RR: Sweetwater/Rock House

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:

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RR: Sweetwater Reservoir

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the stats:

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

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RR: Sweetwater Reservoir

I had a chance to do a rare midweek ride tonight that almost didn't happen for a number of reasons. I had been wanting to ride out at Sweetwater reservoir for a while now, and when I heard that World Cycles was hosting a weekly Wednesday afternoon/evening ride there, I decided this was my chance to have someone show me around.

Ironically, circumstances beyond my control conspired to make me almost bail on this ride, but in the end all of the stress and hassle to make it work was all worth it. First of all, after weeks of beautiful weather, a freak summer storm rolled in late this afternoon, and it began to rain around 3:00. It started as just a light drizzle, at least in north county, but as the afternoon rolled on, it began to really rain. I called Billy, who is friends with the folks at World Cycles to make sure they were still riding, and he confirmed that they were. Billy himself, however, did not attend, meaning I didn't know anyone else who was doing this ride.

The rain provided an easy excuse to ask to leave work a little early, and I bailed out at about 4:50. I'll skip the details, but the drive to Rancho San Diego was a horror show. I was in solid traffic from Carmel Mountain all the way to the 8, but after I hit the 8 things got better. I actually changed out of my work clothes and into my riding gear (padded shorts, t-shirt, rain jacket, and MTB shoes) while I was driving in traffic down the 15. I admit this was not the safest choice, but I knew I'd be cutting it close, and I wanted to give myself every chance to make it before the group left the trailhead. Since I had never ridden Sweetwater before, I didn't want to be out there alone in the rain and the pending darkness if possible.

I made it to the trailhead at the Steele bridge at 6:02, and as I pulled in I could see riders pedaling away at the far end of the bridge. It was at this point I was glad I had changed in route.

I quickly pulled the bike off the rack, threw the frame adapter into the car, and pedaled off, trying to catch the group. I saw them off in the distance a few times as I wound my way through the various singletrack trails that mark the early portion of the Sweetwater trail system. I was extraordinarily fortunate to catch brief glimpses of riders way off in the distance most of the times that I was faced with forks in the road, and as a result, didn't get lost.

I was pedaling almost as fast as I could, trying to catch up, but after some elevation changes and sharper turns, lost sight of the group. I decided to keep following the clearest tire tracks I could see and keep trying to catch them. I stayed left at the new wooden bridge, which turned out to be the right choice. About a mile and a half into the ride I spotted some riders ahead of me on the trail, slowing climbing some switchbacks. I called to them, and discovered that one of them was indeed Alex, the owner from World Cycles who had organized the ride. I was relieved to have caught the group, but a little fried from riding as hard as I had to catch up.

From there I rode up the switchbacks, and made my way though some fun, slightly techy up and down sections along the next portion of the trail. The scenery was great, and the trail was a lot of fun. After a mile or two, I came to a flat section of doubletrack that traversed a meadow along the northeast side of the lake. At that point one of the riders behind me caught up, and we chatted a bit as we rode along the flats. The problem was that he was riding at a much faster pace than I could manage, especially while trying to talk. After a mile or so, I was exhausted and eventually just gave up and dropped back.

Pretty soon we came to a small gate, where we regrouped. Several riders took off up the next section, which I realized after a short distance was an extended climb up the mountain. The terrain was mostly ridable for me, and the grade was steep but not horrible, but nonetheless I found myself fatigued about halfway up. I started HABing, and ended up getting passed by all but one of the other riders. It was a little embarrassing, but I am mostly at peace with my relative abilities at this point, and wasn't going to stress too much about it. Plus, there was at least one guy behind me, so I wasn't the anchor.

I finally crested the hill, and was rewarded with a short downhill that wound its way toward the lake. It was a fun section, and I rode it as fast as I could in an effort to catch the rest of the riders who had disappeared off into the distance. Alex was behind me with the other guy playing sweeper, so I wasn't worried about getting lost anymore.

As I rode the downhill back up a short section, I maintained my speed and kept pedaling through some tight turns. I was enjoying myself, and had the group in front of me back in sight. Then, out of nowhere, my front wheel washed out during a turn and I went down hard on my left side. It happened so fast I didn't have time to unclip, and my knee hit the ground first, followed by my left hand as I tried (foolishly) to brace myself. I skidded to a stop along the singletrack and quickly picked myself up. My shoulder hurt from trying to brace myself, and I could see a little blood on my knee, but I wasn't really hurt. Alex was close behind, and checked on me, but I was fine, if once again a little embarrassed.

From there we rode along some more fun singletrack, with a more gradual uphill that I was able to handle. The trail ran along an upper ridge above the lake for a while, and then turned toward the lake for a bit. As I reached a point of the trail that overlooked the lake, I saw three riders headed back up the trail towards me. Apparently this was the turnaround point for the group that wasn't going to ride down along the lake and up the steep switchbacks to the palapa. Truth be told, I wanted to take the switchback loop, if for no other reason than I don't like backtracking along trails I've already ridden. But I had made a fool of myself enough times for one ride, and decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

I doubled back the way I had came, riding the ups and downs of the trail as fast as I could. I kept up with the riders in front of me this time, and felt pretty good. We rode over to the palapa, where the group that had split off joined us a few minutes later.

We hung around for about 5 minutes, resting and taking in the views. At one point while the group was resting, one of the woman riders turned to one of the men and asked in Spanish if I had fallen. I understood, and responded in English directly to her that I had fallen, but was fine. She seemed a little surprised that I had understood, but was very nice, as were all of the people there.

After the brief rest the group headed down a short steep downhill section away from the palapa down toward the lake. It was a fun and somewhat challenging section, but I didn't have any problems, and actually pulled away from several of the riders behind me. That section continued downward for about a mile, and was the most entertaining portion of the entire ride. At the end of the downhill, we once again regrouped and headed back along the singletrack toward the Steele bridge.

I hung with the main group for the most part on the way back, even through some difficult uphill sections. I actually cleaned several steep ups that I wouldn't have been able to do in the past, and was feeling a little better about myself after my earlier mishaps. I also cleaned a tricky downhill spot that one of the female riders was walking. (As a side note, all of the people on this ride were extremely skilled riders, and all of them were very fast. One of the women in particular had the most impressive cycling legs I've ever seen on any person, male or female. They were hugely muscular and very defined, like a bodybuilder. It was a little scary, but she was very nice.)

We made it back to the cars before dark, and the rain had actually stopped about halfway through the ride. As I got back to my car and took off my helmet, I saw that my face was smudged all over with dirt, presumably from my earlier fall. I looked like a soldier with face paint on, and wondered what everyone else had thought as they saw me on the trail. Oh well. My leg also looked worse than it was.

I said my goodbyes and got ready to drive home. The windbreaker/rain shell I had worn did a nice job of keeping the rain off of me, but was also very insulating, and I had sweat even more than usual. My shirt was soaked, but I didn't want to put my dress shirt back on, so I drove home in a soaked biking shirt.

Despite the stress in getting to the ride and catching up with the group, I had a great time. Usually, factors like traffic, rain, being late, and riding with a group of strangers would make for a miserable riding experience, but I drove all the way home with a smile on my face. (At least until I ran into a ton of traffic near the stadium because of the Mexico/Argentina soccer friendly that was going on. That was a circus.) This was a fun trail, and there were literally dozens of alternate trails and offshoots there to explore that I saw. I can't wait to go back, and am really glad I didn't decide to bail on the way down. I'd like to maybe either start from the Bonita side next time, or just ride all the way to the Bonita trailhead from the Steele bridge in order to do the whole Sweetwater ride.

I also think I realized what had been contributing to my recent MTB funk that I referenced here. I've just gotten a little bored of my local trails, and it was great to ride in a new spot with some different challenges and new scenery and terrain. I was in a bit of a north county rut, and this was just the prescription I needed.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 12.18 miles
Total Time: 1:43:36
Ascent: 1413 feet
Average Speed: 7.1 mph
Top Speed: 24.6 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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