RR: Black Mountain

I had talked to Sean about doing the Warrior's Society Toad Festival today, but we agreed that the mileage and climbing were probably more than we were good for at this point, and we decided to do something more local.

After a review of my 2008 Ride List, I realized that I had not ridden a single new trail since March other than Sweetwater on Wednesday. While looking at the remaining 2008 rides, it seemed that for most of them I either needed a guide to show me around or they were too far away to ride today. Except for one. Black Mountain.

Black Mountain was close, on my ride list, and pretty navigable from the information I could find online. I did have some concerns about what routes to take, but I actually enjoy exploring, so I figured everything would be fine. Any lingering fears about what route to take were further allayed on Friday night, as I was doing laundry. I was washing the shorts that I had worn during Sean and my Santa Luz ride last week, and found the Black Mountain Open Space map that I had grabbed from the Santa Luz trailhead. The map (which you can see online here) contained information about all the trails on Black Mountain as well, which I had not noticed before. I looked it over Friday night, sketched out what seemed to be a good route, and was ready to go.

Sean picked me up at home around 8:00 a.m. We wanted to drive to the trailhead rather than ride, because we didn't want to burn all of our energy riding up Carmel Valley Road and through RPQ just to get to the dirt. We initially were going to start from the Maler Road trailhead, but when we got there we could see that it began with a steep fireroad climb right out of the gate. Looking at the map, we could see another nearby trailhead, off of Stargaze Road, that looked more promising. We drove the two streets over to get there, and found the Laurentian trailhead. That's where we started.

We got underway and began the main fire road climb up Black Mountain Service Road. I could describe the overall route we intended to take, but it is exactly the route we ended up doing, and I don't want to ruin the suspense.

The climb up Black Mountain Service Road wasn't easy, but it was nowhere near as hard as I had anticipated. It wasn't super steep, and I didn't have to HAB at all. I did stop to rest about three times, but maintained a pretty steady pace otherwise, and the rests were very short.

Near the top we arrived at the junction of the Black Mountain Service Road, the Nighthawk Trail, and what I'll call the "Miner's Connector Trail" (since its apparently unnamed). We consulted our trusty map, and decided to go ahead and finish the fire road up to the summit of the mountain where the towers are, and then ride back down to the junction and ride one of the trails from there.

The rest of the ride up the Black Mountain Service Road to the summit was relatively short, and while it did get a little steeper, I was still able to avoid any HAB's. We stopped just short of the top at an overlook, and enjoyed the views of Santa Luz and Rancho Santa Fe to the west. To the north, we could see 4S and the pond that we'd ride next to later.

From the overlook we also briefly hiked over to investigate a trail that headed off to the west that was not on the map. It began with a rutted, steep downhill followed by an equally steep and rutted climb. It seemed to go near the Glider Port Trail, but we couldn't tell where it went after it disappeared over a ridge.




We briefly considered taking it, but decided to stick with our original planned route. Then we finished up our ride to the top and took a few pictures.



From there it was a quick banzi down the fireroad back to the junction with the Nighthawk Trail. Nighthawk began with a relatively steep and rocky downhill, which I enjoyed and Sean hiked a bit of.

Here's the view from the top of Nighthawk:

At the base of the initial drop, we had intended to take the Miner's Connector Trail over to the Miner's Ridge Loop trail and ride that loop. However, the entrance to the Miner's Connector Trail is easy to miss, and I shot by it the first time without noticing. It wasn't until I found myself at the intersection of Nighthawk Trail, Little Black Loop Trail, and East Rim Trail that I realized I had missed the connector to Miner's.

We doubled back, and found the Miner's Connector Trail. It was actually a pretty fun trail, with very narrow singletrack and some rocky sections to keep things interesting.

Here's the entrance to the Connector Trail:


And here's a short section of the Connector Trail:

After about a half mile, we hit Miner's Ridge Loop Trail, and had a decision to make. I wasn't sure whether we should ride it clockwise or counter-clockwise. I've heard arguments for both, and have hiked it in the past but never ridden it.

We decided to go clockwise, and I think it was the right decision. There was two or there spots on the first half of the loop that I had to HAB because they were particularly steep and rocky, but for the most part we were riding along great. The first half of the Loop ended with an awesome series of tight, waterbared downhill switchbacks, all of which I cleaned. It was an incredibly fun section. I waited at the main entrance of the Miner's Ridge Loop for a minute for Sean to show up, and we embarked on the second half of the Loop.

The second half of the Loop was mostly ridable at first, but as we got closer to our starting point at the Connector Trail, there were a few sustained HAB sections for me. They were steep and rocky, and I was feeling the climbs at that point.

We finally arrived back at the Connector Trail, and took it back over to the Nighthawk Trail. From there we headed over to the East Rim Trail. We were tired by that point, but were having a great time exploring, and we wanted to feel like we had seen as much of the mountain as possible.

The East Rim Trail actually was almost all fire road, and began with a short downhill section followed by an incredibly steep climb.

The climb was neither rutted nor loose, but Sean and I both found ourselves HABing pretty early on. After a little more than a quarter mile, we reached the top of the climb, and rode a short section of the trail before we had another, shorter HAB climb up to the ridge. From there we could see Carmel Mountain to the east and almost to the ocean to the west.

We knew there was a way from the ridge we were on back down to the meadow at the base of Black Mountain, but weren't completely sure where the trail was that would take us down. (I've heard that trail is called "Derailleur," and now I know why. But we'll get to that.) You can see on the map of our route at the bottom of this page where we would start down some singletrack off the East Rim Trail that would dead end in the brush, so we'd bushwhack back up to the main trail/fire road and keep going.

We kept making our way along the East Rim Trail, and after one last uphill HAB reached the end of the ridge and spotted the trail that would take us down. It was very steep. And rocky. And rutted. And steep. Just before we started down, we spotted an older couple hiking up the trail about 100 yards away. We waited for them to get to the top where we were, and were pretty impressed that these old people had hiked all the way up. We also knew that we didn't have any excuses for worrying about riding down the trial, seeing how senior citizens were walking up it...

I started down first, and it was pretty fun and definitely challenging. I worked the brakes to keep from skidding, and was careful to not let myself get caught riding down in the deep ruts that scarred the middle of the trail. It was as steep as it looked from the top, and was pretty long, so I found myself stopping about halfway down for a quick breather to give my quads and brakes a short rest.

After that I shot down the rest of the trail, and waited at the bottom near the pond for Sean to arrive. It was a pretty gnarly descent, and I felt good about making it without dabbing or falling.

Here's a pic from the bottom of the trail, looking back up Derailleur:


Here's a shot from that same spot, this time looking south towards Black Mountain:

Sean showed up a few minutes later, and we continued up the trail as it skirted the pond and the housing development and ended at Carmel Valley Road.

At that point, we realized we had been riding longer than we thought, and I had somewhere to be in less than an hour. Because of that, rather than road ride back up Carmel Valley Road, to Black Mountain Road, and up to the Laurentian trailhead, we took the 4S trails back to my house. I changed in record time, and we loaded Sean's bike on the back of the car and Rach and I dropped him back at his truck at the trailhead on the way out to our appointment.

The ride was a ton of fun, with awesome exploration and outstanding new trails. It took longer than we expected, and there was more HAB than I would have preferred, but for once the HAB didn't really take away from the joy of the experience.

I don't think I'd do the East Rim Trail again, just because the cost outweighed the benefits. The fire road climb(s) up to the ridge were really rough, and the downhill at derailleur was challenging, but not exactly fun becuase it was so steep and rutted out.

There were a few trails we didn't check out, and I'm looking forward to getting back there to ride them. I want to incorporate the Little Black Loop Trail next time, and maybe even the out and back section of the South Point View Trail. Also, that trail that we saw from the overlook near the top of the mountain that went near the gliderport seemed to end up connecting with the Miner's Ridge Loop Trail, so that may be on the agenda next time as well.

The biggest question I have about riding here again is how to end the ride. I'm thinking my route for next time will be something like this:

Laurentian trailhead up the Black Mountain Service Road to the summit;
Down Black Mountain Service Road to Nighthawk;
Nighthawk to Little Black Loop Trail;
Little Black Loop Trail to South Point View Trail (out and back, connecting back up to Little Black Loop Trail);
Little Black Loop Trail to Nighthawk;
Nighthawk south downhill to the Oviedo Trailhead;
Oviedo road ride back to Laurentian trailhead and finish.

That route is entirely on the south side of the mountain, and admittedly leaves off Miner's Ridge Loop trail which I enjoy. To remedy that, I plan to make a totally different ride out of the trails on the North side. For that ride, I'll do this route I think:

From home, ride 4S trails to Carmel Valley Road;
Carmel Valley road up paved road at Black Mountain Open Space Park.
From trailhead/parking lot, ride Miner's Ridge Loop Trail clockwise;
Back to the traihead/parking lot;
Ride down Canyon Rim Trail;
Back up paved road to trailhead/parking lot;
Down fire road trail across meadow;
Up trail along pond;
Back to Carmel Valley Rd, then across street to 4S trails and home.

My biggest regret is that neither of my two routes include the Miner's Connector Trail, which is a pretty fun section. So I may play with these routes to see if I can make something else fun out of them.

Either way I enjoyed Black Mountain way more than I expected, and will be back there soon, particularly considering its proximity.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 10.32 miles
Total Time: 2:44:07
Ascent: 2111 feet
Average Speed: 3.8 mph
Top Speed: 23.8 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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