We got home from Eastlake around noon, after stopping at RoadRunner to pick up our race packets for tomorrow's Bay Bridge Run/Walk.
After a relaxing afternoon, Rach had some project of her own to work on, and I decided to get another ride in. I had been exhausted immediately after the ride this morning, but as the day wore on I actually felt great and wasn't sore or fatigued at all. CycleEastlake wasn't that hilly, and the pace was relatively slow, so I still had some energy left in my tank and wanted to burn it off.
Dave had mentioned during our Hodges ride that he usually rode along the mesa before dropping into the Santa Fe Valley and crossing the bridge to the Santa Luz trails. I had never done that, so I decided to do some exploring. Barnham Construction recently paved the road entering what will be Del Norte High School, which is currently being built, so I followed that through what will be the new campus and rode around a bit.
As I was just riding along, a Jeep came flying by me on the dirt fireroad. As I watched it drive by, I saw the route it was taking across the mesa and decided to follow. The Jeep rapidly drove out of sight, but it did alert me to the existance of another fireroad that traveresed the mesa, and I rode it until I saw what looked like a good path to take down into the valley.
It turned out to be a perfect spot, and the trail dumped me just past the nursery area at the bottom of the valley. As I began to take the section of trail that bypassed the nursery, the Jeep appeared again out of no where and almost nailed me. The driver locked up his brakes as I pedaled by, and I was pretty amused by the look on his face.
I was in familiar territory at that point, as the section of trail I found myself on was part of my old local ride. It was primarily the upper part that had been overgrown, so the route I took today may make for a good alternative. I pedaled along the river, crossed over at the spot near the Camino del Sur bridge, and began pedaling back east along the Santa Luz trails.
Following Dave G's directions, I rode along to the trail that connected Santa Luz Loop to Black Mountain Community Park. I had ridden that trail once before, on one of my Santa Luz Loop rides, and it had smoked me then. Turned out it was deja vu today. Maybe it was the 19+ miles earlier in the day. Maybe it was the length of the climb up that trail. Maybe it was the Chinese food I had for lunch. Either way, I was toast as I tried to climb the trail to BM Park, and I ended up HABing about 60% of it, which was humiliating. The trail isn't that steep, and isn't loose at all, but it definately has my number.
I finally slogged to the top of the hill, rode through Black Mountain Park, and headed over to Carmel Valley Road to make my way back down to the Black Mountain trailhead. I was debating internally about whether to do Canyon Rim or skip it and head across the meadow to do the pond trail, and as I climbed the paved road up to the trailhead, I almost decided to skip Canyon Rim. But my ego got the best of me, and I decided not to skimp on the ride. In retrospect, I probably should have bagged it.
I can't clean a short uphill section at the beginning of Canyon Rim on my best day, and there was no chance of doing it tonight. I did my regular short HAB, then mounted up and began the downhill. I then promptly wiped out at the first difficult left turn at the spot just past my trailwork. I belive that fatigue may have played a role. Just saying.
I did make it the rest of the way down Canyon Rim without dabbing, but it was a struggle. I was not looking good or picking clean lines at all. About halfway down Canyon Rim my cell phone rang, and when I got to the bottom I checked it and saw that Rachel had left a message.
I decided at that point to cut the ride a little short, and skip the trail across the meadow and along the pond. I did quickly ride back up the paved road, along the trail around the north side of the mountain, and down the short downhill section back to Carmel Valley Rd. From there it was my regular route along the 4S trails to home.
I was pretty wrecked at the end of the ride, even with cutting it a bit short. Rach and I went over to the spa, which was nice, and left me totally noodled. When I added up the mileage from this ride with the one from this morning, I came up just a bit short of 30 miles for the day, which would have been a cool number to hit, but whatever. It was a good day of riding overall, even if I didn't set any records.
Once again, no pics. Sorry.
Here are the stats:
Total Distance: 9.92 miles
Total Time: 1:28:40
Ascent: 1,279 feet
Average Speed: 6.7 mph
Top Speed: 28.6 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:
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