RR: North Lake Hodges

This afternoon I had a chance to actually get two rides in during a single weekend. Rachel and I went to church in RSF instead of driving out to Skyline, and then came home and did housework for a few hours before running out of steam. She had to go grocery shopping, which left me with some unexpected free time. The weather was beautiful, and I decided to do a quick trip over to North Hodges to get a late afternoon ride in. I'm glad I did.

First of all, on the way there, just as I was getting on the freeway, my phone rang. It was Sean, who was apparently looking for something to do. I felt bad for not calling and inviting him in the first place, but I had thought that he was working until later. Anyway, I doubled back for him and we made it over to the parking lot by the Self Storage center right around 3 PM.

Before I heard from Sean, I had been considering climbing Bernardo Peak today. But since he had a rough night before we decided to skip the climb and just have a fun social ride through Hodges. I have no regrets, because our ride was a lot of fun, but I want to get to that Peak sooner than later. I'm overdue.

Anyway we started out from the parking lot, and just had a fun social ride around the lake. Sean had never been there, and he was adjusting to his clipless pedals on his new Stumpy, so we took it pretty easy. He only capsized once that I remember, and he walked several of the rocky sections along the trail because he was unsure about balance on the new pedals. I've been there, and am confident he'll be nailing all of those sections in no time.

We cut through the lake parking lot to the singletrack on the west end of the lake along Del Dios Highway. I'm sure this statement will offend any (even mildly) hardcore riders who visit this site, but I absolutely love that section of trail. It has some fun ups and downs, two minor rocky technical sections, and some fun water crossings. Its just a gorgeous stretch of trail, with pretty overhangs and flowy singletrack. Its only about a mile and a quarter long, and for the moment dead ends pretty abruptly, but I really enjoy it.


We ran into another biker at the spot where that section of trail is blocked by some chain link fence, and he said that it should be re-opening sometime in June. When it does, it apparently will go all the way to the dam, which I'm looking forward to.

On the way back, I elected to try to ride through a crevice that had been created by some water runoff in the middle of the trail. It was pretty steep, but I thought I could do it.


After two attempts, I didn't make it, which was frustrating. I kept losing too much speed at the bottom and was not able to climb out. Oh well, something to try again next time.


We made our way back to the parking lot at that point, with plenty of daylight to spare. It was a beautiful afternoon, and it was a great ride. The wildflowers are starting to bloom on the hillsides burned by the October fires, which was amazing to see. The contrast between burned areas and the bursts of color created by the flowers was really neat. So it was a good day; I had good company, a fun, nearby trail, and awesome weather and beautiful sights to see.


I also can't wait for them to finish the bridge between the North and South sides of the lake, which will make for a fun 25 miles or so of entertaining, but not daunting, riding.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 11.88 miles
Total Time: 1:42:30
Ascent: 955 feet
Average Speed: 7.0 mph
Top Speed: 22.4 mph
Bike: Specialized FSR XC Pro
Map:

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