{"id":1248,"date":"2014-07-27T15:00:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-27T23:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1248"},"modified":"2018-09-09T15:05:25","modified_gmt":"2018-09-09T23:05:25","slug":"laguna-mountains-camping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1248","title":{"rendered":"Laguna Mountains Camping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday through Wednesday\u00a0 my youngest son, Jake, and I did a three-night camping trip up in the Laguna Mountains<\/a>\u00a0east of San Diego. We got in some mountain biking, hiking and\u00a0some good just kicking back time. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-08\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nichol joined us on the first day for a bike ride around the meadow, dinner and some marshmallow destruction before heading back home to play responsible adult while the boys played in the dirt.\u00a0 Over the last few years there has been some reroutes to the meadow loop as well to some of the spur trails.\u00a0 I would say they are all for the better.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-12\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back at camp, the marshmallows did not stand a chance.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-17\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The morning of day 2 was meet with some leisurely breakfast making before hitting up some of the trails.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-22\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some play time on the Los Gatos trail was had.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-25\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake working on a skinny.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-28\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake working the camera.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-33\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We spent the early part of the afternoon just chilling out camp watch the squirrels trying to figure out how to get to our camp treats.\u00a0 This guy was craving some Cheetos.\u00a0\u00a0 That afternoon we\u00a0did a hike nearby that include the PCT connector trail from the meadow.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-59\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Day 3 we were up pretty early to hit some\u00a0of the other Pretty Cool Trails in the area.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We rode the meadow over the Penny Pines Trailhead and then made our way over the Pioneer Mail Trailhead where we picked up the Pine Mountain Trail.\u00a0\u00a0We took the\u00a0Pine Mountain trail over to the Indian Creek Trail at Champagne Pass.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Indian Creek is the primary legal\u00a0trail connector for\u00a0bikes\u00a0between Cuyamaca and the Laguna<\/a> Mountains.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-60\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We dropped off of Champagne pass to the east\u00a0on the Indian Creek\u00a0trail heading back to towards the Lagunas.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-63\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake loves him some downhill fun but is not a fan of climbing at all. He wonders why every place can\u2019t be like Mammoth or Big Bear. Once we got to meadow pictured\u00a0above, I took great pleasure in letting him know it was 3 miles to anywhere from here in either direction and it was uphill in both directions.\u00a0 We continued on the Indian Creek Trail to the east and climbed up to the junction with the Noble Canyon Trail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-65\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From there we turned north and climbed Noble.\u00a0\u00a0 (Colloquially known as the \u201cElbon\u201d trail.)\u00a0\u00a0 There is a recently completely reroute of Noble up\u00a0near the top.\u00a0 The reroute eliminates a couple of road crossings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The new section is much tighter and a twistier that the original section and while a bit loose right now it should\u00a0bed in nicely once we get some rains.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m sure some of the Strava-tards and will wank about the reroute messing with their times.\u00a0 (My suggesting to those folks is\u00a0shut up,\u00a0just ride faster\u00a0or\u00a0turn to juicing<\/a>.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Noble Canyon has its loyal followings of which some subscribe to the \u201cNever Change My Trail\u201d mentality so I would expect there will be discontent for a few months.\u00a0 Personally I think the\u00a0reroute is going to be really nice once\u00a0bedded in.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-75\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We took the \u201cshortcut\u201d spur trail that connects back to west end of the meadow vice going all the way back to the Penny Pines Trailhead.\u00a0 Once back at the meadow it was a quite spin back to camp.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-46\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was pretty hot during the middle of the day so we kicked back\u00a0in the shade of camp for a while before jumping in the truck for a swing by Laguna General Store for a Mexican Coke (The south of the border variant is made with real cane\u00a0sugar vice corn syrup\u2026tastier) \u00a0and an Ice Cream bar \u00a0before we did some recon work for some of the other trails in the area that are on my to-do list.\u00a0Dinner that night\u00a0was some\u00a0tasty\u00a0rib-eyes, grilled asparagus and zucchini with some brown rice.\u00a0\u00a0 That night we shook off the food coma by\u00a0strapping\u00a0on the headlamps to do a\u00a0mini night ride out on the meadow that included some lights off time to check out the stars on that completely dark night.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-97\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next morning I was up before sunrise to get in a solo ride while the boy slept in.\u00a0 Presumably there would be no one else out of the trail as well.\u00a0 Sunrise was a Pretty Cool Time of day to be out and about by yourself in the woods.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the way back from the 16 mile loop\u00a0I saw Mr. Wyle Coyote out looking for breakfast.\u00a0 After the initially moving away from me for a bit the coyote went back to hunting\u00a0once\u00a0establishing that I was not there to bother him.\u00a0\u00a0 I watched him for a good five minutes or so before moving along.<\/p>\n

\"BLTCamping-JUL2014-99\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake was just waking up\u00a0when I got back to camp. A second round of coffee was in order for me and it was time for breakfast all around.\u00a0\u00a0 After breakfast it was time to break down camp and head out of the mountains.\u00a0 I had a great time on the camping trip with Jake.\u00a0\u00a0 With the exception of a few minutes,\u00a0we did not have\u00a0data \u00a0coverage so having Jake \u201cunplugged\u201d\u00a0was a bonus.\u00a0\u00a0 With no competition with the all powerful 3G\/4G\u00a0 it allowed for things like watching the \u201cCampfire TV\u201d,\u00a0gazing at the stars, observations of the \u201clittle\u201d things\u00a0and\u00a0conversations that would rarely occur otherwise.\u00a0 Good times.\u00a0\u00a0 With some new GPS data and observations, \u00a0I\u2019m planning on updating some\u00a0of the maps, files and pages I have for this area on the site, so\u00a0stay tuned.<\/p>\n

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