East Mesa and Oakzanita

I made it out to the Cuyamaca Mountains for a a dawn patrol ride this morning. It was a brisk 55 when I started out but it not take long to warm up.

The east side singletrack followed by the fireroad climb up east mesa was quite manageable.

It was about a three to four mile climb up to fireroad to get to the single track that tasks our across the meadow.

I was a little bit past prime time for the wild flowers but there were still a plenty. I took the singletrack out to where you start descending down towards the Indian Creek trail. Here is some info on that option.

After a very peaceful break I retraced my tracks back to the fireroad. For something new to me I took the Oakzanita peak trail.

It was a little under two miles long and most of the climbing occured during the last half of a mile or so. Most of the peak prominence is on its western slopes so you have already gain much of thr elevation when coming in from the east. The last half mile is very much a loose rock and techy bit of fun ckimbing.

The view from Oakzanita peak was really cool and worth the effort. On the return trip, I took an unmarked trail that took me most of the way down the mountain. It was a great bit singletrack. It popped me out on the East Mesa fireroad. This was the upper Descanso Creek trail and saddly it is not only marked at the bottom, but also marked no bikes. Its a shame as it would be my preferred way to come off the mesa. I would not want to climb it. After that it was a quick spin on the East Side singletrack back to my truck. A great morning in the bike.

Daley Ranch

Daley Ranch is still holding onto some springtine!

I did a loop that include the Sage trail up and over into Jack Meadow and the up the way an over to Engelman Oak and back around.

Sometimes I find myself with a ho hum attitude about the local stuff. This is particularly case after roadtrips. But rides like that this help to shake those feelings off.

Norcal Roadtrip

So my youngest son, Jake has been accepted to Humbolt State University to finish off his degree in Forestry and Wildland Fire Management. We decide to take the travel trailer up there for a week to get the lay of the land and find him a place to live out in town. First stop along the journey was a overnighter to see my oldest son who lives south of San Jose. It was really nice to have both of my not so much boys anymore in the same spot.

The next made the rest of the way up north and setup shop in Trinidad at a campsite nestled between redwoods.

So everyday we had some chores to do which mostly included scoping out rooms for rent and doing interviews with the landlords/owners.

But that stuff took up less than half of each day so we were about to checkout some stuff.

As luck would have it a good friend, JD, has a brother who lives in nearby Bluelake. After some emails and phone calls his brother Tim took Jake and I out for a tour through the local woods. We even started right from the HSU campus. I do believe Jake is pretty stoked about this.

The last day our planned stay up there we ended up finding “The Place” and put some ink to paper. The next morning we headed out but this time we decided to take a different route we took us inland though some mighty pretty country side. I’m not so sure SoCal is ever going to get Jake back.

We made our way down to Fresno and had enough time to check out thier MTB skills park. It was not bad. I would not make a special trip for it, but if you are passing through, go for it.

The next day we mad our way back to home. A very productive and fun trip.