I had a chance this evening to do an after work ride that turned out to be a lot of fun. After some scheduling adjustments and coordination, I was able to finally meet Dave G, a fellow 4S resident and excellent mountain biker.
He found this blog through STR, and we had emailed a few times trying to get a local ride set up. When he emailed this afternoon, I had already made plans with Sean to do Hodges, so Dave agreed to come along there instead. I'm glad he did.
Sean and Dave met me at the Rancho Bernardo Community Park trailhead on the South side of Hodges. There were some looming clouds and it was getting chilly, but weather didn't turn out to be a factor.
We planned to start out on the South side, do a few of the fun singletrack trails over there, and then head to the North side for the traditional route to Hernandez Hideaway and back.
Less than a minute in to the ride, I jumped a tiny mound in the middle of the trail and landed wrong, ending up in a twisted heap in the middle of the trail. My left hip and head took most of the impact, though I also hit my shoulder pretty hard in the ensuing tumble down the trail. It was pretty embarrassing, and really hurt quite a bit, but I jumped right up, tossed my helmet visor (which had become detached upon impact) into Sean's pack, and continued onward. (In retrospect, the helmet did a nice job cushioning the impact, since my head hit the ground almost simultaneously with my hip. Kudos to the Flux. I was also able to reattach the visor at the end of the ride, so its durable too!)
We rode the main loop around the South side peninsula. I still really like that section of trail; its right along the lake, narrow singletrack, and has some minor rocky features thrown in every so often to keep things interesting. It was pretty overgrown tonight, and the flowers and weeds were shoulder height and above along the side of the trail.
I actually mishandled several of the small techy parts that I usually clean no problem. I don't know whether to blame the fall, the different geometry of the Enduro, nerves about riding with a new person, or just general lack of bike skills. Lets blame all of them
Towards the end of the singletrack along the lake, right before we intersected West Bernardo Road, Sean apparently hit a tree. I didn't see it, but he told me about it later. He turned out to be OK, and I'm just glad he didn't fall to his left and end up in the lake. Though that would have made for an even better story.
We regrouped at the road, and then rode over the bridge that crosses the 15 and down the onramp on to the freeway for a short distance. That was a little hairy, especially when the bike lane ended at the end of the onramp where the freeway starts, and cars were extremely close. We then rode through construction zone under the bridge and over to north side.
We rode the North side at a social pace, which is always fine by me. I talked with Dave some as we rode and got to know him a little bit. I am very interested in his local ride, a version of the Black Mountain loop, though I'm not sure I could hang with him on the route he rides...
As we rode along the North side, I saw that the upper trail along the ridge was finally open, which was cool. It had been closed since the fires, and must have reopened in just the last couple of weeks. Someone had done some trailwork halfway through, and had created a new section that was kind of difficult and pointless. They had "repaired" a section that previosuly had included a slightly techy up and down over a ditch, and added a bunch of rocks that virtually obscured the trail and built a strange detour around the ditch. I had just gotten comfortable with cleaning the old version before the fire, and now I have to figure this new version out. Meh.
It became clear during this portion of the ride by the way that Dave is a very skilled and accomplished rider. It's always interesting riding with someone new; you size them up before the ride, check out their bike and their gear, try to see if they're a bike Nazi or newbie or somewhere in between. I don't know if Dave is a bike Nazi, but he is clearly an excellent rider. He pulled away on the uphill sections when we weren't talking, and cleaned everything effortlessly.
From the ridge trail we went downhill, through the Hodges parking lot, and along the singletrack that parallels the road toward the Del Dios side. We made it to Hernandez Hideaway, regrouped for a few minutes, and started back. My left hip had started to stiffen a little from the fall earlier, so I took off a little before the Dave and Sean in order to get a head start in case the stiffness got worse. Also, it was starting to get a little dark at that point, so I didn't want to be an anchor.
As we rode back toward the freeway, I started to wonder how we were going to get back to the South side safely. Would we have to ride up the onramp we had ridden down? That didn't seem safe. I asked Dave about it, and he wasn't sure either, so we figured we'd just ride back to the freeway and scope things out.
Sean and Dave smoked me up the hill along the North side of the lake and opened a gap so big that I didn't see them almost the whole way back to the freeway. Sean is a climbing fiend, and once he gets comfortable with his clipless pedals and has some more saddle time downhill, he's going to be too good of a rider for me to ride with. And Dave is, as mentioned, a strong rider, so I got to ride alone for a little bit as darkness began to fall. We regrouped near the freeway, and realized that we could ride under overpass, through the construction zone, and up the southbound exit for West Bernardo Drive to get back to the South side. Which was a relief, because that was much safer than riding up the Northbound 15 onramp would have been.
I took a short section of trail back to the cars, while Sean and Dave (who were once again out in front) took the road. I was glad I took my route, as I saw two coyotes running down the trail in the twilight, which was cool.
It was a fun ride, and it was great to meet new rider who lives nearby. I'm glad the scheduling finally worked out.
Once again no pictures, but I will be getting better about that.
I also was able to have some Wahoos afterwards with Sean, which is always nice. I freaking love that place. Ans Sean likes it too, because he likes to flirt with the chubby girl behind the counter he has a pseudo-crush on, while she continues to not give him the time of day. Good times.
Here are the stats from the ride:
Total Distance: 14.74 miles
Total Time: 1:43:03
Ascent: 1,019 feet
Average Speed: 8.6 mph
Top Speed: 21.8 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:
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