Santa Ysabel Truck Trail Permanent

Garmin Stats from the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail route

Keith Olsen, Devin Mortensen, John Mestemacher and I met up near the Mule Hill Chevron before 7:00 AM on this Saturday in mid October. Overcast, which meant the temps were in the mid 50's. I did have on on my arm warmers and paper vest. Others were dressed likewise. We chatted around and checked out John's new Charge "Cooker" big tire bike. Nice steel ride. John had it out on a test ride already and said the verdict is still out due to his lack of dirt skills. Baloney, but sounds like some of my excuses!

We rolled out after 7:00 and hit Raptor Ridge. Devin was leading off at a race pace as Keith dropped off and we waited for him at the top. Finally, we chatted with a jogger going that way and informed him if he saw Keith, let him know we were moving on to beat the MTB Trail Race practice starting at 8:00. The San Pasqual Trail was in good shape. The recent rain had packed it down and lessened the dug up effects of horse use. Hwy. 78 Trailhead was packed with MTB'ers, waiting for the race to start. I picked up a few Hammer Gels and WD-40 dry lube samples. Also checked out some of those racing MTB rigs. Off we went up Hwy. 78 to the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail.

John's new Charge Cooker looks almost like this.

We survived the light highway traffic and were finally glad to turn off onto the trail. Nice quiet riding here. The first Orosco Truck Trail section was bladed for fire season, but we were soon making the turn eastward on the Santa Ysabel Lower Truck Trail. This trail skirts the canyons as we wind our way to Pamo Road. Nice single track riding along here. There are 2 gates you need to walk around. Also the big oak tree was still down blocking the trail. We soon turned onto the hard-surfaced Pamo Road, which comes northward from Ramona. After a mile, this road changes to a gravel road. With big tires, not a problem for us. Snack on the move time.

Upper Santa Ysabel Truck Trail. Different riding here. Regular truck trail was smoothed out a lot due to the rain on Wednesday. No dust and only one 4x4 on this road today. The first few miles are uphill at a 12% max grade. It looks more daunting from a distance than it really is. Next follows a few ups and downs, some rocky sections as we wind our way along the hillside toward Black Canyon Road, which we soon saw up above in the distance. Lead out Devin, spooked a deer and it ran in front of John and I. I commented if there were so many deer around, then there must be some big cats too! Almost an optical illusion as the USYTTr meets up above the bridge with this dirt road from Ramona. We stopped there, sucked some water and commented on how great we were feeling! HA-ha.

Downhill on washboard Black Canyon Road

It's a long slog up Black Canyon Road on the dirt road smoothed out by recent rains. Seems like it goes on forever as you wind your way up the canyon toward Mesa Grande. Some light washboard greeted us and near the top there were 3 roadies gingerly riding down, getting they're "nads" rocked up good! We stopped near the old Mesa Grande store for a brief repose and gel time. John said he thought about waiting for us here in the shade and rest up for our return trip. No way, as were motored on hard surface again. Devin was in full downhill race mode as we met Harley boys coming up the climb. No wonder, the Harley Hangout was packed full this Saturday noon. They must have noontime "two-fers" on beer. A short ride past the near drained Lake Henshaw put us at the steps of the store.

Turn around time at Lake Henshaw. The store was for some reason busy. A fisherman buying bait. For what I don't know. The lake was so low, any boat would bottom out! Water, Cola, Mountain Dew, ice cream, bring along sandwiches were on the menu now. I refused to pay $2 for a small Gatorade and returned it for a caffeine charge instead at half the price. We sat on the ledge in the shade and talked bikes, olive trees and other worldly things. We left around 12:45 and headed for Mesa Grande, this time the tough way... up the climb. We split up a little on the climb, Harley's buzzing around and it seemed to warm up some. Regroup at the top and some good riding along the mesa to the Black Canyon Road turn.

Downhill on the washboard road is quite a hoot! I set my front shock at 1/3 for the light bumps. Not near as rough as only a few weeks ago. Guess the rain dampened and leveled out the road some. We only met 3 or 4 cars on the way down to Ramona. Cars seemed to slow and they all waived. You can really get rolling at 20mph, but it takes an occasional corner cut to keep things moving. A definite no-no with approaching traffic. John led the climb up from the bridge and a good pace. Seems the cola was kickin' in by now. The group stopped at the corner AM/PM for a short respite and some drinks. I sucked down a ice cream sandwich while we were checking out all the traffic coming up from Escondido. John thought it might be Julian Apple Weekend with the lines of traffic.( I checked and Julian Apple Days were October 5-6!).

Fast downhill from Ramona on Highway 78

Quick flight down the hill on Hwy. 78 to San Pasqual Valley. Several groups of cars bunched up behind us at times so we slowed, moved over a bit and let them pass. I did a rear tire brake lock as Devin decided to slow quickly when I was just pulling in behind him. No wheel touch, but it was close. I called it a "controlled brake lock", but it was more like a panic swerve skid! Thankfully, we soon tuned onto Bandy Canyon Road.

The rando route was changed to do the full Bandy to Highland Valley Road route instead on back onto the full dirt trail again. This was to necessitate a least having a chance to come in under rando time limits. John took off ahead as Devin and I were chatting and commenting on the roadside trail that the racers had packed down real good. After the Highland downhill, we turned on the signed crossing back to the Mule Hill
Trail. Nice pace back to the Chevron station and a cool drink to finish out the ride. We never clock watched but  still finished up with 13 minutes to spare!  Another tough rando trail route, even though there were several sections of regular road riding.

think dirt,
-randorides