Ursa Minor Rear-Ender, Curb Hop & Brush Fire

Ursa Minor 209km route we rode today.

We'd planned on doing Ursa Minor Permanent with rando George Retseck from Pennsylvania today. George was out in San Diego doing freelance illustration work and needed a 200km to continue his R-12 quest. I wired up the local randos for interest and Keith Olsen from Point Loma along with John Fry (San Marcos) were good to go. George sent me a last minute email indicating his work was piled up and he couldn't squeeze in the ride.

Bill Stevenson showed up at the 7-Eleven start in San Marcos. He'd ride with us over to Carlsbad and then ride home with other morning commitments. Bill is training up for his long awaited 2-week Italian cycling adventure. Keith was riding his new hi-end fixie, John his rando titanium and I on the steel Madison. Recently, Keith and I had upped our one-gear flip-flop training for longer future rides.

Shortly after 0600 we rolled out to overcast skies and temps in the high 60's. Short sleeve weather for sure. I was spinning a good warm-up with a 18T in the rear as we sped over to Del Dios Highway. Lots of traffic moving our way this morning on the way to work in San Diego land. Bill upped the pace on the rollers leaving Rancho Santa Fe town. Right on time, Mac Imacseng met up at Solana Donuts at 0715. After a short bottle reload and some chit-chat, I did a quick flip-flop to a 16T and we were off.

On the bridge pedestrian overpass shortcut, Keith picked up one of my plastic bar end plugs. Made good time chatting up thru Encinitas to Carlsbad, where Bill headed eastward toward home. Soon Mac was feeling hungry so he made his turn-around stop at the Carlsbad Starbucks. Just Keith, John & I making our way thru Oceanside.

Keith made an unannounced stop at a yellow light and me, riding just off his wheel, plowed into him. Buggered up a few right side ribs, skewed left brake lever and dropped a few things on the road. Turning car ran over a gel pack & that loose bar-end plug. After a short band-aid break, we were soon off northbound again. Bikes on I-5 are good-to-go, so we all jumped on that route instead of thru Camp Pendleton. John hadn't been along this way before and seemed to enjoy the pseudo tailwind. A brief water stop at the Rest Area and we were soon into the Las Pulgas turn. I-5 bike shoulders were clean, smooth and fast today.

A few campers out as we rolled thru San Onofre Campground and stopped at the last bathroom (#1). I tried a curb hop and didn't make it. Skewed the rear rim enough that I had to do a quick half-ass re-alignment to eliminate the rear brake rub. Wobble wheel and I joined the others up Old Hwy. 101 to San Clemente. Lite car traffic as we passed thru town and onto the protected bikeway to Doheny State Park.

When we saw this sign it meant one thing: GO CHECK IT OUT!

The last few months, San Juan River Trail  had construction detour signs at the far east end, entering San JuanCapistrano. Today we thought we might see how far we could get along the Trail. Passing around the detour signs, we did manage to get another 1/4 mile up the Trail before being blocked by active heavy equipment. Instead of following the detour signs, we backtracked and ended up at a Dana Point McDonald's for our break. Keith had his usual Kid's Meal Deal, John a gel covered sundae and I hung around sucking my ice cream cone. Had some time to pull the rear brake calipers off & packed them into my bag. No need to worry about the wobble-wheel rubbing the brake pads now.

Easy riding with a half tailwind on the way back to San Clemente. I did manage a decent climb up thru town with the aid of a Tylenol to knock the edge off those sore ribs. Made good time back to the Campground bathroom #1, where I took a few minutes to true the rear wheel a little more. We were all looking forward to the SB I-5 route today.

Not to disappoint, it was smooth and clean to the Rest Area. After which we did dodge a few bits of tire pieces. I was spinning up while sucking John's wheel as Keith was a few meters up the road. At the Harbor Drive regroup, we decided to swing by Dan's Auto Shop for a water break. He was real busy and the parking was full of Marine Corps vehicles waiting to be serviced. 10 minutes later we were back on route heading east with a nice tailwind. Keith was way out ahead as John & I were chatting away sort of enjoying the tailwind on the way toward Bonsall.

At the AM/PM, first thing I did was flip my rear wheel to 18T before refilling the bottles. A little busy there this time of day, so I got the cheapest thing going: 43 cent cookie. I stretched out as John was helping Keith flip his rear wheel. Soon we were off with tailwind riding on Camino del Rey.

Gopher Canyon fire, looking west from above Lawrence Welk Resort

We noticed a lot of fouled traffic above as we passed under I-15 and onto Old Hwy. 395. SMOKE! Large billowing clouds of white smoke ahead as we climbed southbound on 395. Traffic was snarled here, with fire trucks and police cars zipping in and out of traffic. They already closed Gopher Canyon Road and will they close 395 too? A super long detour if they do! We crept along the bank of cars watching the air tankers & helos attacking the white clouds ahead. Passing thru one smokey area, I figured it only could get better ahead. Grinding away up Champagne Blvd. counting passed cars and watching the firefighters doing their thing on the hillside to the west.

Deer Springs regroup at the top. After that smokey stuff, we were more than ready for some downhill easy riding to the finish in San Marcos. Slight headwind didn't deter us as we powered up for the final few miles. John & Keith had their R-12 for August and I had my skewed rear wheel to straighten out*. Keith offered up a Costco Ensure for recovery and I was soon off homeward bound.

Nice of Bill to show up to get in a few miles today with us. Mac is always interesting to ride with as he dreams of retiring someday and entering cycling nirvana! Weather was cloudy the entire day till we headed eastward from Oceanside. Temps were only elevated when we entered the fire/smoke area and started the Champagne Blvd. climb.

-randorides


* Wheel update: After I got home, never did get the wheel to true-up correctly as it had tweaked on the curb hit and left red paint on the tire and rim. I ended up stripping down the wheel and using the clamp-pull method to slightly straighten out the stiff aluminum rim. After a re-lace, I managed to get the wheel spinning true and did a 82 mile rando ride after. Lucked out on saving that OpenPro rim ~!