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 🙂 >
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.