Recovery….DONE!

I really enjoyed being back back on the bike for the last two months.   I started out sticking to tamer trails as I was still dealing with some sternum discomfort related to the wires used to initially close up my chest.   When the trails got chattery, it was uncomfortable enough to be distracting.   Not where you want your head when getting into techy bits.

My heart surgeon advised me the discomfort was common beyond the 3-month mark with it typically subsiding by the 6-month mark.  In some cases people have mild discomfort well beyond that.

The discomfort has indeed been getting better.  I am pretty sure that early on after my return to the bike there was a fair amount of just building up my tolerance to the discomfort.   

Nice to ride some tech.

Over the last few weeks, I have been riding more technical trails and getting more comfortable on them.  The chest discomfort is nearly gone and no longer a distraction.

I don’t quite have my technical chops back yet and I know its mental thing about not wanting to deal with a superman endo to the chest. I’m sure that will come back as well.

Photobomber Alert!

Enough on recovery, I’m Calling It DONE!

While out riding with Steve last week we played around a rock formation for 15 or 20 minutes.   We collectively rolled up on the entry rock about half a dozen times before noticing a sizable rattlesnake warming up underneath it.  We both kinda wigged out for a bit as we had been scrambling all over the rock formation looking for lines to ride.

Another Spectator

We then took a closer look around and saw another rattler hanging out on the otherside of the same rock.   It was time to call it a day for playing on the “Snake Eyes” rock.

Steve playing on “Snake Eyes”

Tasty Burritos closed out a great day to be on the trails.

Hurricane Cliffs Vintage Video

Here is the latest of the vintage pre-GoPro MTB to be migrated over to YouTube. This is of the Hurricane Cliffs Loop which is comprised of the Gould’s Rim, JEM and Hurricane Rim Trails. This is a great and sizeable XC loop in the area. I have not done this route in over a decade mostly because of the build up of new trails JEM trail area you can pile up a bunch of miles in that area alone. Since this video was shot Over The Edge Hurricane was established and they helped to create a trail that connects from town up to Gould’s Rim. I’m sure that trail is going to be seeing some action this weekend as the Hurricane MTB Festival is going on now. I did not sign up for this festival this year as I did not think I would be recovered from the heart valve replacement well enough by now but after this past week’s riding I think I probably would have been able to handle the this trail system along with most of the other goodies in the area. Here are a few other pictures from the area.

New Bike/Frame

So I have been riding around a killer Santa Cruz Bronson (Gen 1) for a handful of years now. Its a singletrack carving machine, excellent for climbing and holds its own in the chunky bits. I love it! I am often an in-between medium and large size bike guy. The Bronson was a medium and I probalbly should have went with a large. I really did not want to mess with a new bike at this point because all of them seem to be longer, lower and slacker. I wanted a tweak not a huge change.

New Donor Bike

So I have been looking for a large gen1 frame of the same color for a while at a good price. Nada, its been all complete bikes. I was pretty stoked when I found a complete bike with the frame I wanted at a good price. It was more than I wanted to pay for a frame but supply and demand rules. I did get some nice components and spares out of the deal.

New and Old Bike
Boy was I amazed how much my frame had faded over the course of the adventures we had been on together. (Old bike in front)

I merged the best bits of the two bikes onto the new frame. I stayed with my wheelset(stans rims, Chris King hubs), drivetrain(1×11 30-50), Hope E3 brakes, CCDB air shock, Fox Transfer dropper, saddle and handlebars. Along with the frame I used the “new” bottom bracket and headset (mango color coordinated Chris King bits). I am also swapping out my Fox 34 fork and trying out the Rockshox Pike fork with the Push AC3 coil conversion.

Its time to go riding!

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)