The Archipelago Ride

The 14th edition of the Archipelago Ride is in the books. My has this ride grown since the first one I was a part of when it was very much an exploration ride. With a capped field of 750 riders this year this is a major fund raiser for the San Diego Mountain Biking Association that helps keeps projects going year round. There was a gaggle of volunteers and supports who made this awesome event happen. If you get a chance you should give it a go at least one.

My view from along the 2022 Archipelago Ridge

https://archride.sdmba.com/#

ATT Playtime Videos

It had been quite a while since I was last on Anderson Truck Trail. Last week I got back out on it while my long time riding partner in grime, Steve. It has rained a few days earlier which made for some really nice dirt out there. Here some video from the bits we rode.

Also worth noting that I have re-encoded the 2009 video I did out here. This video is hosted on Vimeo as the music has issues on YouTube.

Big Laguna Camping

Over the July 4th weekend, we did some camping up in the Laguna Mountains.   We were there for a long weekend so several rides were had between chilling at camp. Here are some random thoughts and pics from the weekend.

Climbing up Aqua Dulce

One of the many nice things about camping there is you can roll right out camp so there is no pressure to try and get it all in as you did not do a big drive to get here.  You can a short loop around the meadow, have lunch and go back out for some more.   Or take a nap 🙂

Big Laguna Meadow

It got pretty toasty during the day so some dawn patrol rides were in order.

Nichol eyeing up the line 🙂
Fresh new stickers on trailhead markers.

One of the loops I did included Red-tailed Roost.   I was pretty stoked with the effort I did on the climb up to the top.   It was the best I have ever done. I knew that eBikes were not authorized on USFS lands, but seeing the new stickers on the trailhead signs drove home that I would have a tough time having an eBike as my only bike as I would not want to give up riding out here.

Upper bit of Noble Canyon

As much as I have ridden out here I have never gone up to the SDSU observatories.   Instead of doing my usual of climbing up Wooded Hills I continued up the old county road and crossed sunrise highway to the paved road that goes to the observatories.   Shortly thereafter I picked up a single-track that avoided the road.  It was nice bit of trail.  There is another trail off of this one that connects to Thing Valley road that I will be checking out soon as well.

The view from one of the observatories

Altogether I got in a handful of rides and really enjoyed ourselves.

Hurkey Creek – Post Fire

Nichol and I spent this weekend at the Hurkey Creek Campground.   While there I got a chance to get check out some the trails that were impacted by the 2018 Charston Fire.    I am used to the shock of post-wildfire landscapes but I was particulary taken back by some of the damage nearly three years later.   It was not all gloom because at least a couple of the trails I checked out are only a little worse for wear.   Others are still a complete wreck. 

  

At the northern end of Coyote Run just before it gets faint.

I put notes on all the trails I checked out on my Hurkey Creek Page. The most encouraging thing I saw was the Johnson Meadow trail as it was minimally impacted and is pretty good shape. 

Johnson Meadow

The most disheartening thing is the Keen Camp climb as maybe 50% of it is rideable and it will require a lot work to get it functional again.  Without this trail there is no practical way to loop the trails together from Hurkey Creek Park.

Keen Camp Trail destruction

I did see some flagging in the Keen Camp climb corridor so hopefully there is some work planned. I don’t know about you but I would down to help out with that effort. I hopento chase down if something is indeed in the works.

Updated Hurkey Creek Page

Help Save “Urban Legend”

My lame attempt at hitting these features

Located in Pupukea, the short but fun “Urban Legend” trail that is just one of dozens of MTB trails in the area. It is unique in that it man-made built up features that is worth keeping around. Please read the petition linked below and think about signing it. Show our MTB brothers and sisters in Hawaii some Aloha by supporting the petition. And please don’t my lame ass attempt at riding this trail dissuade your thoughts on the coolness of this trail.

https://www.change.org/p/attorney-gen…

Cuyamaca Area CRHT

A couple of weekends ago I did a combination of hiking and biking in the Descanso and Cuyamaca area doing a bit more of my ongoing project to assess all of the California Riding and Hiking Trail segments in the county.  I have updated the interactive map on my page to reflect some of the details.

(Disclaimer: I’m going to ramble in this post and make some references you may have to follow along with on my site and other linked documents. This post is just as much notes for my own use later as it is something to share.)

A good portion of the CRHT has been lost to road construction over the years in the Descanso area. The trail still exists leaving Descanso to the north and all the way up through Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. Unfortunately a large majority of it is off limits to bikes due to a state wilderness designation in 1982.

The State Wilderness designation inside the boundary of the State Park is an unnecessary designation as all of the preservation goals could have been achieved using other existing State Park systems administrative tools. It is my opinion that for many decades now there has been a cadre of politicians out there that view the number of acres of wilderness they gain every year as a feather in their hat.    So while the designation of this existing state park land in 1982 increased those wilderness acreage numbers, it did not protect any additional land.   It was already protected from development.   What did it do?   Well it banned cyclist access to an existing multi-use trail that was established in the 1940s.

CRHT south of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park

At the north end of Descanso Trail Road, the CRHT is once again a trail. It is a single track and mostly climbs for about 2 miles to Cuyamaca State Park and the southern boundary of one of its segments of wilderness. There is no other legal access for cyclists beyond that point. This section south of the state park is a bit over grown in spots and the tread could use some TLC n spots. The CRHT continues north as singletrack and is better maintained by the state park. After maybe 1.5 miles the CRHT comes out onto South Boundary fireroad. South Boundary fireroad is not in designated wilderness. The CRHT follows South Boundary fireroad north to the junction of Arroyo Seco Fireroad which is cherry stemmed out of the wilderness. At the end of the Arroyo Seco Fireroad the CRHT continues northward as the Fox trail which is singletrack.

The the Fox trail ascends steeply in spots to the junction of the West Mesa trail and finally the Fir trail which ends at the Fern Flat fireroad and the northern boundary of the West Mesa wilderness. This is a superb section of the backcountry in the park with incredible views both to the west and east.

Northern end of the Fir Trail (CRHT)

When the Fir trail (aka CRHT) reaches Fern Flat fireroad the CRHT turns north as the fireroad until it veers off to the east as the Azalea Glen trail. This trail is not in the wilderness but it still off limits to bike. The trail is often quite steep and would be pretty technical in many spots in the upper half. Near the bottom of the eastern flank of Cuyamaca peak the CRHT (single track at this point) splits off to the north from the Azalea Glen trail and is once again open to bikes (and named CRHT). After some meandering it then crosses HWY79 and proceeds around the west and north flanks of Stonewall Peak.

The CRHT (Fox Trail) in the West Mesa section of Wilderness

However when it get to the junction of the Los Caballos trail it becomes off-limits to bikes. Just a few years ago this section of the CRHT was open to bikes northward all the way to the Soapstone Grade fireroad. Where the CRHT joins Soapstone Grade Road it once again become open to bikes. This was the northern apex of assessment on these latest outings.

While I don’t know the whole story, I looked up the latest approved general plan for the state park and have some theories that I hope to get some clarifications on with some other people. The 2015 approved park general plan called for the expansion of several cultural and natural preserves inside the boundary of the park. It looks like the expansion of those preserves brought with it the loss of cyclist access to the CRHT in those expanded areas.

CRHT just west of HWY79

Also in the general plan were some wilderness boundary adjustment that should have opened up the Blue Ribbon trail to cyclist in the southern area of the park, but as of last weekend, the no bikes and wilderness signs are still up. It would have been really nice if the CRHT would have been cherry stemmed out of the Wilderness to restore cyclist access to this historic route that predates even the Pacific Crest Trail. This really falls into the category of bitching at this point since I did not participate in the public comment period when the revised general plan was being worked.

While I have not done my due diligence at this point to find out the whys, it looks quite a bit like the park is a bit slow to implement the portions of the approved plan that would benefit cyclists. One thing is for certain the classic Cuyamaca “Grand Loop” will never seem as grand after seeing what the loop could be if cyclists were allowed to ride the CRHT as it was intended.

Remastered Freeman Creek video

The Freeman Creek trail located in the Giant Sequoia National Monument is a pretty unique trail that drops you down through the Freeman Grove of Giant Sequoia Redwoods.   The size of these ancients of the woods will skew your perspective of big in regards to living things.   This grove is the largest grove in wilderness condition (having never been logged) outside of the Sequoia National Park further to the north.

Here are some more of my ramblings on this trail

While the Bear Creek and Camp Nelson trails see more MTB action, this is a trail that is worth checking out if have the time. (At least based the last time I rode it)

I LIKE big trees and I can not lie!

Shortly after this video was shot in 2006, the trail was severely sanitized by a trail crew using a bull-dozer.   The trail eventually eroded back into something akin to single-track.   In 2020, a wildfire went through the grove.  Some of my friends that live in the area have not been back on the trails since the fires but the area was hit pretty hard.   Wildfires are part of the lifecycle of the Giant Sequoia’s so I suspect they survived. 

At 6:18 you can really see how these trees are adept at surviving wildfires.    It is worth noting that the rider (JD) is about 6’4″ to give some perspective on the size of that trunk.

At 7:14 there is a scene of me riding on a fallen log.  The other rider on the trunk is 6′ tall.  Take note of the perspective when I start to ride back and he is standing on the trunk part and I’m about to start rolling from the base/root part.

From 8:00 until the end of the video, we are actually riding a short section of the Summit Trail (FS 31E14) on our way back to the Quaken Aspens campground where we were staying.

While the Bear Creek and Camp Nelson trails see more MTB action, this is a trail that is worth checking out if have the time. (At least based the last time I rode it)

Back in the Saddle!

This has been a pretty awesome week. Sunday I did my first MTB ride since my heart valve replacement surgery in November. The big litmus test was having enough upper body strength to lift the bike up onto my over the bed truck rack on my truck. I had also been doing some tooling around on the bike on the street and curbs and not being jostled so it was time to give the sternum (along with its titanium wire reinforcements) some mild strength tests.

Orosco Ridge and Pamo Valley
Lower Santa Ysabel Truck Trail Area

The climb up onto the ridge was good and it was so nice to be doing some huffing and puffing on a real bike out in the sunshine. I also checked out the Lower San Ysabel truck trail. All of which was in good shape. My sternum felt pretty good but there was mild discomfort over some of the chatterish stuff. None of the discomfort rose to the level of a sneeze! All together about I did 15 miles and change with about 1,400 feet of climbing.

South side of Lake Hodges

Wednesday, I went out to South Lake Hodges. Well I actually parked on the North Side and took the bridge over. My tenure at riding this place predates the bridge so I still refer to them as two separate places. But I did the typical Southside stuff and then made my way over to the Highland Valley trail. At this point it was pretty obvious that most of my workouts have been no longer than 60 minutes so I took bit of a break. After that I was back at it and the Highland Valley trail was a fun as I remembered it. I decided to do a touch of road connection and made my way over to Raptor Ridge. I was pretty tired after climbing Raptor Ridge and I was going to close out day with a return back via Mule Hill.

The bottom of Raptor Ridge. I ran out of gears shortly after those rocks 🙂

I was almost back to the kiosk area of Mule Hill when I was stopped by an SDGE crew who had the trail closed for some pipeline work. There was no detour so I had to backtrack about 2 miles to get back onto Highland Valley road to get then work my way back around. The trail should have been close at the last trail junction where people could divert around. While this was inconvenience for my tired legs. There was a hiker who got turned around that was really bummed. I did make them aware of this and hopefully they apply some common sense on where they close at for the remainder of their workdays.

All together I got in about 25miles and 1,200 feet of climbing. It was more than I had planned and I was well whooped. It is so good to be back on the dirt and certainly better to be on the dirt than in the dirt!

More Black Mountain

Time to get in some more Black Mountain.   I continue to be impressed with the improvements that been made and the progress on the trails out here.

The Black Widow trail going down the west slope of the mountain continues to see love from the trail crews.

Word is there are future plans for access to the East Rim from the east side as well. That would be pretty awesome as all of the current access point are both social trails and brutally steep hike-a-bikes.   I’m so excited about this place is coming along from standpoint of how advocacy groups and willing community governments can actually make things happen.