Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Category: Trails

Trails in General

Little Creek Mesa – Utah Day 2

Day two of the quick Utah weekender started off by waking up on Little Creek Mesa.   Both Bill and I are Scotch and Bourbon fans so we both brought some offering from our collections to share around the campfire.    I was clearly too enthusiastic with the barrel aged goodness that night and I found myself having a rough go of getting started in the morning.    Luckily it was a short commute to the trailhead 🙂

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I love this mesa, the slick rock, the vistas, single track, it just sooooo good.

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One of the first spots along the main loop that comes out onto the western rim of the mesa.

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Gooseberry Mesa out across the valley.

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Good stuff and good views along the main loop.   There are a few spots where you don’t want to wildly blow a turn.

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At the junction of the north loops and the main loops, a flash gathering of the Yeti tribe happened.   The two Santa Cruz riders in the group took the pictures.

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Cruising along out near the North Point.

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I dig how this rock formation looks like some kind of ape skull with the way the light is on it.

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More slick rock awesomeness.   While on our way back to camp we saw a few lines of cairns heading off in directions we had not been before.   We decided then and there we would come back and check that out tomorrow vice dealing with additional logistics of going someplace else and bringing down camp.

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After the main ride for the day, we did some poking around at other spots on the mesa.   We came across this “Waterglyph”.   According to my readings, these were made by the Anasazi inhabitants in the timeframe of 900-1200AD.    While most like they have nothing to do with water, there are some interesting theories on their use.  Solstice markers, prayer shrines and bird of prey snares were just some of the more intriguing theories.  There seems to be plenty of debate among the theories.   You can find some the resources used at Waterglyphs.org and Dixie Rock Art.  I think next time I head out here I’m going chase down an archeology/rock art enthusiast with a MTB problem or a Mountainbiker with a archeology/rock art problem to show us around.

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Once back at camp, we were devising plans for the following day, eating huge tasty camp burgers and enjoying tasty spirits.

Quick Weekender – Guacamole

Last weekend, Bill O’Neil and I got in a quick weekender in St George, Utah.  This is not our first rodeo for a roadtrip so most of the planning came down to the “You bring the usual, I’ll bring the usual.  Meet at the usual spot.   What time?”   So with all that intricate planning done we were headed north on Friday morning.

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We made really good time and were rolling through, Huricane, La Verkin and into Virgin by early afternoon.    The destination for the afternoon ride was Guacamole Mesa.  We had ridden here a couple of years ago and were itching to get back out here.   Above is the view from where we parked on the mesa.

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It was a fabulous day out in the low-mid 70s.   In the valley below is Dalton Wash Road that we came in on.

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View that don’t suck.    I love the nice combinations of singtletrack dirt trails, up/downs, slick rock, mesa views it just a great buffet of the stuff I love about this area.

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Near the south end of the mesa on the Holy Guacamole trail.  The trail names are all pretty cool and themed;  Margarita, Lime, Salt-On-The-Rim and of course Guacamole.

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More mesa goodness.

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A great time of the year to be out here.  Lots of the flora has thier springtime happy face on.

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Zion National Park is the backdrop to the north and east.

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There are some cool rock formations to ride through around and over.    The trail can be technical enough that the views can be thier own hazard.  Sometimes its best just to stop and take a look around.

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Riding on the slickrock (equestrians came up with that term – it really should be called griprock) is always fun and I enought the route finding aspet of following the trail.    Finding and chasing cairns is demension of riding out there that I find quite in enjoyable.

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Of course when you have a whole field of this stuff sometimes freeforming on the rocks are a ton of fun as well.    (There is a waldo in shot above).   After knocking out this ride we head over to Little Creek Mesa where we setup for camp for the next couple of days.  And enjoyed some tasty beverages and camp food.

Cruising through the Cuyamacas

This past weekend, I got out into the Cuyamaca Mountains.   Main this place has some nice scenery and trails.  We started from the San Diego River staging area just off of HWY-79 and took the west side single track up to the visitor center and then took the Green Valley fire road to the Upper Green Valley single track for a climb up to the La Cima trail by Sunrise Highway.   We then looped over to the California Riding and Hiking Trail.     From there we took Soapstone Fireroad over to Cold Springs trail and then loopback on the west side trail.   We were a bit past the greenest time of the year but there were still plenty of blooming flora.   Good Stuff!

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Steve and Rodney climbing the Upper Green Valley Singletrack

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The board members of the Pacific Crest Trail Association were seen out and about in Green Valley.

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Plenty of water to cross on the west side trail.

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The Cold Springs Trail

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Bloom along the entire hillside

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Rodney on California Riding and Hiking Trail.   This is one of my favorite sections of this trail in the county.

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Steve working his way up to the “Oak Trees”.

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Lake Cuyamaca has both a upper and lower dam to help keep the “normal” water contained in the south end.   You can see the upper dam as the thin line of land in the middle of the picture.   There is water in the entire upper valley which is just incredible.

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I believe Steve is trying to convey that this trail is the #1/Ichiban Trail  🙂

I am overdue for an update to my Cuyamaca Mountains page.   I think I am going to split it up into two different pages to cover several of the routes you can take out here better.

Local Wanderings In San Diego

In addition to all of the rain we are getting here in San Diego this winter (Which is a good thing) life has been busy over the month.  Nichol and I bought a house and we have been pretty well occupied with closing that deal and then moving in and setting up shop so to say.

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Most of rides during this time frame has been what I would categorize as local “maintenance” rides.   I have been out to Anderson Truck Trail a few times.

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Daley Ranch has spent a good bit of time in the rotation as it is one of the more rain tolerant riding areas around the area.   I have also hit up La Costa a time or two.

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Now MTB Life has not been all about just the same ole same ole.   I revisited some old places that have had a new batch of trail gnomes out doing to good things.  I’m not a liberty at this point to provide details but don’t be afraid to look around near your own backyard.

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There are is plenty of green out and about right now, and so should you.   Ride On!

Blue Diamond in Vegas

Nichol and I started out 2017 with a bike ride out on the Blue Diamond trail system just outside of Las Vegas.

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It had rained a bit the previous two days which I am pretty such set this place up for near-perfect trail conditions.  It was a little brisk out (by us San Diego weather weenie standards) but long sleeves or a second layer fixed that.

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We basically followed this route from MTBProject with a couple of slight variations.  Another good site for trail info out here is Trailforks.  Of course chit-chatting with the folks at McGhies Bike shop where this loop starts from it always a good call. (16 Cottonwood, #B, Blue Diamond, NV 89004)

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The counterclockwise loop we did started out from town and connected up with the Landmine Loop trail up and over a saddle where we then turn mostly westward.  This was some quality cross-county desert cruising action.

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From Landmine we turned on Southcut and then picked up the Lawnmower Saddle trail where we did a bit of climbing before dropping down to connect up with the Rubber Ducky trail.

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After Rubber Ducky we were had a nice long stretch of barely needing to pedal buff goodness.

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We eventually connected back up with the Landmine Loop trail where the trail got a little more rockier for a while before we got back into mostly buff trails.

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We did have some clouds shadow things up a bit off and on but for the most part we beautiful blue skies with big puffy clouds for the bulk of the ride.

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If you look closely you can see some board members of the Pacific Crest Trail ASSociation out tromping around off trail.

We closed off the loop with a fairly mild bit of climbing with a couple of gullies to navigate.   This was a nice loop and I’m looking forward to getting back out here and exploring the rest of the trail network that is out in this area.  The only other riding I have done around Las Vegas has been The Cowboys Trails just up the road a bit from Blue Diamond.   At some point I’m going to check out Bootleg Canyon as well.

Iron In My Diet!

It was nice to get back out to Iron Mountain.    I had not been out here since what seemed like ages.  It did not disappoint.

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Views from the top.

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We even managed to get the band back together!   Steve back at doing stupid human tricks.  The last time I was out there the city of Poway had been doing a bunch of trail work that was sanitizing many sections of the trail.  The good news is that they were basically throwing dirt over the rocks and not really “fixing” the water flow issue.   The good news in all of this is that after a few seasons all of that dirt has away and much of the trail is back to the way it was.

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Hey I can see my truck from here.

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I need to work on my trail face.

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Brian showing both of us how it is done.

Tough December!

Man are we having a tough December!   After working in Philadelphia for a week it makes you appreciate the weather goodness we have here in San Diego.lacosta-30nov16-01

I have been working on getting back in shape after a pretty dismal summer from a fitness perspective.   La Costa has been the main trail system in the rotation.

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Catalina Island (pictured above) has been easily seen on most of the outings.   San Clemente Island has been seen as well.

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Ready to head back down the hill.   Yep December is tough in SoCal!

Black Mountain & SYTT

Last weekend I managed to get back out to the Santa Ysabel Truck and the Black Mountain near Ramona.

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(Along the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail)

The weather guessers were call in for a storm to hit the area in the afternoon, so I packed up the rain gear before heading out.   Typically I do about a 29 mile loop that includes Santa Ysabel Truck Trail, Black Mountain,  Pamo Valley and a bit dirt road and pavement interconnects.   Today I was going to be doing an out-and-back variant of the ride.

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(A section of the area spared from the 2007 wildfires)

I parked at the east end of the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail near the bridge on Black Canyon Road and headed out west.   The climbing is very mild but considering how much of a slacker I had been as of late I could tell there was some rust in the legs.  The last time I had here was when I did this as a section of the Coast-to-Crest trail.

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(Pamo Valley from the lower parts of the Black Mountain Truck Trail)

Once I hooked up with the Black Mountain Truck Truck, I turned uphill and started the sizable climb.

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(Climbing Climbing Climbing, Pamo Valley getting smaller)

I was not sure if I was going to go all the way to the top or not.   I planned on turning around if the legs cried uncle or if I got caught in a sustained pummeling of rain.

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The weather was starting to deteriorate around me as I continued climbing.   I could see it raining in the distance on either side of me but my little patch of the world was dry.  About 3/4ths of the way up my legs were getting to wank but I was able to keep going.    It was also getting colder and the wind was kicking up.  I was too hot with the wind breaker on and my chest was a bit cold without it and just the short sleeve jersey.   I always keep a bandana in my pack and it came in pretty handy in this case.  I unfolded it about halfway  and stuff inside my jersey as an additional layer in the front.

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Now most of Black Mountain has been covered in scrub in the past put the top of the mountain has some pine trees.  These pines were originally planted as part of the ongoing Penny Pines program that started in California in 1941.   Some of those pines were burned in the 2007 wildfire but a patch of the them at the very top were spared.

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(View from the summit with Lake Sutherland in the background)

It was a bit chilly up on the summit and the wind was whipping pretty good.  I typically enjoying hanging out up here and enjoying lunch but the wind made it pretty uncomfortable so after snapping some shots I made my way over to spot back along the trail that offered some shelter from the wind to have my lunch.   While taking those pictures, it came pretty clear to me that my luck with the rain was going to run out soon.    I hurried up with the snacks and then headed back down the mountain.    It was quick work back down to the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail.    There is some climbing to be done on the way back along that truck trail and my legs were pretty shot at this point.     With about 15 minutes left in the ride a steady light rain started.   My windbreaker/raincoat was doing its job quite nicely and I spun my way back to truck.   About 30 seconds after I was all packed up and sitting in my truck the “bottom fell out” and a pounding rain last for most of my drive back into Ramona.    I felt pretty lucky to have snuck in a ride before the storm and was happy to get back out this little corner of the county.   A great day to be out on a bike!