200K Permanent

Rock & Road Trail Permanent

Rock and Road Trail Garmin Stats

Inaugural ride of the new Trail Permenent. Different kind of route, with some actual dirt trails mixed in there. Not a lot of technical dirt riding, but need to watch the clock as 9.3mph average won't happen on dirt trails.

Keith Olsen, new rando Devin Mortensen and myself showed up in San Marcos on Saturday. Weather was forecast for partly cloudy today. We chatted a bit about stuff and started 5 minutes late. Keith was riding his brand new Salsa Spearfish MTB. He even had new shoes and a new Garmin 800! Devin had his Surly Long Haul Trucker with 40mm tires on it.

Inland Rail Trail over to Escondido, then looped and missed the turn to the Escondido Creek Bike Path as we were chatting. Turned on Citrus Street and enjoyed the nice downhill on Old San Pasqual Valley Rd. Keith was already dragging up the hills, a theme which would continue throughout. 12mph is a moderate pace on the flat hard surfaced roads. We stopped too long at the Ysabel Creek INFO control. Onto the trail, we waited for Keith at Raptor Ridge. Then I got a flat on by the strawberry fields. My spare had a zipper cut in it too, so I had to patch and pump. The guys went ahead to the Mule Hill Control and got a receipt for me. We hit the Lake Hodges Trail to lite traffic and then Keith went off and climbed the upper trail. We waited and waited for him until we finally spotted him above. Both trails merge together by the gate/parking lot. It was at least 15 minutes before we got together again for the run down Del Dios Hwy.

Santa Fe Trail switchbacks

Santa Fe Trail is neat due to the 33 switchbacks. I had rode this several times and explained the use of your arm to hold the posts as you slingshot around the switchbacks. Keith finally got the hang of it and we rolled over to Artisan Lane. A little technical single track here as we got over to Lusardi Loop under Camino del Sur. Keith lagged way back on this climb. I stopped at the park and put in a patched tube, found a Timex Ironman watch and patched the other tube as a spare. I borrowed Devin's full frame pump. Finally Keith arrived and laid down on the grass. He said to go ahead, since he wouldn't make the time cut. I checked the time. It was after noon and we wouldn't make it anyway.

Devin led out on the hard roads to the Shell Control. We were there only 5 minutes. Los Penasquitos was a fast ride through. We had several near misses with some young riders coming at us! Roselle St. was a nice up hill and then onto the Rose Creek Bike Path. We did the full route through and around Sea World and across the channel to the Ocean Beach Control. We shared the 2 for $3 Gatorade and then climbed up the tough Hill Street. Around the SD Bay and into heavy traffic through construction zoned before the Santa Fe Station. Got there at 3:00 PM. Too late for the rando time, but time enough for the Coaster Train back up to Oceanside!

Interesting ride. In good rando spirit, we waited for Keith the first part of the route. He just couldn't get up the hills and walked several times. I suggested he work on his climbing and check out his life style as far a his described need for weight loss. Also he should have been bombing down those hill on the new full suspension Spearfish. He didn't. Keith is a great guy and nice to ride with. I'm sure he'll get stronger as time goes by. Devin rode strong all day. I thought he did real good with the smaller tires on his Surly. He's a great rider and good Stagecoach 400 material!

Good rando experience,
-randorides

Coffee At Peet's on Brevet Day Ride

Garmin Stats for the Coffee At Peet's Populaire

I figured 32 miles was too far down to do a 200km Brevet ride today. So I did a shortie Populaire instead. I just happened to meet the Brevet riders at Deer Springs Road as they were going north. Interesting to see how spread out they are in just a few hours. Got the racers out front, the basic randos throughout the middle and the others toward the end.

Normal 6 hour route and the weather was overcast the whole route. Seemed a perfect weather day for riding. Handed out a few cards to some riders I met along the coast. All seemed interested in longer rides. I wonder why no one ever gets back to me about these longer rides? Hmmmm?

Main Divide Road To Santiago Peak Recon

N. Main Divide Rd. - 15% talcum powder

Needed to update the route knowledge and pictures for the new "Santiago Peak Trail" route I was submitting. What an idea, huh? Didn't want to ride the whole route from Oceanside so I took the Metrolink train up to San Juan Capistrano and rode up via Ortega Hwy. Took one lot of pics on this route. Route included the climb up Ortega Highway from San Juan Cap., N. Main Divide Road to Santiago Peak and then down to 4-Corners, where I turned and went downhill via Harding Truck Trail to Modjesta Canyon and the Aliso Creek BikeWay to Mission Viejo and took the Oso Capistrano Bike Path down to the finish at SJC.

What a ride. The 29'er climb up Ortega Highway wasn't that memorable. Fortunately, all the miles and miles of traffic were going down as I was going up! Not that many cars passed. There were a few no bike lane sections, even nearing the top and I did pull off for some big trucks where applicable. I was fired up and made Ok time up to the Firefighter Memorial at the Main Divide junction, where a last fill-up was required.

Santiago Peak View to the Ocean

N. Main Divide was as tough as always. In fact, seemed worse from the last time I came down this way. Several hike-a-bike sections and I did give away my reserve frozen bottle of water to 2 hikers coming down. Took me over 3 hours to get up there!

Low on water, I didn't stay too long at the peak. Views were great and I got down to 4-corners as quick as I could. Did see one riding just starting up and we chatted a bit. He said I was "crazy" too! Harding Truck Trail is a nice trail all the way down. Real fast and a climb near the end. Thankfully, the Nature Museum was open on Modjesta Canyon Road and I got some cold water and Gatorade.

Water At Last! - Modjesta Nature Center

Didn't do the Modjesta Grade climb, instead went around the longer way. Still seemed as much climbing. Hit the Aliso Creek BikeWay going downhill this trip . Very nice and fast fun into Mission Viego Metro station. I cut the route short here and got some water and ice cream at the nearby AM/PM before boarding the train back to Oceanside. Long 12 hour day and I was cooked!

Interesting ride and I managed to take the necessary photos for a decent ride video for the new route.

The full approved route can be seen at: http://youtu.be/sTyFCXSJkmM

happy trails,
randorides

Coffee & Bike Path Shortie Permenents

July 11
Coffee At Peet's Permenent.
Was supposed to meet up with the boys at Magee Park around 8:30 for the joint ride south. NOT. They had

Coffee At Peets Route @Garmin Stats

a party ride starting from a Pizza Place around Palomar Airport instead.

Keith Olsen decided to ride and we left San Marcos 7-Eleven around 6:15 AM. Rode a nice pleasant pace, stopped at the Bonsall Control too long and enjoyed the San Luis Rey Bike Path to Oceanside. Got to the Circle K at the end of the Bike Path around 8:15, and stopped at Magee Park at 8:45. Wouldn't have made the meet up anyway.

Cruised the coast hooking up with several groups and took our usual break at the AM/PM off Camino del Sur and Sr-56 Bike Path instead of stopping up the road at Peet's Place. No records here as we did some stops and looked at several Lusardi Loop Trails in the area. Came up the back way to Escondido and the inland rail trail to the finish. Under 7 hours for this cruiser route.  Weather was good!

-randorides



July 13
Bike Path X Two Permanent
Needed a exercise route for a early start on Saturday and this was it. Nothing too exciting here as I felt good and wanted to get back before high noon. Time was well under 6 hours, which was OK due to the 4 control stops and Saturday bike traffic, of which I hooked up a few times for some good drafting! hehe

-randorides

Duo Trail Training Rides

Fourth Of July:

July 4th Training Ride on dirt Los Penasquitos Canyon

Rode down and met Keith Olsen at the top of the Rice Canyon Bike Path. There is a park-n-ride there for him. Keith was trying out a rental bike. MTB Jamis niner. Blue with 8 speed. Basic stuff. Mechanical brakes. Seemed to work OK for Keith. He was trying to decide if and what to buy that would work on rando trail rides without spending a awful lot of money on a new rig.

We rode the south side of the Rose Creek Bike Trail this trip. Then down the dirt Roselle Street to Los

Penasquitos Canyon Bike Trail. We took the south side. Met lots of hikers and bikers this trip. Keith led a lot. You learn the route by leading, not by following someone who already has ridden it several times. Took a relaxing break under a gazabo near the Cara Way pump station. Nice looking Swedish lady and dog were there. Rode back and did the north side of the canyon. Did go off and do the trail that led to Vista Sorrento Valley Road. Nice. Then took a side-trip to Perf. Bike to check out new stuff for Keith. Quite busy for a small store. He looked at some MTB bikes. Rode back up Roselle St. and the south Rose Creek Bike Trail. Long July 4th. Got home around 4 PM. Dirty and tired. Whew.


July 6:

July 6th Training Ride to Santa Ysabel Truck Trail

Keith still wanted to check out some more trails on his rental bike. Started at Mule Hill Trailhead at 6:00 AM. Good thing. Had cloud cover till noon. Nice. Wasn't too hot out there. Climbed Mule Hill Trail. Then finished off the San Pasqual Valley Trail. Keith dumped his Jamis a few times on the "'V" sand trail. Hard to keep a line there. Rode up Hwy. 78 to the Santa Ysabel Truck Trail . Did the lower Trail. Met a hard core MTB'er and chatted a bit near Pamo Road.

Bunch of moto off road dudes on Pamo Road. Reloaded and climbed the Upper Santa Ysabel Truck Trail. Met a couple hiking up. Chatted a bit. Finally got to Black Canyon Road. Keith was having shifting troubles at the turn. He dumped it good on washboard downhill going into Ramona. OUCH. A little blood here and there. Sand everywhere. Stopped at JIB in Ramona, where I pulled out a thorn. Then replaced the tube. We rode down Hwy. 78. Met the MTB'er we met earlier. Stopped at the San Pasqual Trailhead. Followed the trail back to the start. Keith dumped his Jamis a few more times in the loose sand. Tough riding a new rig. Chatted at the top of Raptor Ridge. I cut off the trail and rode home. Met up with the NCCC Century riders coming back from their ride. Around 2:30 PM. Stopped at Carl's Jr in Escondido for water. Rested a bit and rode home on the Inland Rail Trail. Got home at 4:30. Another long day.

happy trails,
kellyjay