RR: La Costa

I wanted to try something new today, and despite not having anyone to ride with, I decided to go check out the popular trail network over at La Costa. Armed with Mountainbike Bill's directions and a printed map, I headed over to the trailhead. Despite how geographically close this trail is to my house, getting there by car was a colossal hassle. I ended up going Camino del Sur to San Dieguito Rd. and driving through Rancho Santa Fe to get there, but there has to be a better way. I could literally almost see my house from the top of the mountain, but it took me about 30 minutes to drive there. Crazy!

In any event, I arrived at the street near where the trail was, parked, and headed up the sidewalk to the trailhead.

It was a georgeous day, and I was just glad to be back on the bike after a more than two week hiatus. I was also happy to be trying out my new point and shoot camara, a Canon Powershot SD790 IS. I quickly arrived at the gravel road that led to the trail and headed up.

I was immediately presented with a fork in the road, and was not sure which way to go. My maps and directions were decent, but I quickly wished that I had waited to ride this trail until I could come with someone who knew where they were going. I elected to head toward the right, which ended up being the correct call. I pedaled a short distance and found myself heading up the trail I was looking for, which consisted of a series of switchbacks.

The switchback climb started out OK, with a managable grade and some mildly techy parts that were cleanable for me. As a matter of fact I found myself powering through several rocky sections that I would have normally had to walk in the past, so I was feeling pretty good.

After a little while however, fatigue set in and I found myself off the bike, HABing the steeper switchbacks. Maybe it was not riding and behind my desk 12 hours a day for two weeks. Maybe it was the lack of a decent warm-up before the climbing began in earnest. Either way, I was not able to ride the entire first section of the switchback climb, which was disappointing.

I did re-mount fairly quickly and was able to get a good pace going after a while. I stopped at a trail juncture to check my map and make sure I was heading the right direction.

The switchbacks seemed to go on forever, but the top of the hill gradually began getting closer and closer. My plan, based on MTB Bill's recommendation, was to ride the switchback trail up, then go down NASCAR, then climb back up (somehow) and ride down the Vista del Mar trail.

I had a difficult time finding the entrance of NASCAR, and after riding around the top of the mountain a bit, doubled back toward the switchbacks and eventually found it. I had heard quite a bit about this section of trail, and had some apprehension. To my surprise, I was able to ride the entire thing without stopping or dabbing, though I didn't launch any of the big jumps. The NASCAR descent was a ton of fun but over far too quickly, and at the bottom I found myself unsure about how to get back up to the top of the mountain. Because I now knew the route, I elected to just ride back up the switchbacks, which was a little repetative and boring. I rode more of the climb this time, but still had a few HAB sections due exclusively to fatigue. I also stopped at the top for a minute to take a picture and enjoy the view.

From there I headed down Vista del Mar, and the descent was an absolute blast. It was flowy, well maintained, and even had a couple of technical spots that I enjoyed. On one of them there was a sign designating the "easy" and "hard" choices for the line. My natural path had taken me toward the easier of the two, but after conquering NASCAR, my confidence was high and I felt good about my chances on the more difficult route. So I hiked back up the trail a little ways and hit the harder portion of the trail with no problem. It felt great.

Unlike NASCAR, Vista del Mar wasn't over too quickly, and it was a nice payoff for all the climbing. At the bottom, I briefly considered another trip up to the top so that I could ride down the switchbacks, but it was getting late and I needed to get home. I found a sign near the base of the switchbacks that directed me back toward the trailhead, and I headed that direction.
I was back at the car in no-time, and was glad to have decided to ride La Costa today. This particular trail had not been on my original 2008 Ride List, but after hearing so much about it I had tacked it (and Ted Williams) on to my to-do list during the first quarter of 2008. It was definitely a fun trail, and I was really happy about how I'd handled the technical stuff, especially on the 4" travel Spider. (In fact, when trying to decide between the Spider and an Intense 5.5, one shop owner told me that if I wanted to ride trails like La Costa, the 5.5 was the better choice. And if I was going to be launching the big jumps, he may have been right, but the Spider did everything I needed it to today and more.)

One thing I'm not sure about is what the best general route would be if I came back here again. Climbing the switchbacks twice was a little boring, and it would actually be fun to ride down them at some point as well. Climbing Vista del Mar is not appealing to me at all, but may be the way to go if I want some variety next time. I'm sure someone out there has some ideas of what the best route is as far as flow and fun, so hopefully they'll post a suggestion here. No matter what route I take this is not a trail network with a ton of flow and rhythm. You basically climb and climb, then fly downhill, and repeat. I still had a great time, and am grateful to those who spent a ton of time working to make the trails themselves outstanding and in incredible shape.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 8.91 miles
Total Time: 1:53:45
Ascent: 1640 feet
Average Speed: 4.7 mph
Top Speed: 20.9 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

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