After some uncertainty about the status of the Clairemont Mesa trailhead, we decided to meet at the horse park off Mast at the north end of MTRP at 9:30. Because neither of us had a specific route in mind, last night I gave Billy a call and asked him if he knew of any good trails we could do. He said that the MTRP trails were mostly steep up and downs and not a lot of fun, but sent me a GPS file of a recent loop he did through Spring and Oak Canyon, which sounded like fun. I downloaded the route to my Edge, though I wasn't sure how it worked or if we would even ride those trails.
When I arrived I saw that Doug and Sean were already there, as was Evan. We geared up and were regaled with the tales of an older gentlemen who was there with one of his horses while we waited for Jeremy to arrive. We set out shortly thereafter, and after a quarter mile or so stopped to discuss our route. Since nobody had really ridden here before, and the consensus was that the trails over on the west side of MTRP were steep and hard to get to, I was able to convince the group to give Spring and Oak Canyons a shot.
We started back on our way, and took a right on the fire road that would take us under the 52 freeway and north to Spring Canyon. As we made the turn to the north, my Edge chirped at me, and notified me that I was "on route" for the trail I had downloaded. I had actually forgotten about downloading the trail to the GPS, and was pretty pumped that it was working without any effort on my part.
We continued under the 52 and into Spring Canyon. I stopped at a short singletrack offshoot, and Sean decided that it looked more fun than the fire road through the canyon, so we headed that way. We meandered through the singletrack, which was basically flat with a few dry stream bed crossings entertaining S-curves. Apparently there had been a car fire on the 52 recently that had ignited the canyon, and evidence of the burned areas was clear. Luckily the fire was quickly contained, and the damage was limited.
We continued along the singletrack for a bit until we reached another fork in the road. Continuing left (northwest) would lead us into a saddle between two hills, and presumably toward Oak Canyon. Heading right (slightly northeast) would allow us to continue through Spring Canyon. The GPS was a little difficult to read, and I suggested we continue through Spring Canyon for a while to see what was up ahead. There were no dissenters, and we took a right.From there we rode a mix of fireroad and singletrack north through Spring Canyon. While it looked pretty flat, I found myself getting fairly fatigued as I spun along, trying to keep up with Sean and Evan who were leading the way. We rode along for about a mile or so, until we reached another intersection at the base of a steep fire road. We stopped there for a minute to rest, which I think Doug and Jeremy appreciated.
Rather than climb the steep fire road to nowhere, we beared left and rode along another singletrack section that continued even farther up the canyon to the north. Eventually we reached a steep climb that involved some HAB on the way up. As we reached the top, we had a neat view of MCAS Miramar and the firing range to the northwest.
I joined Evan in getting out of the line of fire as we waited for the other guys to finish the climb, and then we had a decision to make. We could either head back the way we came and do the fun downhill section we just HAB'ed, or take a fire road that headed southwest to parts unknown. Always a fan of exploring new trails, I favored the fire road. Others wanted to get some payoff for the climbing they just suffered through, and wanted to double back. Fortunately, a compromise was struck. We decided to ride up the fire road for a short distance up to a point where we could see how far it went and whether it looked like a good way to connect over to Oak Canyon. We made it up the fire road and quickly saw that it would be more fun to double back the way we came and take the trail that cut over to Oak that we had bypassed earlier. Here was the view from the top of the fire road looking south:
We bombed back down the singletrack through Spring Canyon, and as I flew along the sweeping turns and entertaining bumps and mini-jumps, realized why I had been struggling going the other direction. Apparently, there had been a slight but significant incline to the trail as we rode north, which I was enjoying considerably more at this point as I headed south.We quickly made our way back to the Oak connector, and started west. If I had followed the GPS route at the outset, we would have gong this way in the first place, but our extended northbound detour was actually pretty fun, so I had no regrets.
After a short distance along the connector trail we were climbing again, and the fatigue crept back in. Sean and Evan were having no problems, despite Sean having been stricken with the plague earlier this week and Evan coming off a gnarly knee injury he suffered at LPQ that had kept him off the bike for the last month or so. They did stop about halfway up the steepest portion of the connector trail, which I appreciated. After a brief rest, we were back under way.
The connector singletrack eventually lead to a fire/utility road, which involved some brief HAB, even for our intrepid ride leaders.
We reached the top of the fire/utility road, and saw Oak Canyon below us to the west. We stopped for another short break to wait for a rider who was climbing up the singletrack that we would be descending. During the break, we saw something on the side of the trail a short distance away, which I thought looked like an old, rusted tank tread. Sean disagreed, saying it was too small to be from a tank, and I figured with his military and technical background he must be right. After the rider made it up the climb and we chatted with him for a few minutes about directions, we headed down the singletrack into Oak Canyon.
On the way down the singletrack Sean and I stopped to check out the mystery item. Tank tread. Ha. He took a pic, which I hope he'll send to me.The descent into Oak Canyon was a lot of fun, with several tight switchbacks, some of which I cleaned and some I didn't. We reached the bottom of the downhill and regrouped again. Here's the trail as it continued south through Oak Canyon.
The rest of the ride through Oak was very comparable to the trails through Sycamore Canyon, which I consider to be a good thing. It was largely fun, narrow, undulating singletrack, with lots of fun turns and berms. We were through Oak in no time, and quickly found ourselves riding back under the 52 and into the MTRP trail network. We had a couple of steep fire road climbs that required some HAB, and when we reached the top we could see how to get back to the parking lot.
It was at this point that we regrouped and got a brief report from Evan about the LPQ land use meeting last week. The conversation took a decidedly historical turn as Sean waxed eloquent on the relative success of the doctrine of appeasement and how that worked for Poland. I think he was trying to make an analogy to the SDMBA policy of agreeing to close a bunch of LPQ trails in order to keep others open. Nicely played, Sean.Before we got back under way, I shot this pic looking back the way we'd come. I remembered seeing these fire roads when driving on the 52, so it was neat to finally ride them.
From there it was a short downhill ride back to the trailhead, and I had to take off almost right after we got back in order to make it home as close to on time as possible. I had a fun time on this ride, and am excited to have gotten to do it with this particular group, who I really enjoy riding with. Also, the Garmin was an awesome tool, and made navigating much easier and the ride considerably more enjoyable than if we had just been guessing on a good route. I plan on using the upload feature again in the future of possible.Here are the stats:
Total Distance: 12.46 miles
Total Time: 2:40:25
Ascent: 1506 feet
Average Speed: 4.6 mph
Top Speed: 25.3 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:
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