Archipelago Ride Part II

After taking a couple of tries to figure out the first half of my planned route for my Archipelago Ride, I decided today to do some exploring as to the second half. Since I now knew where I would end up after taking Artesian down into the canyon and riding the fire road back up, I figured today I'd ride from home, through Lusardi Canyon, and hook up with the Santa Luz loop where it joined the fire road from Artesian.

I got online and studied some google earth maps to plan out a route from Santa Luz over to the south entrance of Los Penasquitos Canyon. After some planning and navigating online, I geared up and headed out. Rachel and her family were at Disneyland for the day, so I had basically as long as I needed, which took the pressure off.

I left home, rode over through the Del Norte high school construction site, and made my way down into Lusardi Canyon. I was spinning along, taking it easy because I wasn't sure how demanding the entire route would be. I rode through Lusardi, under the Camino del Sur bridge, and up the climb to San Dieguito Road. From there I crossed the street and began the first of two fire road climbs that mark the western boundary of the Santa Luz loop.

It was really hot by that point, and my conditioning has been severely lacking. I had to HAB some of the first small fire road climb, and most of the second. As I cruised down the back of the second hill, I made the right and followed the Santa Luz trail through the residential neighborhood and over toward the horse park.

As I climbed the hill away from the horse park, once again I had some HAB. I'm not sure if it was because of the heat, my conditioning, my wobbly right crank, or some combination thereof, but my riding skills were really off today. I eventually made it to the top of the hill, and instead of riding under the bridge and hooking up with the rest of the Santa Luz loop, I cut through a planter and rode along Camino del Sur until I came to a singletrack offshoot that lead to the southwest under the bridge I had been on.

I followed the singeltrack for a few hundred yards until it linked up with a fire road that I believed would take me over to LPQ. It was relatively flat, and I rode along enjoying the relief from the climbs and the new scenery. I eventually crossed Black Mountain Road, and dropped into another canyon that google maps seemed to indicate would link up with LPQ.

My pre-ride navigation skills proved adequate, and pretty quickly I found myself on the back side of LPQ, staring at a couple of rough climbs. I made it up part of the first one, then had to HAB. Then I made it to a flat section on a small mesa, where I could see my destination in the distance. But between me and the mesa across the way stood another canyon with a brutal climb out. After a few minutes of riding around, looking for an easier route across to the other side, I resigned myself to my fate and headed down into the canyon. The subsequent climb was really, really rough.

It was basically fire road, and wasn't even that rutted. It was just steep, and sustained. I had to rest a few times, and HABed more of it than I would prefer. I finally got to the top, exhausted and drained, but pleased that I had successfully found a route from Santa Luz to LPQ.

I hooked up with some of the singeltrack on the mesa that I had ridden with Doug, Evan, and Sean a couple weeks ago, and made my way back to familiar territory. At one point on the upper mesa singletrack, I took a turn too quickly and washed out my front tire, landing awkwardly. I wasn't seriously hurt, but it was clear that my fatigue was taking its toll.

I made my way over to the Rocking Horse tunnel, and dropped in. I avoided the jumps, and concentrated on not crashing as I wound my way though the tunnels. As I reached the main tunnel trail, I tried to remember which way I had to turn to hook up with the tunnel network that would take me northeast toward the Mobil station at the end of Camino del Sur. My brain was foggy, and I was struggling to keep pedaling, and mistakenly made a right at the juncture instead of a left.

That little mental error added 10 minutes or so to my death march, because I didn't realize I had made a wrong turn until I reached the climb that leads up to the main tunnel entrance, which was not where I wanted to be. So I doubled back, retraced my steps, and eventually hooked up with the tunnel with the stream crossings and the bike at the exit/entrance.

I exited the "crossings" tunnel and headed over to the Camino del Sur trailhead. I almost crashed riding down the rutted section of trail that leads across the stream at the bottom just before the trailhead, and staggered up the HAB to the parking lot.

At that point, I got off the bike and stretched for a minute, trying to gather my energy and beat back the fatigue I was feeling. I started feeling a little better, and set off for the brief pavement ride that would take me back to the singletrack that composed the final leg of the Santa Luz loop.

The pavement ride was manageable, though the climb leading to the intersection of Camino del Sur and Carmel Valley Road was a little rough at that point. I made a right on Carmel Valley Road, and began looking for an opportunity to cut over to the dirt trail that would take me up the Santa Luz singletrack. I seriously considered just staying on Carmel Valley Road, and taking the pavement home, but didn't want to ruin the hard work I had done to that point to stay on route.

I found a break in the fence along Carmel Valley Road, and forced myself to go through it and over onto the dirt. As I rode along and began to start up the singeltrack leading up to Black Mountain Community Park, I was in rough shape. My legs were definitely hurting, and the heat had cracked me. I actually HABed a short section of the uphill singletrack, which I had never had to do before. Eventually I made it through the steepest portion, and found myself at the paved fire road behind Black Mountain Community Park.

On the day of the actual Archipelago Ride, I intend to ride down the paved fire road to the east, cross Carmel Valley Road, and hook up with the fire road that will take me over to the Laurentian trailhead at Black Mountain. From there I will climb Black Mountain, take the downhill from the top over to Miner's, and then ride down Canyon Rim back to Carmel Valley Road. Then I intend to take the 4S trails back to my doorstep and collapse.

Today, I simply took the paved fire road down to Carmel Valley Road and rode the pavement back downhill to the 4S trail network toward home. I actually had to stop for a rest during the last portion of the paved climb out of the 4S trails, because I was almost completely done for at that point. But eventually I did make it home, and Part II of my Archipelago Ride was complete.

It felt great to have scouted the last portion of uncharted trail on my planned route. I now know how to connect Santa Luz to LPQ, and with my recon of the Artesian connector from SDRP to Santa Luz, all of the scouting for the Archipelago Ride is complete. The question is whether I can pull it off. The climbs in today's portion were really rough, and I didn't even have to worry about any of the climbs from Part I of the route, or the Black Mountain climbs, which are bad enough by themselves, let along after 40 miles of riding beforehand.

I left today with some serious doubts about whether I can complete the whole Archipelago Ride, at least without a somewhat sustained break in the middle. If I have an aid station somewhere near San Dieguido Road, and take a medium break after the LPQ portion or at Black Mountain Community Park, that may work. But riding the whole thing straight through, without stopping, is going to be virtually impossible for me.

I'm also wondering if I should have someone along with me, just for safety and companionship. I had envisioned doing this ride alone, as kind of a rite of passage or self-imposed gauntlet, but now I'm not sure. At a minimum, it would be nice to have someone to take pictures, because I was too tired to take any today.

So Part II is complete, and my route is clear. Next, for my final pre-ride in Part III, I'll ride from home up to Black Mountain Community Park, and then take the fire road from there over to the Laurentian trailhead for the Black Mountain pre-ride. That is going to be tough, but I want to have ridden each section of the Archipelago Ride all the way through before I attempt riding them all together. I'm looking forward to it, even though I have significant apprehension.

Here are the stats from today:

Total Distance: 22.72 miles

Total Time: 3:39:41

Ascent: 2552 feet

Average Speed: 6.2 mph

Top Speed: 34.0 mph

Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite

Map:

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