Sweetwater Recon Revisited

Garmin track show I was searching the route near Willow St.

Sunday recon dirt ride? Are you kidding? What happened to football, lazing and leftover pumpkin pie?

I took the earliest Sunday Coaster down to Santa Fe Depot, among the poor Charger fans hoping for a season with 7 wins! Never happen, not when they can't sell out a Qualcom game and are the leading "blackout" team in the NFL! Coolers aside. I rode over to Harbor Drive to pick up a Coronado Ferry schedule. Today's route was from the steel bridge, southbound through Sweetwater, follow the bike path to the Bayshore Bikeway to Coronado, hop the ferry and head north to Rose Canyon dirt. Busy day?

Hooked up with 30th Street eastbound and cut off on the Sweetwater Bike Path, which took me over to Bonita Road. From there, it was straight riding up to the Reservoir via San Miguel Street. I forgot my shot blocks to suck on, so a quick stop at the Bonita Performance Bike shop on the way solved that. They were overpriced at a sale price of $1.75 each. Chatted with the ranger at the entrance to the park for a bit. He re-enforced my research that there was only one reasonable way through the area and up to the lower Tiki Hut.  Nothing on the north side as of yet. (There is a road/trail on the satellite map from the bridge to the dam. Also verified by a route on Strava !) Next time?

Patch and boot ready to apply on Sweetwater Trail

I'll backtrack on the Stagecoach 200 route I was riding on and hit the trail up to the Tiki Hut. Decided to take a different way at the first trail junction, just after the fence ends, taking the ridge trail up, up and away. After single tracking a while, I heard the dreaded "bang" from the rear tire. Rolling the bike over to a nice level grassy knoll, it was time to get busy in the sun. I flipped the bike, removed the rim and settled in for a cozy repair. Pulled out two small thorns from the tire, replaced the tube and aired it up. I was soon ready to roll when I rechecked the rear tire again. Ooops! Tube bubble through the tire! Duh? Cut tire!

"Sweetwater Steve" said my tires were trash!

Start over again...this time we're real serious. Glue patch time with a boot to cover the 11/2" cut in the tire. No big rocks on that trail, so must have been a mirage. Didn't let the glue get real dry as I put on the patch. Tube in, boot in and time to pump er up. About this time a rider stopped by going westward. I'll call him Sweetwater Steve. Of course, he rides this trail all the time.. in fact several times a week! He rode a TREK full suspension 26"er. Looked a hard-core rider to me. He suggested a low air pressure and for me to turn around real quick or call my wife for a pick up! We chatted a bit about the Stagecoach 400 race in the spring. He hadn't heard about that, so I gave him a card for a later email hook-up. (Note: He did email me and checked out the SDrando site and the Stagecoach website too.) Steve turned around and headed to the steel bridge as I quietly headed back to Sweetwater Park. Short ride.. bummer.

Patch/boot still holding... I'll continue on my recon

Softly tip-toed along the trail. Met several horse riders and they said the Eco-Movement wants to shut down all the trails in the area! They want to classify every mud puddle on the trail a "vernal pool", thus off limits to everyone: hikers, bikers and horses. Steve had said signs were posted up the trail as to the status. What a waste of human effort, building all those trail for naught? Back near the ranger station, I checked the tire and saw that the split hadn't got any wider. This might be working, so I continued on with my trail recon, heading to the bay. I could always stop at Performance Bike and pick up a cheaper tire. Today they had 20% off sale price! (Never did get a tire. Figured to save the $$ and put into some better Conti 2.2 tires.)

Trail where I got looped around 180 degrees. All looks the same.

Followed the route around the golf course. There was a Jack-In-The-Box 30 feet from the trail, so I stopped and used a coupon for 50% off a shake. Near Willow Street I managed to get turned around but finally figured out the path under the roadway. It is all bushes through there and I finally followed some bike tracks in the soft sand. Further on in "horse country", I rode around and did a complete 180 loop back to Willow Street! After that, I followed the Garmin track real close. Met a few horsemen along the path too. Horses really chew up the trail and leave a deep V with side banks to offer an option to cyclists. I finally found the bike path around Plaza Bonita Road and soon was riding along the Sweetwater Channel toward the ocean.

Horse riders near trails end.

No trip around Bayshore Bikeway today for me. I needed to head back north before the whole rear tire erupted! I put in some more air and headed northward on hard roads. Put my blinkies on before long for the nervous ride homeward. I lucked out and happen to catch the Coaster to Oceanside. Garmin showed a long day, but I restarted it 2 times to reset the route. Next time I'll divide the long "Stagecoach 200" route into segments for loading into the Garmin. It will refresh faster and I can follow the route in real time better. I got back to San Marcos after sunset. I wasn't that cold after all. The rear tire held up OK to the end, thank goodness!

I did recycle that cut  tire somewhat... I made up many boots out of the sidewall for future use, road and trail bikes. Also mounted up some newer tires and repacked my seat bag for future emergency.  No tubeless tires yet$ Guess I'll have to wait for some light rims in my dreams. I'll finish up that recon someday soon.

-randorides