{"id":1288,"date":"2015-04-20T18:32:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T02:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1288"},"modified":"2018-09-09T18:39:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T02:39:16","slug":"coast-to-crest-bikepacking-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=1288","title":{"rendered":"Coast to Crest Bikepacking Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-02\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did my first bike packing trip this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0 A group of six of us set off to do the Coast to Crest trail leaving from Julian with the plan to end with our tires in the ocean on Del Mar\u2019s Dog Beach. The Coast to Crest trail is a long way from completed and\u00a0our route is basically follows the general corridor of where the trail should someday follow as best as we could follow it.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-05\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We pedaled out on Main Street\/Farmers Rd for about 2.5 miles out to the start of the trail at Volcan Mountain Wilderness Preserve.\u00a0\u00a0 Full disclaimer here, we did not climb all the way up to the top of the mountain as it is a steep out and back on double-track.\u00a0\u00a0 The top\u00a0Volcan Mountain\u00a0is the \u201cCrest\u201d of the trail.\u00a0\u00a0 From the Volcan Mountain Preseve we zipped down the paved Famers Road to the Santa Ysabel Open Space Preserve<\/a>\u00a0East.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-07\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been quite some time since I had ridden out here.\u00a0 I had nearly forgotten just how pretty it is out here.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-11\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The first climb was rather steep and all of the bikepacking gear quickly found myself\u00a0out of clicks on my shifters.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-13\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The crew taking a break\u00a0 (Left to Right: Kevin, Carl, Greg, Chad and Ken) at our highest point along the trip.\u00a0\u00a0 We did quite a bit of descent and a few short bit of steep climbing before we came out at the lower staging area of the preserve.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-16\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a massive section of trail that is not built from here.\u00a0\u00a0 Our path from here was a quite bit on Highway 79 north and then a good long chunk of pavement climbing on Mesa Grande Road.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-22\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From there we left the pavement for some dirt road riding on\u00a0Black Canyon Road.\u00a0\u00a0 This was my first time on this section of the road.\u00a0 It was really awesome that this thing just seemed to descend forever.\u00a0 (Carl is in the photo above)<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-18APR15-23\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we did reach of the bottom of the road, we turned onto the San Ysabel Truck Trail which is familiar dirt to me as it is part of the Black Mountain (Ramona)<\/a> Loop near Ramona.\u00a0\u00a0This is part of the\u00a0official Coast To Crest trail. \u00a0There was some work to be done here as we worked over the south slope of Black Mountain before we had a very zippy descent down into Pamo Valley.\u00a0\u00a0 We then pedaled south on Pamo Valley Road (mostly dirt road) before hooking up with Forest Service Road FS12504.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-32\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We chased down a spot to setup camp for the evening.\u00a0\u00a0 We did a touch under 35 miles for day one.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tasty sprits seems to find there way into most of our packs.\u00a0\u00a0 Since every ounce counts we felt it wise to lighten our load for tomorrow as much as possible\u00a0\ud83d\ude42\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 All of my gear worked pretty much as expected and there were certainly some lessons learned.\u00a0 I slept really well that night and awoke to the sounds of turkeys gobbling in the distance.\u00a0\u00a0 Not long after that a lone gunshot rang out that reminded me it is turkey season.\u00a0 I did not hear any more turkeys after that.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-36\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I had under estimated my fuel requirements for my alcohol stove but I did have just enough to get a couple cups of coffee made to go with breakfast.\u00a0\u00a0 Coffee just tastes better outside.\u00a0 We leisurely broke camp and were back on the trail.\u00a0\u00a0 Forest Service Rd 12504 is referred to as the Lower San Ysabel Truck Trail by the San Dieguito River Park.\u00a0\u00a0 After just a bit of climbing, we were treated to a very mild grade descent. Carl and Kevin are pictured above heading down a particularly nice covered stretch of the truck trail.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-42\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin was doing this ride on his rigid single speed and was just killing it.\u00a0 He also had a killer ultra-light setup.\u00a0\u00a0 The Lower Santa Ysabel truck trail took us down to the Orasco\/Gueito Truck Trail.\u00a0 This truck trail is not part of the official Coast to Crest trail at his point.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We did take this truck trail\u00a0 up to Highway 78.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We had to cruise down the highway for a couple of quick downhill miles where we hooked with some farm roads along the orange groves.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-50\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These farm roads took to the Bandy Canyon trailhead of the San Pasqual Valley trail that is part of the Coast to Crest trail.\u00a0\u00a0 The trail goes along the edge\u00a0of orange groves, sod\u00a0and dairy farms in the\u00a0valley before it starts climbing.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-53\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Climbing up to Raptor Ridge was a good bit of work with the gear on the bike.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After that we were back into the routine home turf\u00a0 of Lake Hodges<\/a> and we made quick work to the Farmers Market and the gas stations near the I-15 trailhead for some resupply.\u00a0\u00a0 Nichol joined us through the Lake Hodges segment.\u00a0 (I think see liked this ride as the pace was slower than our normal outing speed).<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-59\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nichol turned back at the dam while we continued on down the Del Dios Gorge and onto the Santa Fe Valley trail<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-60\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There was some climbing bits to be done including\u00a0 a sizable set of switch backs.\u00a0Once we got to the\u00a0top of the switchbacks we were once\u00a0again\u00a0off of the official Coast To Crest\u00a0trail.\u00a0 We ended up dropping into the Lusardi Creek area via some singletrack and then working our way up to where the Santa Luz Loop<\/a> starts.\u00a0\u00a0 From here we had to do a five mile\u00a0stretch of pavement along San Dieguito Road and\u00a0El Camino Real to connect to the next segment of the Coast to Crest trail.<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-65\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The final segment is along the San Dieguito Lagoon and passes by the Del Mar Fairgrounds<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-68\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Chad along the boardwalk.\u00a0\u00a0 We would cross the Jimmy Durante Blvd bridge and follow the Del Mar River down to Dog Beach<\/p>\n

\"Coast2Crest-19APR15-73\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahhh Bike Tires in the Pacific and the finish of 43.5 miles for day 2 for a total of 78.2 miles<\/p>\n

\"C2C-19APR15-PizzaPort\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were able to squeeze out another 1.1 miles to Pizza Port Solana Beach for some yummy pizza and tasty beers!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A mighty fine weekend to be on a bike.<\/p>\n

UPDATE (April 22nd, 2105):\u00a0\u00a0 I have added a page to the site detailing this route with maps, GPS files and additional blabbery.\u00a0 Coast to Crest Trail<\/a><\/p>\n

More Stuff Like This<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t I love cardboard<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Utah Weekend \u2013 Little Creek Mesa<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Singletrack for the Soul<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Stowe Trail Now Open<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>