As it turned out, Billy and I were the only ones who were able to make it, and we arranged last night to meet in La Mesa and carpool out to the mountains. The plans turned out perfect, and I was able to go to Performance Bike in La Mesa beforehand to get some supplies and use my coupon, and even dropped the Tahoe off at the Firestone where we met to get some long overdue work done.
We made it to the trailhead in Cuyamaca about 9:15, and were underway shortly there after. Just as we passed through the campground, we spotted a group of six or seven turkeys crossing the trail. I took a few pictures, but only this one really came out:
There were actually five or six turkeys. The others were camara shy. The real ride started on a fire road outside of the campground and headed north. After a mile or so we exchanged the fire road for singletrack, and soon thereafter we began the first sustained climb of the day up part of the Soapstone fire road and the Upper Green Valley trail.
We climbed for about two or three miles, and it was a grind. Not super steep, and not technical, just sustained incline that proved tiring. I stopped and rested a couple times, but didn't HAB, and kept Billy in sight the whole time.
We reached the top of Upper Green Valley trail, and began a short singletrack descent that made its way along the road. It was pretty fun, and was narrow and swoopy for the most part. It was mostly nice to get a break from the climbing. The singletrack wound along a meadow, and I could see Lake Cuyamaca in the near distance.
From there we rode another half mile of singletrack, and after a short climb, found ourselves at an intersection. If we headed left, we would hook back up with the Soapstone fire road we rode at the very beginning, and the day would be over. If we headed right, we'd take the California riding and hiking trail to another system of trails, making it a much longer ride. We went right.
The next section was mostly fire road, and pretty rutted fire road at that. It was at least relatively flat, and we spun along enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. There was still some evidence of the 2003 fires, which reminded me of how long certain areas can take to recover from that kind of devastation.
The fire road dumped us out on to the 79 for a short road ride, and we then made our way over to Milk Ranch Road for the next climb of the day.
The climb up Milk Ranch Road was another grind, even harder than the first climb of the day had been. I had to rest two or three times, and my back was pretty stiff after being bent over for so long. Again, the grade wasn't particularly steep, and it was not techy, just long.
At the top of Milk Ranch Road, we hung a left and began another sustained climb up to Azeala Springs. This time, the climb began with a steep, sandy, rutted section that I tried to clean, but spun out about halfway up.
I HAB'ed the last 20 yards or so, and then re-mounted for the climb. I had actually been feeling pretty good up to that point, for a change. My nutrition had been good, and my stomach, which is usually the first thing to go, had been feeling great. Also, despite the sustained climbs, my lungs and legs had been feeling pretty good. During the final climb up to Azeala Springs, my legs started to fatigue, making this ride the first time that my legs started to go before my lungs or stomach. I counted that as a victory.
The Azeala Springs climb lasted another two miles or so, and this time Billy opened up a pretty big gap on me. I was spinning away, and didn't HAB except for the short section at the beginning, but my pace was slow. It was still fire road, but the scenery was pretty good.
I eventually caught up to Billy at the rest spot near the top of the hill, and we rested for a few minutes and drank from the spring water they had there.
After that it was another short climb (you can see a theme here) up to the very top of Azalea Springs, which I made without stopping.
After all of that climbing, I was ready for the payoff. But then came the mechanical.
Just as we crested Azalea Springs, Billy noticed his rear tire was low. We pumped it up, and we rode on for a few yards, but he could tell immediately that it was not holding air. This development was a little annoying, but not catastrophic, and flats on the trails are a part of riding. Plus, Billy had two spare slime tubes in his pack, so he was covered.
At least he should have been covered.
He popped the leaky tire off his bike, and threw a new tube on. Using his CO2 cartridges, he pumped up the new tube. As he replaced the tire, however, he realized that the new tube was not holding air. Upon further inspection, we spotted a slice in the tube, right along the seam.
We double checked the inside of the tire and the rim, but there were no lingering sharp objects that would have caused the slice. So we chalked it up to a faulty tube, and decided to try his other spare. He put that one on the rim, began pumping, and the same exact thing happened. Apparently, the slime tubes he had purchased had manufacturer defects.
And now we had a problem. I didn't have any spare tubes, and neither of us had brought a patch kit. After more than 35 minutes of screwing around with these tire changes, we were out of options. We were about six miles from the car, and Billy had no way to get air in his rear tire.
We brainstormed for a few minutes, and couldn't come up with any solutions.
Here was where we had stopped:
We had the option of walking his bikes down the paved road back to the 79, and then going and getting the truck from there. But after thinking about it, Billy estimated that the paved road was actually a longer route than continuing down Azalea Springs fire road to Fern Flat fire road and back to the car.
So he began walking.
He told me to ride on ahead and I could wait for him at the car, but I wasn't going to just leave him behind. So I would ride downhill for a half mile or so, and then turn around and climb back up to where he was walking and ride alongside him for a bit, then repeat.
After about 2o minutes of this routine, we realized it was going to be a very long walk back to the car, and began brainstorming about possible solutions again. We decided to try to cut up one of the defective slime tubes to use as a patch for the original tube that had two small punctures.
Using my leatherman I got for Christmas, we cut up a piece of the defective slime tube and tried to affix it as a patch over the punctured tube. That didn't work. The slime was slippery, and kept the tube from staying put over the hole.
Then we tried medical tape. Billy wrapped tape around the punctures, and that seemed to work. The tube at least held some air, and we threw the tire back on and shot down the downhill. It was rutted and rocky, and the vibration was significant. We had to stop every mile or so to put air in Billy's tire, but at least it was holding enough to let him ride it.
We got to the end of Fern Flat fire road, and took the Pipeline fire road north back to the 79 instead of south to the singletrack like we had planned before the mechanical.
After a half mile on the Pipeline fire road, we hit the 79, and did a mile or so road ride back to the truck to finish the ride.
This was not a "fun" ride. The climbs were long and sustained, and while I felt as good as I ever have climbing, and avoided HABing almost entirely, the climbs were not really enjoyable. The views were beautiful, and the weather was virtually perfect, which made the ride better than it would have been otherwise. But between the long climbs and mechanicals, it wasn't a ton of fun.
Also, this route was about 80% fire road, which is never ideal. While I don't mind climbing fire road to get to downhill singletrack, that was not the case here. For this route, it was fire road climb to flat short singletrack to fire road climb to fire road descent. Meh.
I enjoyed riding with Billy, and was pleased with my riding overall. It just wasn't a particularly fun route, and is not one I'd do again unless I had a specific reason.
Here are the stats:
Total Distance: 20.07 miles
Total Time: 4:36:39
Ascent: 2705 feet
Average Speed: 4.4 mph
Top Speed: 29.3 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:
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