RR: Santa Margarita River Trail (SMaRT)

This evening I had a chance to do my first STR group ride out at the Santa Margarita River Trail. Joining me were Doug (Pacman), Bill (MTB Bill), Dan (Old Dog Dan), Alan (Dan's non-STR friend), Scott (Blue Rat), and Patrick (Team Fallbrook).

We rallied right on time at the trailhead at the end of North Stagecoach Road, and were on our way.

Doug had planned out the route ahead of time, and we started out down a short fire road.


From there we headed east along the 500 foot trail (so-named because it is 500 feet above sea level).

It was a great warm up; relatively flat and very scenic, with a little bit of undulation to keep things interesting. The impact of the 2007 fires was still evident, and Doug mentioned that the sandy double track we were riding had been singletrack in the past, before clean-up crews bulldozed much of it after the fires.

I enjoyed the 500 foot trail quite a bit. After a mile or so riding along the ridge above the river, we regrouped.

The trail dropped down into a tree covered section and we stopped just short of crossing the river.

From there, we apparently could have headed northeast and done some serious climbing on the other side of the river. Instead, we elected to do a short double back and take the Santa Margarita River Trail parallel to the river to the west.

The trail along the river was pretty neat. It was very scenic, and it was amazing to see how much the area had recovered since the fires in October.



We rode along at a moderate pace, and regrouped often.

There was one particularly steep climb along the river which some cleaned (Bill and Doug I think) and others didn't (Me). From there we rode a short downhill section, then wound our way through a fun rock garden section that lasted about a quarter mile or so. Doug apparently cleaned that as well, while I and several others had a few dabs. At one point in the rock garden, Scott had an awesome save and narrowly kept himself from going OTB headfirst. A few minutes later he was not so lucky, and ended up doing a graceful somersault into the bushes. True to form, however, he promptly jumped up unscathed.

After the rock garden section, we continued parallel to the river and passed through a rocky section that involved some short HAB's over some larger boulders. From there we rode a short distance to our turnaround point, the De Luz trailhead.

After a few minutes hanging out there, we headed back.

On the way back we took a short detour to a nice viewpoint overlooking the river. It was a sandy bog to get there, but the view was worth it. (Not sure this picture does it justice though.)

After that we had another relatively short but steep climb, followed by a fun descent back along the river. On the descent, Doug apparently nearly ran over Scott, and in so doing, Doug's front tire burped and lost some air. I don't know exactly what happened, so I'll have to let Doug fill in the details. Both lived to talk about it though, which is good.

We regrouped at a flat area near the end of the fire road that we had taken down from the trailhead, and were back at the cars soon thereafter. We spent quite a bit of time talking and hanging out at the trailhead after the ride was over, and I enjoyed getting to know everyone better.

This was a great experience for me as part of my first STR group ride. I've done other group rides before, but almost always with people I already knew well , so this was new to me. The pace was social and enjoyable after a long day at work, the company was great, and the trail was scenic with plenty of features to make it fun and interesting.

Thanks to Doug for playing tourguide, and to everyone else who came along and making my first STR ride a great experience. I hope to ride with all of you again sometime soon.

[Edit] The above description was posted on STR. Here are a couple of additional thoughts that I wanted to remember later, but didn't necessairly want all over STR.

First, it was great to finally get to meet and ride with Doug. Having read his blog for months, and corresponding by email and message board for a while, it was great to put a face with a screen name and blog personality. I hope we can ride together more often.

It was also pretty neat to meet and ride with Bill Porter, of MTB Bill fame. Like most others, I've used his site as a resource many times, and was pleased to learn that he is a totally down to earth, personable guy who was fun to ride with. I was a little worried that he wouldn't enjoy a 7 mile, relatively flat ride at a social pace, but he never showed a hint of impatience and didn't charge ahead or get annoyed. Really neat guy.

I've been hesitant to do an STR ride for a while, largely because I didn't want to be an anchor with a bunch of experienced riders that I didn't know. For today's ride, I was right about in the middle of the pack in terms of conditioning and ability, which was perfect, and I had a great time. Hopefully that is the case in future rides as well.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 7.30 miles
Total Time: 1:51:29
Ascent: 1161 feet
Average Speed: 3.9 mph
Top Speed: 22.7 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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