I was first introduced to Thomas Mountain and the Ramona Trail in December of 2003 when Mike Kim showed me the route. Oh Crap! That was nearly 23 years ago. Does that mean I’m an OG? <Only the if it means Old Guy 🙂 >
Drew working his way up the fire road
I can’t say that Thomas Mountain has been a perineal ride since 2003 as there are lots of MTB options in the greater Garner Valley, Idyllwild area and its a bit of haul from San Diego. It has however been in the rotation and I have it up ever year for the last four or five years.
Views that don’t suck
During the most recent outings I have been adding the spur up to the summit proper into the mix. The normal loop gets you so close you might as well take that little extra to take in the summit.
Final segment to the summit
I have noticed some some little dotted lines on old maps as well some more recent digital ones. On this outing Drew and I decided to investigate to see if those dotted lines correlated to some of interest in the real world.
The path less followed
It did! At the summit we found a faint trail right where the map intel showed it. Shortly off the summit it was better defined and rather easy to follow.
View of Anza Valley and Cahuilla Mountain to the south
This looks like a very old jeep or moto route that momma nature has nearly reclaimed with the occasional foot, hoof, bike or moto keeping things at singletrack width.
Some TLC needed in a spot or two
It was mostly downhill and quite fun. The trail followed the ridgeline from the summit east-southeast for about two miles before popping out across from the Toolbox Spring Campground at the top of the Ramona Downhill. It was certainly a nice variation on the classic Thomas Mountain, Thomas Mountain Bike Trail and Ramona Downhill Loop. Here is my ridelog that contain this trail. Not a Trailforks person, here is the Strava
On the Ramona Trail
We discussed for a moment climbing the remainder of the fireroad again to catch the Thomas Mountain singletrack we had bypassed with the upper ridge route. The final vote tally was brains/ego – 2, legs – four.
Singletrack Goodness
We hopped on the Ramona downhill and enjoyed some nice singletrack goodness through the pines before the trail transitioned into the more open sage brush.
We enjoyed some well earn beer and tasty burgers and the Paradise Valley Cafe before the drive back to San Diego. It was a might fine day to be on a bike.
Spring time riding the Cuyamaca and the Laguna Mountains is quite a treat. I set out on a very early morning start from the San Diego River Staging area. My truck read 42 degrees when I stepped out of it. I did not dally around much and got to moving. I made my way south along the west side trail to East Mesa fire road. Most of the climb was in shade of the mountain with the occasional spot of early morning sunshine hitting me to take a bit of the briskness out of the bones.
By the time I got up onto East Mesa there was plenty of sunshine and temps had become comfortable. I have been on this mesa before when wildflowers were in bloom and it is an amazing sight. There were some flowers but things had not kicked off yet. I connected up with the Deer Park Trail and took along the mesa’s and then eastward out of state park back into Cleveland National Forest to Deer Park Road and the junction of Indian Creek trail. The descent down from the mesa to the road was every bit as good as I remember it.
All of my previous outing in this area involved climbing up Indian Creek trail. Today I wanted to check out a different route so I turned north of Deer Park Road. This is a forest service double track that climbs with intention for about 1.2 miles before you get to Pine Mountain Road where took it to continue my climbing. Pine Mountain Road (another forest service double track) gains a little under 700 feet over two miles to its high point so most will find it not steep, but also not mild. (Your grunting milage may vary). I really appreciated the different views I was able to get along this first for me route. Near the top you will get back into a lovely stand of pine trees.
Once over the top I continued on for about half a mile until the Pine Mountain Trail crossed the road. From here I turned north (left) on the trail and enjoyed the slightly downhill singletrack for a little over a mile to Sunrise Highway and the Pioneer Mail Trailhead just across the road.
The Pioneer Mail Trailhead has pit toilets and some picnic tables. The Perfect Cycling Trail Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) runs right through here as it makes it was northward loosely following just east of Sunrise highway. The PCT is off-limits to mountain bikes. It has been since 1988 when a order that some MTB advocates believe to be of questionable legal standing was promulgated. Yes, back in the day folks could and did ride their bikes on the PCT. It is my understanding that no one has ever been issued a ticket for riding their MTB on the PCT. Folks have been issued warnings. Folks have gotten ticketed while riding the PCT in wilderness, but the ticket was for riding in wilderness not specifically the PCT. To the best of my knowledge no one has ever been ticketed for riding a MTB on the PCT. I wonder why that is. Some think it is because getting a ticket would provide standing in challenge it in a court of law. That could be interesting in light of Chevron deference doctrine being overturned by the Supreme Court in 2024. A friend of mine just a few weeks ago was issued a warning for riding his MTB on the PCT. He was told it was $50 bucks for the first offense and $100 for the second offense. So $50 for a ticket that is believed to have never been issued in 38 years, shoot take my money….please. For reference, while generally decriminalized by the state’s Freedom to Walk Act (AB2147), if you were to get a ticket for jaywalking in the city of San Diego the ticket $196 plus state-mandated fees.
Enough on legalities, your options from here are to commit the mala prohibita crime of putting down some tire tracks on the PCT for a wonderful 5.4 miles to the junction of the Lucky 5 trail or you could proceed legally on the Sunrise Highway for 4.3 miles to the same Lucky 5 trail. Either option involves maybe a mile of climbing at the start and mostly downhill after that. You will have to make your own personal accountability choices at this point.
I was questioning how much gas I had in the tank at this point so Sunrise Highway was selection for the day. Once on the Lucky 5 trail it was more great springtime single track in the mostly downhill direction. From Lucky 5, I connected to the Upper La Cima trail which was in great shape. At the junction of the Upper Green Valley singletrack is an option to take that trail and cut out some mileage and climbing to finish off the loop. I assessed I had enough in legs left to do some a longer option so stuck to the La Cima trail for some more smiles on springtime singletrack back down into Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and the California Riding and Hiking Trail (CRHT).
I am a huge fan of this section of the CRHT. It is pretty singletrack all year long but springtime is particularly nice. There is some mild climbing to be had up to the highpoint of this section overlooking the greater Cuyamaca Lake watershed. The mild climbing did not feel mild at his point in the ride (22ish miles and 2,500’+ elevation gain at this point). After a snack break under an oak tree overlooking a large meadow, I continued along the CRHT to the Soapstone Grade doubletrack where I continued along the perimeter of the meadow. I then turned south at the junction of the Stonewall Creek fire road for a rather zippy descent to the Cold Spring Trail.
The Cold Spring Trail is fantastic singletrack completed in 2015 that the San Diego Mountain Biking Association (SDMBA) played a crucial role making happen. It is a fun trail in both directions that makes the climbs feel less than they actually are. The west side of the park could use some trails like this versus all of the fire road action they currently have.
After some miles of smiles along the Cold Spring trail I cross over Highway 79 and took the west side single south. I was ready to be done at this point. When I pulled back up to my truck the legs were empty and my soul was full. The stats were 31.53 miles with 3,248 feet of elevation gain and more smiles that I could count.
I have been sitting on some footage from Fish Lake Utah for quite some time. I lost a big chunk of footage from my Pelican Canyon outing. I finally decided to put out some of that footage and here is the first snippet of some of it. This is from the very upper portion of the trail which is also the most non-technical portion of the trail. The trail was often times uber faint in spots and while rolling at speed required a bit of concentration to pick it out ahead of you. Try looking ahead in this video to see where it is going to go and you will probably find yourself doing what I did, wondering and picking up the turns just in time more maybe being a little surprised. The very beginning of this video also includes a bit of footage from the summit of Fish Lake Highpoint at 11,634′. It is a worthy short side quest once you get to the top of Pelican Canyon.
This video does not do the trail any justice. At the end of my video I have a link to MinerBiker’s video of this trails which does a much better job that mine.
Flow and Fall time goodness, what is not to like. The McGill trail located on Mt Pinos near Frazier Park well north of LA is pretty cool. Very nice if you and your buddies can shuttle it, but it is doable with a mild 8-mile road climb. You should put this trail on your list if you are going to be in the area.
I also did the the out and back route to the summit of Mt Pinos as well. If you made it that far up the mountain you might as well go all the way. Here is my route on this particular day where I started from the McGill Campground halfway up the mountain .
The Golden Eagle trail is my outer limit for how far I will go on a day trip for a ride. I did this outing as an overnighter that included some other adventures in the general area. There are some autumn color making a showing which is alway nice to see in SoCal. Oh yeah and miles of nice flowy MTB goodness.
Most conversations about the Sugarloaf trail among those adventurous enough to give it a go eventually have a component of is the juice worth the squeeze. You can’t shuttle it and it is a bunch of work to get up to the summit that will include some hike-a-bike. There is good easier riding all over the area so this trail does not see a lot of MTB action.
The nearly continual sounds of clanking and shifting rocks under your tires is a cool experience on this trail.
One of the reasons I like the trail is a its raw nature. It’s not a gnarly big rock chunkfest but something between micro-chunk and a blanket of scree almost always on a grade. Oh yeah, you also at 9,000 plus feet for most of your outing.
On this outing I did the short option of starting at Horseshoe Meadows and doing it as an out-and-back. If you really want to do something cool add the Wildhorse trail into the mix. For an epic adventure leave a vehicle at the bottom of the Mill Creek Road by the Santa Ana River and when you get to the bottom of the Wildhorse trail coast down HWY 38 for three miles and pick up the Santa Ana River Trail and take it back to your vehicle.
I thought I had lots a grip of footage from my August 2023 MTB vacation. Turns out I outsmarted myself and found my backup right where I had left it. I will get through most of that footage at some point. While in Flagstaff, I checked out a new to me trail (The trail is a newish legal trail) called Big Bang. I enjoy Flagstaff scene a great deal and this trail most likely is going to into the routine rotation.
So I have recently pushed out a couple of videos on the Cowboy Trails of Las Vegas. The first one was from the “Vintage” Vault of 2006 and the second one was from a ride from about a month ago. I have ridden the Cowboy trails a handful of times between the recording of these two videos and I had finally gotten through the three main down hills routes off of the ridge. I suppose you could do some laps out here and do more than one downhill in an outing but for me I have usually had my fill after one. There is a lot of MTB per mile out here.
For the downhills:
Boneshaker: Oh man this is a fun descent that will test your skills. There are some nice drops and other technical features that will keep you on your toes. This was featured in my vintage video of my first visit here.
Bomb Voyage: I consider this the most technically demanding route and has some squirrel moves coupled with some exposure. It feels the scariest.
Bob Gnarly: I heard this trail described as “90s Downhill Tech”. For those of you that are not of that vintage I would call it “On the Ground Tech”, It is often tight, twisty and narrow. Not bermy bike-park vanilla flow stuff. I consider this the easiest of the three descents but not easy.
Rock Garden: This is not only the list. While you could ride down it, the main traffic it sees is the the equestrian tourism traffic which I find the trails to typically be chewed up and riddled with horse poo.
No matter which route you take if you like rocky desert tech you should have a good time out here. If you need a bike, both the Trek and Giant stores in town typically have rental bike available.
The most recent video features the Bob Gnarly Trail
The vintage video that includes the Kibbles and Bits climb as well as the Boneshaker descent.
We start off with, I am once again slacking a bit on BLOG posts. I will try to catch up at some point, but for today I have to talk about the Condor Peak Trail in the northern bits of the San Gabriel mountains. I first rode this trail in in 2007 and thought it was a fantastic trail. I was quite saddened in 2009 when the station fire tore that area and the trail up. After thousands of volunteer hours put in by the dedicated folks of the Lowelifes Respectable Citizens’ Club the trail was officially reopened back in July.
Those folks did an amazing job of rebuilding that trail. It is in fantastic shape and they did not sacrifice any of the narrow twisty exposed nature of trail which make it such treasure to a single track connoisseur .
My buddy Bill and I revisited a point-to-point ride we did that included a 12 mile climb up Mendenhall Ridge and a connection over to the top of the Condor Peak Trail. Condor Peak can also been done as an out and back, but I don’t like the idea of trying to climb some of those narrow exposed sections when you are momentum deprived. No matter what method you take to get to the top of Condor Peak you are going to put in some work.
