James' MTB Blog

2010-11-07T16:29:00.000-08:00

AZ Trip 2010: Hangover Trail

Daley Ranch

2010-08-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Much to my surprise, I was able to mix in a last minute spin around Daley this evening with Mark and Doug. After a day of errands and whatnot I made it home in time to pack up the Tahoe and get over to Daley right around 5:30. I haven't really taken advantage of the longer days much this year, but at least today I was making the most of the daylight I had.

We started from the main lot and did the traditional Creek Crossing to East Ridge to Sage climb. Near the top of the first part of Sage I convinced the guys to do the bonus trail that Ben and I had done a few months ago. We took the Quail something singletrack down to Caballo, then climbed Caballo back to Sage and repeated a bit of the climb we had just done. The Quail singletrack was fun but a little blown out from the lack of rain. It was worth the detour to me, and I was surprisingly not bothered too much from the bonus climbing at that point.

We then continued up Sage to Diamondback and Coyote Run, then took East Ridge over to Jack Creek Meadow. We then took the east side of the meadow over to Hidden Spring (Cardiac). People complain about Cardiac, and with good reason. Its a monster. But what I really hate is the stupid meadow. Its 1.75 miles and has a small uphill grade the whole way. Its not difficult, per se, just unpleasant. And then when you're done with the meadow, you are faced with Cardiac.

I hiked the hard part of Cardiac as usual, and had an amusing exchange with a couple of other riders as they were coming down. One guy mentioned as he flew by us that "we had a long way to go." I simply thanked him for his insight and continued with the story I was in the middle of telling to Mark and Doug. You probably had to be there.

From the top of Cardiac we took Engleman Oak to Cougar Ridge, and Cougar Ridge to Crest. I love the Crest singletrack, and didn't even stop for the tarantula that was in the trail as I flew by. It was the first tarantula I'd seen in the wild, but all I really got was a glimpse. I think Doug and Mark stopped behind me and examined it further.

From Crest we took the road back to the cars and hung out for a bit catching up. I always really enjoy riding with Doug and Mark, and this time was no exception. Mark was on his SS as usual, and Doug has gone pretty much full time 1X9 which is also impressive. I like my gears, and have no intention of giving them up.

I didn't bring the camera, so no pics this time. Great ride though, with great company.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 12.85 miles
Total Time: 1:45:09
Elevation gain: 2,000 feet
Elevation loss: 2,005 feet
Average Speed: 7.3 mph
Top Speed: 29.2 mph
Avg HR: 168
Max HR: 194
Bike: Intense Spider XVP

Garmin Training Center Log

San Clemente Single Tracks

2010-07-10T22:49:00.000-07:00

Doug was gracious enough to invite me along with him up to San Clemente Single Tracks today. I had never been up there, but it had been on my to do list for the last couple of years, so I was glad to join him for a tour.

After organizing some transportation logistics, I picked Doug up in Fallbrook and we headed for San Clemente. We parked on the side of the road just west of the campground entrance, and after I finally got my equipment settled, were on our way.

It was my first ride since the Oregon trip two weeks ago, and I wondered how I would feel. As it turned out I rode great, and felt strong from start to finish. Maybe the rest served me well.

For two and a half hours Doug led me through the labyrinth that is SCST. Short, steep ups and downs, narrow, weed-lined singletrack and fun, twisty trail was the order of the day. Early on I had some trouble finding the right gear for the steep ups, but as the day wore on I got the hang of it and cleaned all of the makable sections.

My ride leader during a short break:

This place is aptly named. Eight inches was considered wide for this trail:

There were trail maps posted at several junctions, which was neat to see. It was a good thing they were there, too, because I couldn't keep track of all of the names of the trails we did and got disoriented a few times. Doug had been there twice before in the preceding two weeks, so he had a good handle on the route. I would never want to go out there solo without a clear map or a guide though. It wouldn't be dangerous or anything, just confusing, and there's no doubt I would miss stuff if I was on my own.

The trail builders had also built some neat bridges over some of the steeper G-outs and (dry) stream crossings. I did my best to capture Doug riding one fun bridge section in sequence, but was not entirely successful:

Doug then was nice enough to return the favor:

Later I tried to make it under a low hanging branch:

As far as I'm concerned, I made it.

The day was a lot of fun, and I'm glad I finally made it up to ride this trail. The weedpatch scenery was a stark contrast to the lush ferns and cascading waterfalls of Oregon, but enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks to Doug for guiding, and I think I'll make it back up there before too long.

Stats:

Total Distance: 13.99 miles
Total Time: 2:24:03
Elevation gain: 1,689 feet
Elevation loss: 1,681 feet
Average Speed: 5.8 mph
Top Speed: 28.2 mph
Avg HR: 167
Max HR: 197
Bike: Intense Spider XVP

Garmin Training Center Log

SART

2010-06-11T21:21:00.000-07:00

fter more than two years of wanting to ride this trail, I finally had the opportunity to ride SART today. A couple of weeks ago Doug mentioned that he, Jeremy, and Mark were heading up there on a weekday, so I bailed on my Friday contract work and elected to tag along.

I left my house at 4:45 am in order to pick up Mark at his place at 5:30, and we made it to Doug's by 6. A few minutes later we were on our way up to Angelus Oaks. The drive wasn't too bad, though we did hit some rain near Redlands that initially had us concerned. After driving up a little higher in elevation to the trailhead, however, the sky was clear and the weather was crisp and beautiful.

We were wheels rolling at around 8:20 AM, and the ride began with an awesome extended downhill singletrack section. Swoopy, buff, and fast, the trail wound its way through the forest, switching back every now and then and adding in just enough exposure to keep us on our toes.

Mark liked this section.

As we shed elevation, the fog returned.

Finally we reached the end of the sustained downhill section, and regrouped.

Then we were back on our way.

Pausing now and again to take in the beauty around us.

And to scale fallen trees...

There was even a spot where a stream had been re-routed onto the trail, requiring a short bit of hiking...

Before getting back to the task at hand.

We were forced to make a few stream crossings...

Some of which, despite their beauty...

Proved treacherous:

On this particular crossing, Mark had ridden slightly ahead of me, and as I rounded a corner on approach, he yelled to me that it looked crossable on the bike. I pedaled faster and carried enough speed and momentum to make it across, despite the large, mostly hidden hole in the center of the stream. I yelled back to Mark to warn him of the low spot in the middle, and then readied my camera to document his attempt. I'm glad I did.

Mark's endo landed him squarely in the middle of the stream, and fortunately the only damage was a slightly bruised ankle (and incrementally more bruised ego.) After a few minutes of drying off and some ibuprofin, we were back on our way.

We crossed Glass road, and began the section of sustained climbing that took us toward South Fork Campground. The trail wasn't that steep or technical, but I was not feeling on my game. I managed to clean all but one short, steep, rocky climb, but felt less than great for most of it. After about an hour, we made it to the campground, where we broke for lunch and re-filled our bottles and camelbaks.

We eventually left the campground and headed back the way we came. Once again we were briefly climbing, and my legs began to protest in earnest. After less than a mile though, the trail turned mostly downhill, and we were rewarded with an awesome sweeping single track descent. We covered the distance back to Glass Road in a fraction of the time it had taken going the other way, and Mark and I finished within seconds of each other, both wearing ear-to-ear grins. That last two miles of singletrack before the road were probably the best of the day, and they alone probably made the whole ride worth it.

After regrouping, we made our way back across the streams we had crossed earlier (including the now christened "Landis Landing" crossing, and enjoyed more singletrack goodness for several miles. The rolling terrain trended downhill as we headed this direction, and proved to be even more fun than the "out" portion of the ride had been.

We finally finished gorging on singletrack, and the time came to pay back the debt we had incurred with all of our decent. Our finishing section involved more than three miles of fireroad climbing up Middle Control road, which was not the ideal way to finish a ride. Mark, who singlespeeded the entire ride, took off early, and was not heard from or seen again until the car.

Doug, Jeremy, and I rode together most of the way, until Doug began to pull away from us near the finish. Doug and Jeremy had elected to ride their 1X9 bikes, so as a gesture of solidarity, I middle ringed the whole climb with them. It sucked. I like my granny gear. But props to the other three guys for doing the ride with fewer gears than most sane people would, they had an impressive showing.

After packing up, we headed down into Mentone to hit up Cuca's Mexican Restaurant for post ride recovery food. From there we headed back home, mostly avoiding Friday traffic through Riverside and Temecula.

It was an awesome day, and I am thrilled to have finally been able to ride this trail. Its been on my to-do list for more than two years, and I likely won't wait that long to go back. Great company, awesome trails, and beautiful weather; it was a tremendous day enjoying God's creation, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity.

Stats:

Total Distance: 32.26 miles
Total Time: 7:24:59
Elevation gain: 4,468 feet
Elevation loss: 4,461 feet
Average Speed: 4.3 mph
Top Speed: 20.8 mph
Avg HR: 141
Max HR: 174
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Garmin Training Center Log

Sycamore Canyon/Farmer's Market Trail

2010-05-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

This morning brought a fun, invite-only DT ride that started differently than expected, but certainly delivered at the end.

I met up with Sean, Brent, Mark, Ben, and about a dozen other DT folks at the Costco in Poway and we headed out en masse.

We quickly encountered a short steep climb, which I was pleased to clean despite the lack of warm-up.

From there we rode some lunch-ride type singletrack that soon took us to Sycamore Canyon Road.

We climbed the road up to the Martha's Grove trailhead.

Where we shed some layers and started up. I cleaned both the entire climb and descent, which felt good and is never a given.

After the fun section out of Martha's we regrouped briefly and headed out into Sycamore Canyon. We rode south through the canyon all the way to the powerline towers, and then climbed up the switchbacks headed back north.

Fun singletrack in the canyon:

Getting ready to head up the switchbacks:

Heading up:

Still climbing in formation:

At least you can see where the trail is headed:

And then the payoff begins:

I actually felt pretty strong all the way up the switchbacks, and even passed a few riders on the way up. Descending felt good as well, as I cleaned all of the downhill switches without dabbing and concentrated on carrying a little more speed than usual.

At the bottom of switchbacks we headed back the way we came through the canyon toward Gooden Ranch House. Once there, we regrouped, rested, and observed the shenanigans:

We then headed back out for more action. I was surprised we hadn't ridden any of Sean's secret Farmer's Market Trail yet, since that was billed as the point of the ride. But I was riding well and having fun, so I was happy to blindly follow along and just try to enjoy the ride and the company.

Leaving the ranch house, we briefly hit a little more singletrack as we headed north:

And then it was time for Cardiac. I had heard about Cardiac, but never ridden it before. It was almost as bad as advertised, and despite riding strong for the first part of the ride, quickly got shot out the back as the goaters flew up the steep grade.

I wasn't last, and didn't have to HAB any of the climb, so I'll take that as a victory. I also enjoyed chatting with Sean during the second half of the climb up, which made it more bearable.

At the top of cardiac, we headed north along the fire road towards the upper Sycamore singletrack. After a few laps around the fun singletrack up top...

...we finally headed over to Farmer's Market. Before heading down Sean and Brent's masterpiece, Sean said a few words:

The trail was obviously a labor of love for him and Brent, and they did an excellent job creating something awesome out of nothing.

I was a little worked by that point, and had some trouble with the early technical sections, going off trail a few times and feeling like a moron. Ironically, once I got control of myself I was able to clean a really fun and challenging rocky section toward the bottom of the trail that several people weren't able to do. Evan was also able to make it, and Sean made this neat sequence shot:

At the end of Farmer's Market, we rode some more fun singletrack that took us under Scripps Poway Parkway and along some bonus trail on the north side of SPP.

We regrouped under the overpass for Sycamore Canyon Road, and several of us decided to take the road back due to time constraints.

It was an awesome ride, and I'm really glad I was able to see Sean and Brent's creation. I met some new DT folks, caught up with several old friends, and rode pretty well overall. Definitely a good day. It was also my first ride with Garmin Edge 705, so now I can include heart rate and accurate elevation figures in my stats postscripts here.

Stats:

Total Distance: 24.38 miles
Total Time: 4:31:19
Elevation gain: 3700 feet
Elevation loss: 3723 feet
Average Speed: 5.4 mph
Top Speed: 26.1 mph
Avg HR: 157
Max HR: 191
Bike: Intense Spider XVP

Garmin Training Center Log

Lake Hodges East (Mule Hill Trail)

2010-03-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

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

I've Joined Team World Vision

2010-02-09T13:37:00.001-08:00

Over the next few months, I am running and riding with Team World Vision to help change lives in Africa and Haiti. I have entered a series of trail running and cycling events that will act as a platform for me to raise money for this important cause.

World Vision works with communities in desperate need to help provide things like clean water, nutritious food, education, medical care, and economic opportunity.

As I participate in athletic events over the next few months, I will be asking friends, family, and members of the community to join with me in supporting this important cause. Whether you can donate $1 or $1,000, your support will both bless the people of Africa and Haiti and encourage me to "run with perseverance the races marked out for me." (Hebrews 12:1.)

Here is a list of the events in which I will be participating as a member of Team World Vision:

Trail Running Events:

Chollas Lake 5K Trail Run

Black Mountain Summit 7K Trail Run

Mission Driven Eco Run 10k Trail Run

XTERRA Mission Gorge 5k Trail Run

XTERRA Black Mountain 5k Trail Run

Cycling Events:

Bike the Bay 2010

Tour de Poway

Warrior's Society Toad Festival

Will you make a tax-deductible donation to support my efforts? Together we can help change lives. To visit my personal fundraising page and make a secure online donation, click here.

World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. World Vision serves all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

To learn more about World Vision, visit http://www.worldvision.org.
To learn more about Team World Vision, visit http://www.teamworldvision.org

South and North Hodges Night Ride

2010-02-04T23:29:00.000-08:00

Tonight was a fairly basic Hodges ride, starting from the Poblado trailhead. My goal list involved doing more night riding this year, so I figured I'd better get started.

I did a little of the South side singletrack, crossed the new pedestrian/bike bridge, and rode the North side trails over to the docks. My plan was to go all the way to Hernandez Hideaway, but I realized mid-ride that I had not locked my truck and had left my laptop and all other worldly possessions inside.

That realization made for a ride back to the trailhead at race pace, and I arrived to find everything in place. What a blessing in the face of my stupidity.

It was a fun quick spin, and I hope to do this type of impromptu ride more often. Maybe next time I can rustle up some company.

Total Distance: 10.83miles
Total Time: 1:02:18
Ascent: 971 feet
Average Speed: 10.4 mph
Top Speed: 21.1 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Firestone to Work to Home Point to Point Ride

2010-01-17T22:18:00.000-08:00

Today was one of those days where you plan everything out, and it actually ends up working out just like you hope. I love those days.

With vacation prep in full swing and a list of errands to do only partially complete, I wanted to find a way to combine some of my chores with a road ride. I was way overdue for an oil change in the Tahoe, and also had to pick something up at work in Escondido before we left town, so I started thinking about dropping the bike off at Firestone and riding the road bike to work.

I got on mapmyride.com, put together a route, and uploaded it to my Edge. The area near North County Fair in south Escondido was a bit of a mystery to me, but I found a neat site online that provided great instructions and an excellent map, so I figured I'd be fine.

I dropped the truck off at Firestone and headed north. I crossed the relatively new Hodges pedestrian/cycling bridge for the first time on a road bike, and successfully navigated the North County Fair connector thanks to the map. That area behind the mall was a short but beautiful section to ride, and I enjoyed it very much.

Time and miles passed quickly from that point, and I made it to work in just over a half hour. I grabbed what I needed to get and was back on my way two minutes later. Instead of doubling back, I headed west. After a brief stop for a Jamba Juice in Escondido, I headed down Del Dios Highway toward Rancho Santa Fe.

I had plotted out a course on mapmyride using google maps, but it became clear as I began climbing up Del Dios that the turn I had plotted on the map wasn't there. Still, I soon saw a sign for the entrance to The Lakes community, which I knew was part of my route, and headed down the road to the guard gate.

I had initially thought that there would be a pedestrian gate that I could just go through without issue, but that proved to be incorrect. After negotiating for several minutes with the guard, I was granted a day pass to go "check out the model homes" and was back on route! (I am extremely grateful that the guard hooked me up, because the alternative involved riding through all of Rancho Santa Fe back to San Dieguito Road. That would have meant time I didn't have and miles I wasn't prepared for.)

I cruised through The Lakes, which is a beautiful development, and soon found myself back on Camino del Norte headed home.

It was an extremely fun and interesting ride. Uploading the route to the GPS worked pretty well for route finding, but I still would really like an Edge 705 with street mapping capability to help when I get lost or miss a turn. Now that I know the route from RB to Escondido, I can consider commuting to work from home sometime, which would be nice. I am also amazed at how much more ground I cover in less time on the road bike as opposed to the mountainbike.

Here's the report:

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Firestone to Work to Home Point to Point

Santa Luz Loop from Home

2010-01-16T22:19:00.000-08:00

Before leaving on vacation next week, I wanted to get in a MTB ride. Time was scarce this weekend with packing and other prep-work, so I decided to just stay local and ride the Santa Luz loop from home.

In keeping with my desire to ride new dirt this year, I attempted to at least put a slightly different spin on the ride. I left from home, and instead of riding the 4S trails to Carmel Valley road up to Black Mountain Community Park, I headed west into Lusardi Canyon and rode the steep trail up the back side to the Park.

I had ridden that trail a few times before in the past, and never cleaned it. This time I did. Its not technical at all, just steep, and I grinded away all the way up to the top. From there I rode along the fringes of the soccer fields and hooked up with the Santa Luz singletrack.

The singletrack ended way too quickly, as it always does, and from there I rode along the doubletrack that winds through the Santa Luz valley.

As I reached the brief paved connector street, I spotted one of those portable speed displays that the County puts up in certain areas to warn drivers about their speed. I was curious to see if it would register my speed as I rode by. Turned out it would!

Clearly I wasn't able to generate much speed holding my camera in one hand and riding with the other, but it was an entertaining experiment.

After that I rode through the neighborhood and over towards the two hills that mark the most difficult part of the loop. I cleaned the first fairly easily, which I have done several times in the past. This time, however, I also cleaned the second hill, which is something I have never done. The rains had made it much less loose than usual, which helped, but it still felt good to cross that one off my list.

From there my path took me back into Lusardi Canyon toward home.

I decided to explore a couple of faint double track trails as they led out of the canyon, which proved to be a minor mistake. They eventually petered out into overgrown brush, and I had to plow/bushwhack my way back to the road home as I reached the top.

Still, it was an enjoyable and satisfying ride. Cleaning the trail up to Black Mountain Community Park and both of the rough hills in the middle felt good, and it was nice to take advantage of the beautiful day.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Santa Luz Loop from Home

Road RR: Modified Trek San Diego Monthly Ride Route

2010-01-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

For my first longish road ride I elected to try a modified version of the Trek San Diego Monthly Road Ride.

The route passes fairly close to my house, so I elected to ride it from home instead of starting in Carmel Valley. I downloaded the mapmyride.com GPS route to my Edge 305 and headed out. It was my first time riding the 56 bike path, and I enjoyed it. There were a ton of people out, but there was plenty of room to pass and enjoy the mostly downhill from Black Mountain toward the coast.

After a few missed turns and route finding issues (even with the GPS), I made it through Carmel Valley and to the coast. The ride through Del Mar was a little sketchy with all of the traffic, but I joined up with a couple of other cyclists during that section and found safety in numbers. This route didn't have many opportunities to see the ocean during the ride itself, and I didn't stop or detour to go down to the water. Maybe next time.

After riding along the coast I passed the Del Mar Fairgrounds and headed back into Rancho Santa Fe. Before long I was in familiar territory and made my way up San Dieguito Road to Camino del Norte and was home.

I felt great at the end, and wasn't really even tired. I wasn't going for speed per se, but I didn't take any breaks and maintained a pretty consistent pace for the entire ride. I'd like to explore some route options that I can spin off of this ride to make it a little longer but still enjoyable.

Because I didn't start the GPS route guidance from home, and had some GPS problems right before the end of the ride, the stats are a little off. But here they are anyway:

Total Distance: 29.70 miles
Total Time: 2:03:09
Ascent: 536 feet
Average Speed: 14.9 mph
Top Speed: 33.0 mph
Bike: Specialized Roubaix Comp

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Modified Trek San Diego Route Part 2

LPQ Night Ride

2010-01-07T23:41:00.000-08:00

My first MTB ride of the new year ended up being an LPQ night ride. Original plans on DT scheduled the ride to start at 7PM, but that was a little late for both Mark and me, so we made plans on the side to start a little earlier and get in some time before meeting up with the rest of the group at 7.

I arrived at the trailhead woefully under prepared because I got out of work late, but after 15 minutes of lubing my rusted chain and pumping up my nearly flat tires, I eventually was good to go. (As an aside, I used my new Thule T2 rack for the first time, and loved how convenient it was getting the bike on and off.)

Mark and I put in an hour of fun riding and then met up with the rest of the group. It was great to see Evan, Joaquin, Mike, Jacek, and Dennis again after not doing a DT ride for a while. Mark and I rode with them for another hour and then headed back to the cars. Before splitting up I did have a mishap where my bar end caught a low hanging branch, spilling me into some trailside bushes. No harm done though.

I didn't take any pictures because it was a night ride, but that's something I'll remedy in the future. All in all it was just a easy ride over some fun trails with great company, which always makes for a fun time.

Total Distance: 10.40 miles
Total Time: 1:52:54
Ascent: 703 feet
Average Speed: 5.5 mph
Top Speed: 22.7 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP

Road RR: 4S Ranch to RSF

2010-01-03T15:40:00.000-08:00

I did my second road ride today. After finally getting my new Crank Brothers Quattro SL pedals from Bonktown and an 8mm allen wrench from my dad to install them, the new bike was ready to go.

I did a slightly longer loop than the one I had done the week before and was surprised at how much better I felt. I'm still adjusting to the shifting and braking that is unique to the road bike, but I'm feeling much more in control and stable than I did on my first ride.

While riding through Rancho Santa Fe, I spotted an American Express Gold Card sitting face up in the bike lane. I stopped and picked it up, and it looked like I hadn't been there long. I cut it up when I got home, and couldn't help but laugh about finding a Gold card laying in the road in one of the county's most prestigious neighborhoods.

This route made for a decent local loop, with enough distance and climbing to feel like I got an actual ride in, but quick enough to bang out in just over an hour.

Stats and map here: Garmin Connect - Activity Details for 4S Ranch to RSF Road Ride

2010 Goal List

2010-01-02T11:00:00.000-08:00

Part of the way I talked myself into resurrecting the blog for 2010 was deciding to put my poor blogging performance in 2009 behind me. I have 15-20 draft posts sitting in my inbox for 2009 that would take me forever to finalize and update, and the prospect of doing that was so overwhelming that I almost deleted the whole website.

Instead, I decided to make a clean break and start fresh in 2010. And in my second post of 2010, I'm already going back. At least a little bit. See, before I can articulate my 2010 goal list, I have to at least briefly summarize how I did on my 2009 Goal List, which I wrote and posted before bailing out on the rest of 2009.

So here is the 2009 quick summary: I had eleven goals for 2009, and made five of them. I did ride the Tour de Noble, I rode in Idyllwild, I rode Cowles and Pyles Peak, I joined (but didn't participate in) a MTB Patrol, I did an out of state ride, and I controlled my spending (somewhat). If I give myself a half point for the Patrol and half a point for controlling spending, that makes 5 goals achieved.

I did not: Ride the Spring to Sycamore Canyon ride, Ride SART, do the Archipelago backwards, do an organized MTB event or race, and ride Otay Mountain.

So I have something to shoot for in 2010.

Now, enough of the past, I'm all about looking forward in 2010, so here's my 2010 goal list:

1. Keep the blog updated. Its fun for me to look back and read old ride reports from 2008, so one major goal this year is to stay on top of the blogging.

2. Ride new dirt. I'm blessed to live in San Diego, where we have great year around riding weather and a fair number of trails to choose from. But truthfully, I've gotten a little bored with the local San Diego MTB scene. At the end of 2009 I spent several weekends in the Laguna Mountains riding some new trails, and enjoyed that. In 2010, I want to find and ride some new stuff. I don't care whether its local trails I've never ridden or stuff a little farther away, but I'm craving some diversity. I'm not putting a specific number on the amount of "new dirt" rides I want to do, but I'm planning to make it a priority.

3. Finish off parts of the 2009 goal list. I'd like to ride SART, do an organized MTB ride and do my Archipelago ride backwards. I don't care as much about Spring to Sycamore, or Otay Mountain, though if they happen, great.

4. Do more night rides. I almost always enjoy the rare times I do night rides, and want to do them more in 2010.

5. Do a roadie century. I'm new to the road bike, but this seems like a worthwhile goal for 2010. I'll have to build to it, and I don't care whether the 100 miles are part of a sponsored event or around my neighborhood by myself, I just want to do a full century ride at some point this year.

6. Do an organized road ride event. Much like the MTB version, I'd like to do a roadie event this year. Maybe the Gran Fondo Colagno, maybe the Bike the Bay ride, maybe something else. The distance isn't important, just riding in the event is the goal.

7. Do not buy a bike. I have a great mountain bike. I have a great road bike. I purchased bikes in 2007, 2008 (multiple), and 2009. Enough. No new bikes.

8. Find a way to incorporate ministry and riding. I enjoy riding bikes. I am passionate about my faith. Yet for the most part these days, the two rarely intersect. Skyline Cycling was a huge part of my early mountainbiking life, but the fact that I don't attend there anymore and the club folded means that I'm not presently involved in any biking ministry. I want to change that, or at a minimum, be much more purposeful about involving my spiritual life in my riding life.

9. Ride more consistently. In 2008 and 2009, I had periods of time where I would go weeks between rides. While I want to ensure that I maintain proper priorities in 2010, its also important to me to avoid those kind of multi-week layoffs that really hurt my endurance and fitness. Whether its mixing in more road rides, doing more night rides, or getting up early and riding when I know I have a busy day coming, I want to be more consistent and not allow my fitness to slip this year.

10. Get better at working on my bikes. I've been riding on a bald rear tire for three months because I don't know how to change my tubeless tires. I broke a chain on a recent ride and needed Billy to repair it so that I could keep riding. I have been plagued by minor ghost shifting issues since Moab in May. My rear hydraulic brake has been performing poorly, but I don't know how to fix it or bleed the lines. That all has to change in 2010. Especially now that I have a road bike as well, I need to learn how to repair and maintain my stuff.

So there you go. Its nice to have some goals to shoot for this year, and I'm optimistic about achieving all of them if I stay committed and purposeful. We'll see how it goes.

The Blog is Back for 2010

2010-01-01T10:45:00.000-08:00

After blogging virtually every ride in 2008, I pretty much abandoned the blog in 2009. There were some sporadic updates, but they were admittedly frail. I know longtime readers were crushed. (Please note the sarcasm.) 2009 was actually a great year as far as riding goes, with trips to Phoenix and Utah/Colorado, and plenty of new dirt and fun rides. But I didn't make blogging a priority.

In any event, I'm resurrecting the blog for 2010, and it will have many of the same old features as years past (a goal list, regular ride reports, quarterly summaries of miles and high points, and a year in review thread at the end of the year, etc.)

I'll also be adding some new wrinkles. First, the ride reports will link to the new Garmin Connect site instead of Motionbased. Second, I purchased a road bike on Christmas Day 2009, so I'll be posting up road ride reports and my thoughts on road biking in general every once and a while. Other changes to both form and content are on the way as well.

So stay tuned for the 2010 Goal List Post and thanks for checking back in after last year's hiatus. I'm looking forward to a great year.

RR: Cuyamaca Oakzanita

2009-12-26T20:48:00.000-08:00

Fun ride today on new dirt. Met up with Barcy, Ali, Billy, Eric, Jose, Arturo, and several others for a ride up at Oakzanita Peak in Cuyamaca.

We started from a trailhead I'd never been to, and climbed for a while up fire road. We lingered a bit a couple of times for regroups, and enjoyed the temperatures.

After the regroup we forged on to the Peak, and I was glad to see the fire road give way to singletrack. We had a couple of detours around downed trees, but the trail was largely clear and in good shape even after some recent snow.

Once at the Peak, we lingered for a while, catching up and enjoying the views.

It took some longer than others to make the summit. I guess Barcy has an excuse, as this was his first ride back after breaking his collarbone at Noble several weeks earlier.

His triumphant returned coincided with the purchase of one of the most blingy bikes I've ever seen.

Our bikes enjoyed the rest at the top of Oakzanita Peak, but before long it was time to enjoy the downhill that we had worked to earn.

At the bottom of the hill we traversed some new trails, regrouping every so often.

Eventually the group split, and a couple of us took an alternate route back to the cars.

The route Eric, Billy, and I took involved some awesome singletrack, but it was on the west side of a mountain and was still pretty muddy. If it had been dry it would have been amazing, and as it was we still enjoyed it.

At the end of the day, though, I paid for my fun singletrack option with some required clean up.

Total Distance: 12.85 miles
Total Time: 3:13:17
Ascent: 2304 feet
Average Speed: 4.0 mph
Top Speed: 19.5 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map: Click here.

Tour de Noble?

2009-11-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

After last week's aborted Tour de Noble, I decided late in the week to give it another shot. With most of my regular riding companions on the DL or doing a 50 mile SART epic, I elected to ride solo.

I had mixed emotions about doing the whole thing alone. Noble can be pretty unforgiving (as we saw last week,) and some of the trails are a little remote. At the same time, its a pretty popular trail on Saturdays and I was familiar with the route after riding in the Lagunas twice in the last three weeks, so the risk seemed relatively low. I just figured I'd stay within myself and go at my own pace, which has its own appeal.

With only myself to worry about, I got an early start and arrived at the Pine Valley trailhead at about 7:30. I was wheels up 10 minutes later and began the 4 mile slog up the paved road.

The weather was flawless, and I just sat back and tried to enjoy the climb as the sun rose over the mountain to the east. Seven days earlier I had climbed the road to the Oak tree for the first time, and had paced myself quite a bit in anticipation of a long day. Today, I wasn't sure what my pace was like since I was alone, but it felt faster and more consistent. I didn't take any rest stops on the way up, and just spun along listening to my ipod and dodging hunters who were driving up and down the road.

I hit the oak tree in about 50 minutes, and was feeling good, so I didn't even pause. I just turned the lockouts off my shock and fork and proceeded down the fire road toward Indian Creek. Once I got to the Indian Creek singletrack I paused for about 3 or 4 minutes to eat a gel and drink some Vitalyte, and then proceeded up the trail.

I cleaned the initial singletrack climb this week after screwing up the entry last week. Even so, that first section of singletrack involved one short HAB, though I rode much more of that section of trail this week than I did last week. From there I rode through the small meadow and began the real Indian Creek climb in earnest.

That climb is not a lot of fun. Its loose, steep in parts, and just sort of beat me down. I rode more this week than last, and didn't stop to rest at all, but did find myself HABing several sections. It helped quite a bit this time to know how long it was and when it would end, which allowed me to ride a little more aggressively and clean some parts I didn't even try last week. Even so, my shoes got more of a workout than I would prefer.

Near the middle of the Indian Creek climb, I did stop to snap this picture, which I liked.
Once I got to the top of Indian Creek I rested for about 5 minutes at 4 Corners (aka Champagne Pass?).
At that point I had a decision to make. I felt great, with no cramping in my legs at all and no real fatigue after I rested a bit. Even so, I just didn't feel like riding Pine Valley trail (for the third time in four weeks) over to Sunrise Highway and back to Penny Pines. We had ridden that route last week, and while Pine Valley trail is pretty fun, didn't feel an overwhelming need to hit it again. The road ride on Sunrise Highway to Penny Pines just seemed like extra miles for the sake of extra miles, especially when I had an attractive alternative. Instead of taking Pine Valley trail to the Sunrise Highway to Penny Pines to the very top of Noble, I instead elected to continue down Indian Creek (aka Pinball) and take that trail over to Noble.

I flew down Pinball, and then climbed the rest of the way up Indian Creek to the Noble connector. I didn't hesitate, and headed right down Noble. Noble went by in a flash. I cleaned several of the rocky sections that I didn't make it through last week, stopped for a second to pay homage to Barcy's collarbone at the tree grove, and thoroughly enjoyed the descent. After two attempts at both widowmaker and stairway I was unable to clean either of them, and since I was alone I figured discretion was the better part of valor. For pure bragging purposes I'd like to be able to clean those two, but whatever.

I did clean all of the other sections that had given me trouble in the past, and did so while just flowing along, without re-tries. Very quickly I found myself at the junction of Noble where heading left leads to extra credit while heading right leads to the road. I felt great, and without hesitating made the left up EC.

The climb up was a little longer than I remembered, but not as difficult or tiring as it had been last year when I rode it last. I rested for a few minutes at the top, and then tackled the final descent of the day. I had hoped to ride the entire thing, but did have to walk one short section that I just couldn't figure out the line through. I made it back to my car very quickly, and was a little struck by the feeling of anticlimax.

Maybe it was my decision to skip Pine Valley trail and the road section. Maybe it was because I was legitimately not tired and felt fine. Maybe it was because I was alone and had no one to share in my accomplishment. Maybe it was because the ride was only 17 miles long, which is fine, but no epic. Whatever it was, I was pretty "meh" at the end. At least my wife would be happy that I was home early in the day.

As I loaded up the car and headed home, the anticlimactic feelings faded and I reflected on all of aspects of the ride that I had enjoyed. The amazing weather. The peace and solitude of the mountains. The opportunity to enjoy God's creation and truly appreciate its beauty. The fun, swoopy sections during the Noble descent. The accomplishment of completing all that climbing and not wanting to die. (I remember my first Noble shuttle two years ago when I was completely wrecked at the end of the 9 mile descent.) So on balance, I felt great. But there is still a part of me that feels like I have unfinished business up there.

So I think I'll try to make it up there again. Next time I'll probably do Pine Valley trail to Sunrise Highway to Penny Pines, and then loop BLT before heading down Noble. At the end of the day, I think the title of this RR is misleading; I didn't do the Tour de Noble. I did Indian Creek to Noble, a worthy ride in its own right, but a bit short of the epic feat that is the full Tour.

In any event, here are the stats:

Total Distance: 17.19 miles
Total Time: 3:39:36
Ascent: 3388 feet
Average Speed: 4.7 mph
Top Speed: 22.8 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map

BLT/Los Gatos Redux

2009-10-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Cuyamaca Poker Ride 2009

2009-10-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

For the second year in a row, I elected to ride the Cuyamaca Poker Ride. It would be my first ride back after breaking my hand at Los Gatos in early September, and I had some apprehension.

Because I was uncertain about my recovery time and when exactly the cast would come off, I had not registered for this ride beforehand and rode it solo as a bandit. There weren't any aid stations, and I didn't eat any of the food after, but I still felt bad about this and made a donation to the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park that organizes the ride afterward.

The cast came off on Friday, and I wore a brace on Sunday for the ride. I got there early, geared up, and headed out. I rode the whole thing solo and felt great. I had kept up my fitness by running even when I was in my cast, so I wasn't in horrible shape. I cleaned all of La Clima without stopping, and pretty much kept riding the whole time without any breaks.

Milk Ranch Road was easier than I remembered, and I actually cleaned the whole short, steep climb up the double track that heads up after leaving Milk Ranch Road. I had failed to do that during my previous two times on this route.

The rocky doubletrack descent was rough on my hand as my grip strength was abysmal and I had a hard time holding the handlebars and breaking with my right hand. At one point the washboard trail involuntarily shook my right hand right off the bar, almost causing me to lose control.

I finished with the fun singletrack section that is one of the best parts of this route, and then was back at the car before I knew it. Riding solo with no stops was a little lonely, but it made for a fast ride, and I was glad to work out the kinks without worrying about anyone else.

I apparently forgot to bring my GPS, so I dont have a route or stats. But the ride was essentially the same as last years, so just under 20 miles with around 2700 feet of climbing.

After the ride I headed down the mountain and over to the parent's house in El Cajon to watch my Broncos beat the Patriots in OT, so it turned out to be a pretty good day.

BLT/Los Gatos

2009-09-15T10:00:00.001-07:00

Idyllwild Trails

2009-05-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Fun day in Idyllwild today. Carpooled up in Sean's uber-van with a big group of folks from DT.com. Met some new folks that I'd seen on the board and had a tremendous ride.

We rode it as a point to point, so after dropping a car at the Hurkey Creek campground, we took the van up to Idyllwild proper and rode the Ernie Maxwell Trail. I'm not exaggerating when I say that trail is one of the most fun that I've ever ridden. Swoopy, a little technical but not too much, it was awesome.

After Ernie Maxwell we had a fairly brutal paved road climb for a while, and then it was time for seemingly endless singletrack. We looped around all over, crossing back every once and a while to a central hub. The trails were a ton of fun, mostly cross country with just enough technical features to keep things interesting.

After we'd had our fill of singletrack we headed down Exfoliator and Tunnel of Love back toward the campground at Hurkey Creek. I had some cramping issues during the final climb, but Brian was generous enough to give me some mustard packets which helped considerably. After a quick regroup we rallied down the paved road to the finish.

During the drive home we were stuck behind a roll-over fatality which closed the freeway, so we ended up taking the scenic route back home through Santa Ysabel.

Total Distance: 18.86 miles
Total Time: 5:41:58
Ascent: 1,711 feet
Average Speed: 3.3 mph
Top Speed: 22.1 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Cowles Mountain

2009-04-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

First time at Cowles, had a great time. Followed MTB Bill's route and started from the trailhead at Mesa Rd.

Had to do some route finding at first, but after one missed turn, I started the singletrack climbing

The singletrack eventually intersected with the main fire road that would take me to the top.

Climb was worse than I originally thought at the top, and ended up HAB'ing a bit. Soooo steep.

Eventually I made it to the summit, and was rewarded with some impressive views.

From the top of Cowles I continued over to Pyles, which involved a short fun downhill and then some more climbing. I'm glad I did it, and enjoyed that section.

Here's the view from the Pyles Peak overlook:

From there I retraced my steps, back up to the top of Cowles and then down to the car. I detoured a bit on to the Big Rock singletrack, which was awesome. The ride felt like more than 8 miles, but was enjoyable nonetheless.

Total Distance: 8.34 miles
Total Time: 2:06:24
Ascent: 2161 feet
Average Speed: 4.0 mph
Top Speed: 25.0 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: North Hodges and South Hodges

2009-03-30T21:21:00.000-07:00

Random work-day afternoon ride with my boss. Did the north side trails with him to the dock, then went back for some south side action by myself.

The new pedestrian/bike bridge is finished but not open, so it was fun to see it for the first time. Its going to be nice to not have to ride on the freeway to link up the two sides...

We also explored a little bit of singletrack near the boat dock that I had never seen before. Started running out of time a bit, so I'll have to check that out more next time.

Total Distance: 15.36 miles
Total Time: 2:01:42
Ascent: 1050 feet
Average Speed: 7.6 mph
Top Speed: 23.0 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

Phoenix Trip: White Tanks Goat Camp

2009-03-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

[RR courtesy of Sean and Evan from here.]

Sunday was the graduation ride consisting of Goat Camp loop.

More climbing, more descending, more chuck, as recommended by the locals at SoMo. We really had no idea what this ride would be truly like, other than hard. MTBBill’s describes the end descent as a constant state of colon lockdown, so we had that to look forward to…or so we thought.

The antenna towers on the right would be close to what we’d be climbing up to.

Starting off on Ford Canyon.

Waddell Trail

Then it was time to climb Mesquite Canyon.

Or hike.

Switchbacks.

Looking down the canyon.

But still more to go.

Last part of Mesquite Canyon before we split off.

Climbing Willow Canyon trail.

Lots of flowers in bloom.

End of Willow Canyon and back on to Ford canyon

Why yes, that would be the trail up the ridgeline below the towers.

Trail paved with wild flowers on both sides.

This ride is demoralizing with the amount of climbing.

At least the scenery makes up for it.

Brief bit of descent, before climbing the trail below the towers.

Where’s Waldo?

We encountering two other riders the entire day.

And then the descent begins.

Pucker factor.

There’s a reason why this is double black diamond.

And it’s not because of the climbs.

We had a few miles of chunk and climbing on our way up the mountain

But it led to this sweet smooth section of singletrack higher up

It weaved along the hillside for quite a ways before we started heading up again

Lots of cactus which just added to the sweet views

Brent and Mark pause as we head up the last leg towards Goat Camp trail.

This was one of the most continuously nasty chunky technical trails I've ridden. Almost to the point of it not being fun. But then you kind of get into it. And then you get in a groove just as its almost over. Unfortunately I don't have many pics, just a few from the Waterfall section.

Sean navigates the opening drop

And clears the middle section.

He made it around the last corner and drop too, only to go over the bars on the flats at the bottom. I made it down to the last corner but wasn't feeling it, so walked down the last bit. Funny how you can lose your technical abilities when you aren't riding hard stuff all the time. I really had to psyche myself up to hit the the opening drop on this section but when I finally did it was easy. Towards the bottom I was cleaning almost everything, and kicking myself for not trying a few things higher up.

All in all a great weekend of riding. That's pretty much all we did - get up, ride, drop James at clinic, night ride, sleep, ride, drive home. Next time I'd like to have a bit more time as there's so much to explore. But this is a pretty decent weekend trip.

Thanks again to Sean for organizing everything!

Total Distance: 15.29 miles
Total Time: 4:55:27
Ascent: 2760 feet
Average Speed: 3.1 mph
Top Speed: 24.3 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

Phoenix Trip: White Tanks Sonoran Loop Competitive Track

2009-03-14T23:13:00.000-07:00

[Again, this RR is from Sean's post here.]

So with James back on board and the sun setting, it was time to head for the next camping and riding destination at White Tanks county park. Apparently the northern snowbirds still haven’t migrated back north yet, so all the regular RV camping spots were taken. But the overflow camping was even better. It put us 150’ from the start of the competitive track, one of 3 mountain bike only trail systems in Phoenix. Since we cut the day ride short due to first aid needs, it was time for a night ride to finish out this day.

It reminded us of lower Cobbles: open, fast, swoopy, just perfect for night riding.

During the day, probably more just ho hum.

Then it was time for the usual dinner rib feast.

Total Distance: 7.04 miles
Total Time: 1:16:14
Ascent: 678 feet
Average Speed: 5.6 mph
Top Speed: 18 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

Phoenix Trip: South Mountain

2009-03-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

[This RR was written by Sean and posted on dirttreaders here. Additional pictures from Evan]

With 6 weeks to go before the big trip to Epic Mecca, several of us needed a spring training camp for some riding drills. Primarily to hone our technical rock prowess, it would also serve as shake down for our bikes, gear, and yes, our first aid skills. But the chunk terrain that we required wasn’t to be found in San Diego County, the OC, or even SoCal. So with the work week over and the RV loaded up for its first road trip of the year, it was time to leave the land of sanitized trails in search of real chunk. Hold the butter please, just crushed peanuts for the PB&J sandwich.

Day 1

Saturday morning arrived with everyone still groggy from the late night drive.

I don't mind waking up early to cool air and sunshine

Our campsite 45mins S of Phoenix

Today’s objective would be to soak in the rock at South Mountain Park in Phoenix. But this isn’t your average city park. At 16,000 acres, it’s the largest municipal park in the country and the hardest trails here make Noble Canyon look like kids play. The sanitizing trail management of SoCal needs to take a few pages of notes that multi-purpose trails can be under 24” wide, aren’t remotely required to be baby bottom smooth, and can have rock features that equestrian people will ride, just like in the Old West. We arrive at the parking lot to find 3 horses coming off the trail serving as the warm-up climb. First up is Javalina.

Lots of trail users this day.

The difficulty increased as we picked up Mormon Loop. Evan works his way up one of many waterbar steps.

Brent descends the final piece of chunk to join National.

National Trail is the main East-West through the park for a total length of 14.3 miles. But today we’d only be doing 1/8 of it. It’s definitely spring time in the desert with the wild flowers in bloom.

Watch your eyes, the Cactus is in bloom.

More climbing.

Views overlooking down town Phoenix.

More climbing.

Sean hitting a small drop feature.

Sean hitting the leftside of the waterfall drop feature. In your face Widow Maker.

Evan on the entry section to the waterfall.

Evan taking the rightside of the waterfall.

Sean rides the spine. Nicely done.

Sean goes for the hard line.

Sladnas gets in on the action.

One massive rock landscape.

Sladnas cleans a tough rise

Climbing...this mountain has a lot of tough, technical sections. Balance, endurance and power all required. And you have to pick the right line.

Cool cactus

Nice view towards downtown

Sladnas plans his approach

Threading the needle

James up next

In places the trail was worn down into a trench that you had to balance thru

Somewhere about here Mark was so giddy with so much rock, at one point he wanted to strip naked and just roll around in it. Instead we found a rock wall feature with a 90 degree right turn around a large slab.

The approach.

Sean is the first to hit the trailside rock feature

Brent hitting the drop.

Mark hitting it up.

Sladnas just has to be different...

James hitting it down.

We continue the climb to Buena Vista. On the way, there’s a sweet section of chunk descent. Finally we reach Buena Vista to take a break before the big descent.

Group shot to account for any lost bodies at the bottom. Geronimo is pure DH chunk, 1,000’ in 2 miles.

Ignore the scenery, this trail demands full attention.

It’s basically stair steps after a point.

Hey James, why is your leg all red???

Uh oh, Mr. Big ring doesn’t play nice with Mr. Leg.

Crap, this looks even worse after it’s been cleaned.

James declined any further fat deposit removal at this time, so Sean helped bandage him up before bleeding to death on the trail.

Nice views as James heads down Geronimo, pre-carnage

And finishes the ride, post-carnage

Geronimo was pretty technical, though nothing compared to what we would ride Sunday.

Sweet views on the way down

After finishing Geronimo, we made our way back to the RV on pavement.

James did make it to the bottom, but the pain was starting to set in. But hey, this was training. So next was the 4 mile street ride back to the vehicle while dodging neighborhood canines catching the whiff of fresh meat pedaling past.

Once reaching the RV, we further delayed James’ critical care needs as we ate sandwiches for lunch and lamented the fact we covered a paltry 8 miles of SoMo trails and 1,600’ of vertical in 4 hours. Mark set to work finding the cheapest and shady urgent care clinic on his phone. He scored as found out the place we dropped off James at had only started doing urgent care just 3 months prior. James came back with the doctor’s pathetic life story after jumping to the head of the line when the nurse freaked out on his gash. But it was a steal at $30…at least until the infection sets in.

Total Distance: 12.24 miles
Total Time: 4:39:26
Ascent: 1927 feet
Average Speed: 2.6 mph
Top Speed: 19.6 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Black Mountain w/Miner's and Summit

2009-03-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

I have no recollection of this ride.

Looks like a pretty standard local ride, with Miner's Ridge to the cutover to the summit to Miner's to Lilac. Took the road down from Lilac though, which is rare. Hmm.

Total Distance: 10.88 miles
Total Time: 1:36:41
Ascent: 1877 feet
Average Speed: 6.8 mph
Top Speed: 36.5 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Sweetwater/Rock House

2009-02-21T22:59:00.000-08:00

Rode with Nate today. I had planned on riding another nearby secret trail, but he convinced me to do this one instead.

The Rock House climb was a monster, but I made it to the top and back.

Total Distance: 11.66 miles
Total Time: 2:22:40
Ascent: 2143 feet
Average Speed: 4.9 mph
Top Speed: 28.9 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

TR: Black Mountain Trail Work

2009-02-21T13:46:00.000-08:00

[Editor's note: The summary below was taken from the SDMBA website.]

On Saturday, February 21, eighteen SDMBA volunteers opened a new stretch of single-track at Black Mountain Open Space Park. The new connector links Miner’s Ridge Loop Trail to the north with the Nighthawk trail system to the south. Although the trail technically existed before this volunteer event, its sightlines, signage, and tread were inadequate for mountain biking.

The new connector trail has been a long time in coming. Aerial photos showed the trail existed when the arsenic mine was active. After the mine closed, the mountain reclaimed the trail. In 2002, Ranger John Barone and I discussed cutting a new trail near the site of the old trail. After John left Black Mountain Park, Ranger Tom Miller (with support from city trail manager Rick Thompson) continued to push for the construction of the new trail. Tom managed to bypass some of the bureaucracy of building a new trail by showing that the old trail had once existed and aligning the new connector over the old one. In 2007, Tom led a group that re-cut the connector, but final approval to complete construction (widen, mark, build the puncheon bridge, etc.) and officially open it didn’t come until earlier this year. Our group of 18 volunteers completed that construction.

For the seventh year in a row, Black Mountain Bicycles donated swag – including a rear derailleur and hydration pack – to raffle off to volunteers after trail work concluded around 12:30pm. Everyone went home with something.

Thanks go to all of our volunteers for helping to open yet another trail in Black Mountain Park (our second in the past 3 years) – now go ride it! (A map to the new Connector Trail can be found on the second page of the event announcement.) Special thanks to Rich, Gardner, Everett, Michael, John, Kim, Tom, and Evan for being trail bosses and Sr. Ranger Ed Christensen for providing tools, logistics, materials, and support.

I was on Evan's trail crew, and had a great time doing work and chatting with Ranger Ed on the way back down the mountain. I've ridden this connector trail dozens of times, and have some ambivalence about the work that was done, but appreciate that a local ride of mine is getting some love.

Several pictures, including a couple of me, are available here.

RR: Ramona Ride

2009-01-31T21:54:00.000-08:00

Had an awesome ride today with a ton of DT guys up in Ramona. The ride report with pics (including some of me) is available here.

Total Distance: 12.88 miles
Total Time: 2:49:50
Ascent: 1801 feet
Average Speed: 4.5 mph
Top Speed: 23.3mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Local Ride w/Miner's Loop and Lilac Canyon

2009-01-25T22:41:00.000-08:00

This afternoon was a quick local ride, just to trying to keep my momentum going. I rode Miner's loop from home.

Total Distance: 9.55 miles
Total Time: 1:19:39
Ascent: 1457 feet
Average Speed: 7.2 mph
Top Speed: 33.6 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: SMaRT

2009-01-18T12:49:00.000-08:00

This afternoon was a short but fun trip up to Fallbrook for a ride on the Santa Margarita River Trail with Doug and his dad. I had been hoping to get some kind of ride in this weekend, and this turned out to be a good option.

We dropped into the trail from a fun downhill near Doug's parent's house, and then rode along the river for a bit. The trail itself is beautiful, and there were quite a few people out today enjoying the amazing weather.

The ride was more or less uneventful. I cleaned a few steep climbs that would have given me trouble in the past, which felt good. I also finished strong up a very steep pavement climb to the finish that Doug had warned me about.

Doug was having a good time, even if it didn't look like it.

The trail was in pretty good shape, though there were some sandy spots.

Father and son on the trails:

I did have an amusing fall as I tried to ride up and over a huge dirt mound that was at the base of the pavement climb. I think my big ring caught as I reached the apex of the mound, causing me to go OTB into the soft dirt. Fortunately, there was no photographic evidence.

I enjoyed riding with Doug as always, and the scenery on this trail is among the best for rides that aren't an hour away in the mountains.

All in all it was a fun, quick trip.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 5.23 miles
Total Time: 1:11:47
Ascent: 940 feet
Average Speed: 4.4 mph
Top Speed: 27.5 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Daley Ranch (Intense Demo Day)

2009-01-17T11:10:00.000-08:00

I'm in the midst of trial preparation hell, but somehow found time to work in a short ride this morning at Daley Ranch before heading into work on a Saturday.

Intense was having a demo day out at Daley, and because its so close to work and I am now an Intense owner and fan, I wanted to make it out there for at least a little bit.

I brought my bike, but was hoping to get to ride a new Tracer if one was available. I got there early, but all of the Tracers in my size were already gone, so I elected to demo a Spider 29'er instead. After a quick waiver form and installing my own pedals, I was on my way.

I took Creek Crossing from the parking lot to East Ridge, up Sage, then down the Diamondback singletrack. Just before the turnoff to Diamondback, I saw a coyote just off the trail.

He eventually went his way, and I went mine.

From Diamondback I took East Ridge north to the west side of Jack Creek Meadow Loop, up Hidden Spring (Cardiac) to Englemann Oak, and hooked a left on Cougar Ridge.

On Cougar Ridge, I stopped for a quick picture to the west. It was gorgeous out, and I could see all the way to the ocean.

By taking this route I skipped a significant section of trail that I had ridden before, including the Burnt Mountain and Bobcat singletracks, but I was short on time and trial prep was calling my name.

I then took Cougar Ridge to the newly re-routed Crest singletrack, which was a ton of fun and a big improvement. After that all I had left was the banzai down the Ranch House fire road back to the Intense truck and my car.

As far as my impressions of the Spider 29'er, my thoughts are limited. It felt a lot like my Spider 26'er, so I didn't notice a huge advantage to the bigger wheels. I loved the XTR brakes, however, and the bike did climb very well. If I didn't have the 26" version and was in the market for a full suspension 29'er, I think it would be a great choice. But since I already have a FS 26" bike with almost the same geometry, I can't see buying one of these. Either way, it was fun to ride something different, and the color was really cool.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 1.73 miles
Total Time: 1:34:51
Ascent: 1705 feet
Average Speed: 6.8 mph
Top Speed: 30.5 mph
Bike: Intense Spider 29'er
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Santa Luz Loop

2009-01-04T22:53:00.000-08:00

After yesterday's Secret Trail excursion, I had a chance to do another ride today. I decided to just to a quick lap around the Santa Luz Loop from home, and had an unexpectedly tremendous ride.

I just felt strong from start to finish. I rode the 4S trails over to Carmel Valley Road, and saw that the paragliders were out today.

I continued up Carmel Valley Road to Black Mountain Community Park, then rode down the Santa Luz singletrack and through the meadow.

From there I rode past the horse ranch and through the neighborhood toward the twin *itches. I cleaned the first steep climb and started my descent down the other side toward number two. During the descent, I let me speed get a little high, and took a nasty spill when my front tire caught a huge rut in the middle of the fire road. The recent rain has wreaked havoc with the steep fire roads, and I was lucky to escape with some minor scratches.

From there it was a short HAB up the second hill, then down and across San Dieguito road to the other side of Santa Luz. As always, there were some beautiful views.

I railed the doubletrack down through Lusardi Canyon, and crossed the river at the gate. I then cut through the nursery and rode the fire road up the north side of the canyon. After that I rode along the mesa towards Del Norte High, cut through the construction and pedaled home.

Other than the second crazy-steep fire road and a miscalculation climbing out of Lusardi Canyon, I had no HAB and rode strong the whole way. Finishing the whole loop from home in less than an hour and a half felt great, and all in all I was left with a great impression at the end of the ride.

Here are the stats

Total Distance: 13.77 miles
Total Time: 1:28:31
Ascent: 1584 feet
Average Speed: 9.3 mph
Top Speed: 32.1 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

2009 Goal List

2009-01-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Last year's Goal List and Ride List provided me with a fun way to measure my mountain biking progress. My list of trails to ride and achievements to accomplish that year made for a neat checklist of MTB milestones, so I thought I'd do it again this year.

However, because I occasionally stressed out in 2008 about riding a particular trail or meeting a particular goal, and riding is supposed to be about recreation and fun for me, I'm toning down the list this year.

First of all, I'm combining the goal and ride list into one master list. Second, it will be shorter and simpler this year. If I do more fun and memorable stuff, great. If not, that's fine too. Its all about priorities for me this year, and I want to keep that in perspective.

So here's the list, in no particular order:

1. Ride the full Tour de Noble: For me, this means climbing from the bottom of the Noble trailhead, up the road to Indian Creek, then over Champagne Pass, down Noble, up and down Extra Credit and back to the car. I almost did this ride at the end of 2008, but it fell through. Its taxing, with a series of difficult climbs at the beginning that makes the downhill portions a survivialfest, but I want to check this one off the list. Conditioning will be a factor.

2. Ride the Spring Canyon to Sycamore Canyon Ride: I've heard this one is brutal, but a lot of fun. As I understand it, I'd ride Spring Canyon to near the end, then a cutover to Sycamore, up to Martha's and back. I've ridden everything but the cutover in separate rides already, so I just need to combine Spring and Sycamore on a day when I'm feeling strong.

3. Ride the Santa Ana River Trail (SART): Its one of the most talked-about trails in SoCal that I've never ridden, and I really want to ride SART this year. I've heard its tough, and because of its location in the San Bernardino mountains can only be ridden at certain times of year, but I want to make it out there in 2009 at least once.

4. Ride in Idyllwild: I'd like to ride the trails up in Idyllwild at some point this year. I'm shooting for Alvin Meadows, Hurkey Creek, or a combination of the two. They're only a couple hours away, and a ton of fun from what I've heard.

5. Ride Cowles Mountain and Pyles Peak: This is one of the few San Diego rides I haven't done yet, and I want to see what this trail is like. I've hiked Cowles from the south, but never ridden it on the bike-legal trails. For some reason this one didn't make my 2008 list, and I plan to remedy that this year.

6. Ride My Archipelago Route Backwards: I rode it clockwise in 2008, and in 2009 I want to ride the same route in the opposite direction. With the Tunnels being shut down, I'll have to make some minor changes to the LPQ section of the route, and the finish at Black Mountain will involve a climb to the peak that is much harder than the finish to the clockwise route was, but I think I can do it.

7. Do an Organized MTB Event or Race: I sort of did this one in 2008 with the Cycle Eastlake event and Cuyamaca Poker Ride, but I want to do another organized event or maybe even a race this year. Maybe it will be the Warrior's Society Toad Festival, or a Racers and Chasers event, or a 12 Hour race, or some other endurance event or race. I'm leaving this goal a little vague, because I'm not sure I have the time or dedication to train for a serious race or competitive event, but want to do something along those lines by the end of the year.

8. Join and Participate in a Mountain Bike Patrol: I've been interested in joining a Mountain Bike Patrol for a while now. IMBA has a NMBP that is akin to the Ski Patrol, but there is no San Diego chapter right now. As far as I know, none of the local city or county parks have patrols either. But I'm interested in volunteering and assisting on the trails, and hope to make that happen in 2009.

9. Ride Otay Mountain: I don't know what route exactly, but I've heard about some fun South Bay rides that include Otay mountain, and want to get out there at some point this year.

10. Do an Out-of-State Ride: Last year the goal was to do a ride outside of SoCal. I made that one, so this year I'm branching out a little. I want to do some out of state ride, whether its something relatively close like Arizona (Sedona or Phoenix) or Nevada (Bootleg or Red Rocks) or something more ambitious like Utah or Colorado. Considering financial limitations and time constraints, this one may be tough.

11. Control my MTB-Related Spending: I spent a ton of money on MTB-related items in 2008. Between multiple bikes, clothes, accessories, and nutrition, the amount of retail expenses I incurred to support my hobby was outrageous. In 2009, I'm making it a specific and important goal to reduce my MTB spending. I'm not buying another bike. I won't need shoes thanks to my Christmas present from my wonderful wife. I will resist the upgradeitis that afflicted me in 2008. I'll limit the amount of clothes and accessories I purchase to necessities, and will resist the siren call of Chainlove.

So there you have it, my 2009 Goal List. Hopefully I have as much success meeting these goals as I did in 2008 with that list.

Year in Review

2008-12-31T23:59:00.000-08:00

2008 started out a little ragged, beginning in January with a week of not riding followed by my five mile local ride that almost required a sag wagon.

Things got worse before they got better, and my inaugural trip to Daley Ranch ended with an early bailout and a renewed commitment to improve my fitness ASAP.

So I set some general goals and made a list of trails I wanted to ride in 2008, and dedicated myself to becoming a better rider.

In February I rode the Santa Luz loop for the first time and also took my first trip to the LPQ Tunnels with the Skyline MTB crew.

I also headed back to ATT in February, and once again experienced some mechanical issues. But I did spend some time playing around on the rocks this time, and started to gain a little confidence...

I also made my first trip up to Noble Canyon when Joel and I shuttled it in the snow. I had an awesome time, and was glad to finally experience the trail that so many people talked about.

We bought Rachel a hybrid mountain bike in February as well, and I took her for a spin around our local 4S trail system. She seemed to like it OK.

In March I did my first ride with the Rock MTB group over in the Tri-Canyons area. It was a decent ride, but involved some interesting terrain including freeway overpasses, aqueducts, and even some singletrack!

I also sold my first real mountain bike, an Iron Horse Warrior 3.5, in March. I had served me fairly well as I began my MTB hobby, but I was on to bigger and better things.

I also made it over to North Hodges later that month, and played around while enjoying some impressive views.

I followed that ride with a trip over to the South side of Hodges, most of which had been closed for several months following the 2007 October wild fires.

My Lake Hodges bonanza continued a week later when I crossed off one of my 2008 Goal List items and climbed Bernardo Peak. It involved more hiking than riding, but I still enjoyed myself.

I also rode Sycamore with Joel one weekend...

And returned the next weekend to complete some unfinished business...

Rachel and I also took some time out to do the Silent Ride with the Rock MTB group which was an moving experience and later that day I spent some time on the trails with my first ride over at Lake Calavera. My fitness was not up to par on that day, and I left wishing I had been able to hang with the group better. I did handle a few techy downhill sections OK though.

March also brought about the end of my regular local ride (as well as a painful lesson in the effects of the needles of the wild artichoke.)

I capped off the month by doing some trail work over at Black Mountain (on a trail that ironically would become part of my new local ride route a few months later!).

April started out with an easy spin around Hodges with Joel, followed by my first trip down Canyon Rim trail at Black Mountain, the trail that would become the training ground for my improving technical downhill skills.

After that I spent an awesome day riding all of the singletrack at the Del Mar Mesa the day before it closed. It was an incredibly fun series of trails, and I am both thrilled to have ridden before it was bulldozed and saddened at the fact that its gone forever now.

I bought a new bike in April, a Specialized Enduro Elite, but it didn't last very long. It just wasn't a fit for me.

The next couple of weeks brought a quickie LPQ run with Sean, followed by the Skyline MTB weekend in the Lagunas and a fun Noble ride where I had a chance to improve my downhill skills.

April ended with an aborted local ride that taught me some chain maintenance lessons, but overall things were going pretty well at that point.

May involved a couple of consecutive trips to Black Mountain for my new local ride, followed by a new route over at Hodges involving both the North and South sides with Sean and Dave G.

One highlight of May was my first organized event ride, Cycle Eastlake. I enjoyed it very much, and would love to do more events like it. Less pavement would have been better, and doing it with friends would also have been fun, but I had a great time nonetheless.

Later that same day I did a local ride just to get in some bonus miles, which set a new single-day mileage record for me.

The last week of May brought a ride that may be the highlight of the year for me: the Tour de Hodges. On a whim I ended up riding almost all of the trails that were open on both North and South Hodges, including Bernardo Peak. It was a 27 mile slogfest for me, and one that I'll remember as a great accomplishment.

After the Tour de Hodges, my next ride was also one that I'll remember as I spent a considerable amount of time wandering around the Tunnels at LPQ. I was able to discover two new Tunnels that I'd never ridden, and also enjoyed dropping in from the Camino del Sur trailhead for the first time.

May concluded with a trip through Santa Luz with Sean, where we saw several interesting sights, including bridges...

Strange gook on the trails...

And what wild artichoke looks like in full bloom...

June started with the now ubiquitous Black Mountain local ride, followed by my first trip to Sweetwater Reservoir. I almost didn't make it to this ride, which was hosted by the group from World Cycles, but am glad I did. Sweetwater turned out to be one of my favorite local trails of the whole year.

After Sweetwater, Sean and I tackled the main trails at Black Mountain for the first time. My local ride had included the Canyon Rim trail and some of the smaller trails that descended the north side of the mountain, but Sean and I set out to explore the whole thing, and we succeeded. Despite being a relatively short ride mileage-wise, it was a ton of climbing and we had a great time riding trails in our backyard that we had never ridden.

A week after riding Black Mountain, I went for a ride with Billy at the Cuyamaca Grand Loop. I remember this as one of my strongest rides of the year in terms of conditioning and fitness, and while the trail itself was a little underwhelming and Billy had some severe mechanical issues, it was a fun day up in the mountains. The views and scenery were impressive.

We saw wild turkeys...

A little singletrack...

And some beautiful forest...

The next week I did my first STR group ride at the Santa Margarita River Trail. I met Doug in person for the first time and also met and rode with local MTB legend MTB Bill as well. The ride itself was fun, and it was neat to get to see a new trail that I'd never ridden.

The next week brought another highlight of the entire year; Santa Rosa Plateau with the Wonderminion. The trail was fun and interesting, the scenery was new and unique, and I had a great time showing our intern Kent the joys of mountainbiking. And I finally got some pictures of myself on the trail, which was nice.

June wrapped up with my first-ever night ride, the SDMBA Cuyamaca Night Ride at the Cuyamaca Grand Loop. This was an interesting ride for me, because it started out with me having a complete bonk despite having ridden very well there earlier in June. I managed to finish the ride relatively strong, but struggled so much at the beginning that the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I did enjoy the night riding aspect, and did several more later in the year.

July brought sweet redemption by way of a return trip to Daley Ranch that went pretty well. While I still had a couple of HAB's, I rode the vast majority of it and did far better than my debacle out there six months earlier.

After that came a fun LPQ ride with Doug, Evan, and Scott where I was able to ride the mysterious tunnel 5 for the first time.

After that ride came more secret trails with my first trip out to Ted Williams. I rode with Sean and Doug, and it turned into a climbing exploration the likes of which only Sean could create. It was fun though, and I was glad to finally be shown this hidden jewel of north county.

Mid-July brought the first of two Archipelago Pre-rides that I did that month, beginning with my initial ride from home to South Hodges to North Hodges to SDRP where I got lost between SDRP and Santa Luz. It was a key first step in what would become a successful epic ride, and some of my pictures from that day are among my favorites.

Five days after my first failed attempt at linking up trails for my Archipelago ride, I was back out there for Pre-Ride 1(b), where I started out at Hodges with Mark and Doug and ultimately found my connector. It was a fun but taxing ride, and I rolled home in the dark around 9:00 at night.

August began with me successfully linking the second section of trails for the Archipelago Ride, starting from home and linking Santa Luz to LPQ and back to Santa Luz. It was a very taxing ride for me, and I ended it wondering if the full ride was even possible.

August also brought some bike shenanigans, with the sale of my first full-suspension rig (Specialized FSR) and purchase of my new frame, an Intense Spider XVP. I'll get into the Spider more later, but as for the FSR, it was an awesome bike and I was a little sorry to see it go. Things turned out OK though.

Despite the revolving door of bikes, August was a brutal time for riding, as work was a nightmare and family was in from out of town. As a result, I went three weeks between rides before I finally worked in a local ride just to taste dirt again.

September started off with a bang, howerver, as I embarked on my first ever out-of-town MTB trip. I joined Sean, Doug, and Brent for a trip up to the Southern Sierras, specifically Kernville and the Sequoias. It was an awesome four days of riding, and the collection of ride reports is available here. My biggest regret was that my fitness wasn't up to par, and the next time I plan a MTB trip, I plan on putting in some serious training miles before hand in order to ensure I'm able to handle several consecutive days of riding. There were a ton of beautiful photos from the trip, but here just a couple of my favorites:

When I got home from Kernville/Quaking Aspens, I still had several days of vacation left, and decided to hit a local trail I had been meaning to ride for a while, Elfin Forest. Despite several consecutive days of riding, my fitness was still a little suspect, and I suffered during most of the Elfin ride. The views were impressive though...

A week later I headed out to MTRP to ride Spring and Oak canyons with Sean, Doug, Evan, and Jeremy.

After that was a fun LPQ spin in the lower canyon trails with Rachel, which was a nice change of pace.

My last September ride was an LPQ night ride with Sean, Dennis and Dave G., who had never been through the tunnels before. Despite some mishaps with my light and mechanical issues, it was a fun ride and made me want to ride at night more often.

October brought the completion of the Spider build, and a new bike was born.

The maiden voyage was an easy ride back at Spring Canyon with Rachel, Billy, and Nate. I was really impressed at Rachel's riding, and started to hope that she'd get on the trails with me more often. The Spider felt great, though the easy trail and relaxed pace wasn't much of a test.

After that, it was time for the Cuyamaca Poker Ride. I rode well, and really appreciated the lighter weight and XC geometry of the Spider. I'll definitely be back next year.

Next up was a night ride with Dave G. at Black Mountain. I was glad to be night riding again and getting some use out of my TriNewt, but miscalculated badly on this ride. I tried the light on my helmet, and it was horrible. I had no depth perception, the beam wasn't bright enough, and it made for a rough ride.

Then cameArchipelago Pre-ride Part III, the final leg of my Archipelago pre-ride series. I had been vacillating about which direction to do the route , and had decided to ride this ride clockwise because I was leaning toward doing the Archipelago route that direction as well. I'm glad I did. I found the gliderport trail down the west face of Black Mountain, and the final piece of my Archipelago ride was in place.

A week later, with my Spider performing well and finances an issue, I elected to sell off my Specialized Enduro that I had ridden since April. This bike and I never really formed a bond, and I wasn't entirely sad to see it go. I was able to get a good price for it, and the "rental fee" for riding it for seven months wasn't too bad.

The final ride of October was a great one, with a trip up to the Lagunas to ride BLT with the Skyline crew. We did some bonus miles in addition to the regular loop, and had a blast. It was actually my first trip up to BLT this year, and I hope to get back up there soon.

November started with a bang. After more than three and a half months of planning, scouting, pre-riding, and (some) conditioning, the morning of the 6th was the day of my full Archipelago Ride. The route was well planned and executed. The company (Doug) was awesome and enhanced the experience. I had some severe cramping issues in my legs, which served as a lesson for next time, but overall it was a day I'll remember for a long time. It was over 42 miles, eight hours of riding, and an epic day. There were a lot of neat pics, but this one was one of my favorites:

The rest of the month was a little anticlimactic, with a trip to Sycamore to clean Martha's and finally ride the switchbacks next on my agenda.

It felt great to clean all of Martha's, but the switchbacks nearly killed me endurance-wise. I blame it on having ridden 42 miles a week earlier...

After a couple week riding drought, I headed over to La Costa (Denk Mountain) to check off another lingering 2008 Ride List trail. It was a decent ride, but the fairly severe nature of the trail (steep climb, then steep descent, then repeat) wasn't really my style. It was fun, but not a place I'd make a habit out of riding on a regular basis. Also, for being geographically close to home, it took forever to get there...

Next came a kind of strange ride out at "lower" Noble Canyon with Billy. We did some exploration on some singletrack near the bottom of the trailhead, and climbed some of the road up to a cutover trail and rode Extra Credit back to the cars. The exploration aspect of the ride was fun, and we did discover some neat singletrack that's off the beaten path. However, I was stung by a bee, and it was a long drive for a fairly short ride, so it wasn't a complete success.

The last ride of November was one of my best performances on a local ride all year. Whether it was the new bike, some better conditioning, or just a unmerited blessing, I cleaned several sections that I usually walk and had a great ride.

December also started strong, with another 2008 Goal List item getting checked off my list. While Rachel back east visiting relatives, I joined Nate for a ride up at San Juan Trail. We rode all the way to Blue Jay and back, and while there were some rough spots for me and the climbing was difficult, it was a great ride.

The next day brought a quick, "training style ride" over at North Hodges. I actually didn't feel like riding, but with an unlimited hall pass and the year winding down, I wanted to ride as much as possible. I negative split the trip to Hernandez Hideaway and back, and felt great at the end.

After a busy couple of weeks, my next ride was back at Black Mountain, and it was a circus. I climbed a trail over on the north section, which was a mistake, and then right at the summit lost a screw in my cleat, resulting in a lengthy trailside hassle and a ride home with no cleat on my left foot. However, what should have been a horrible ride was outweighed by the beauty of the day and the local mountains, which were breathtaking.

Next came a fun solo ride out at Sweetwater, that would have been better if not for some equestrian trail damage that wrecked some of the lower singeltrack. Also, there was just enough mud left on the fire roads to totally gunk up the Spider, resulting in a need for a deep clean the next day.

The last ride of 2008 was a pretty good one. I rode a "secret trail" out in Steele Canyon that was a lot of fun with the Skyline and Rock MTB groups. It was a lot of climbing, and involved some road miles at the end, but the backcountry feel and exploration aspects made it more enjoyable than it otherwise would have been.

It was a great year. I rode a lot, improved some, and delved deeper into a hobby that is truly a large part of my life now.

I legitimately completed each item on my 2008 Goal List, and did each ride but one on my 2008 Ride List. Lake Morena was the only trail I missed, and while I'm disappointed that I didn't hit them all this year, only missing one (reasonably close) trail isn't too bad.

I feel pretty good about making each of my goals for the year. While each of them were measurable and attainable, none were gimmies, and I had to work to make sure that each one was met.

In terms of mileage, I rode a total of 217.53 miles on my mountain bike in the fourth quarter of the year, as opposed to 200.00 in Q3, 254.75 in Q2 and 140.25 miles in Q1. As a result, I rode 812.55 miles this year. I didn't have a goal number of miles to hit, and this seems like a decent accomplishment as well. I will shoot for a little more next year.

So ends 2008. I'll be publishing a 2009 Goal List, that will encompass both my overall goals as well as some specific trails. I've enjoyed writing this blog in 2008, and hope to continue through 2009 as well.

See you next year...

State of the MTB Union (Q4 2008)

2008-12-31T03:06:00.000-08:00

Back on April 1, and July 1, and October 1, I posted quarterly State of the Union addresses on this blog detailing the progress I had made on my 2008 Ride List and 2008 Goal List. At the end of each quarter I always found myself looking forward to writing this post because its interesting for me to look back at the last three months to review what I've accomplished, how I've progressed, and where I want to improve.

I plan on doing an extensive year-end post hitting some of the high points from all of 2008, but in keeping with my tradition of quarterly progress reports, I wanted to do my 4th Quarter review separately.

2008 RIDE LIST:

As far as rides on my 2008 list, I entered Q4 with three rides left on my list. I finally rode the Big Laguna Loop (with extras) and La Costa, which I had been hoping to get to. BLT was an absolute blast because we added in some awesome bonus sections including Agua Dulce and Red Tail Roost. La Costa was decent, with a confidence-building trip down NASCAR coupled with a ton of climbing that wasn't entirely worth it. It was a fun enough trail, but not one I plan on doing on a regular basis like so many other riders in North County.

It looks like I will officially not be completing every ride on my 2008 List, however, because I didn't make it out to Lake Morena. I thought it was going to happen when the Rock MTB group scheduled a ride out there on December 20, but rain forced a change of venue and my last opportunity was squandered. I'm a little bummed to not have crossed every ride off the list, but I'll live. And I'll make sure to get out to Lake Morena in 2009 at least once.

2008 GOAL LIST:

As for my more general 2008 Goal List, the 4th Quarter was a good one. I entered the quarter with only four goals left unaccomplished. To remedy that fact, in early November I finally made it back out to Sycamore to clean all of Martha's Grove (up and down). A week earlier I had already knocked off Goal #2 by doing an all-day type ride courtesy of my Archipelago Ride. And then in early December I did a ride in the OC while riding the famed San Juan Trail. The only other goal left on the list was to improve my climbing skills and general fitness, which I have clearly done, though not to my complete satisfaction.

HIGHLIGHTS OF Q4:

The 4th Quarter was a great one for me, with several awesome rides and a couple of other interesting developments.

The most significant non-riding event of the quarter was the completion of my new bike, an Intense Spider XVP. I bought the frame online for a song back in August, and finally purchased all the components and had it built up in early October by the guys over at Bike Bling. The list of specs is available in this post which I wrote the day I picked it up from the shop. Over the next three months I made some minor additions including my own saddle, carbon handle bars, and finally some new pedals. The bike has been awesome, and though it ended up costing quite a bit, I was able to defray almost the entire cost using supplemental income so I didn't shatter our household budget. I have noticed a significant improvement in my climbing with the Spider over the Enduro, and the bike just seems to fit me better than any of my previous ones. I am looking forward to riding it for years to come.

As far as rides in Q4, I was glad to get Rach out on her first real MTB ride at Spring Canyon in early October. She did great, and I hope to get her out on more rides in 2009.

I also had a chance to do the annual Cuyamaca Poker Ride for the first time this year, and had one of my strongest riding days of the year in terms of fitness. The ride itself was OK, but it was the first real ride I did on the new Spider, and what a difference it made. My fitness and proper bike-fit made the experience much more enjoyable than it would have been if I was out of shape and on the Enduro, and I had a great time.

I also finally made it up to the Lagunas in Q4 to do the BLT ride and I'll remember it as one of the most purely enjoyable rides of the second half of the year. There wasn't any one thing that made it fun, but the trails were new and interesting, the company was good, and the scenery and weather were great, combining for a great day on the trails all around.

November brought my now ledgendary Archipelago Ride, which was a highlight of the entire year in terms of accomplishment. It was 42 miles of riding, and I had some physical challenges during the last third of the ride, but it felt great to finish the whole thing and I really felt like I had achieved something significant by the end. Between the three pre-rides and some google earth scouting efforts, planning the route was almost as much fun as riding it, and I learned that the "exploration" aspect of mountainbiking is one of my favorite parts of the hobby.

I also was glad to make it up to the famed San Juan Trail in December. Nate proved to be an awesome trail guide and de facto coach, and I performed better than I thought I would on a day where I wasn't even feeling my best. Making it all the way to Blue Jay was something I was really proud of, and I ended the ride once again feeling like I had achieved something significant.

My last ride of the year was another interesting one when I rode over at McGinty Mountain with a group of fast riders. The trail was fairly unknown, and while the ride itself wasn't a ton of fun, the backcountry feel and exploration aspect were extremely enjoyable, and I look forward to getting back there and exploring more early in 2009.

For the fourth quarter of 2008, I rode a total of 217.53 miles on my mountain bike, as opposed to 200.00 in Q3, 254.75 in Q2 and 140.25 miles in Q1. As a result, I rode 812.55 miles this year. I didn't have a total mileage goal at the beginning of 2008, but I feel like that number is adequate. I am thinking of setting a mileage goal for 2009, but don't want to be stressed about miles all year at the expense of fun on the trails.

As I said above, I'll be posting a year-end summary with thoughts and pictures from the entire year, but as far as Q4 goes, I feel like I finished strong and look forward to building on the miles I've logged and trails I've ridden this year as I head into 2009.

Spider Build: Final Piece

2008-12-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas Eve today and with that came the final piece of my Spider build. I had finally purchased a seat and handlebars of my own back in November when they became available at Bike Bling and forgot to post an update here, but that's not the focus of today's post. (For what its worth, I went with a WTB Pure V SLT saddle and Easton Monkeylite ML mid rise carbon bars, both of which I like very much.)

After getting my seat and bars, the only piece of the bike that wasn't new was my pedals. I had been using old Shimano M505 pedals from my Specialized FSR XC Pro, and while they worked decently they were far from high-end.

I had been researching pedals for a couple of months, trying to get an idea if I wanted to stick with SPD's or switch to Crank Brothers clipless pedals. Early on in my search I fell in love with the CB Acid 2's, thanks to their light weight, decent size platform, and cool white color that matched my bike. The problem was that the best price I could find for those pedals was around $160.00, which was outside my budget for pedals.

I had been combing ebay for a while, and a few days ago spotted the exact pedals I wanted (brand new) with a reserve of $60.00. At that point there were three days left on the auction, and I figured the price would go up to the $150 range eventually, but I put in a bid anyway just in case.

I monitored the auction closely, and was surprised and thrilled when I won the pedals for only $80.00. What was even better was that the seller voluntarily offered to reduce the shipping cost to me because he was just up the road in Lake Elsinore, so the total cost was $85.00.

I was in the office this afternoon working (on Christmas Eve!) when the mail arrived, and was blown away that the pedals came already. They were in perfect, new condition, and the seller had even included a second set of cleats and shims for free which was amazing.

Even better, the boss let me bang out of work around 1 PM, so I headed home and installed my new toys as soon as possible. They went on with no problem, and clipping in and out has never been easier.

I rode around the driveway to test them out, and at first blush I absolutely love them. They look perfect, feel really good under my feet, and are extremely easy to clip in and out of, something I had a problem with while using the SPD's.

I'm excited to take the bike out for a ride this weekend now that its in final form. Building it from scratch has been a ton of fun, and I feel inordinately blessed to have such a quality bike. It has truly been a merry Christmas already, and the big day isn't even until tomorrow...

Here's how she looks in all of her complete splendor:

RR: Sweetwater Reservoir

2008-12-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

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:

View Larger Map

RR: Black Mountain

2008-12-20T23:16:00.000-08:00

I had an interesting ride this morning that started out rough and only got worse, yet by the end I was still in a better mood than when I started. I must be making some progress in my approach to life.

I had a fairly limited window in which to ride this morning because of some home improvement projects and Christmas shopping that I had to do, so I was conflicted about where to ride. I'm a little bored with all of the regular stuff that I've been riding, and wanted something new. Doug invited me to go with him to explore some Ramona trails which I've wanted to do for a while, but he couldn't start until 10:00 a.m. and I didn't have the whole day available. I had also gone through another unfortunate two week layoff since my last ride and wasn't sure where my fitness would be.

My indecision led to laziness, and I elected to just stay near home and ride my local route to Black Mountain, with maybe a trip to the summit tacked on for good measure. As I started out and pedaled through the 4S trails towards the mountain, I figured that the least I could do to shake things up was to try to climb the rocky trail up the north face of the mountain to Miner's instead of riding Carmel Valley road to the paved climb up to the trailhead.

As I started the dirt climb things weren't too bad, but they deteriorated rapidly. My two weeks of 12 hour work days and no exercise exacted their toll about a third of the way up, and I was off the bike and huffing way earlier than I should have been. The dirt climb was a poor choice for me today, but would have been quicker and more fun than the two road climbs if I was in the right condition. I'll definitely try it again sometime soon, but need to get back on the stupid stationary bike beforehand.

I eventually reached the top and made my way over to Miner's. I was once again beset by more HAB than usual, and I was questioning my decision to even go for a ride this morning. I had done so well on Miner's just a few weeks ago, and it was particularly frustrating to be performing so badly today after having some great success back on November 30th. I was also unable to clean that fun techy section today that I had made a couple weeks ago, which was demoralizing.

As I essentially pushed my bike up Miner's clockwise, I considered just doing the loop and skipping the ride to the summit like I had tentatively planned. I felt like crap, and didn't want to continue to suffer during the limited down-time that I had available today. As I neared the cut-over trail that would mark my decision point, I looked back toward the north and was treated to an amazing view of the snow-capped Palomar mountains.

As I turned toward the east, I could see that the Cuyamaca mountains also had significant snowfall visible from where I was.

The views immediately changed my whole demeanor and attitude, and I decided to make the trek to the summit to see if I could get an even better view.

I rode pretty well through the cut-over, even cleaning the tricky G-out near the end, and then made the HAB up to the main fire road. I spun along the fire road happily toward the summit, where indeed the view were spectacular. I stopped near the top to enjoy the views to the east before continuing to the summit to check out the mountains to the north as well.

As I made it to the summit, I rode toward the edge of the road and planned to stop for a minute to take in the views. As I stopped and tried to unclip my left pedal, my shoe rotated outward but the cleat remained stationary, stuck in the pedal. I unclipped my right shoe quickly before I fell over, and realized that the left cleat was rotating underneath the sole of the shoe while still attached to the pedal.

I played with it for a minute or two, rotating my ankle around trying the get the cleat to unclip, but with no success. I eventually was forced to take the shoe off my foot while the shoe was still attached to the pedal, and spent about 10 minutes trying to dislodge the cleat and shoe from the pedal, frustrated but amused at the situation.

I tried all kinds of tricks, but eventually had to just put the shoe back on try to wrench it free by twisting my ankle. That method finally worked, and after the shoe came unclipped, I discovered the culprit that caused the problem: I had lost one of the screws that held the cleat in place, which caused the cleat to rotate on the bottom of the shoe instead of disengaging from the pedal.

The screw was apparently long gone, so I tightened down the remaining screw and clipped back in, hoping that tightening the one screw down very tight would keep the cleat from rotating. I put the shoe back on and clipped in. I then tried to unclip to test it out, and the cleat rotated inside the pedal and stayed clipped. Crap. I wrenched the shoe free again, and this time elected to remove the cleat entirely, meaning that I would be unable to clip in my left shoe at all. The Shimano M505 cleats that I was using have almost no platform, so pedaling was going to be a little rough, but I figured that was better than being stuck to the pedal during the entire descent down Black Mountain.

Time was also a factor at this point. I had things to do today and my mechanical issues had cost me about 25 minutes that I had not factored in when planning out this ride. I made it down the Gorge Trail without dabbing, but did stop to snap a picture on the way down so that I could illustrate why I have dubbed it the Gorge Trail.

I also almost made it up the steep climb at the end of Gorge but my left foot slipped off the pedal during my final lunge and I stalled briefly, forcing a dab.

I cleaned all the switches going down Miner's, and because of my pedal issues and time concerns, elected to just ride the main trail down the north face of the mountain back to the 4S trails to home. Even with all the pedal nonsense I made it home in less than two hours, which was nice. With the rough start fitness-wise and mechanical issues I would have expected myself to be frustrated at the end of the ride, but the views of those snow-capped mountains really had an effect on me, and I was in a great mood the rest of the day.

One thing that is becoming clear is that my occasional two week gaps between rides really hurts my endurance and sets back my fitness considerably. I need to do something during the week to make sure my fitness doesn't drop as dramatically as it did these last two weeks when I was unable to ride. It looks like the stationary bike may be the only option...

Here are the stats from today:

Total Distance: 8.57 miles
Total Time: 1:59:51
Ascent: 1702 feet
Average Speed: 4.3 mph
Top Speed: 31.6 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: North Hodges

2008-12-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

I managed to work in a quick North Hodges ride this afternoon before the Bronco game, primarily out of a sense of obligation. With Rach still out of town my time is my own, and I wanted to get some miles in when I had the chance. I was a little tired from 22 miles at San Juan Trail yesterday, so I wanted to do a ride that was fun but not too strenuous. North Hodges was the perfect fit.

When I arrived at the parking lot near the Self Storage, I realized that there wasn't any water left in my camelback from yesterday's ride like I had thought. So I threw a multi-tool in my jacket pocket and decided to ride without a camelback, something I almost never do.

I rode the basic North Hodges route, under the bridge, up the short hill, down along the lake, across the creek, up the fire road, up the ridge trail, down toward the lake, along the singletrack that parallels the road, through the fun singletrack that lines the west side of the lake, finishing at Hernandez Hideaway. When I reached HH, I realized that it had taken me just over 33 minutes to get that far. I decided at that moment to see if I could achieve a "negative split" for this ride, meaning I would try to take less time to ride back to the car than I did to reach the midpoint at HH.

I was already a little tired at that point, but spun a higher gear through the west side singletrack and along the road in order to try to make up time, and then prepared myself for the short, steep climb up to the ridge. I had not been able to clean that climb during the back-half of the Archipelago Ride, but today I sucked it up and grunted my way to the top. Without stopping to pat myself on the back, I spun through the ridge singletrack as quickly as I could. I did get hung up on the section where you have to get up and over a series of rocks during a turn on the trail, but after a dab was able to keep going. (At some point I really need to get to where I can clean that spot. Its ridiculous that there is a section at Hodges I can't clean...)

As I descended from the ridge and pedaled along the fire road that runs just above the lake, I could see that a negative split would be tough to get. I was also tiring significantly at that point and had one last climb near the end to contend with still. Despite my negative projections, I flew down the fire road as fast as I could, crossed the stream, and turned big gears during the singletrack along the lake. Time was slipping away as I approached the final climb, and I rode up as fast as I could. As I reached the summit of that last climb I was at the one hour four minute mark, meaning I had to make it back to the car in less than two minutes to achieve a negative split.

I flew down the last descent, rode toward the freeway, then under the bridge and big-ringed the last section of "trail" toward the parking lot. As the stats below prove, I made my negative split by a mere three seconds, tired but pleased with my accomplishment.

It was a fun "training" style ride, and I was pretty happy to have made it to Hernandez Hideaway and back in an hour and 5 minutes. I may try to shoot for under an hour next time just to make things interesting.

Once again Rachel had the camera, but I think I have enough pictures of Hodges and the pace of this ride didn't lend itself to photos anyway.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 12.21 miles
Total Time: 1:05:57
Ascent: 805 feet
Average Speed: 11.1 mph
Top Speed: 20.9 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: San Juan Trail

2008-12-06T17:16:00.000-08:00

With Rachel out of town this weekend I knew I wanted to do a big Saturday ride, but didn't know where to go. I debated about doing Aliso, Noble, or the San Clemente singletracks, but after a call from Nate Friday afternoon, my fate was sealed: We were finally riding San Juan.

The circumstances were perfect: Billy was out with the flu or else he would have vetoed San Juan (he hates it after a bad experience in July), Nate had been there so he knew the trail, and I had the whole day free. Awesome.

Nate picked me up at a park and ride in RB at 6:30, and we made it to the trailhead by about 7:45. The morning was flawless; cool and crisp but not cold, and the temperatures were ideal for climbing. Which we would be doing a lot of on this trail.

After a short warm-up pedaling in circles in the parking lot, we started up the famed San Juan Trail. The first set of switchbacks came up right away, and I found myself breathing hard from the get-go. Despite how good I felt riding last weekend, I hadn't been on the stationary bike all week, and it appeared that I was going to pay for that.

I made a couple of the early switchbacks, especially those that turned to the left. The right turns were more of a problem for me, and I found myself dabbing fairly often.

The trail was in good condition overall, and wasn't loose, but it was rutted, and I found myself having some balance issues climbing while in the deep ruts in the middle of the trail. I handled the climb OK for the first section, and Nate was nice enough to wait up if he found himself getting too far out in front.

There were a couple of spots fairly early on where the trail had eroded, leaving a narrow space with significant exposure off to the side. I walked two of those sections but sacked up and rode a couple others.

As the climb continued there were a couple of really tough, rocky switchbacks that I also had to hike, and eventually fatigue set in and I found myself HABing sections of ridable trail because I was simply tired.

At one point I fell farther behind than usual, and Nate came back to ride with me. I rallied a little at that point, and rode fairly strongly for a bit before fatigue once again reared its ugly head. Eventually I was riding again, and made it to the top of the main portion of the climb. At that point I enjoyed a really fun flowy section of singletrack that undulated and wound through some scrub bushes. After that it was more climbing, and then suddenly we were at Cocktail Rock. We had hit Cocktail at exactly the two hour mark of the ride, which I realize isn't great, but didn't feel terrible either. On a better climbing day fitness wise, I could have shaved at least a half-hour off that time. Nate could have done it solo in an hour.

Spent a few minutes at Cocktail, and asked some guys there if they knew about the upper loop that Nate had never ridden. They suggested we ride all the way to Blue Jay, which I wasn't sure about, but we decided to go for it. They were riding towards Blue Jay, but planned to split off to go ride Los Pinos and offered to show us where to go as far as they could. We left Cocktail as part of their group, rode down a fun downhill section, through some meadows, and then started climbing again. The trail at that point reminded me a lot of Noble, with brush and trees along the trail and fun rocky singletrack as the main feature.

I began to really feel the effects of the climbing about halfway to Blue Jay, and was getting a little concerned about bonking. After one particularly long climb I caught up to Nate, who told me that the rest of the group had split off to go ride Los Pinos, and had given him directions to Blue Jay. We rested for a minute there, and Nate helped me try to fix my pedals, which had been giving me problems. After a short rest and some bike repair, we started out to complete the last leg of our trip to Blue Jay.

The next section of trail did have some climbing, but was mostly manageable and I was able to stay on the bike and ride the whole thing. After just a short while we found ourselves standing at the Blue Jay campground, tired but pleased with our achievement.

After a short rest, we started back the way we came, eager to enjoy the fruit of our labor from all the climbing we had done. The downhill from Blue Jay to the base of the hill we had descended earlier was a blast, and it was over far to quickly. We then had a fairly lengthy HAB up the steep downhill we had ridden after Cocktail, and once we reached the top we were excited and ready for some sustained downhill as we descended San Juan.

The descent was fun and fast, though I did have a problem descending a couple of the upper switchbacks. On one of them I turned too tight and started to tip, and my left shoe would not come unclipped. As a result I capsized, landing painfully on my left knee and shin, still clipped in. I actually lay there for a minute or two, stuck, until I was able to wrench my cleat free from the pedal. I really want new pedals. I had some scrapes and bruises from the fall, but no serious injuries, and re-mounted the bike and pedaled on.

After that mishap I was a little tentative descending some of the other techy switchbacks, but did manage to clean a couple. We bombed the rest of the downhill in no time, and were back at the car quicker than I expected.

It was a fun ride, and one I'd actually do again. I wish I had been more faithful on the stationary bike in the week leading up to it so my conditioning had been a little better, but as it was I wasn't terrible. I'm very happy we decided to go all the way to Blue Jay. Even though the extra climbing was rough, I finished the day feeling pretty good, and had plenty left in the tank. I hear there is a "lollipop loop" after Cocktail that I'm sorry we missed, since our entire ride was an out and back.

Nate was an excellent ride leader, and provided me with several helpful tips during the climb that helped me pedal more efficiently, take the switchbacks better, and ride in and above ruts more effectively. I appreciated his input tremendously.

We stopped for Mexican on the way home, and then I relaxed and watched college football the rest of the afternoon. Awesome day.

Rachel had the camara for her vacation, and we gave my old one to her sister, so I am without pictures for this entire ride, which is a disappointment. The views from the top of SJT were georgeous, and we could see all the way to Catalina. I won't be without a camara the next time I ride here.

This was also the final "tangible" item on my 2008 Goal List: Do a Ride in the OC. With the completion of this ride, the only item on my List that I haven't crossed off is the "Improve my Climbing and General Fitness goal, which I will evaluate at the end of the year. I was thrilled to get this ride in before the year ended, and will talk more about the goals and my accomplishments in my year-end post that will come in a few weeks.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 21.14 miles
Total Time: 4:46:40
Ascent: 4377 feet
Average Speed: 4.4 mph
Top Speed: 19.0 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Local Ride w/Miner's Loop and Canyon Rim

2008-11-30T22:23:00.000-08:00

I had a chance to work in a bonus ride this weekend this afternoon, which is always nice. After church and some household chores were done, Rach had some project she wanted to work on and I found myself with a free hour and decided to just do a local ride to get some bonus miles in.

I headed from home over to Black Mountain, intending to just do the Miner's Loop and head back. The trail conditions were absolutely amazing thanks to some light showers we had experienced a few days earlier, and I found myself cleaning sections up the clockwise side of Miner's that I never make. It felt awesome, and I was maintaining a pretty brisk pace through the entire first part of the ride.

I still did have some HAB on Miner's, but it was much, much less than usual. I even cleaned a fun, techy spot with several big rocks in the middle of the climb that I have always fumbled in the past. It also helped that I remembered to lock-out my front fork on most of the climb, which made some the the steep rock-ups much easier.

I bypassed the cut-over and decided to just ride the entire Miner's Loop clockwise. At the top of the loop I ran into a hiker and his three kids, one of whom was in a regular small-wheeled stroller. I said hello as I stopped to let them pass, and laughed as the Dad pushed the stroller up and over several large rocks in the trail.

After they passed, I continued the descent and managed to clean all of the switchbacks at the end of Miner's, something that usually feels more difficult than it was today. The trail conditions were simply amazing.

From the end of Miner's I headed over to Canyon Rim, where I cleaned the whole descent except for one usually easy spot that was not as packed down as I expected. It was right at the apex of a tight turn that looked solid enough as I approached, but when I rode over it and started to turn, the soil beneath my tire shifted and I was forced to dab in order to keep from sliding off the trail into the bush.

From there I headed down the crazy fire road and up the short climb near the pond, then down the hill near the houses and through the 4S trails to home. I noticed at the end of the ride that today's ride was a little longer than yesterday's, but right outside my back door and in an hour less time. The exploration yesterday was worth the drive, but the contrast was amusing considering the very similar mileage and climbing statistics.

It felt good to get in a final ride in November, and heading into the final month of 2008 I'm not sure how much I'll be able to ride, so the bonus miles were nice. Also, my fitness seems to be improving, particularly since I've been hitting the stationary bike for a half hour or so three times per week. It makes a big difference that I can really recognize on days like today.

It was a last minute local ride, and I forgot my camera, so no pictures unfortunately. But I did have the GPS, so here are the stats:

Total Distance: 9.60 miles
Total Time: 1:19:408
Ascent: 1539 feet
Average Speed: 7.3 mph
Top Speed: 35.7 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: "Lower Noble" and Extra Credit

2008-11-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

This morning I elected to do a little exploring with Billy up at Noble Canyon. Rather than ride the regular route, however, Billy wanted to explore some singletrack near the bottom of the trail that he had been eying on previous rides.

We met up at our usual spot in La Mesa and carpooled up to the lower Noble trailhead. The parking lot was pretty full already, though we only saw a few other riders at the bottom.

We headed out of the main parking lot and headed towards the road climb that most people take when doing the full Tour de Noble. Our plan was a little undefined, but the general goal was to explore the lower singletrack and see if there was another route into Noble Canyon itself.

Instead of taking the road climb at first, we rode a section of brushy singletrack that was actually pretty fun. From there it was a short climb, and then we had a fun downhill singletrack section that eventually ended up on the trail that I've used in the past as a bailout point when descending Noble when I didn't want to do Extra Credit at the end. Instead of heading east towards Extra Credit, we headed west and began the road climb.

We climbed for a mile and a half or so, and Billy pointed out several spots where we could have linked up with some singletrack that paralleled the road. Instead, we kept climbing.

About halfway up the paved road climb, we reached a spot where Billy knew of a fire road that linked up with some singletrack trails just east of the road. We started up the fire road but were stopped by a guy in a Bobcat who told us that the fire road was closed to hikers and bikers.

We tried to plead out case, but the guy became really agitated, so we doubled back down the road a short distance to where we had seen a trail that headed east which we figured would meet up with the fire road anyway.

When we arrived back at that trail, we had some doubts. It was steep, rocky, and looked like there would be some HAB. Also, it wasn't clear from the bottom of the trail whether it in fact did intersect the fire road we had been looking for. After some discussion, we decided to give it a shot.

We HAB'ed for about half a mile up the steep hill, and at a couple of points almost turned back when we couldn't see if the trail intersected the fire road. We perservered just a little higher, however, and were rewarded with the junction we were hoping for. Here is a shot of what we climbed:

From the fire road we headed south (heading north would have taken us back to Bobcat guy very quickly) and began looking for another section of singletrack, which we found after a little while riding along the fire road.

The next section was very entertaining, with some techy spots and tight turns that were a blast. We followed the trail as it wound southeast, and eventually ended up at another fire road that split into two directions. One direction headed east into Noble Canyon.

The other direction headed southwest, back down towards the paved road. We were not here to ride Noble today, we wanted to explore lower Noble singletrack, so we took the trail less traveled and sailed down towards the paved road. During the descent, a bee apparently flew into my jersey and stung me right on the chest. I reached inside my jersey and pulled the stinger out, but the sting still hurt like crazy. Annoyed but undaunted, we soldiered on.

We reached the paved road after a short descent, and instead of taking it back down towards the trailhead, we followed a neat singletrack trail south that paralleled the road for a bit.

It proved to be another fun section of narrow singletrack that clearly didn't get much use. Brush was encroaching on all sides, and we were a little scratched and scraped by the time we reached what we thought was a dead end. We were about to double back and though we'd have to just ride the road back toward the trailhead when Billy suggested we hike up a bit from the dead end to see if we could meet up with the road that way. It turned out to be a good call, and we found that where we stopped wasn't really a dead end, just a place where the brush was a little more dense than even before. We plowed through, and found ourselves at the dirt lot that was next to the road where the Noble bailout trail intersected.

From there we headed farther south for just a short bit to ride a fun section of downhill singletrack that was an absolute blast. It was flowy and packed down, allowing me to get up some real speed. At the end of that short section we doubled back on the singletrack we had ridden earlier, and instead of heading west toward the paved road, we headed east toward Extra Credit.

We climbed Extra Credit, and while I was tired, I managed to clean the climb without stopping which was a first for me. We did stop at the top to rest for a minute and prep for the descent, and then we were on our way.

The first part of the Extra Credit downhill is fun and manageable, but it gets much more technical towards the bottom. Back in April I cleaned about 70% of the techy sections on the Enduro, but today I struggled somewhat. I don't think it had anything to do with the Spider itself, which had been a blast to ride all day. Part of my problem was that I was more tentative than usual. I had fallen over earlier on the ride and put a horrible scratch on the lowers of my beautiful new Fox F100 RLC, which had really upset me. As a result, as I navigated the rocky minefield that is lower Extra Credit, I was more worried about falling and scratching up my bike than I was choosing the right line or keeping momentum like I needed to.

Also, the trail conditions were a little damp up at Noble today, and while there wasn't any mud or puddles, dirt kept getting in my pedals and cleats, making clipping and unclipping difficult. On the fall that scratched my fork, I was unable to unclip and put a foot down to stabilize myself because of the dirt in the cleat and pedal. With that memory fresh in my head, I found myself walking portions of Extra Credit that I had cleaned seven months ago, which was a disappointment.

I did stop to session a spot or two, and cleaned the ones I focused on trying to make, which was nice.

At the end of the trail I took my traditional picture next to the trailhead sign, and we visitied for a few minutes with a group of guys who had shuttled down the main Noble Canyon trail for a while before heading home.

It was a fun, low-key ride that fit the bill for today. I wasn't up for an epic Noble ride and didn't want to do any of the same old north county rides that I had been doing, so some fun exploration at an easy pace was perfect. It was quite a drive to make for nine miles of riding, but the exploration aspect was worth it.

Also, doing a big chunk of the road ride was a good trail run for the full Tour de Noble that I hope to do sometime in 2009. The new trails also provide some fun variations to the Noble route that will make for a more interesting trip out there next time.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 9.08 miles
Total Time: 2:24:08
Ascent: 1772 feet
Average Speed: 3.8 mph
Top Speed: 21.1 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: La Costa

2008-11-22T23:42:00.000-08:00

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:

View Larger Map

Drought

2008-11-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

I didn't ride at all last week or over the weekend, and things look bleak for this week and weekend as well. Work has been a horror show, and I'm really missing my time on the bike.

I had hoped to match my second-quarter numbers in terms of mileage this quarter, but that's looking doubtful.

Arrgh.

RR: Sycamore Canyon w/Martha's and Switchbacks

2008-11-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

After last week's Archipelago ride I was looking for an easy local trail to do today that would offer something to shoot for while not taxing me too badly. I realized that I had never gone and cleaned up the final pieces of Martha's Grove that I wanted to clear in order to cross that particular goal off my 2008 list.

So I packed up the car and headed over to the Poway trailhead. I had a little trouble finding it again (why can't they just allow you to turn from Scripps-Poway Parkway on to Sycamore Canyon Rd.?) but made it in time to not feel stressed about how long the ride would take.

I planned on riding all of Syacmore, but the real reason for coming was to clean all of Martha's so I decided to run it right off the bat. I took the singletrack up from the trailhead, through the first two steep ups without stopping, and prepared for the first sketchy downhill section.

I cleaned that with little problem, then rode up the next short steep that had given me trouble last time, and then railed the final downhill section with relative ease. It felt great to clean the whole thing without stopping or dabbing, particularly since Martha's is a trail that I refused to even attempt a year and a half ago when I first started riding. I even stopped for a picture of the grove at the end of the downhill in order to reflect on my accomplishment.

From there I rode through the Grove, past the Gooden Ranch Ranger Station, through the gate, and on to the singletrack that headed south through the Canyon. Its always a fun section, with some tight turns and fun rocky sections that are easy but entertaining.

As I rode through the singletrack toward the Santee side, I decided that I would try to look for the switchbacks that a lot of people ride at Sycamore instead of staying on the lower canyon singletrack. Right before the main powerlines I spotted what I thought was the trail leading to the switchbacks, and headed up.

I think the Archipelago ride was still a factor for me, as I was forced to HAB the final 1/3 of the initial climb. It was pretty steep, but the footing was fine and I should have been able to clean it. Meh, next time.

At the top I followed the fire road along the ridgeline and to the west I could see trails that I figured led to Spring and Oak Canyons. Eventually I reached a singletrack off shoot, and took it as it seemed to head back down into Sycamore Canyon.

Before I began the switchback descent I stopped to watch some helicopters practicing takeoffs and landings in the meadow below. As they took off and flew around, they were actually below where I was on the ridgeline.

From there I headed down the switchbacks, which were a ton of fun to descend. The Spider is so nimble and compact that I could take them with a lot more speed than I expected. The descent was over far too quickly (especially considering how hard the climb up was for me today) and soon I found myself back on the canyon floor.

From there it was a relatively easy spin back through the gate, past the Ranger Station, and up the paved climb back to the trailhead. Despite trying hard not to, I was forced to stop and rest for a minute during the paved climb. I've had no problem climbing it in the past, and today's ride was far from a sufferfest, so once again I'll have to chalk up my difficulties to riding 42 miles a week ago.

Either way, it felt great to clean all of Martha's for the first time, and I was glad to have at least ridden the switchbacks once to see what all the fuss was about. With Martha's crossed of the 2008 goal list, there really only two goals left: (1) Do a ride in the OC and (2) Improve my fitness. With two months left in 2008, I feel good about getting to the OC, and we'll see where my fitness is at year's end to determine how I did on that one.

Here are today's stats:

Total Distance: 12.17 miles
Total Time: 1:51:39
Ascent: 1343 feet
Average Speed: 6.4 mph
Top Speed: 24.4 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

Archipelago Ride

2008-11-01T20:17:00.000-07:00

After more than three and a half months of planning, scouting, pre-riding, and (some) conditioning, this morning was the day of my Archipelago Ride.

By way of some brief history, the name and concept of the ride are not my own, though the route I rode today certainly was. The name and idea for this ride came from San Diego MTB legend Mountainbike Bill, who had hatched the concept of connecting several North San Diego County trails together in a huge loop that he called "The Archipelago Ride." More information on his version, the route, and some exciting future plans he has can be found here.

Since I lived almost directly in the middle of most of the trails included in Bill's ride, I began thinking several months ago about doing my own version. I wanted to start from home and see how many of the nearby trail networks I could link together, Archipelago-style. I began in early July by looking at GPS routes of some of my previous rides at Santa Luz, LPQ, and Lake Hodges on Google Earth. I attempted to locate connector trails that would link those areas together, and even emailed Bill for some suggestions, which he graciously provided.

After mapping out what I thought was a realistic route, a plan began to form. Initially I wanted to connect from my home in 4S Ranch, to South Hodges, to North Hodges, to Santa Luz, to LPQ, to Black Mountain, to home. I decided to pre-ride my suggested loop in at least three sections. This would allow me to scout any problems I was likely to encounter as well and ensure that the connector trails that I thought existed really did.

My first pre-ride was in mid-July, and the ride review can be read here. I started from home and rode through a private (but open) fire road over to South Hodges, to North Hodges, down Del Dios Highway, and through the San Dieguito River Park trails toward Santa Luz. Because this was my first pre-ride, I got lost at one point right before I found the connector from SDRP Trails to Santa Luz, and ended the ride frustrated, discouraged, and exhausted.

That night after my first pre-ride, I got back on google earth with my GPS route plotted and saw where I went wrong. Four days later I rode that same route again, but this time I made the connector. Part I was complete.

Ten days later I found time to pre-ride the second part of my planned Archipelago route. I rode from the Santa Luz/SDRP connector that I had found, through part of the Santa Luz Loop, through a connector to the north side of LPQ, through the LPQ tunnels, up Camino del Sur, and up the Santa Luz singletracks to Black Mountain Community Park. It was a grueling ride, with several nasty climbs, and I was having some serious doubts about whether I would be able to actually do the full ride all together someday.

Life intervened soon after I completed my pre-ride of Part II, and it was more than two and a half months before I found time to attempt Part III of my planned Archipelago route. I had spent some time after Part II looking for a solution to the problem of connecting from Black Mountain Community Park to the top of Black Mountain. The most direct route involved riding a fire road that paralleled Black Mountain Road over to the Laurentian Trailhead, then climbing the main fire road to the summit of Black Mountain and riding down the north side to home. The problem was that the fire road that parallelled Black Mountain Road was an absolute beast, with two massive climbs that I didn't think I could handle after thirty-some miles of riding beforehand.

After mulling over my options for a while, I was struck by a thought: Maybe I could ride the whole route in reverse, starting with Black Mountain and then connecting to the Santa Luz singletracks and riding over to LPQ in that direction, instead of the way I had pre-ridden it. This seemed like an attractive option because I thought I knew of a trail down the west face of Black Mountain that would dump me right next to the entrance to Black Mountain Community Park and the trialhead for the Santa Luz singletracks. The more I thought about it, the more sense that approach made, and I set out in mid October to do Part III of my Archipelago route, the final pre-ride.

It went off without a hitch, and I found that I could ride the Gliderport Trail down the west face of Black Mountain asI had thought. With the pre-riding complete, all I had to do was pick a date for the ride and make it happen.

Normally I would have probably put it off for a least a few weeks to work on my conditioning and try to make everything perfect. But when I heard that the LPQ tunnels were in jeopardy of closing and some changes were being made over at Hodges that could make the connection between the North and South side more difficult, I decided that I needed to suck it up and ride ASAP.

I had also intended initially to ride the whole route solo so that I could go at my own pace and not worry about group ride dynamics, but when Doug mentioned he was looking to be invited on some rides more often, I jumped at the chance to have some company. November 1 worked out for both of us and the date was set.

All of this backstory leads me back to this morning and the review of today's ride itself. Rachel and I were up early, and went and dropped my Tahoe over at what I believed to be the midpoint of the ride. We parked the truck at a trailhead just off San Dieguito Road in the middle of the Santa Luz loop so that we would have provisions during the ride. Doug arrived at my place a little before 8:00 a.m., and after after a few minutes of gearing up we started out from Heritage Park, which is close to my house.

We rode from Heritage over to the 4S trail system which overlooks Lusardi Canyon, heading for Black Mountain.

*
[Some pictures I'm using in this RR are from previous Archipelago pre-rides, and are marked with an asterisk to show they were not taken on today's ride.]

The morning was beautiful and the weather was already warming up a bit, even at 8:30. It sure didn't feel like November.

We left the 4S Ranch trails pretty quickly and headed up Carmel Valley Road for a short road-ride toward the main Black Mountain trailhead.

At the trailhead for Black Mountain we noticed that there were already several people on the trails, though we didn't see any other bikes the whole time we were up there. Beneath us the community of 4S Ranch was just waking up.

We climbed up the main trail towards the Miner's Ridge Loop, and made a left to ride it clockwise. I had ridden this section of trail a couple of times in the past, but was already struggling slightly with the moderately technical climb and rising heat. There was some early HAB for me where there shouldn't have been, but I was hurting and didn't want to spin out and wreck myself this early in the ride.

As we plodded along up Miner's, I began to get concerned that I had missed the singletrack cut-over to the main Black Mountain fire road. I stopped, tried to get my bearings, and became convinced that we had missed it. Doug doubled back a little way and didn't see anything, so I volunteered to ride up a ways and see if it was still ahead. I rode up another few hundred yards and the scenery didn't look familiar, so I doubled back to where Doug was waiting and we started to backtrack. After several hundred yards of backtracking, it became clear that I am an idiot. We hadn't missed the cut-over, I had just gotten jumpy. So we trudged back up the trail for another half mile or so until we found the cut-over, and we were back on track. I sincerely hoped this would not be an omen for the rest of the day.

At the end of the cut-over trail, we did the short HAB section up to the main Black Mountain fire road, and enjoyed an easy spin up to the summit. During that section Doug and I had a really neat time of conversation, and I began to start really enjoying myself.

From the summit of Black Mountain, we rode down the Gorge Trail toward the northwest. The picture below shows the section we rode from the summit, which I have named the Gorge trail because of the massive rut that bisects the bottom. (For some reason the trail does not have an official name, and does not appear on the official Black Mountain Trail Map. So I get to call it whatever I want.)

From there we made our way over to the Gliderport via some fun singletrack. After surveying the scene, we elected to HAB a short distance down the Gliderport trail that descends off the west face of the mountain. It was crazy loose and extremely steep and I wasn't feeling up to giving it a shot this morning. As it was I still had a small fall as I tried to ride down a portion of the top against my better judgment.

At the bottom of the Gliderport trail we crossed Carmel Valley road and rode up into Black Mountain Community Park. We cut through the Park, saw some kids score a goal in their soccer game as we rode by, and then started into the entrance to the Santa Luz singletrack. The major climbing was over for the time being, and I had been looking forward to the Santa Luz singletrack descent for a while. So was Doug, even if he didn't show it.

We railed the fun, mostly downhill singletrack descent and crossed through a portion of the meadow in the middle of Santa Luz. From there we hooked back up briefly with Carmel Valley road, then had a relatively short road ride down Camino del Sur to the trailhead into LPQ. Before entering LPQ, we stopped at the Mobil station and Doug grabbed some additional fluids and filled up his bottles.

We then rode into LPQ via the Camino del Sur trailhead, and elected to take Tunnel 4 over to the main trail.
*
*
We rode through the tunnels pretty quickly, even though it was crazy crowded in there. We hooked up with the main tunnel trail and rode that back up to the mesa, where we headed northwest toward the fire road that would take us out the backside of LPQ. We paused for a minute up on the mesa for Doug to get his seat adjusted, and I had the chance to take a picture of where we were headed.

We rode down the first section of fire road that took us toward the northwest side of LPQ and then had two short, steep fire road climbs that I managed to clean without stopping. At the next mesa I stopped and took another picture, this time of Black Mountain off in the distance.

One neat aspect of this ride was that for much of it, Black Mountain was visible from wherever we were. Being able to see where we had started provided a cool perspective on our progress and also served as a beacon as the ride went on.

We had another fire road climb and descent to finish before we left LPQ and started on the trail that would connect us back over to Santa Luz. This picture is taken looking back the direction we had come from.

We left LPQ and began the ride along the connector. We passed under the 56 freeway and saw a couple of interesting sights along the way:

Eventually we climbed a short distance up to Black Mountain Road, crossed over, and hit another fun section of trail that would provide the final link to Santa Luz. In the picture below, you can see the bridge that is on Camino del Sur in the distance.

We rode the connector until it hit Camino del Sur and made a left. This is another shot back the direction we had come from.

We rode northwest on Camino del Sur for a few hundred yards, and then hooked back up with the official Santa Luz Loop going clockwise.

We rode down the fire road, past the horse park, through the DG trails that run through the neighborhood, and over toward the last difficult section of the first half of our ride: the twin *itches.
The twin *itches are two steep fireroad climbs back-to-back that compose the worst part of the Santa Luz Loop. Doug and I were able to actually ride the entire first one, but halfway up the second it was HAB time for both of us. We slogged to the top and then coasted down the last section to my waiting Tahoe, which was beckoning me like a beacon in the night.

We dove into our sandwiches and Gatorade, and enjoyed an about 15-20 minute break at the car. I warned Doug that the most difficult portion of the ride was yet to come, and I think he believed me. I refilled my 3L Camelback (which I had totally drained during the first half of the ride) and ate as much as I could before I started to feel sick from being full. We had ridden about 19 and a half miles at that point, and while we were feeling pretty good, we knew there was a lot of ride left.

After our rest, we left the Tahoe, crossed San Dieguito Road, and climbed another fire road. From there we descended into Lusardi Canyon, and began a sustained climb up Artesian Road toward the San Dieguito River Park (SDRP) Trails.

The climb up Artesian wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though it was no picnic. It was paved, which made it easier, and the grade was significant but not brutal. I middle ringed it as long as I could and then spun along until I reached the top. Doug was right behind me, and we rode another short fire road section until we reached the beginning of the SDRP trail.

[This picture is taken facing back the direction we were coming from.]

*
*
From there we descended the series of tight switchbacks that marked the beginning/end of the SDRP trail. They were extremely tight, and the fires had burned up all of the guard rails, so I found myself dabbing at almost every one.

We descended the first set of switchbacks, rode a short but steep singletrack climb, and then descended another series of more manageable switchbacks before hitting level ground.

At that point we began riding the main portion of the SDRP trail which had been badly burned in the October 2007 wildfires. Several beautiful bridges which had been constructed just before the fires hit were destroyed by the flames. For today's ride, that meant dismounting and hiking across each of the six or seven spots where the charred remains of the bridge were all that were left.
*
*
After we negotiated the last of the burned out bridge crossings, we were forced to buswhack through a 100 yard section of trail where weeds and bushes had begun to encroach significantly. From there we continued along the SDRP trail as it headed toward Del Dios Highway.

As we rode along, I noticed this new sign that had been posted, and there were new trail markers as well. That was an encouraging sight.

I experienced my first series of leg cramps along this section at the end of the SDRP trail, and they were rough. My hamstrings and quads both tightened up without warning, and I was forced to hop off the bike and stretch them out. It took a few minutes for me to get both legs to stop cramping, and I ate some Cola Clif Shot Bloks and drank as much water as I could.

I was able to continue fairly quickly, and we rode down a short fire road and over toward the bridge that crossed the gorge next to Del Dios Highway.
*
*
We crossed the bridge and made our way up to the longest stretch of road-riding we would do today. We rode up onto Del Dios Highway and began to make our way toward north Hodges. About a quarter mile in, my legs began to cramp again agonizingly, and I was forced to hop over the guardrail and try to walk them off as traffic whizzed by. They were even worse now than before, and I was hurting. I drank more of my water and tried to stretch, and after several more minutes got back on the bike and began to climb again.

I kept the bike in the middle ring for the most part up Del Dios which I think helped some, but as I continued to ride I began to cramp in not only my hamstrings and quads, but my groin and calves as well. I gritted my teeth and powered through it, and was able to make it to the dam without stopping again.
*
*
Seeing the dam helped me orient myself with respect to how much longer I had to go along Del Dios, and I started feeling a little better. Doug had ridden on ahead (with my blessing) during my first fit of cramps, but I could still see him off in the distance. Eventually the roadie death march was over, and I turned right on Rancho Drive and headed for the singletrack on the north side of Hodges.

As I reached the beginning of the trail, however, I didn't see Doug. Looking around I noticed his Niner sitting outside the entrance to Hernandez Hideaway. He had apparently gone inside for a re-fill of his camelback, and I waited for a few minutes for him before he came out. I was anxious to keep going, largely because I was a wreck and didn't want to stop for too long for fear of not being able to keep going. I did try to do some stretching while I waited, and continued to drink as much as I could.

After about 10 minutes we were back underway, and headed for the trail.

We rode fairly quickly through the singletrack along the northwest side of the lake, and along the trail that paralleled the road to the dock.

The lake looked beautiful off to our right as we rode by.

As we got closer to the dock and boat rental area, I headed toward the fire road that I usually ride along the north side. Doug, however, had other ideas. He suggested that we ride the section of trail up to the ridge and take that route instead. I was not excited about riding the short steep section up to the ridge, and favored the more gradual (but admittedly longer) fire road route. Doug was insistent, and I caved.

Just as we were riding the singletrack toward the climb to the ridge, I had my worst set of leg cramps yet, and was off the bike howling for several minutes. I said some things about Doug, his lineage, and maybe his mother that I regret right now, but at the time I was delerious with pain. More stretching, more water, and a short HAB up the steepest part of the climb to the ridge trail, and I was feeling slightly better.

Here's what we had ridden up:

We rode along the ridge, spinning away and trying to conserve energy for the final section of this epic ride. We eventually re-joined the main Hodges trail, crossed the stream, and rode the trail toward the freeway.

They have been doing some significant construction along that part of Hodges, and the dirt area I had previously ridden underneath the freeway to connect North and South Hodges no longer existed. We stopped for a minute to evaluate our options, and I experienced still more leg cramps. Doug did not.

We decided that the direct route would be best at that point, and elected to ride on the freeway (in the designated bike lane) for a short stretch in order to connect over to South Hodges. Doug was on board, but not pleased.

We rode as fast as our tired legs would go along the freeway and over the bridge, then jumped off at the West Bernardo Drive exit, and rode up the road to the singletrack that runs along the north side of South Hodges. That section of trail is usually one of my favorites because its so scenic, has a few fun rocky sections, and is extremely narrow. Today I was trying to survive it, not enjoy it. I dabbed a few times from leg cramps and fatigue, and stopped once to work out a particularly nasty hamstring knot that paralyzed me. While waiting for the pain to subside, I took this picture:

Doug, who had been hydrating sufficiently and was not suffering from debilitating cramps like some people, rode ahead and waited for me around the bend. I stopped about three times in a quarter-mile to stretch and work out the constant cramping in my legs, and even walked the bike a bit as I tried to get my legs loose. I reached where Doug was waiting and we rested a bit. If nothing else, our views were pretty.

We dragged ourselves to our feet and rode on along the south side singletrack. As we crested a small hill, Doug pulled away and I coasted down the other side. Suddenly, both of my legs seized up, and my left leg actually locked in the extended position. I threw myself off the bike, desparately trying to bend my leg as the cramps seized it. I had to physically grab my foot and push on the back of my knee to get myleg to bend, and I sat there on the trail writhing in agony.

Doug was far enough ahead that he couldnt see me, and for the first time I wondered if I was going to be able to finish. I was out of water at this point, and couldn't really even pedal with any force because when I did my legs cramped. After several minutes I got up, tested my legs, and coasted down the rest of the small hill with my right foot clipped in and my left leg stretched straight out.

At the bottom of the hill Doug was waiting, and I told him as I coasted by that I was heading for the area near the dog park where I knew there was water. He followed me over, and I refilled my camelback and stretched for a few minutes. Doug also gave me his last Uncrustable, which had a healthy dose of sodium, and we got back underway.

We rode the bypass over to the other section of the south side of Hodges by riding past the dog park, down West Bernardo Road, and picking up the trail as it wound behind the houses. Eventually the trail contined past the closed bridge and we headed toward the waterfall. As we approached the climb near the waterfall, I had yet another bout with cramps, and walked the switchbacks up to the top. This portion of my ride was strangely reminicent of my Tour de Hodges ride back in May. Doug cleaned all of the switchbacks like a hero.

I took a break at the top to snap a photo:

From there we rode past the trail to the Poblado trailhead and up a short fire road to an SDG&E access road that would take us over the last section of the ride to home. Here is a picture of where we turned, taken during one of the pre-rides:

*
*
From there we began the spin along the fire road toward home. I continued to battle some leg cramps, and even had to stop once to work them out along that stretch. While I was sitting there in the middle of the trail, trying to work out the cramps, I noticed a windmill standing just off the trail. It helped take my mind off the cramps and made me happy for a minute. I love windmills.

I dragged myself up and and rallied, knowing the end was in sight. Doug was waiting a little ways ahead, and we crested a small rise and headed toward the paved road that would take us home.

We hit the streets a few minutes later, pedaled through the neighborhood, cut through the 4S Commons, and made the last short pavement climb up toward Heritage Park. As we pulled into the park (and eventually my nearby home,) we had done it: my Archipelago Ride was over.

We were tired and a little punchy, and Rach brought us some Gatorade as we sat on the front porch and relived the ride. I had a strong sense of accomplishment, though the leg cramps had dimmed some of my actual enjoyment of the last several miles of the ride. That was clearly a lesson learned, and I'll definitely drink much more and eat more salt the next time I do anything close to an epic ride.

Doug was a tremendous ride companion, and I'm so glad he was there. He was encouraging but not too "rah rah," social but not chatty, extremely thoughtful, and our pace seemed compatible. I was hugely impressed at not only how strong he finished, but that he hung in all day while having no idea where we were going or what was ahead. At least I had pre-ridden the route and knew what to expect. Even though almost every turn was a surprise to him, Doug didn't complain or stress a bit. Impressive. His RR is available on his blog here.

I was thrilled with the Spider's performance, and can't imagine having done this whole thing on the Enduro. My climbing was actually well above average over the first two-thirds of the ride, but the cramping killed any climbing efforts I had near the finish.

I am also very thankful to Rachel for her role in making the ride a success. She didn't bat an eye when I told her I wanted to spend an entire precious Saturday riding. She helped me drop the Tahoe at the midpoint, and also went and dropped Doug's supplies at the truck after we started the ride. She made me a great lunch, which I would have been dead without, and a great dinner when I got home as well. I have a great wife.

So the Archipelago ride is in the books. It satisfies one of my 2008 Goal List items (Do an All Day/~50 Mile Ride), leaving me with only two goals left to accomplish before the end of the year. It felt great to finish, even with adversity, and I'm glad I did it. I don't want to give away anything from my 2009 Goal List, but I think doing this ride in reverse (counterclockwise) is going to be on it. I may be crazy, but I need something to work for, right?

Here are the final stats:

Total Distance: 42.23 miles
Total Time: 7:57:48
Ascent: 5662 feet (Doug's Edge 305 put us at 4,572 feet, which is apparently more accurate because it uses a barometric altimeter.)
Average Speed: 5.3 mph
Top Speed: 32.8mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: Big Laguna Trail (w/Extras)

2008-10-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

This morning was a ride I've been looking forward to for a while: Big Laguna Trail (BLT) with the Skyline MTB crew. BLT was one of two rides left on my 2008 Ride List, and while I thought I would have gotten up there before now, it was worth the wait.

I left home early, and met up with Nate at the park and ride at Los Coches. We carpooled up the rest of the way to the BLT trailhead, and had a great time catching up during the drive. We had technically ridden together a few weeks ago at the Spring Canyon ride, but I hadn't seen him much, so that didn't count.

We made it to the trailhead first, but were soon joined by Michael, Billy and his family, and a new Skyline MTB rider, Amy. We milled about for a bit at the trailhead getting ready, and had a short time of prayer before we set out.

We immediately split into two groups, with Billy and his family heading out to do the basic BLT loop around the lake, and Nate, Michael, Amy and I heading up a fire road to the south so that we could work in some bonus trails before meeting back up with Billy and company at the benches for a devotional time.

The fire road wasn't too bad, and actually made for a good warm up.

We inadvertently missed the singletrack turnoff for the trail they call "Little Noble," so we actually climbed the fire road all the way back to 79 near the Laguna Lodge. From there it was a short road ride over to Red Tail Roost and our first taste of singletrack this morning.

We started with some rolling climbs through narrow singletrack, which gave way to some really fun descents. The weather was flawless, and I was having a blast on my new Spider. The turns were a little loose and sandy because of the lack of moisture, but the trail itself was in great shape overall. Nate and I were out in front a bit, and had a chance to stop and enjoy the scenery during a regroup.

Michael and Amy were not far behind, and we got back under way after a short break.

From there it was more beautiful singletrack, including some more swoopy descents. I had not ridden this particular section of trails before, and won't make that mistake again. It was awesome.

We then came to another short climb, and then started down a fire road marked Agua Dulce. It was a short, fun fire road descent that dumped us in to our next significant climb of the day.

As we spun along, I was actually feeling pretty good. The pace was not super-fast, but we were moving along and I wasn't getting tired really at all. At the top of the climb, we made our way through a singletrack cutover that involved a little HAB over some obstacles, and then took a minute for Michael to huck a nearby rock.

After seeing him nail it, I decided to give it a try, and rolled it. [Not pictured]. From there it was another short climb, then over to Chico Ravine.

This was probably my absolute favorite section of trail today; an awesome twisty singletrack descent with some techy stuff near the bottom to make things really interesting. The Spider ate it up, and I was particularly thankful for some suspension changes Nate had helped me with before the ride started.

We took a minute at the bottom of the singletrack to regroup, then rode over to main BLT trail to the benches, where Billy and his family were waiting. Our timing was almost perfect because they had only been waiting a few minutes, and we had a neat time of discussion.

I led a devotional from 1 Kings and Psalm 42 regarding being still and listening to God, which seemed to resonate with people. After we were done sharing, it was time to complete the BLT loop and we got underway as a whole group. I took this shot blind, over my shoulder:

I have ridden around BLT a couple of times, and always really enjoy it. The scenery is beautiful, the trail is fun and varied enough to be interesting, and the last section is always a lot of fun in particular.

Nate and eventually got out in front, and rode at a little faster pace than the rest of the group. This also gave me a chance to get ahead and shoot some pictures of almost everyone:

Michael-

Amy-

Helenka-

Willie-

Billy-

Amanda-

After taking the pics I caught up and rode ahead of most of the group and railed the last section around the north side of the lake. Billy calls that section the roller coasters, and its the most fun part of the BLT loop itself.

Amy did really well for just her second or third time on her new Specialized Myka, and stayed close behind us.

We finished up back at the trailhead at the cars, and hung out for a bit talking bikes and enjoying each other's company. It was an awesome morning of riding, and I'm really glad I went. The new trails we rode other than the BLT loop were a ton of fun as well, and I won't ride up here without hitting them next time.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 15.02 miles
Total Time: 2:09:37
Ascent: 2015 feet
Average Speed: 7.0 mph
Top Speed: 25.0 mph
Bike: Intense Spider XVP
Map:

View Larger Map