RR: Ted Williams

For the second time in a week, I had an opportunity to do a ride in a spot that is considered "confidential" for most local riders. Doug once again invited me out to an afternoon ride, this time at a spot known as Ted Williams. TW is generally considered a downhiller's ride, and some even shuttle to the top and bomb down. We would be climbing, and for me at least, there would be no bombing. But the downhill was a lot of fun.

I met up with Doug and Sean (GP Pilot) after work after a little trouble finding the trailhead.

They were just finishing their first preliminary run when I arrived, having gotten to the trailhead about an hour earlier. I got geared up and we headed up the main trail toward the top of the mountain. At the bottom of the hill, we passed a large section of jumps and stunts that looked pretty hardcore. Halfway up the mountain we stopped at an outcropping of rock, and could see where some of the maniacs would launch from. Ridiculous.

The climb itself was steady, but not too technical or crazy steep, and while I hiked a couple of short sections (10 feet or so) it was mostly ridable. The views were impressive.

We could even see Black Mountain off in the distance.

We made it to the top, and spent a little time playing around on the concrete launchpad that is there. I jumped off of the sides, which were about two to two and a half feet, but never went off the end, which is closer to three. I wish I had, since it wasn't a particularly big deal, so I'll be taking care of that next time.

From there we did a short downhill section, and then traversed over to the south side of the mountain, where we wrapped around and began another long climb back up towards the top. That one did get to me, and I ended up HABing about the last third. It wasn't techy at all, just steep and sustained. Sean flew up it, and Doug was able to ride the whole thing as well.

Once we finally made it back to the summit, we headed back down again, this time on a less-traveled trail that looked fun. It was, but had several sections that each of us elected to walk down because the penalty for failure was substantial.

Doug did huck one medium drop, which was pretty cool. He did his own RR here.

I had a great time, and was able to cross another new trail off of my to do list. While this one wasn't specfically on my 2008 Ride List, I did add it later in my Q1 State of the Union, so it was nice to get over there. Its very close to home, and was more cross-countryish than I had expected, so I intend to get back there soon.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 5.72 miles

Total Time: 1:45:41

Ascent: 1266 feet

Average Speed: 3.2 mph

Top Speed: 20.4 mph

Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite

Map: [Undisclosed]

RR: LPQ

The 4th of July weekend was almost upon me, and while I had some time off, I had no idea where to ride. Then Doug gave me a call, and the perfect situation presented itself.

I had been following with some interest a series of discussions on STR about a mythical new tunnel out at LPQ that was something of a secret. I was one of the people on the outside of that little circle of trust. Until today.

We met at a trailhead I had never seen before, and were making our way up Powerlines almost out of the gate. It was me, Doug, Evan, and Scott, which made for a great group. Evan was on his singlespeed, which was impressive.

Evan led the way for the early going, and took us all over the singletrack that is up on top of the mesa above the tunnels. There were some really fun sections, including one that had some moderate exposure that got my attention, and we wound our way around for a while up there. All of the singletrack we rode made me miss the intestines a little less, since the terrain and style were very similar.

We skipped Rocking Horse completely, and went down the main tunnel over to the tunnel with the bike at the entrance, thenwent up the fire road and back down the fun downhill section back into the tunnels.

After a short regroup, in which we were regaled with Evan's Canada stories in his accent, we took the traditional climb out of the tunnels and went back up to the mesa for some more upper singletrack.

At that point I became totally lost, which may have been everyone's intent, because all of a sudden we were dropping into the mysterious new tunnel.

It was a lot of fun, and was clearly somewhat less traveled than the others. I caught my camelback on a branch halfway through, and also slipped my chain at one point, so I fell a little behind. Fortunately, Scott waited for me at a juncture, and we caught up with the rest of the group at the base of a pavement climb that took us back to Del Vino.

The pavement climb was steep but not too long, and I made it up relatively well. From Del Vino we went down Cobbles, through the fun up and down section at the end, and then along the canyon floor back to Powerlines. We went up powerlines a bit, then headed back to the car.

It was an interesting ride for me. It felt great to be included, and I always like being "in the know" about new trails. The pace of the group was interesting: when we were riding, the pace was pretty fast, but we stopped relatively often to take breaks. I never felt like an anchor, which is my only real goal for any group ride.

In any event, I really liked this group of guys, and look forward to riding with them again. I won't be posting a google map of the route due to the sensitive nature of the trail, but if anyone reading this wants a tour, I'm sure we can work something out.

We did miss going over to the new section that has some newly built stunts and jumps, which I would have liked to have seen. Maybe next time, if I can find them.

Total Distance: 13.88 miles
Total Time: 2:45:04
Ascent: 1494 feet
Average Speed: 5.0 mph
Top Speed: 20.0 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map: [CONFIDENTIAL]

State of the MTB Union Part II (Q2, 2008)

Back on April 1, I posted a first quarter State of the Union address for the blog, detailing the progress I had made on my 2008 Ride List and Goal List and projecting the likelihood of meeting the remaining goals on each respective list. I enjoyed the chance to evaluate my progress and hypothesize about how to achieve the remaining achievements, so I figured I'd do it again at the end of the second quarter (Q2) of 2008.

2008 RIDE LIST:

If I count July 1 as part of the second quarter of 2008, I have ridden 13 of the 17 rides on my 2008 Ride List. In the second quarter alone, I rode Black Mountain, Daley Ranch, Santa Margarita River Trail, and Sweetwater. I also rode the full Noble Canyon shuttle, which I had not done at my first trip to Noble in the first quarter when I bailed out on the last portion and rode the paved road back. I also rode the Cuyamaca Grand Loop (twice!), which was not on my ride list but is a popular San Diego county ride, so that was a good one to get.

Even though I rode 9 of the items on the Ride List in Q1 and only 5 in Q2, the five I rode in Q2 were generally tougher rides and required more planning and creativity to get to. For that reason, I'm prouder of the 5 I did in Q2 than the 9 in Q1.

The remaining rides on my 2008 Ride List are Big Laguna Trail, Lake Morena, Elfin Forest, and Mission Trails/Spring/Oak Canyons. Skyline MTB has a ride planned at BLT in early July, so that is attainable. Elfin is a tough ride, but is in Escondido, so I have no excuse but to get there sometime this year. And SDMBA is having an organized ride over at MTRP in mid-July, so that will take care of at least part of the Mission Trails ride. Lake Morena remains a wild card, because it is so far away and apparently quite a challenge. But I think I'll get there. STR member Chip has offered to show me around the next time he goes, so that is one option.

2008 GOAL LIST:

As for my more general 2008 Goal List, the results are less impressive. For a full description of the goals themselves, check out that entry. Below is the list, with comments on my progress thus far (or lack thereof) and prognosis for completion by the end of the year on a scale of 1-10 (with 1 being unlikely and 10 being already done):

1. Ride Noble Canyon: (10)

I did the full Noble Shuttle, and am satisfied that this goal has been met. As I predicted in the April State of the Union, I rode the full Noble trail from top to bottom at the Skyline MTB weekend, and generally had a lot of fun. The portion of the trail that I skipped on my first time out there was the best part of the ride, and I'll never bail out on that section again.

2. Do a ~50 mile/all day-type ride: (5)

This one I haven't done, and haven't even really gotten close. In fact, at this point, I probably couldn't ride 50 miles in a day, unless it was pretty flat and I had all day to finish. I heard rumors of an Archipelago/Islands ride in early April, where they'll ride La Costa --> Elfin --> Hodges --> San Dieguito River Park --> Santa Luz --> Black Mountain --> LPQ, which should be about 50 miles. It would be awesome to be a part of that, but its not gonna happen for me this time. Hopefully they'll do it again later in the year and I can join that one.

3. Do a Multi-Day ride: (5)

The likelihood of attaining this one has diminished with rising gas prices and my failure to do it at the Skyline MTB weekend in Laguna. I still want to, but traveling to go biking doesn't seem likely in the near future, so I have some doubts.

4. Do an Out of Town Ride: (4)

I initially thought I accomplished this goal when I rode at the Santa Rosa Plateau in mid-June, and then I went back and looked at the description of the actual goal and realized it referred to a ride outside of SoCal entirely, so I'm back to square one here as well. Like the above goal, gas prices and time play a major role in whether it will happen. I'm not going to Adam's graduation in Sacramento, so that option is out. I may go visit Joel in Sacramento in August or September, but I doubt I'll be able to afford to drive, so biking while there may be a stretch. I have concerns about whether this one will happen.

5. Do a Ride in the OC: (8)

I obviously haven't done this yet either, but I am interested in shuttling San Juan, riding Aliso, or maybe even doing San Clemente Single Tracks. Again, with the sheer volume of STR rides in those places, it shouldn't be a problem doing one of them. I really want to get out to San Juan, which I've heard is a lot of fun.

6. Do a Night Ride (w/Light): (10)

This is one of the three goals I met in Q2, when I did the SDMBA Cuyamaca Night ride. It was a whole new experience riding at night, and I enjoyed night riding enough that I picked up a NiteRider TriNewt from Performance when they were on mega-sale, so I'll be doing more night riding in the future.

7. Clear all of Martha's: (9)(No Change since Q1)

I'm so close on this one, and I already basically did hard part with the downhill, so I just need to clean climbs and one tiny part. Its close to home and I ride there pretty often, so I'm pretty confident about meeting this goal.

8. Clear all of "the ****": (10)

Did it. And it was kind of a cool story, since I went and rode the S**** the night before SDMBA went and did trailwork on it and changed its landscape forever. You can read the ride report here.

9. Climb Bernardo Mountain: (10)

I accomplished this one as part of perhaps my best biking experience in Q2, the Tour de Hodges. I'll talk more about that day below, but I did ride Bernardo Peak, and while there was definitely some HAB, I accomplished the goal of getting to the top.

10. Improve my climbing skills/general fitness:

This one is still hit and miss. I've almost completely abandoned the stationary bike, but have been on the trails much more in Q2 than Q1, and have been running quite a bit as well. I had some good days and bad days in terms of fitness in Q2, but overall I've seen real improvement. I'm still HABing more than I'd prefer, but if I compare my Daley Ranch ride on July 1st with the same (attempted) ride on January 26th, there's no question I've come a long way. Other good days included Black Mountain, Cycle Eastlake, the first time through the Cuyamaca Grand Loop, and the Tour de Hodges.

Bad fitness days included Sweetwater, a basic North/South Hodges ride, and the Cuyamaca Night Ride.

HIGHLIGHTS OF Q2:

I met and rode with some neat new people in Q2. After multiple emails and blog comments, I finally got to ride with Doug at SMaRT, which was great. I also met and rode with Dave G., Sol, and even local MTB celebrity MTB Bill, which was awesome. I was actually a little starstruck, but Bill is a really neat, down to earth guy who was a pleasure to ride and chat with.

I also bought a new (to me) bike in Q2. The jury is still out to some extent, but I generally like it a lot, and don't regret the purchase. The additional suspension travel is a huge plus, and as I get in better shape the additional weight will be less and less of a factor.

I did my first organized MTB event in Q2, Cycle Eastlake. It was a poker ride, not a race, and was generally a lot of fun. I enjoyed the "event" aspect of it, and would like to do more things like that in the future with friends.

In the beginning of Q2, I was in a bit of an MTB rut, and wasn't enjoying riding as much as I used to. Then I went on a tear, riding six new trails in less than a month, and I was back to enjoying riding and looking forward to being on the bike. The lesson there was that its important to mix things up every now and then and ride new places. I also learned that a large portion of my enjoyment in riding is exploring new trails and navigating unique locations.

I also developed a new local ride in Q2. I linked up the 4S Ranch trails with parts of lower Black Mountain and put together a fun loop that I can do in less than an hour. The loop also includes the Canyon Rim trail that I did trailwork on in late March, which is a challenging, techy downhill that has really improved my confidence on other difficult trails.

Probably the top overall highlight of Q2 was my Tour de Hodges ride in late May. It was by far my longest ride to date at 27.43 miles, and was an awesome experience.

For the second quarter of 2008, I rode a total of 254.75 miles on my mountain bike, as opposed to 133.63 miles in Q1. While rain and weather did factor into the lesser mileage earlier in the year, I did step up both my frequency and duration of my rides, and I think that its paying off in my enjoyment and conditioning.

Those are my thoughts on Q2 of 2008. I'm pleased with my progress and look forward to checking back in in September to see what new experiences I'll have to write about then.

RR: Daley Ranch

Today was redemption day for me, as I decided to attempt to do a full ride at Daley Ranch more than five months after I had tried to ride out there and couldn't finish because I was so tired.

After struggling somewhat at Cuyamaca on Friday night, I had some concerns about how I would do at Daley, so I elected to ride it solo. Armed with Doug's suggested route, and a trail map I found at the Daley Ranch website, I figured I would go at my own pace and do as well as I could. By riding alone, I didn't have to worry about holding other riders up or taking breaks when I wanted to.

I left work a few minutes early, and was at the trailhead a little after 5 PM. I gave my chain a quick lube and got underway around 5:15.

Here was the map that I was using:

I started out on Creek Crossing trail, which I had ridden back in January. As I spun up the climbs, I actually felt pretty good. My pace was generally slow, but I was keeping a consistent speed and not stopping to rest as I made my way over to the East Ridge trail and started up Sage. It was a grind, and I was feeling the ascent as I climbed up Sage, but I wasn't blown out and wasn't even tempted to HAB. I even had a chance to enjoy the views a little as I rode along.

I continued to climb Sage past the connector to Coyote Run, which I had ridden back in January. The ascent continued another mile or so, including this section which briefly went under a neat canopy of trees:

Just past the tree canopy I saw the sign for Diamondback trail, and I made a left. That section included an awesome singletrack descent, with small bumps in the trail that enabled me to get a little air as I swept through the turns. After a little less than half a mile on Diamondback, I made the transition to a section of Coyote Run that I hadn't ridden before, and it was a blast as well. After just over a half mile of awesome swoopy singletrack, I reached the junction of Coyote Run and the East Ridge trail.

I took the East Ridge trail to the right, and rode that fire road for about 4/5 of a mile until it joined Ranch House Road. On my left as I rode by was the Ranch House itself. After passing it, I decided to double back for a quick picture:

Then I turned around and headed north, to the Jack Creek Meadow Loop. I had read on other sites that the Meadow Loop was just a flat spin across the meadow and is essentially a connector to some of the climbing sections in the far northwest part of the Ranch. I agree that the Meadow Loop is not a destination portion of this ride, and I would not consider it a highlight. It seemed to go on forever, and despite the advertisements, I think the northbound side had a slight incline the whole way out. Here's what it looked like as I slogged along:

I rode the entire east side of Jack Creek Meadow Loop, made the turn at the end, and approached the right hand turn for Hidden Spring fire road, better known as Cardiac. Here is what it looks like from the bottom of Hidden Spring;

Not that bad, right? I started my way up, with no idea what was in store for me. That quickly changed as the road morphed from graded fire road to rocky trail in the blink of an eye.

Any designs I may have had on cleaning the whole climb disappeared at the first rocky step-up that I couldn't handle, and it was HAB for me from there on. I did stop to take a picture of the Palomar mountains to the northeast:

The rockiest and most difficult part of the climb ended after about a quarter mile, and when I reached what I thought was the top of the climbing, I stopped for a short break. I ate some Clif Shots and gathered myself, and after three minutes or so re-mounted the bike and continued the ride.

What I didn't realize at that point was that the climbing had only just begun, and the rocky section had been but a preview of coming attractions. The next 3/4 of a mile alternated between moderate to significant climbing, and I was able to ride all of it except for one final steep, short, rocky 100 yard section that I had to HAB. I was also feeling pretty fatigued by this point, but was actually pleased with my overall performance. After having to bail out at the Ranch House back in January, I was chugging along pretty well today.

The climb up Hidden Spring finally ended, and I made a right turn onto the singletrack at Burnt Mountain trail. My legs were a little fried at that point, and I actually had to walk a tiny uphill at the beginning of Burnt Mountain because I lost momentum making the turn and didn't have the strength to get clipped back in and power up the brief climb.

After that I rode the rest of Burnt Mountain, which was a fun downhill singletrack with some short drops and rocky sections that kept me on my toes and provided a nice contrast to the miles of fire road climb that I had been doing. After about 1/3 of a mile, Burnt Mountain intersected Engelman Oak trail, and I made a left at the "T " intersection.

It was back to fire road as I rode along Engleman Oak, but the views were scenic. There was some tree cover alongside and over the trail, and on my right was the "Old Water Tank."

Off to my right was also an even better view of the Palomar Mountain range than I had seen before:

I rode along Engleman Oak for about a half mile, and then made a left onto the Bobcat trail, which was once again a fun and challenging singletrack descent. Bobcat was more difficult than either of the previous singletrack sections, and a couple of times I had to grab fistfulls of my brakes in order to stay on trail or keep from getting more air than I wanted on a particular drop. It was also pretty rocky and rough, and by the end of Bobcat my hands were actually a little sore from the vibration. Nonetheless, it was a fun section, and I had a great time flying downhill and taking the turns as fast as I was able.

Bobcat dead-ended at Cougar Ridge trail, and I took a left at the point of intersection of the two trails. What I didn't know at that point was that the next mile and a half of the Cougar Ridge trail was a steep, rocky uphill climb that for my money was even more difficult than Hidden Spring (Cardiac) had been. Cougar Ridge was not as rutted or rocky as Cardiac, but it felt longer and steeper. (My GPS graph of the elevation of the ride informed me that I am mistaken about that, and Hidden Spring is slightly longer but Cougar Ridge climbs a little higher in less time, which is probably why it felt so difficult.)

I'm not proud of it, but I HAB'ed most of the Cougar Ridge climb and just tried to keep going as the trail unfolded in front of me. I did stop to take a picture of the views to the south, which were expansive:

Eventually, the death march mercifully abated, and I enjoyed a short downhill section of Cougar Ridge before making a left onto the Crest trail, which I believed would be the final singtrack of my ride today. Here is what the early section of the Crest trail looked like:

Crest trail was another fun downhill singletrack, with more short bumps to get air over and sketchy downhill spots that required getting back over my seat and skimming through and over ruts that seemed to be everywhere. I almost got out of control at one particularly rutted section that led to a short drop, but reduced my speed and rolled the drop without stopping or crashing, which was good.

The Crest trail was a mile and a quarter of downhill fun, which I needed after the slog that had been Cougar Ridge. When I reached the bottom of Crest, my directions told me to take a left and ride a very short section of the Boulder Loop trail until it connected with the Ranch House Road, which I would then take back to the car.

I was pleased with myself that at that point, I was on pace to make it back to the car in about 2 hours and 5 minutes, which was only five minutes more than the suggested ride time of 2 hours that Doug's directions had indicated. Even with my HAB(s), I had kept a decent pace and had not fallen too badly of the projected ride duration, which made me feel pretty good.

It was only 7:05, however, and I figured I had at least an hour of daylight left. I was fatigued, but not exhausted, and I was not entirely ready to go home. However, without detailed knowledge of any of the other trails nearby, I decided not to risk getting over my head, and made the left turn on to Boulder Loop trail and quickly turned right on to Ranch House Road to do the short paved ride back to the car.

As I started down Ranch House Road, however, I had a change of heart. I had ridden well today (for me), and still had some gas left in my tank. I could tell on my map that the Boulder Loop was less than two miles long, and had a singletrack section in the middle that looked like it would be fun. After consulting the map for another minute, my mind was made up, and I turned around and rode back west on the Boulder Loop trail in the direction I had come.

I passed the turn for the Crest trail that I had ridden, and continued along Boulder Loop to the west. I turned a corner, and then I saw the first climb. It was steep. I downshifted and spun away, doing my best to keep my cranks turning despite my fatigue and the ascent. After about 2/10 of a mile, I was cooked, and the remaining 3/4 of a mile uphill climb constituted my final HAB of the day. And defintately my slowest.

I stopped a couple of times to rest, and each turn of the trail revealed another uphill section. I finally hauled myself and my bike to the top, passed the turn-off for Cougar Ridge that I would have taken had I not ridden the Crest trail, and continued along the Boulder Loop.

I pedaled away, spinning an easy gear even on the flats, and willing myself up the short moderate climbs that punctuated the north side of the Boulder Loop. Just as I was finally questioning my decision to do this bonus loop, I spotted the sign for Rock Ridge trail. I made the left turn, and rode up two short medium climbs that wound their way along the singletrack. After the climbs, it was all downhill, and I was glad I had decided to ride this section. It was less rutted and rocky than Crest and Bobcat had been, and had some fun bermed turns and up and down sections. I rode the Rock Ridge singletrack until it re-connected with the Boulder Loop, and I made a left turn.

The Boulder Loop continued downhill, and ended with a gnarly fire road descent that was particularly steep and rocky. I was on the brakes the whole way down, and had very little traction as I bumped along the rocks and ruts all the way to the bottom. From there I hooked up with the Ranch House Road, and rode the final half mile section of paved road back to the car.

I had an awesome time on this ride, and left Daley with a sense of pride and accomplishment, particularly in the face of the debacle I had experienced back in January. This time, I had ridden the entire beginning section without major difficulty, whereas I had HAB'ed almost all of it in January. And despite the fact that I still had more than my share of HAB's on today's ride, I think most of them would have presented problems for many riders, and I did significantly better than I could have done in the past.

I had a great time experiencing a new trial, and was aided tremendously by Doug's directions and the Daley trailmap that I brought with me. And despite the brutal climb at the beginning of the Boulder Loop, I was glad I chose to do the bonus section at the end of the ride. I had the time and the legs to do it, and despite the difficulty, it was fun and gave me a sense of accomplishment. But now I totally understand why it wasn't part of Doug's regular route.

I'm also glad I made the decision to do today's ride alone. I'm planning a lengthy post about my feelings on solo vs. group rides, which is inspired by my preliminary thoughts posted in the last portion of my ride review of the Cuyamaca night ride last Friday. But as far as today's ride, it felt great to go at my own pace, take pictures when I wanted to, explore new trails for myself, and HAB when I couldn't ride a section without worrying about holding someone(s) up. Someday I'm sure I'll do a group ride at Daley, but at least now I'll know what I'm getting in to.

Here are the stats from today:

Total Distance: 14.46 miles
Total Time: 2:28:55
Ascent: 2592 feet
Average Speed: 5.8 mph
Top Speed: 25.9 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

View Larger Map

RR: SDMBA Cuyamaca Night Ride

Tonight I had the opportunity to do my first night ride, courtesy of the SDMBA and their biannual Cuyamaca Night Ride. I had this circled on my calendar ever since I heard about it more than a month ago, because at that time I had never ridden Cuyamaca, and had wanted to try a night ride for a while now. Plus I would be able to cross another goal off of my 2008 Goal List.

I had planned on driving up to Cuyamaca by myself, since I didn't know anyone else who was going to this event. However I received a private message on STR from Sol, another San Diego rider who was planning on doing the ride and had lost his carpool partner. We arranged to meet up at a park and ride in Mira Mesa, and were under way around 5:30 or so.

Sol is a neat guy, and as I would find out, an excellent rider. We got to know one another during the drive up to Cuyamaca, and we got there around 6:40 or so. We parked in a dirt lot about a half mile before where Billy and I started for this same ride a couple weeks ago. I was already dressed, and after getting my demo light from the folks at SDMBA and signing in, I was excited to get started.

Sol helped me get my light attached to my bike and set up properly, and then the group gathered for some last minute instructions about the buddy system and ride rules.

Sol had his game face on. After the brief spiel, we were off. There were about 35 people there, and about 30 of us started out in one huge "intermediate" group. Behind us a few guys stayed to form an expert group that planned on getting going a few minutes later.

We crossed Sunrise Highway and headed for some singletrack that Billy and I hadn't ridden two weeks ago. It was a fun section, with some relatively easy up and downs and a couple of switchbacks. I was just happy to be riding singletrack, because I knew a large portion of the rest of the ride would be fire road. The singletrack meandered for about a mile or so, and then we emerged from the tree covering and crossed back over Sunrise Highway and entered the parking lot that Billy and I had parked in before.

At that point, the route the group intended to take was identical to my ride a couple of weeks earlier, but circumstances dictated a slight deviation for me tonight.

We crossed through the campground and over to the main fire road that would take us up the first climb. Sol took this shot over his shoulder of me and a guy from SDMBA chatting as we rode along the fire road.

Here was my angle:

As we rode the fire road along toward Soapstone, I was generally feeling like crap. I was tired, my stomach was a mess, and I was drifting from the first third of the pack farther and farther back. I couldn't figure out why I felt as bad as I did. I hadn't eaten dinner, but had eaten a MetRx meal replacement bar right before we had started riding, so maybe that had something to do with it. I had actually had a very strong ride at this same trail just two weeks earlier, so something was definitely amiss.

On top of my own struggles, the pace of the group was pretty fast, at least compared to what I'm used to. We weren't regrouping/resting as often as I had two weeks ago, and the pace even on the flats was pretty brisk.

I kept falling farther back in the pack, and by the time the group stopped at the Soapstone intersection, I was one of the last 5 or 6 riders and seriously considered turning back. If I had driven myself, I probably would have. The most frustrating thing was that on this very route just weeks earlier, I had felt like I was making some strides with my riding and conditioning. Now tonight I was falling apart.

Here we were at the regroup:

I really didn't want to quit, but with the way I felt I couldn't imagine doing the sustained climb up Soapstone to the right which lead to the fun singletrack. One of the SDMBA leaders offered to lead anyone who wanted to cut some of the ride short up Soapstone to the left, which was steeper than the main route but considerably shorter. I wasn't excited about the humiliation of riding with the beginner group, and even less excited about riding up something steeper than the trail to the right, but I was not going to hang with the intermediate crowd tonight.

So I and three others took Soapstone left, while the rest of the riders headed straight up the hill to the fun section. In retrospect, it turned out to be the right choice.

The climb up Soapstone was brutal for me, and I ended up HABing the last half of it or so. The other four people with me were able to ride the whole thing, solidifying my role as the weakest link. I HABed as fast as I could, and the last rider before me was on the bike but pedaling slow, and I made it to the top of Soapstone just a few minutes after she did. Daylight was waning at that point, and I took this picture to the south during the middle of the climb, and the one after it just before the summit.

After a 30 second rest at the top, I was back on the bike and we were off and riding again. From there the route was identical to my ride with Billy a couple weeks ago, until the very end.

We rode along a rutted fire road, along Sunrise Highway for a short bit, then up Milk Ranch Road to Azalea Springs. We didn't stop or rest at all until a 30 second break on the way up Milk Ranch Road when one of the rider's chain slipped off. Even without any breaks, I was feeling much better than I had at the beginning of the ride, and was keeping pace with my fellow members of the "B group." At the bottom of Milk Ranch we finally turned on our lights, and I was fairly impressed with the performance of my light. It cast a wide beam and illuminated the trail enough to ride confidently, especially uphill on a graded fire road.

I began to struggle a little bit during the climb up Azalea Springs, and had to HAB the short steep section at the beginning. From there I was able to stay on the bike, but my pace fell way off and the rest of the group opened up a small gap that forced me to rely on only my light for illumination. I just put my head down and chugged along, and made it to the top where the water was sooner than I expected. I found that in the dark, I couldn't see how much trail I had in front of me, and it was easier to just put my head down and pedal than during the day.

We rested for another 30 seconds at the water spot, then continued the climb up Azalea to the top of the mountain. This was the spot where Billy had his mechanical last time, and it was nice to just ride by and start the downhill without hanging out up there for an hour.

The downhill was a nice change after all of the climbing, and descending the rocky, rutted fire road in the dark was much more fun than it had been during the daylight two weeks earlier. I generally rode in second position, behind another rider who was flying down the hill. I kept pace for the most part, and finally it was me waiting for the others during the regroups rather than the other way around.

We rode down Azalea Springs fire road to Fern Flat fire road to Pipeline fire road. This time, instead of taking Pipeline directly to the 79 like we had two weeks ago, we took Pipeline south, and rode it for another mile and a half or so until it rejoined the singletrack we had ridden at the very beginning of the evening. We rode that singletrack for a short distance, and then found ourselves crossing over the 79 back at the parking lot.

It felt good to be done, and by the end of the ride I was generally upbeat. I had been a mess at the beginning, and while I was still slow overall, had rallied considerably to at least not be an anchor for the climbs in the middle and performed well on the downhill. This trail is still not a favorite of mine, and not one I'd ride again soon. It has way too much fire road, and way too much climbing without a real payoff.

The night riding aspect of this ride was interesting, however. For one thing, the weather was flawless, and I rode in a short sleeve jersey and baggy MTB shorts the whole time without ever getting cold. It wasn't difficult riding with the light, because it was pretty high powered and the collective lights of the group provided plenty of illumination. I didn't see any wildlife, though which was a bit of a disappointment.

The group riding aspect of this ride was another matter. I haven't done a lot of group rides with people I don't know, and after my last few experiences, I think I'll be avoiding them for a while. I just think that most of the people in group rides are considerably better riders than I am, and it makes for a pretty stressful experience for me trying to keep up.

For example, I struggled to keep up at Sweetwater earlier this month, and felt a little out of place with the speedsters in that group. I did have a good time with Sean and Dave G. at Hodges back in May, but felt bad holding them (especially Dave) back considerably on the ride back to the cars. Also, I hung pretty well at the SMaRT ride a couple of weeks ago with the STR crew, but still battled on some of the uphills and if not for one or two others I would have been the clear weak link. And lets not mention my poor showing at Calavera back in March and the debacle that was Daley in February.

To be clear, I enjoy riding with others, and have been fortunate to meet some really neat people through mountainbiking. And to the person, everyone I've ridden with has been gracious and encouraging when I've fallen behind or struggled to keep up. But being an anchor stresses me out, and I ride to escape the stress in my life, not create more. I'm also not accustomed to not excelling at something. Its hard for me to be at the back (or very end) of the pack. I'll continue to work on my conditioning, and will still join the occasional group ride if I know someone that is going or if the ride is specifically geared toward a more social (read: slower) crowd. I thought after a pretty good showing at Black Mountain two weeks ago and a strong ride at Cuyamaca right a few days later that I had begun to build some riding strength and ability. But tonight's ride seemed to be a setback, and I'll need to reevaluate where I need to go from here.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 17.81 miles
Total Time: 2:47:37
Ascent: 2256 feet
Average Speed: 6.4 mph
Top Speed: 29.1 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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RR: Santa Rosa Plateau

Today I had the opportunity to do my first "out of town" ride, and it actually surpassed all of my expectations. I've been doing pretty well working my way through my 2008 Goals List, but still had not done a ride outside of the San Diego area this year, which is one of the goals on the list. But thanks to some neat circumstances, that was about to change.

I had signed up for a morning training for the Truth Project at Calvary Chapel Murrieta, and after talking to Doug and Scott at the SMaRT ride on Wednesday, realized that the Santa Rosa Plateau was almost right across the street from the church. It was too perfect a scenario, and I was worried that something would come along and complicate it. Something did.

Friday afternoon my boss asked me to host our summer intern for a few days over the weekend before the intern's regular host family returned from vacation. I had no choice but to agree, and now I had a houseguest.

I had already registered for the seminar, so there was no skipping that. But I felt bad spending another couple hours out of town while the intern was stuck at my house, so I had almost resigned myself to skipping the ride. Then I was struck with a brilliant idea: I would bring the intern to the seminar, and then drag him along on the trail! It was perfect: the Truth Project is something he should be interested in anyway, the Santa Rosa Plateau is considered a beginner friendly ride, and I still had my old FSR that he could ride. It was all coming together.

Friday night he arrived at my house and I began laying the groundwork convincing him to go along with my plan. The seminar was an easy sell, but he was a little more reticent about the biking. He told me he did ride a road bike back home, and over the course of the evening he seemed to be coming around. Around 8:30 PM I quickly switched out the clipless pedals on the FSR for some flats, and he finally caved in. My ride was saved!

We left early Saturday morning for the seminar, and the bonus was that he offered to drive since he had a Prius. With gas prices out of control, the hybrid was way better than my Tahoe, and I was stoked.

The seminar was scheduled to end at 12:30, but instead ran until a little after 1, and we arrived late to the trailhead. When we got there I saw Scott's car parked at the trailhead and was surprised to see that he had decided to show up last minute. Because we were late, however, he had already left on the ride. I felt terrible, but since we didn't exchange numbers and I wasn't sure he was even coming, I had no way to warn him we were running late.

We parked at the Santa Rosa Ecological Preserve Visitor's Center, paid our $2 each for the facility usage, and quickly changed into riding clothes.

The Visitor's Center:

Here is the intern, ready to go:

I had been extremely worried about the heat, which was forecast to reach 110 degrees, but actually it wasn't that bad. The temperatures were over 100, but there was a nice breeze that kept the heat from being overwhelming. We also spent about half the time riding under canopies of trees, which helped as well.

After gearing up and consulting our maps, we headed across the street and up to the Tovashal trailhead. I was planning to follow this geoladder's route, which we did to the letter. A helpful STR member had private messaged me an interesting addition to the route, which I would have taken had I been solo. But with a first-time mountainbiker with me, I figured we'd stick to the easy stuff.

We rode along the Tovashal trail for about a mile, and then turned right on to the Sylvan Meadows fire road. Across from us was the expanse of what had to be Sylvan Meadow, and it was a scenic landscape, even with the grass having turned brown and dry with the recent heat.

After half a mile we turned uphill a bit, and rode up the Shivela trail. Things got a little interesting there for the intern, as he struggled with some of the moderate climbs and rocky sections. The trail was still beginner friendly, and he did pretty well for a first-timer, but he still had a few puffing HAB's.

After another half mile, we turned right and continued uphill on the Stevenson Canyon trail. This was a fun section for me, with a nice easy climb that had a few rocky spots, but nothing particularly difficult.

The intern gamely battled on. We headed up Stevenson Canyon trail until we passed a gate, and according to the geoladder's route, needed to turn around and head back to the Shivela trail. If we had continued up the hill a little farther, we would have connected with the section the guy from STR had told me about, but I wasn't about to push the intern any farther at that point. He wasn't complaining or looking that bad, but it was clear he was struggling somewhat.

The trail continued uphill as you can see here, but we didn't explore any farther:

We turned around to head back the way we came. Here is a picture of the gate we passed though back down the Stevenson Canyon trail:

The downhill from there was a lot of fun. I opened it up a little, and had fun flying down the trail. I stopped to wait for the intern at a point on the trail where I could see a singletrack offshoot to the right of the Stevenson Canyon trail. I wasn't sure from the geoladder's route whether we should take it or not, but after waiting for the intern to catch up, we decided to go for it.

I'm so glad we did.

The next half mile or so of trail is among the most fun I've ever ridden. Seriously. It was under a canopy of trees, along a small creek, and was swoopy, narrow singletrack. The trail was a little off camber in parts, and it was just a blast. It was a little like the tunnels at LPQ, but the tree canopy was much higher than the tunnels. I flew through that section, my bike rising and falling with the undulations of the trail. It was awesome.

I did stop to wait for the intern near the end, and took this picture:

The picture doesn't do it justice.

Eventually, after far too short a distance, that trail re-linked up with the Stevenson Canyon trail we had ridden up, and I was re-oriented.

I got to the bottom, and soon thereafter the intern caught up:

At the end of Stevenson Canyon trail, we headed right and hooked back up with the Shivela trail.

From there we crossed a bridge, and rode a mile or so of fun singletrack until we ran into Sierra Elena Road. We headed left, and quickly crossed Tenaja Road and linked up with the Fenceline trail.

Fenceline trail is aptly named.

I wish I had taken a picture of the Fenceline trail at the beginning, because it could have served as the dictionary representation of singletrack. It runs right along the fence, parallels Tenaja road, and was a lot of fun to ride. It had several gradual descents followed by easy climbs, and it was at this point the intern started to have some fun.

Because the Fenceline trail was smooth, buffed singletrack, he wasn't as afraid to open up his speed a little. There were no rocks or technical features to get in his way, and the descents were gradual but sustained, so he had time to build some speed. As we got to the end of Fenceline, he remarked that he had no idea that someone could go that fast on a mountainbike and not die. I think he was probably going 15 mph at the most. But the look of joy on his face was awesome.

From the end of Fenceline, we again crossed Tenaja Road and crossed through a dirt parking lot. At that point we started on the Nighthawk Loop trail and beared left at the fork in the road. After riding half of the Nighthawk Loop, we veered left again and took the Mortero trail. On the side of the trail I spotted a large rock grouping that I think had at one point been a single large boulder. I wanted to ride over it, and did it the first time without hesitation. It was fun and pretty easy, and I realized that this would be a good chance to get a picture of myself out on the trail. I have relatively few pictures of myself because I'm always the one taking the pictures, but this time I had the intern with me, so this was the perfect circumstance to get a nice action photo.

I handed the intern the camara, positioned him next to the boulder, and headed back up the trail to get a running start at the boulder. I adeptly rode up and over it, and stopped immediately afterward to survey his camarawork. Lets just say it was subpar.

I ended up sessioning that boulder eight times before we had a decent shot, and for the one that worked, I practically trackstanded in the middle in order to give him time to get a worthwhile pic. Lets just say photography isn't in the intern's future.

Here are two of the one's that came out OK:



After the boulder we continued along the Mortero trail until it intersected with Sylvan Meadows Road again. Just before we hit Sylvan Meadows, I was riding along the trail and hit a small, two foot drop that was pretty fun. Despite the camara problems we had had just minutes earlier, I couldn't pass up another opportunity for a cool picture of me in action, and I set up another shot.

Apparently, all of the practice from shooting me on the boulder paid off, because the intern took this beauty on the first try:

It was a harder shot to get than the boulder one, because I was moving pretty fast, so I take back the rude comment about the intern not having a future in photography. He just needed some practice.

We rode along Sylvan Meadows Road for a mile or so, and passed a couple of singletrack offshoots that I would have liked to have taken had I been alone. They all seemed to hook back up with Sylvan Meadows pretty quickly, and I'll definately hit them next time. At this point, however, the intern was looking a little peaked.

After another half mile or so we found ourselves back on the Tovashal trail, and were getting close to the trailhead. I rode ahead a little, enjoying the last section of trail and trying to get some speed up for the final portion of the ride. This was a mistake.

I was riding down a minor descent, which had a medium sized rut right in the middle. The rut was easily avoidable by riding up above it on the trail, but I didn't do that for reasons that still escape me. Still, merely riding in the rut shouldn't have been any big deal; I should have just been able to ride it out until a good spot presented itself to get my tire back up on the edge of the trail.

But before that spot decided to show itself, the trail turned sharply to the right. I was going too fast to follow the path of the rut as it turned, and found myself going OTB off the side of the trail, heading for a very large rock that was innocently sitting there in just the wrong spot.

I supermanned toward it, and hit it dead on. My right hand was out to brace myself, and my thumb jammed painfully right into the rock. My momentum was slowed just enough that neither my head nor rest of my body hit the rock, and the rest of me came to an abrupt stop right in front of it.

I got up and shook myself off. My thumb hurt a lot, and I took off my glove to see that it was bleeding under the nail, and was throbbing a little, but was otherwise OK.

I hopped back on the bike and finished the last section of the trail and waited for the intern at the trailhead. We made it across the street and back to the car without further incident, and our ride was over.

This trail was a lot of fun, and I guarantee I'll be back here again. I may even bring Rachel. The trails around Sylvan Meadow are definately newbie friendly, and even the other sections of Stevenson Canyon trail and Shivela are doable by almost any rider. But even with this trail's low level of difficulty, it is a blast to ride, and I never found myself bored or feeling like it wasn't worth riding.

Even the intern had a great time, though he suggested that we should have ridden the loop in the other direction, clockwise, in order to give him a little longer to get comfortable on the bike during the easy sections before hitting the climbs on the west side. He may have a point, but for all but the most newbies, I'd say the route we took would be best.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 7.62 miles
Total Time: 1:31:00
Ascent: 852 feet
Average Speed: 5.0 mph
Top Speed: 22.9 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:


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