RR: Sweetwater Reservoir

Rachel is still dealing with the effects of the Fall River Virus she got on vacation, so I decided to head out to Skyline today by myself for church and then head over to my good friend John Nelson's college graduation party afterward. I knew that the party would be wrapping up around mid-afternoon and figured that would be an ideal time to go check out Sweetwater Reservoir again. The first and only time I had ridden there was back in June when I rode with the World Cycles crew, and I really enjoyed the trail, so I had been looking for an opportunity to get back there.

Before I could ride, however, I needed to obtain a replacement screw for my cleat after my mishap yesterday on Black Mountain. After church, on the way to the grad party I stopped at Soul Cycles in El Cajon to see about buying a replacement screw. The owner, Dave, was in the shop and hooked me up with a replacement screw for free, which I appreciated tremendously. In less than a minute I was in and out of the shop and able to ride that afternoon. Awesome.

The party was winding down around 2:00, so I headed over to the Steele Bridge and got underway. During the ride back in June, I arrived a few minutes late and had to fly to catch up with the group. It was nice today to start the ride at an easier warm-up pace, and I really enjoyed the first section of singletrack as it paralleled the Sweetwater river and made its way through several fun, techy spots.

At one point early on I passed a hiker and his large yellow lab who was walking off leash next to him. I waved hello and rode on without thinking much about it. About a half mile later, however, I came upon a large coyote just off the trail. The coyote was huge, almost the size of an adult German Shepherd, and it ran off slowly up the hill as I approached. I waited a minute as it retreated further up the hill and then decided to wait a minute or two more to warn the hiker and his dog. I knew that the coyote posed no real threat to a dog his size, but the size of the coyote itself and how slowly it ran away made me at least want to warn the hiker about its presence. The hiker was grateful and elected to leash his dog for the time being, so I felt good about staying to issue the warning.

From there I continued through the singletrack to the fire road that paralleled the river. There were one or two muddly spots in the middle of the fire roads, but I had no choice to just pedal through and not worry about it. At least the singletrack so far had been mud-free.

It had turned out to be an absolutely breathtaking day, and with the rain earlier in the week keeping me off the trails and another series of storms forecast for the next week, I was thrilled to be getting two rides in this weekend.

After the fire road I began the steep climb up the main hill. It had been my undoing back in June, and while I did significantly better today, there was still some HAB about 2/3 of the way through as fatigue set in. I was on the bike pedaling about halfway up when I experienced a "burp" in my rear tire for the first time. I have been running tubeless tires with Stan's sealant since I built the Spider, and I had heard they sometimes burp when the tire pressure gets low, but this was the first time it had happened. The tire was still far from flat, but I stopped and put some air in it anyway with my hand pump just to be sure. I took this picture from near the top of the climb where I stopped, looking back the way I'd come:

I eventually made it to the top of the climb, and then enjoyed the descent down toward the small pond and the short climb afterward toward the Palapa. From there I headed left up the next singletrack climb that would take me over towards the lake.

I made the next climb with no problem, and then came to a decision point. Back in June I had just doubled back to the Palapa from there, while most of the group descended down toward the lake and then did a steep singletrack climb up the back side of the hill to the Palapa. I had some gas left in my tank, and would always rather do a loop than an out-and-back, so I headed down the hill toward the lake.

This turned out to be a mistake, but not for the reason you may think.

The initial descent was very bumpy and rough, which seemed strange to me. At the bottom I made a right and rode along a narrow singletrack that was almost completely obliterated by post holes and clods of dirt. I pedaled as much as I could, but the soil was so torn up that it became impossible to ride. The only culprit I could determine was equestrians who had apparently ridden this trail right after the rain a few days ago. The trail for the next 3/4 of a mile was totally annihilated, with 4 inch deep holes and torn up soil along the entire trail. While there were two climbs that would have been tough if the trail was pristine, riding even the flat sections was impossible thanks to the damage. The scenery was pretty, even if the trail was a mess.

As a result I ended up HABing most of the singletrack between the bottom of the hill and the Palapa, which wasn't a ton of fun. Also, the extensive HAB caused my right cleat to start coming loose, which made clipping and unclipping a problem when I did try to ride a section of trail.

Once I finally reached the Palapa I tightened down both cleats and took in the views before getting back under way. The downhill from the back side of the Palapa was the highlight of the trail when I rode it in June, but there were some puddles on the lower section that I slowed down for today that took a little of the thrill out of it. I eventually re-joined the main fire road that took me back to the singletrack trail that parallels the river, and headed back towards the car.

During the singletrack section near the end I did manage to clean several short steep climbs that felt good, and also nailed a techy rocky downhill that was a lot of fun. The portion of this trail between the Steele Bridge and the fire road is a blast to ride and very scenic, making it one of my favorite sections of trail I've ridden.

I really enjoy this trail, and would ride it more often if it was closer to home. I really want to explore some singletrack that I saw betwee the steep climb and descent down from the Palapa as well. By the end of the ride my bike was a muddy mess from the puddles on the fire roads, but the fun I had was well worth it.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 12.05 miles
Total Time: 2:04:26
Ascent: 1706 feet
Average Speed: 5.8 mph
Top Speed: 20.4 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

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