be seen to the east. Not a bad spot for contemplation and and reflection at all.

After all the work to get to the summit, I was quite content to think about taking a nap before heading back down. The breeze ultimately changed my mind for me and after some additionally layering an exceptional fireroad descent was had. It was one of those descent were you are not completely hammering and forcing the speed. It was more of a case of flowing smoothly and the speed naturally flowed. It was quite blissful and I was giggled out loud on no less than half a dozen times. My stoke meter was in the happy zone by the time I was back down to the Santa Ysabel Truck Truck.

I continued on the Santa Ysabel Truck Truck to the East-Southeast to work around to the south flank of the Black Mountain. There is an exceptional Oak Grove in this area that I was really happy to see had survived the the 2007 fires. At this point I had be fiddle farting through most of this route and I decided I had to get a bit more serious about finishing off this ride so the photos came to end.

This was a ride that was good for the body as well as good for the soul. I’m ready to take on 2011 at full speed.

The Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve

The 5,312 acre Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve, located in the extremely scenic mountains between Santa Yasbel and Julian about 40 miles northeast of San Diego, is one of the prettiest preserves in the county I have seen to date. While fire roads exclusively make up the designated trail system here, you will most likely not mind at all as the beauty of the place makes up for the lack of singletrack options. The rolling open grasslands and oak groves remind me a great deal of Northern California. You can get in just under 20 miles of riding if you do all of the loops and out and back sections. It is well worth a visit, but you will have to make it a weekend as the perserve is currently only open on Saturdays and Sundays from 8AM to Sunset.

See all the of the Review, Maps and Pictures.

Views from the climb to Kanata Flat

-Bill