{"id":68,"date":"2008-06-09T23:32:34","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T07:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=68"},"modified":"2008-12-17T10:58:54","modified_gmt":"2008-12-17T18:58:54","slug":"beat-down-at-iron-mountain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=68","title":{"rendered":"Beat down at Iron Mountain"},"content":{"rendered":"

I should have known better.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of those days when I was too stubborn to follow my own advice, and I paid for it with some suffering on the bike.\u00a0\u00a0 I decided to ride Iron Mountain<\/a>today.\u00a0 It was nice and cool with a thick marine layer at my home and Vista so I thought what it will probably be okay out in the Ramona\/Poway area where the trails is at.\u00a0\u00a0 I got out to the Ellie Lane trailhead around 9AM and it was already warm.\u00a0 I took Ellie Lane over to the Wild Horse trail and then cutover to the Iron Mountain trail.\u00a0\u00a0I was not even up to the T-intersection with the other end of the Ellie Lane trail and Iron Mountain and the heat was already getting up there.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had forgotten how the rocky terrain here\u00a0just radiates the heat back at you.\u00a0 At the saddle here,\u00a0 I contemplated that 100 ounces of water may not be enough to do both the Ellie Lane and Iron Mountain trails today.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I thought about just hanging a left here and doing just the\u00a0Ellie Lane loop.\u00a0\u00a0 (This was the smart side of brain thinking).\u00a0 Instead I decided that I’ll push the decision to later and make my way up\u00a0Iron Mountain.<\/p>\n

\"Iron\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

From this spot it is only 1.45 miles to the peak.\u00a0 But it is a beater even on a\u00a0cool day and today was not a cool day.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Until you get fairly close to the peak you spend most of\u00a0your time on the east side of the mountain.\u00a0 The key thing here is that\u00a0the onshore breeze is blocked resulted\u00a0in the bake factor being even higher.\u00a0\u00a0 This climb is a\u00a0pick your\u00a0battle kind of ride, and I hiked\u00a0a handful of sections.\u00a0\u00a0 The\u00a0heat was sweltering and sapping my energy.<\/p>\n

The views at the top were nice as usual and the onshore breeze was taking the edge off of the heat.\u00a0\u00a0 I had also slogged up my pads and full-face helmet up the mountain on my pack in preparition\u00a0the return trip. (I\u00a0had\u00a0worn my normal helmet on the climb)\u00a0 This was my first ride with the new full-face helmet so I was interested to see how it would feel.\u00a0\u00a0 A couple of quick thought:\u00a0 Good field of view, when you are moving there is plenty of airflow and it is a little harder to hear the outside world while you can hear your on breathing very well.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The descent off of the peak went really well as I cleaned plenty of stuff I had not before.\u00a0 It was not the chunk that was giving me the troubles, it was switchbacks.\u00a0 Often times clearing the chunk leaving with little to nothing to work with for getting through the switchbacks.\u00a0\u00a0 I sessioned some\u00a0sections, finally getting some while having to let a couple wait for another day.<\/p>\n

Back down at the T-intersection\u00a0I once\u00a0again had to think about my\u00a0options.\u00a0 The smart choice would have been to skip the Ellie Lane trail as it was freaking hot right now.\u00a0 I decided to be a big dummy and take the Ellie\u00a0Lane trail.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I felt good about my\u00a0decision early on as\u00a0I got a bit\u00a0of\u00a0descending before the trail turned back uphill.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0At this point I was\u00a0once again blocked from the\u00a0onshore breeze and the temps jumped up.\u00a0\u00a0I was also reminded who bike unfriendly and poorly laid out the numerous waterbars on this trail are.\u00a0 At nearly ever switchback there is a treated log waterbar that is placed right through the apex of the switchback.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is no big deal if you are a hiker or an equestrian but these things have the biker\u00a0approaching them in\u00a0a nearly parallel direction forcing\u00a0near-trials like moves to get past them.\u00a0\u00a0Skills I don’t so\u00a0there as plenty of hiking up to the Ramona Overlook and the saddle.<\/p>\n

\"Yes
\nYes this is the trail<\/p>\n

I was pretty much roasted back the time I got the saddle above the Ramona Overlook.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After slapping back on the protective gear, I had a good run down off the saddle.\u00a0 Once again really tricky stuff, but I did not session much stuff as I was feeling the need keep moving towards the trailhead.\u00a0\u00a0 After this descent there was some more suffering to be had to get up to the tablerock area.\u00a0 I moved into fully blow survival mode as my water was terribly low the terrain was basically a large rock bowl.\u00a0 I felt like I was in a brick oven.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I hiked most of the climb up to the tablerock to avoid overheating which I could tell I was close to doing.\u00a0\u00a0 I started to be a bit more generous with my water rationing at this point as I was close to peaking out on the last significant climb.\u00a0\u00a0 I had the early stage of a headache brewing, not good.\u00a0\u00a0 At the saddle there was a little relief from the breeze, but it was not much help at this point.\u00a0\u00a0 The full-face helmet would stay in the pack for this section as I felt\u00a0heat stress was a bigger risk than a header into a rock.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I got down off the saddle fine, but I could tell\u00a0my technical skills were not crisp\u00a0due to my fatigue.\u00a0 The rest\u00a0of the ride out was okay and I\u00a0drained the last bit of my water about\u00a0a 1\/4 mile from\u00a0the trailhead.\u00a0 I was beaten down,\u00a0and hella-fatigued for the rest of the day.\u00a0\u00a0The mileage count was only 11 miles, but I felt like I had done\u00a040.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I think the riding season at the Iron Mountain\/Ellie Lane combo\u00a0is rapidly coming to a close as summer rolls\u00a0in.<\/p>\n

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