RR: Cuyamaca Poker Ride

Today I took part for the first time in the annual Cuyamaca Poker Ride. I heard about the event earlier this year, and had signed up for it well in advance. Despite the fact that I had ridden this particular route twice before in the last four months, I was still looking forward to it because of the event atmosphere. I was also excited to see how the new Spider performed.

The day began with an early wake up, and I was on the road around 6:15 a.m. to meet Billy and Bill P. at Grossmont Center. I had some excitement on the drive down that I won't get into here, but regular readers are free to email me for the whole story. It's worth it.

I met up with the Bills at about 7:00, and we carpooled the rest of the way up to the Cuyamacas. We parked on a grass field near one of the campgrounds, and I got in line to check in. Ironically, the line for those who had pre-registered was 10 times longer than the one for same-day registration.


I eventually got signed in and received my t-shirt, and went back to the truck to finish getting ready to ride. The temperature was in the low 30's, and when the wind blew, it was extremely chilly. I had my arm warmers on under my long sleeve jersey, and Billy let me borrow a fleece hat to wear under my helmet, which was a tremendous blessing. We got underway about 8:30, and were part of the first wave of riders, even though there was no "official" start.

The route today was almost exactly the same as the Cuyamaca Ride I did with Billy in mid-June, with one exception which I'll get to later. We rode up the fire road to the Soapstone singletrack, where we encountered our first poker stop.

I don't remember what card I received, but I think it was a four of clubs. The stop wasn't too crowded, and we were back underway, up the Soapstone single tracks, in only a couple minutes.

As much as I don't care for the Cuyamaca Grand Loop, it was actually very fortuitous that I had ridden it twice previously in the last few months. My recent experiences on this trail allowed me to compare clearly how this ride felt on the new bike as opposed to how it felt on the Enduro. The differences manifested early on, as I was able to complete the entire singletrack climb up Soapstone without stopping. At the Cuyamaca SDMBA Night Ride, I had bailed out even before the singletracks due to fatigue. Before that, with Billy in June, I had been forced to stop two or three times on the climb to rest and recover. Today, I did experience some fatigue, but didn't stop, and wasn't even dead when I reached the top.

From the summit we rode the fun swoopy singletracks around the north side of the mountain. Toward the end of that section, I heard riders ahead of me yelling about bees, and saw a woman hiker frantically swatting herself and hopping around. At that same instant, I felt a sharp pinch just above my waist. My jersey had ridden up, leaving a small sliver of exposed skin at my lower back, and I had been stung. I'm apparently not allergic, but it hurt like crazy.

I pedaled on for about another half mile, then stopped at the next climb to asses my wound and take a break. I felt fortunate to only have been stung once, as several riders who also stopped nearby complained of multiple stings, especially on their head. I was particularly thankful at this point for the fleece cap Billy had lent me, which probably saved me from more stings.

I did take an opportunity during my rest period to shoot a picture of Lake Cuyamaca in the distance.

From there it was a quick ride through the next singletrack section, then another poker stop, and then some fire roads which led back to the Sunrise Highway. After a short road ride, I began the climb up Milk Ranch Road.

Once again I was thrilled to have the Spider instead of the Enduro, as I was able to spin a pretty good cadence almost the whole way up Milk Ranch Road. I started to fatigue toward the very top, but made the entire climb without stopping.

From there we began the last significant climb up to Azalea Springs, which was a little rough. I didn't clean the initial steep uphill section, but neither did anyone else near me. After that short HAB, I was able to clean the rest of the climb without stopping, though my pace had slowed significantly. Not having to stop to rest, however, was an accomplishment for me. I did stop briefly at the very top for this picture, which I thought was beautiful.

At the top of Azalea Springs I met up with Billy and Bill, and we started down the fire road descent. I took it a little easy after nearly going over the bars early in the descent, as I was adjusting to the less slack geometry of the Spider. I didn't notice a huge difference between my bikes as far as travel, but the more XC-race geometry of the Spider had me more forward than I was used to, and I found myself almost going OTB a couple of times during the downhill.

Even at my cautious pace, the descent was over way to quickly and I found myself back at the Sunrise Highway. Back in June, Billy and I had ridden the road back to the campground, but this time I was directed by trail guides to an awesome singletrack section across the highway that I had never ridden. That was probably my favorite section of the entire ride. It began with a neat descent down some stair-steps, and included several switchbacks, some fun up-and-down portions, and even a little technical stuff that I enjoyed.

The singletrack ended near the entrance to the campground, and the ride was over. I met up with Billy and Bill at the truck, and all of us commented on how much we had enjoyed ourselves. After a few minutes getting changed, we headed over to the lunch line, where we had spaghetti and salad which wasn't too bad.

We hung around for the next hour or so, meeting new people and waiting for the opportunity drawing (raffle) to start. With only one ticket, I didn't have high hopes of winning, and it was good I didn't get my hopes up.

They had some decent swag, including an XTR wheelset, but the raffle dragged on forever, and we eventually decided to leave a little early. Mostly empty handed. I did end up with two water bottles, one from the Specialized demo booth and one from the volunteers who were throwing them into the crowd. So between the bottles and my t-shirt, I feel like I did OK. Billy got a bottle too.

As we headed home, I thought about the day. Considering the events of the early morning (which I did not describe in detail here), the day could have gone quite differently. As it was, I had a fun ride, on a great new bike, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I'll probably do it again next year, and I'll definitely do Middle Peak.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 19.49 miles
Total Time: 2:38:20
Ascent: 2304 feet
Average Speed: 7.4 mph
Top Speed: 25.6 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map