Lake Hodges East (Mule Hill Trail)

After years of riding North and South Hodges, I finally decided to head east this morning. I parked at the self storage trailhead for North Hodges, and headed east on the San Pasqual/Mule Hill Trail.

Having never ridden it before, I didn't know exactly what to expect. As I wound through mile after mile of flat, wide trail, I began to realize why this trail does not get a lot of publicity.

The trail (road?) wound its way through some marshland that at one time comprised the eastern portion of Lake Hodges.

Then, after about four miles of sleep inducing trail, things began looking up. Both literally and figuratively.



The trail transformed into narrow, scenic singletrack that began to contour along the side of the hill. The climbing was moderate, but welcome after the extended warm up. After about a mile of singletrack climbing, I reached the top of the hill. From there I took this shot of the trail from whence I'd come:

From where I stopped initially, the trail seemed to descend to the northeast. I rode down a little ways and reached another viewpoint that enabled me to see where the rest of the trail led.

I elected to head back at that point, but had I continued I would have descended down towards Bandy Canyon and the Wild Animal Park (seen above). It looked like a fun descent, but time was short this morning, and I wasn't sure how far the trail went below. Subsequent research seemed to indicated that the trail went for another five miles or so, making this particular route a 20 mile out and back if you do the whole thing.

Instead, I turned around and enjoyed the fun descent back down the mile of singletrack I had just climbed, and then tried to keep as much speed going on the flat section back to the trailhead as possible.

After the ride Rach met up with me at the Centre City Cafe, where we had a nice breakfast.

Stats:

Total Distance: 10.58 miles
Total Time: 1:05:15
Elevation gain: 552 feet
Elevation loss: 541 feet
Average Speed: 9.7 mph
Top Speed: 21.0 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP

Garmin Training Center Log