It’s been a couple weeks but I wanted to record the results of my ride for Diabetes – Tour de Cure here in San Diego. The 2009 tour used the same 71 mile route used in 2008, and since I still haven’t gotten back to where I’m riding my 40 mile weekend rides, I limited myself to the 71 mile route instead of the century (100 mile) route. The 2008 tour – well it wasn’t one of my best. It took me 5 hours and 45 minutes to complete. My average speed with my Garmin was 12.6 for the route (note the Garmin’s speed is based on time stopped at lights and rest stops… which while accurate isn’t what I want to measure, which is jsut my speed when not being penalized for stops including traffic signals) Unfortunately I didn’t capture my bike computer’s numbers last year but I recall it being pretty low. The Garmin also estimated that I burned ~4741 calories on the ride, and recorded a max heart rate of 185. (Note: the higher the max heart rate the worse baseline shape you are in.) This year my bike computer had me completing the ride with an average speed of 15 mph – which was great since I was shooting for 14.5 and would have been satisfied with anything over 14mph. As for the Garmin it said 5 hours 15 minutes to complete – a 30 minute improvement. My average speed with my Garmin was 13.7 mph – this time I actually managed to mark the time spent at rest stops – I stopped at 2 rest stops, # 4 and #5 and so I can see they accounted for 20 minutes of time, and even if I get motivated average my speed for the 3 legs of riding between them. My average speeds on the 3 legs surrounding the rest stops were 14.0, 14.4 and 15.8 respectively. Admittedly there was a nice wind blowing from the NW near the end of the ride which helped push me down the coast on that last leg (although as always I had to fight it as headwind for 7 miles down the bike path first.) By the way, the rest stops put together by the organizers are great on this ride (both years) and there is a great deal of support along the well marked route. It was also a fairly cool day, a blessing since as I recall it was hot on April 19th in 2008. Overall it was a great ride, and they had a couple bands lined up to play after the ride. The organizers learned from last year and did a much better job of spreading out the start time so people finished closer to the same time, instead of those on the long rides finishing after most of the festivities were over. Of course I’ll be back to ride again next year, and encourage everyone to join me.
One of Tim Huckaby’s favorite sayings when out mountain biking can be paraphrased; ‘If you are really pushing you’ll leave a little blood on the mountain’. The idea being that since really pushing it on a mountain bike tends to involve taking some risks and occasionally crashing… if you’ve gone all out somebody managed to crash. Pictured below is my knee after a recent ride, the question though with any such injury is how did I manage to get these gouges in my leg? 
Well at this point you are probably assuming that I was on my mountain bike, after all I haven’t laid down my road bike since I was like 13… well until Sunday that was. Yes this is the visible portion of the painful results of a road bike crash. I was training for the Tour de Cure. As part of my training every year I head out to Sleeping Indian road (in Oceanside, CA) and ride my bike up the rather brutal climb on that road. To get there my route takes me out College Ave to Old River Road and then it intersects with Sleeping Indian road. Near this intersection the Old River Road narrows briefly and a curb is added, just prior to where I need to make a left. On Sunday I was rolling along at around 18mph as I approached and needed to check behind me before moving out into the lane of traffic. As I did this I realized I had a car literally right behind me, and he caught me by surprise – at the same time my slight reaction put me into some sand on the side of the road. At that point my first thought was ‘ turn into the road to regain control’ – to which my second thought was ‘no there is a car there’. I’d like to put in a quick aside here for those who drive cars. Many times cars will stay behind us for a while. I realize sometimes its hard to find a good time to pass, but in all honesty I would rather have you get past me sooner than stay behind me so you can ‘see me’. The problem being that once you are past me you are no longer a threat to me and I can be out of your thoughts… with you behind me how I react to a sudden road hazard changes – because with a choice between hitting the ground or risking getting hit by a car – well the ground looks mighty inviting. At any rate I again corrected toward the edge of the road knowing that there was a large open dirt space on my right – but forgetting about that annoying curb. This took me from bad to worse – because the edge of my front tire contacted this rounded ‘curb’ made from blacktop. Which brought my next thought – TURN LEFT go into the road, followed as you might guess by the thought “NO!”. Which was entirely appropriate since this was just about the point that my tire finally caught hard enough to trigger the chain reaction that resulted in me separating from the bike and getting the first hand experience of just how ‘inviting’ that dirt patch on the side of the road really was. After jumping back up from being on my back with my head toward the road, and my bike remaining (not sure how I managed it) sitting on the side of the road, I faced the cards which had now stopped. Make no mistake it must have been an awesome crash to watch because no less than the first 3 cars in back of me asked me if I was OK… to which I answered yes – even though I wasn’t quite sure yet at that point. Note I ALWAYS keep my cell phone with me when I ride alone so I had been less than OK or had my bike been inoperable, I would have called home/help as required. So as with any wreck the first minute or so is just collecting the name of the ‘bus’ which just hit you and really deciding if you are OK. Then you begin the real processing of how is my bike? When I wrecked I was 11 miles into a planned 45 mile ride, and could have either turned back and headed home goal unfulfilled or pushed on to get in my climb and long ride. So I did a quick look over of my bike and sure enough within about 5 minutes I was pretty sure I was actually OK. I was amazed in some ways – my bike appeared pretty much undamaged. I did a more thorough check as I remounted and made a quick spin as I was deciding what to do. Now aside from the obvious damage - most of my impact had been on my back. One of the tricks I learned mountain biking is that when landing “Use the camel pack.” By which I mean, even on my road bike I show my slavery to ‘style’ by wearing a big ugly mountain bike camel pack to carry my water and stuff instead of a water bottle and the pockets in my jersey. The advantage appeared again, because unlike my leg which has some significant scratches the only scratches above the waist are a few minor ones on my right arm. Which is impressive because at first I wondered if I had broken my collar bone and over time it’s my right shoulder and my neck which have hurt the worst. (Another note my helmet didn’t hit the ground – another untouched item) The camel pack took most of the impact, that and I vaguely remember trying to get my right leg onto that curb – a memory driven in part my the pain in my right heel. At any rate given my experience mountain biking as I got started and things appeared to be good I decided to press onward. So I started up Sleeping Indian road. As I was climbing Sleeping Indian I noticed that my front tire seemed a bit deformed. I had tested with my brakes and didn’t seem to have a problem with the wheel at slow speeds… but on I pedaled noticing as my front wheel spun in front of me that it just didn’t look right. It kept seeming like there was an odd little bump on the left hand side of my tire – which was odd since the curb was on the right when I wrecked, below is a still picture looking down on my front wheel (taken after the ride… notice the deformation). 
While the wheel was spinning of course there was the question of what is that ‘blip’ that keeps spinning past… but the good news was I passed my test for the ride. I made it up Sleeping Indian without stopping on the climb. This is my test because back in 2003 when I bought my bike and started getting ready for my first Tour de Cure I set out on a ride that included this hill without knowing what I was getting into. I stopped about 1/3 of the way up the hill and again at about 2/3’s and of course at the top. Today like every year since I’ve climbed the hill – non-stop and as in Sunday kept on going without stopping after reaching the stop. This is a good sign for me being read for the Tour de Cure on the 18th. My next warning came on the resulting down hill. Now at speed when I pressed the front brakes to slow down I got a clicking… both a sound a a feeling. That clicking is something I’d felt before. I had it when I managed to bend a rim on my road bike. Not a subtle bend like you correct by adjusting spoke tension but a dent in the side of your wheel that is causing the brakes to hit an uneven surface. Cursing mentally because I’m picturing a need to purchase a new wheel, not a cheap fix. It also meant I had to be careful using the front brakes since they could in theory catch and send me flying (again). Once I got to the end of Sleeping Indian I pulled off for a quick break and to figure out just how bad the damage was and that deformation well it was caused by what would be some significant sidewall damage to my tire, 
You’ll also note there is a small amount of what I later determined to be negligible damage to the wheel itself, but as you can see from the next photo the tire damage wasn’t in just one spot it was pretty much the entire right side of the tire. 
So at this point, you’re probably thinking – hmm failing side wall, bleeding, shoulders and neck starting to hurt – Bill headed back. However, you just aren’t considering just how stubborn I can be. I was still only around 15 miles into the ride, so I continued on. I made some checks at 20 miles and was careful to avoid my front brakes – after all – the clicking I head wasn’t the rim, it was the deformed sidewall hitting the front brakes. Thus each time I heard that I was risking a sidewall failure as the sidewall collided with the braking mechanism. Things went well till about mile 40 when I pretty much bonked. The fact that I couldn’t really breathe deeply combined with the general soreness of my right shoulder and neck made the last 5 miles – painful. However, I survived and yesterday I put a new tire on my bike. It rained this morning so I’m waiting until Thursday to head out for another ride.
I am riding in this years San Diego Tour de Cure to help in the fight against diabetes. This years tour is on April 18th 2009 and includes a 100 mile (century) ride which I’m hoping to complete. If you have a road bike and are interested or are just plain interested in the ride you can get more information from the official site at: http://tour.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC551018030?pg=entry&fr_id=5632 Since this is a ride to benefit charity you can also help out by sponsoring me. You can send an offline donation for those uncomfortable using the online methods using the address in the link above: Offline donations can be sent to:
American Diabetes Association
Attention: Tour de Cure
225 Broadway, Ste. 1530
San Diego, CA 92101
*Please include a note that states which rider the funds should be credited to. or you can make an online donation through my personal event page is at: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/TDC551018030?px=1001265&pg=personal&fr_id=5632 Diabetes is a nasty disease and when you consider it’s linked the leading cause of blindness and amputation in the United States, is associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's, associated with increased risk of Stroke not to mention that just having diabetes is not only an increased risk of heart attack, but means you are treated as if you’ve already had your first heart attack, you hopefully can see why I support this cause.
Although apparently the author of the article isn't a big fan - kudos to President Bush for allowing local park managers to decide whether or not to allow mountain bikes within the park. Note that this doesn't automatically grant Mountain Bike access throughout the park, but rather allows the local park manager who will be familiar with where such access is appropriate (away from endangered flora and fauna) to grant such access and generally manage that portion of the park. In terms of comparison to something motorized, mountain bikes are significantly lower impact (many of the damages associated with bikers are found with hikers - the only one that would really be different imho is erosion impact)
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/27183753/wid/18298287/?GT1=45002
So it's a new year... and time to get working on getting back on my bike again. I managed some riding this past year which was good - but not nearly as much as I'd hoped. I've fallen about 2,400 miles off my target annual mileage... oh well, hopefully I'll hit or exceed my target this year - although in all honesty I think it'll be difficult to hit my target again this year.
On the plus side my light is working again, I was unable to ride to and from work for most of Dec. because when I pulled out my light it stopped working. I have a very nice Flamethrower from NiteRider (www.niterider.com). (The flamethrower was the 1st generation the current generation is the Flight: http://www.niterider.com/prod_flight.shtml) This light puts out more light then most car headlights - which is good because when I'm riding at night I want to be seen and this isn't a headlight that you can miss. Unfortunately on my first ride home this winter; when I fired it up - the LEDs powered up but each time I tried to get my main light to start it failed. I made it home, after all the 3 LED's do provide minimal light - but not an acceptable situation.
So I used the NiteRider website and gave them a call. Their service was well coordinated and they gave me a Return Maintenance Authorization (RMA) number to track my repair. So I sent them my light, at the height of the Christmas season... A couple days after FedEx showed my package had been delivered I gave them a call to check on the status. Note I didn't send them my battery because they charge $20 for each returned item (light, battery) and since my LED's worked, my taillight worked and my light was trying to fire up I felt the battery was solid. When I spoke to the maintenance rep he mentioned he was preparing to call me... the problem was a bad ballast and the light had been given some free maintenance beyond the ballast. So I paid for the light's bench test and parts.
I got it back a few days later and set up a test at home (no sense repeating my last ride). Well I fired up the light - and same results. Now I have no doubt that they tested my light before shipping it back to me so I called them back. Of note I didn't start screaming or looking to kill the phone guy, I just said hey - got my light but it still doesn't work. We talked a few minutes and we agreed I would send my light and battery back and they would waive the bench fee on the battery as long as it checked out (we all knew it would) and (still in the Christmas season) they put a rush on the work order.
A few days later I got my light and battery back - no charges, apparently something else related to the starter in the light or the light itself had failed (probably took a hit in shipping) and they had repaired my light and gotten it back to me in a matter of days. Overall although it did take two trips (for the FedEx guy) they did a great job getting my light back online (although I was on vacation by then).
Today I hooked up the light and rode into work - yes I had tested it previously. The goal is to get to ride in 3 days a week, and I'd ride tomorrow but it looks like the rain really will arrive tomorrow so I'll wait till next week to ride in again, but my thanks to the folks at NiteRider who did a great job with my light's repair and now I just need to get in a couple thousand miles...
So I'm sitting there watching the tour again this evening (- yes "Nerd" is in the blog's title...) trying to catch the key words that I couldn't remember for the Fly to the Finish game that Versus, Bicycling, and Saab are hosting.
Up comes Bob Roll's (http://www.bobroll.com/) question of the night which essentially is: Will there ever be a Tour of America? As is noted on the show, while there are well supported tours of both Georgia and California - there isn't one of the entire US.
Now I'm going to paraphrase Bob here but his answer was "Yes when we run out of gas. Until then America has Nascar."... Cycling Motivation and Nascar - However, I like your answer Bob, and I have to agree...
BTW - It was a brutal day on Le Tour - not so much because the course was brutal but because two of the overall (vs. sprint, climbing etc.) favorites, both from team Astana, had major crashes. The first to Kloden didn't seem major but reports are he may have broken his coccyx (last bone in your spine) the second to Vinokourov looked brutal and left him with a truly nasty road rash but apparently he's also in the hospital being checked for broken bones. Note both men finished today - but the ride by Vino after his crash to pull within 1 minute 20 seconds was inspired - let's just say that both men showed more heart in 'playing' hurt then most US professional athletes (I know if my right hip as much like raw hamburger as Vino's; I'd be on my way to the hospital - not riding up a mountain at 20+ mph.)
Every now and then it happens – you flat. More frequently on a road bike then a mountain bike, but it happens to both at some point. After a flat, should you patch the tube or throw it away?
As for preparation for the inevitable, well you should always carry two New tubes as spares. You should also have a ‘patch kit’ or more appropriately some ready to use preglued patches. These are in case you flat more than twice – yes I personally have flatted 3 times on more than one occasion on my road bike (although in one case I borrowed a tube from someone else rather than patch).
When you do flat you should always take your punctured tube with your or dispose properly of it.
Thus my first rule is after clearing my tire from any debris which is poking through the tire causing the flat is to use a new tube. Note that I specified “New” tubes earlier. Your spare tubes should never have been previously patched. If you are using a patched tube and you flat 300yds down the road you don’t know if your patch failed or if you left debris in the tire – with a new tube you can be confident that you didn’t clear the tire correctly (and apply the appropriate expletives while changing your tire AGAIN).
Once you get back to base/home you have a damaged tube in your pocket (or are you just happy to see me  Which brings me back to the question of should you trash or patch it?
Well my preference is to patch once. Only once, because each patch introduces another potential point of failure and so I limit myself to one patch on a given tube.
Having said that for what to do when riding where does patching fit in and why? Well the fact is that a patch introduces a new point of failure in your tire. No not the ability of the patch itself to withstand pressure, but the glue holding the patch down. Applying the patch on the road is risky because depending on your skill a large number of patches aren’t applied correctly to start with not to mention on the road it’s harder to tell if you’ve gotten the hole(s). That's why you carry two spares since
Thus for me the rule of patching is: to patch a tube and place it back on the bike at home. It doesn’t matter whether I’m swapping that good tube back out to be a spare again or if I’m replacing a worn tire with a new one. Along with this the goal is to patch in the evening allow the patch to hold overnight (showing it was a good patch) and then do a short ride and finally leave the patch in the sun/heat. I bring this up because I’ve repeatedly had new patches which seemed to hold, even to support me during a short ride to suddenly fail when my bike was parked in the sun. In some cases with more traditional patches I was able to re-inflate the tire and in the process the patch had gotten a better seal – in other cases especially with a self adhering patch, the patch was dead.
Thus I am willing to patch a tube for reuse locally and allow it to prove itself. However, I wouldn’t patch or install a patched tube if I was preparing a new tire for use as part of a long ride or an important ride where I didn’t want to risk a failed patch flat.
It's been a while since I posted.... I have several items to comment on but I've been on vacation and more focused on setting up some updates related to the blog vs. adding content. So I wanted to quickly comment on the Tour de France (http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/LIVE/us/200/index.html). It started Saturday and one of (in my opinion) the advantages of living on the West Coast is that the live broadcast runs from ~5:30 AM till ~8:30 AM daily (http://www.versus.com/tdf/article/view/758/?ss=tv&tf=Body.tpl). The result is I can wake up around 6 tune in the tour and see the results of that days stage before starting my day.
The tour itself is great motivation to get out and ride. Watching these guys do 100+ miles a day for 3 weeks is inspiring. I had a great Mountain Bike ride last week I'll talk about in a later post but there is nothing like a morning or afternoon out on the roadie. This morning's race (stage 2) also brought home how the Tour is like a more environmentally friendly version of Nascar. (note I'm not claiming the tour IS environmentally friendly - as you watch riders toss plastic bottles to the side of the road and consider the chase vehicles etc... )
- both involve a "man" piloting a machine (Nascar has women drivers)
- both races are on a paved (or other road) surface
- both involve corporate sponsors with their name on every available surface
- both are more exciting (to the average TV viewer) when there is a pile-up/wreck (http://community.active.com/blogs/MartinDugard/2007/07/09/a-lot-of-tension)
- both seemingly individual sports have a team aspect that changes the underlying dynamics
- both have issues with particpants 'juicing' there 'engine' - the body (steriods) in cycling, the car and it's combustion engine in Nascar
- both have fans that line the course drinking copius amounts of adult beverages
Now obviously there are differences for example the Tour's course takes you through most of France over the course of a month with beautiful scenary and Nascar uses loops and only races on weekends; but in general aside from the fact that the Tour doesn't burn copius amounts of fuel to power it's vehicles the dynamics of the event are somewhat the same. There are of course many more intracacies to the Tour (and bicycle racing in general) than (in my opinion) to Nascar but that's beyond the scope of this musing. Oh and just like in Taledega Nights - if you aren't first, you're last.
The ride was yesterday. Thankfully it was a beautiful day in the low 70's. The ride left from Cuyamaca College. It took me till a little after 12, with 3 rest stops, 1 stop to aid another cyclist and later a flat tire of my own. Overall my average speed was 13.1 mph which was passable. I was once again able to show the value of riding a triple (haven't tried one of the new compact doubles). To put it in comparison my 13.1 average speed was .8 mph slower then I did in 2005, when it was in the 90's and there were issues with heat. But that takes care of next year and next year (unless they move the location) I'll just have to do better.
BTW, the best part of the ride actually came after I finished. I ran into someone who I had suggested try out the ride. He had done the 30 mile route and had a great time.
Since this afternoon has become blog update I thought I'd relate and record a few note from my biking ride this weekend. After a mountain bike ride on Thursday with Kevin, Friday was Roadie to and from work with a couple extra miles on the way home. Then Saturday it was time to return to the scene of the crime.
When I first got my road bike I also got a free biking mag, one of those which sits near the door of your local bike shop for free. In it was a route through North San Diego County that took you from Oceanside into Fallbrook and back. Since I didn't know where else to ride and was training for the Tour de Cure of 42 miles I decided to try out this 32 mile ride. Well it kicked my butt - it went up this little road called Sleeping Indian. Let's just say that in terms of climbs this road should be renamed Ambush Indian because after you make it to the top you want to know if someone got the name of the Indian who just kicked your butt. When I first started riding I couldn't make it up this climb with out stopping (two stops the first couple times, then I got it down to one until I finally made it.)
Most everyone familiar with riding in North San Diego County is familiar with the Torrey Pines climb along the coast. To compare - riding the coast the climb up the outer (shore side which is steeper) of Torrey Pines is 331 Feet of elevation gain spread across 8/10ths of a mile. This is considered one of the more difficult climbs in the county for a recreational rider. Sleeping Indian has a section within it which involves 330 Feet of elevation gain spread across 7/10ths of a mile, a steeper climb for what is essentially the same elevation gain. More importantly however, that is only part of the Sleeping Indian climb, overall Sleeping Indian climbs to the base of that steep section and has additional climbing after that section which brings your total elevation gain to somewhere in excess of 750 Feet.
So back to my Saturday route. After I first rode that original route a couple times, and got a second rider for a few rides we found a problem in that route required riding along the Rt. 76 Highway. Not the safest of trips we eventually stopped riding this route. Fortunately however, as my cycling experience continued I learned other routes and have been able to work in a route which takes me from home up this climb and back without needing to ride along the shoulder of a two lane highway. Thus Sleeping Indian is my fitness test, and so I headed out to put myself to the test.
The good news is I made it up without needing to stop - the bad news is that it was way closer then it should have been. It's one of those things where had it not been a cool day with a nice breeze I probably would have needed to stop. My heart rate was pounding up at 180 bpm and I was struggling forward at a full 3.6 mph. It wasn't pretty but now I know that I can make it through the upcoming Tour de Cure ride and how much further I have to go in getting back into shape. Overall I did the ~33 miles in just under 2 and a half hours riding time or 2 and three-quarters elapsed time with an average speed of 13.8 mph. The route includes over 3,300 feet of elevation gain over the course of the 33 miles, since Sleeping Indian isn't the only large climb on the route. Other noteworthy items from the ride include the fact that I hit 40+ mph on three different downhill sections and had a max speed of 44.9 mph.
This weekend I'm hoping to go more for distance and looking to head down the coast to Torrey Pines and return. It'll probably be 40+ miles with maybe 2,500 feet of elevation gain...
So with the arrival of Billy, my operation and work related activities to close out the second half of last year my biking has been almost non-existant. While I normally like to get around 2000 miles a year in, last year I got in ~700 - which is sad and not healthy. So it's time to start getting serious for this year, got my bike tuned up and a new chain and brake pads. I'm finishing up my work for Professional VB.NET 3.0 any day now and am starting to ride to and from work (a mere 8 miles each way). Of course as part of getting serious again there is that little concept of goals and I have mine. For starters although I took off last year for the birth of my son, I'll be back at the American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure ride.
Consider this an open invite to join me on either this ride or the Encinitas ride I describe below it.
The San Diego Tour de Cure is May 12th this year, leaving from Cuyamaca College in East San Diego County. This ride is 10, 20, 30, 42 or 64 miles depending on the route you select. The longer 42 and 64 mile, routes involves some significant climbing up into the hills of East San Diego County. I'll be doing the metric century (64 miles ~100Kilometers) version of the ride again. It is a fund raising ride for the American Diabetes Association and my fund raising site is here: Click here to visit my Tour de Cure page.
for more information about the San Diego event you can go here: http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR?pg=entry&fr_id=4403
Back when I was first diagnosed with diabetes this ride was the both the reason I bought a road bike (in addition to my mountain bike) and the reason I upgraded that bike to have a triple front chain ring. As described on their site the ride is challenging. Given that I've regressed almost to the point where I was when I bought my bike I have my work cut out for me getting ready for this years ride.
In addition to that ride, this will be the inagural year for another ride here in San Diego County. The Encinitas Sports and Fitness Festival is launching a San Diego Century ride. The even has three ride lengths: 35, 72 and 105 miles that go through a portion of North San Diego County. This ride is scheduled for May 19th of this year and is a fund raiser for the Challenged Athletes Association.
More information on the event is here: http://www.encinitasrace.com/sdc/
The cost for the century ride is $50 on Active.com but I haven't decided if I want to take on the century ride for this event. I've done century rides in the past, and even difficult rides as this one looks to be. However the route that has been posted concerns me. Specifically it looks like you put in about 60 miles on a hilly course and then need to climb up into Ramona from just south of Poway. Thus the major climb occurs three/fifths of the way into the ride which is a challenge. Worse however is that this will probably hit between 11AM and 1PM for me (depending on start time and speed) and that means at the height of the day climbing during the heat of the day. I have to see if I am really willing to take this on so I'm going to hold off registering for this ride.
Bill finishing the Tour de Poway century ride....
As for Fall - well I'll be looking for another century ride - Poway at a minimum hopefully, but more importantly I'll be looking to climb Palomar Mountain again. I want to once again make it up without needing to stop during the 12 mile climb.
Feel free to join me for a ride.
One of the IK team's favorite riding areas 'Flightline' is now set to be closed to Mountain Bikers. Over the past few years I've blogged about our many adventures in Flightline - everything from timing our circuit to Kevin's near miraculous dive into the stream when he fell from one of the bridges.
Over time I talked about how we lost a big portion of Flightline to a new road extension and new houses. Well apparently part of the deal for getting permission to develop such a large section of Flightline was to ensure no one could get to the remainder in the future. Of course this has left many people upset so they've started a campaign to try and save Flightline's current status as a local area where people can get out into the undeveloped areas. The web site and a petition are available here:
For those who were out with us Thursday sorry in the delay in this post. Tim M., Kevin, Matthew and I rode through Calavera after work on Thursday. But the big news is that we ran into not one but two Rattlesnakes on the ride.
The first one was on the spine. Kevin and I rode past it, but Tim M. who was doing some 'pushing' on his bike heard it rattling and as you can see it was coiled... so he quickly got out of the way.
The rattlesnake is that dark brown blob you see slightly above center in the image above. This was the closer of my two photos, but of course the thing is, in this case you don't get close to the snake because you are dealing with the business end. Thus while I held my phone out and pointed I wasn't getting within 10 feet. We had to pull Tim M's bike away from the area since as you can see in the image below the trail is litterally alongside where the snake was.
This is most of the way up on the spine and by the time Kevin and I reached this point the blood was pounding in our ears and we were pedalling hard to keep moving through the obstacles. Plus Tim M was at least 25 seconds behind me and so the snake just hadn't gotten there yet (that's our story and we're sticking to it
The second rattler was found by Kevin while the rest of us were looking at rattler #1. This was up past the top of the Spine off on a closed trail. Kevin decided to explore that trail and ran into the friend below. You'll note this image is a little better, that's because I was willing to work with the rattle end of the snake as opposed to the business end and get a little (but not much) closer.
Now believe it or not these are the first rattlers we've seen this year. On the other hand it does make me 4 for 4, that is 4 years mountain biking and 4 years of running into at least one snake every year...
Kevin, Ron and I headed out for a Sunday morning Mountain bike ride. For a change we decided to meet for a ride on the North Shore of Lake Hodges. We met at the Park and Ride as suggested by Moutain Bike Bill (http://www.mountainbikebill.com/LakeHodgesNorth.htm) We headed out and after a couple passes around some beginner single track headed around to the climb up Bernardo Mountain. Bernardo Mountain's elevation is 1,119 feet - not epic and the starting elevation for the climb is somewhere between 500 and 600 feet. However the climb is challenging - more so then most anything in Calavera or Flightline.
The image above shows Kevin finishing the climb up to what Bill refers to on his map as Point E. Overall to this point the climb is challenging but very manageable. While we all put a foot down a time or two and had a at least one blow on the way to the spot to keep together as a group it was not above our abilities. We took a couple quick photo's from this vantage:
Looking East
Kevin and Ron - Part Way Southern View
Bill Part Way - East North East View
From here we continued up, but the trail definitely gets more technical. Mountain Bike Bill has a picture of the rocky portion of the trail which comes immediately after this point. However, I feel the real challenge was further on where the trail paralleled the fence for a water tank. This portion bordered on unridable and all three of us took it on foot. Above that there were some technical portions, but once again the climb was ridable. We made it to the top and added our names to the log book. If you do make it up to the peak you'll find the log book in plastic bags on top of the rocks. The views from the top are terrific as shown (even with the poor resolution of my phone's camera)
View East over I-15:
View to the West
Bill & Ron Northern View
Kevin at the top East View
Other then a great ride there were no major wipe outs and not much blood left on the Mountain.
The title of today's post refers to "Amazing", and there is a reason for this. A while back I took some photos of some of the areas that we ride in Flightline. For those not familiar with the area Lake Calavera is located near Canon and El Camino Real and Flightline our other riding area is located somewhat to the south near Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real. Calavera is mainly open space and the trails while technical are moderate in difficulty. Flightline on the other hand has several trails which can only be described as difficult and in fact bordering on impossible. Today we departed the skateboard park parking lot for a ride through flightline. Mike headed us (Ryan, Tim, Kevin, Adam and I) through a brutal set of paths. In fact the ride practically ran a couple people in the ground.
Near the end of the ride Mike headed us down toward the cross over between Calavera and Flightline. It is possible to transition between these two areas, although we normally go from Calavera to Flightline. Below is a shot of the main technical portion of the crossing. It's the drop to, and bridge over, the first of the two streams as you cross as you make this transition from Flightline.
Now the angle of this shot may not truly give you the real picture of just how steep this downward incline is nor how high that bridge is. Suffice it to say that bridge can be walked under with significant head room. Some people such as Tim will ride this and in fact Mike who was leading, rode down this today. Behind Mike, Ryan showed that he has some good judgement in that he walked down the steep section here and across the bridge. Behind Ryan was Kevin and behind Kevin were Tim and I. As Ryan was getting across, Kevin (on his new bike) decided to go for it. and started heading down, Tim and I were essentially in the location from which I had taken the picture above on a previous ride.
Kevin made it down the first set of ladder-like boards (in place to prevent erosion and for traction when people try to climb this) and made the slight right onto the second ladder and just as he neared the bottom of that ladder (moving slowly) he dropped his front wheel off the ladder. This wasn't a big drop maybe 1-2 inches but his front wheel was up against the ridge and as he tried to stop (from what I could tell) his rear wheel which was 4 feet higher up came off the left side (stream side) of the ladder and that was a big drop.
As his rear wheel drops off the ladder Kevin loses it completely and falls to the left side with both he and the bike disappearing into the creek below. The other four of us basically watched in horror as Kevin fell between 10 and 15 feet ( three and a half to five and a half meters) into the stream.
At this point we were all thinking about how we would carry him out and where Life Flight was going to land in order to rush his body to the hospital. Fortunately for Kevin, he missed the obstacles near the edge of the stream as he fell, and managed to go down ahead of his bike. He hit the stream more or less sideways with his bike coming in more or less on top of him. For about 2 seconds he was face down in the stream as the rest of us started to scramble - like I said we were trying to figure out what it was going to take to get assistance; as Kevin stood up and managed to get his bike off of himself.
The portion of the stream he hit was more or less rock free (that might be the old rocks under the bridge) and after his fall Kevin had only a scuffed knee, a slightly cut hand and a lot of basic soreness. However, he somehow didn't crack open his skull, break any vertebrae or his legs.
Which is what makes this wipe out 'amazing'. Fact is Kevin shouldn't have walked away from this one, to say he was lucky is an understatement. Once we had all been assured that he was OK, Kevin took a moment to step back into the creek so I could take a shot of him down in the creek for perspective.
As you can see the bridge is taller then Kevin. Note that the bridge also has a slight incline and that kevin fell from the steep section just beyond the bridge over the top of that 4x4 beam you see below.
We've all had our wipe outs, me over the handle bars to many times to count, Adam over the handlebars and most memorably losing it during a 5 foot drop and winding up landing on his head. We've had Tim tear open his leg and require a trip to the hospital. This wipe out was "amazing" because Kevin wasn't seriously injured. So remember always try to calculate the price of failure into your attempt in this case Kevin was lucky in that he didn't pay a heavy price - me I'll keep walking on those sections where the price of failure is too high...
I haven't mentioned much biking this year. In all honesty, I haven't got much in on my road bike for two reasons. The first is that I've been limited with preparations for the Version 5.0 delivery that have cut back on my Saturday rides and just generally with teaching etc. I've been too busy and or unable to ride to work. With V5.0 delivery due by May 5th that will resolve itself, in fact I have a couple weeks of vacation coming after delivery so that should help.
The second big reason is I've been getting more riders at work out on mountain bikes. We've gone from a group of 3 regurlar riders (Tim, Adam and I) to a group of 5 regular riders with a few others either waiting in the wings or claiming they'll be joining us 'someday'. So I've been doing more Mtn. bike rides and getting some people started. This continued this past Thursday when I had two potential new riders who were going to head out into the area around Lake Calaveras with me. (This is out in Carlsbad and basically we head in from the farm side at the intersection of Canon and College heading North on the Farm road then turning East.)
Unfortunately both ended up cancelling at the last minute so I ended up heading out on my own. Rather then just doing a regular ride I figured I'd do some exploring so I headed up a fire road I've been meaning to check out for it's beginner ride potential. (It could work, but I think it would be too much for most beginners...) Basically following the normal route to the base of the spine but from there I headed up the fire road instead of up the single track we call the spine.
The fireroad eventually heads up on the area you see in the picture above. There is a trail (not quite visible with my phone's lousy resolution) about 2/3's of the way up the fire road heading to the South or going right as you are looking at that picture. I followed that trail around to just above what we call the 'Office'. The office is located above and slightly right of center near the peak of the hill shown in the picture below.
From there I headed back to the large white building seen in the first picture and came back down the fire road to the trail you can just see in the bottom of the first picture heading to the left of the fireroad and off the bottom of the image. This took back in above the lake and I came around in the reverse direction on our 'regular' route through Calavera. When I got to the base of the peak (top of the spine) instead of heading down and out I went up to the top of the main peak. That's where I took my photo's from including the next one looking down on the lake and a portion of our normal beginner route across the burm.
As you can see this is just above the old strip mine / quarry site that is cut out of the main peak. Down along the portion of the lake you can see, is the burm which makes the lake and that is part of our normal beginner route... above that you can just make out a short portion of our regular route that is above the spine. At any rate it was a beautiful day for a ride. I also got out on Saturday for a brief ride in Flightline but that's another post.
With the loss of easy access to Flight Line we've resorted to our older route through Calavera. So this morning at 6:30 we did about an hour on the basic loop through the trails of Calavera. Eventually we'll look at tracking a time, but the thing with our Calavera route is that we tend to stop at the route's high point. The view is spectacular, the picture below doesn't nearly do it justice... to put it in perspective about 10 degrees to the right of the power plant was a large white container ship that was visible from the point we call the office - but which just can't be seen in the low quality camera phone picture.... 
I've been remiss on my bike updates and wanted to get a quick one in for a few pending items:
First off I'm proud that I managed to meet my mileage goal for the year. The odometer on my bike turned past 5850 this morning meaning I have my 2000 miles for this year. So my new goal between now and year end is to get past 6,000 miles so I can say that I've averaged 2000 miles a year since getting my road bike.
Secondly I wanted to record for posterity (my benefit) my times to work in the morning so I can have a long term record and appropriate expectations. Riding down the coast my goal on reaching the office is to have an average speed of 17.5 mph. My last 4 rides were:
- 17.6 mph for a riding time of 28 minutes 20 seconds
- 17.8 mph for a riding time of 28 minutes 12 seconds
- 18.2 mph for a riding time of 27 minutes 22 seconds
- 17.6 mph for a riding time of 28 minutes 22 seconds
Note I've been measuring speed to the start of the office lot and then I don't pick up the time until after I park my bike so there is a little slop on the time side.
Next up I wanted to mention the loss of our typical entrance to the flightline area. We've seen the construction crew dig like a 30 foot hole on our old path. Fortunately the anonymous trail guy has been at work. There is a new entrance that allows access to the trails we've been riding. It's back by the skate park and is too steep to ride up and to be honest I'll be concerned about riding down it.... but it is there.
Anonymous trail guy has also put in a bridge for the crossing from Calavera to Flightline so transistioning between the two areas is much easier. Anonymous trail guy does some amazing work if you ever get a chance to see that bridge on this crossing (or if I manage to remember to post a picture).
Today Tim, Adam, Mike and I headed out for a ride. We left from Tim's house just after first light and headed out into the Lake Calavera area. We were headed over to the area we call Flightline (in the flight-path of Palomar Airport) and were headed up an access road on one of the farms out near Calavera. This particular property has a lake up above the road and for some reason this year there is alot of ground water seeping out.
Well Mike had gotten a little ahead on the climb (because of an earlier mud patch that stopped Tim and I) when he hit the next mud patch. Mike ran into a challenge and needed to put a foot down because the combination of climbing and mud meant he had stopped moving forward when this happened:
Yep, Mike's leg sank down past his knee in mud. The picture above shows Tim headed up to help pull Mike out. It's one of those classic moments that happens out on the trails. The result was we all walked carefully through this section and afterwards I got this shot of Mike's leg covered in mud:
Fortunately Mike wasn't hurt, although I'm sure it wasn't the most pleasant experience moving forward for the remaining hour plus of riding. Just had to post this one since it's the first time we've ever managed to see it occur and of course how often will you sink past your knee in mud in Southern California before the start of rainy season? And yes that is the nice sticky mud that just doesn't want to wash off even in a stream (like the one at the crossing from Calavera to Flightline.
The remaining question is did Mike just happen to step where a horse sank about two weeks earlier? The reason I ask is that a week prior Adam and I came upon a couple horse riders who mentioned that they were avoiding the farm side of Calavera because the mud from some ground water made it so their horse sank up to it's knee the week before (two weeks back total). Seems possible that Mike found the same spot the horse tried and since the horse had already loosened up a spot Mike was able to go right down in the same spot.
Of note however, I didn't think to take a picture of the new trail created to help cross between Calavera farms and Flightline. There is an amazing new bridge over the second part of the stream and someone has cut the hillside to make a new scary but amazing trail.
Just as with a car, your bike (or in this case mine) requires routine maintaince. Over time routine maintenance (keeping your chain clean and lubed) stops being enough. My Mountain bike recently reached this point. It started when the mechnanism in my rear hub started to not spin freely. I needed a new rear wheel. Unfortunately the first mechanic I took my bike to told me my problems weren't significant and all I needed to do was repair a broken spoke... On my next ride out my rear wheel truly died - when I tried to pedal under stress the hub's inner workings were stripped and I went no where.
Well I spoke with the mechanic again and he said yep - you need a new rear wheel, plus my chain was worn as were both my front and rear chain rings. I was going to need a new wheel and a new crankset - which he would have sold me, but I passed. After all we're talking about a bike that cost me less than $400. I searched for and found a good deal, getting a new pair of wheels (that are disc brake compatible - as is my frame) for about $50 (sales aligned and I got about 75% off the retail from this one store). So I learned to disassemble my rear chain rings from the wheel and transitioned the wheel on my own, allowing me to continue - at least for one ride.
On that ride I snapped my chain - not the first time I've done this. Replacing the remainder of my drivetrain started when I snapped my chain. When I put a new chain on the bike I immediately started suffering from what is known as "Chain Suck". Chain suck is characterized by your chain remaining on your front chain ring as you pedal, so instead of it coming free at the bottom of your chain ring and feeding to the back wheel, the chain rides back up and runs into itself coming onto the top of the chain ring. This stops your pedalling. Chain suck normally occurs on your small front chain ring and accordingly mostly strikes when you are trying to climb. It's a significant problem and since it started on my first ride with my new chain it meant I needed more work.
Recognizing that the problem was that my front chain rings were just too worn, I set out to replace them. Did I need to purchase a whole new front crankset for like $200+? No.
Fortunately I realized I didn't need to spend $200+ on a new crankset and instead could replace only the chain rings keeping my front cranks. So instead of paying $200 for a new front crankset I paid $18 for a small chain ring and about $32 for a medium (middle) chain ring. Throw in a new rear cassette for good measure at $40 and you are talking about rebuilding the key elements of my drive train from about $100 instead of $250 + labor.
So how worn were my components well here are some photos to compare the rings first up my old small front chain ring, then the reassemble crankset with small and medium rings and then the old medium chain ring:
Can you spot how warn my chain ring teeth were. As you can tell I've been pushing my bike pretty hard and it shows on those rings. I also replace my rear cassette and here is the reverse angle of my old and new rear cassette, again note how worn the old teeth are:
even though it's clean, you can see how worn the teeth are and how uneven the curves are in the old cassette above vs. the cassette below:
So all told I put in about $150 to rebuild the majority of the drive train elements on my bike. Doing the work myself saved literally hundreds more in maintenance charges considering the going rate for a simple tune up in Southern California is $50. The result my bike is once again operational and although I'm still hoping to one day pull down a beautiful full suspension bike (like everyone I ride with) for now my hard-tail is trail ready and I can continue to enjoy views like this one from the top of 2N71. 
I've been meaning to post an update and it's finally time to forece one out here. Sunday October 2nd was the Tour de Poway and I mentioned in an earlier post I would be riding the full Century route. The route was 105 miles and fortunately it was a cool day. The picture below is me crossing the 101 mile mark. The route covered 105 miles total and with a 7AM start it took me till 2:30 to finish. Nothing real impressive in that mark, but then my goal was simply to complete in under 8hrs, so I'm satisfied. My only mechanical on the ride had to do with my handlebar tape that I messed up at the start of the ride.
I haven't posted on my road riding of late. I'm still trying to get out every Saturday (and in fact succeeded on the past two consecutive Saturdays) with the North County Cycle Club. Including today's ride my current mileage is 5525 which puts me at just under 1,700 for the year and which means I'm only about 325 short of my goal for the year. The current plan is to make my next ride the new Tour de Poway century ride. Last year I did the metric century which was 63 miles, so this year they've introduced a new century route that I'm going to take. Of course my longest rate thus far this year has been like 60 miles so going for a full 100 is a challenge. On the good side the worst of the elevation is at the start of the ride, on the bad side my mapping software doesn't include one of the new road extensions nor the bike path so there is no way to tell how accurate the elevation profile between mile 80 and the 3rd stop are in the image below.
At any rate my bigger concern is distance since I haven't really got the miles, and I'll be out of town most of the coming week with my plane not landing till close to midnight the night before the ride. But sometimes you just have to go for it... Of course if this goes well I think I may have to try for one more century before year end - probably a Tour de Cure ride up in Riverside but we'll see how this goes first.
So I was up in Big Bear again this past weekend, and it's 'Old Miner Days' right now. Thus the town of Fawnskin was having a Doo Dah parade so when I went for my ride I headed out through town initially so I wouldn't be trying to return in the midst of the parade. So after I headed up 3N14 to 3N12 I got a real treat there crossing the fire road was a beautiful coyote. It was definitely an adult and looked healthy, he calmly finished crossing the road and when I got up to where he crossed I could see him over in the trees looking back at me. He then headed off before it dawned on me to take his picture (sometimes I'm pretty clueless...). That in and of itself meant I was having a good ride.
I then headed up 3N12 and down to 3N16, across 3N16 and ran into 3N10. 3N10 is a trail I haven't ridden before so I decided to head off on that trail. It starts a a pretty straight forward ride for about the first mile or so. A little uphill but nothing major. Then it intersects 3N43, this is where there is a sign I've never seen before.
As you can see the Jim Bull trail has a sign that indicates that it is triple black diamond. Now to be honest I didn't even realize that the US Forrest Service rated trails. But since I was out exploring I figured what the heck let's go for it. Wow. This is a challenging trail. There are some areas that are quite passable, and there is alot of climbing (since the elevation peaks a little over 8,000 feet). However, the real challenge are the rocks which in some places overcome the entire road. Below is a camera phone picture of a jeep coming down one of these truly nasty sections.
On the plus side though you get some great views as you head up. Note, when coming from 3N16 the best views are on the way up shortly after the flats, here is one shot out onto the high desert.
However, on this day my adventure wasn't quite done... As I crested this trail I found myself facing an afternoon thunderstorm. The clouds in the picture below tell part of the story. Yes for my trip back down the rains began. I would like to point out that although it was a good 80 degrees fahrenheit when I set out on my ride, the rain was very cold. It could easily have been hail, although I'm thankful it wasn't.
So I headed downhill post haste eventually intersecting with 3N32 which took me back down to 3N07 using some trails that aren't on my map (as long as I was headed down I was headed the right way). This of course brought me back to 3N16 which took me to Polique Canyon Road (2N09) that I could use to head back. The good news was that by the time I got back to 3N16 the rain had stopped. The Jim Bull trail is very difficult, and while th view is impressive I can get much the same view off 3N16 which runs up above Baldwin lake. So I'll probably not be riding this trail again for now - I have other challenges, but if someone wants a challenge, I'm up for most any trail.
Those that know me are aware that while I ride my road bike near my home on the coast I regularly get up to the Fawnskin/Big Bear area to ride my Mountain bike. For those who aren’t familiar with the area Fawnskin lies on the North Shore of Big Bear Lake. Unlike my roadie which I ride for miles, my Mtn bike is a pure adventure tool. So I don’t count the miles I ride on it toward my roadie goals whether I’m doing about an hour with my coworkers in the Flightline area or out for an adventure up in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Note with my coworkers the normal ride is about 5 miles and we do it in around 50-75 minutes. It’s a loop with some steep but by definition relatively short climbs. The ride is all single track and rather technical. On the other hand up in Big Bear the rides tend to be long climbs (1-3 miles generally ascending) for literally a thousand or more feet and then the accompanying downhill. A good example is my original ride up Polique Canyon Rd. to 2N71 across to 3N12 down to 3N14 and into Fawnskin. The ride is about 10 miles and the first 5 miles climb from the lake elevation of 6900 feet to an elevation of ~8000 feet, followed by an equal down hill back to town.
This past 4th of July holiday weekend I decided to explore a new route. I’ve been taking a more challenging route that takes me up Polique Canyon (2N09) and then across Holcomb Valley (3N16) to 3N12 which brings me back to 3N14 just south of the YMCA camp so I descend down into Fawnskin. This has a massive 2.5 mile climb up 2N09 followed by a very tough climb up 3N12 (before it descends). Overall the goal, since these roads aren’t very technical (rocks and difficult handling) is to ‘keep it on the middle ring’ and when I’m fresh I can do just that. So this weekend it was time for a new challenge.
I had already gone to the east on 3N16 out toward Baldwin Lake, so I wanted to go west. What I saw on my map indicated that I could continue a short distance past 3N12 and hit 3N08 and that it would take me around to 3N14 down below the Hanna Flat campground area. So this was my new route. The first 4 miles took me to the top of 2N09. The next 4 miles took me down into Holcomb Valley, across to 3N08 and started me along 3N08. These 4 miles were mostly rolling hills and some sand, nothing too difficult. Then I got into 3N08.
3N08 is the first fire road that I would classify as 'difficult'. Now over the course of 3N08 (heading West) you are loosing elevation, but it isn't a downhill ride. In fact there is a lot of climbing and a lot of it up steep inclines. Areas that definitely call for the granny (little) front chain ring and your lowest gears. The down hills are very steep and ugly with lots of rocks. This is a tough downhill and I know I’m not ready to head up this road yet.
A word of warning however, the first time I road this I started to doubt my map. After all fire roads are exactly well documented and the map I use sometimes has minor errors. As you ride along you have a beautiful view of a river valley and on the other side are the mountains between you and Fawnskin/Big Bear. Now of course along the way my thought was "uh-oh I'm on the wrong mountains! When do I go across (there aren’t many suspension bridges in the forest)? Where am I really going?". My concern was if the map was wrong I was headed to Green Valley Lake and was going to be calling home for a ride back. Of course, by the time it became an issue I was past what I considered to be the point of no return so I continued forward. The net is the next 4 miles down 3N08 go on forever and you are literally out in the middle of nowhere, but you can’t miss 3N14, because this part of 3N08 dead-ends into this much larger fire road. At the same time 3N08 is very technical to the point that there is one downhill section that I walk because of the jutting rocks that could cause major bodily injury.
Once to the 'bottom' of 3N08 you hit 3N14 right in the river valley. This gives you a long 2 mile climb up 3N14 (a more well maintained/traveled fire road) past the Hanna Flat campgrounds and the YMCA Camp Whittle and down into Fawnskin. The views off to the north-west while climbing 3N14 are great and I'm pretty certain that was Lake Arrowhead I could see off in the distance. All told you are looking at about 17.5 miles depending on where you start. It was a very challenging ride and one I repeated a second time so I could be more comfortable on it in the future, of course the future is tomorrow at this point... so I'll be out on the roads again on Saturday morning.
One of those things that happens when you ride a consistent route is it's nice to get a feel for your best time. Of course the trick is remembering your previous best time. Today Tim tracked our time out on the standard Flightline route that he, Adam and I have been riding since they started the environmental destruction to put in a couple new roads through our local mtn. bike area. Today's time was 50 minutes 42 seconds. So next time we need a reference we can get one.... we can do better... it's only 5 miles.
So I’m up in Big Bear, CA for the weekend over in Fawnskin (aka. the North Shore) and it’s a beautiful weekend (high in the 60’s). I’m presented with an option… here in Fawnskin there is no more snow (of course we had 4+ feet on the ground at one point), but there is still skiing available at the resorts in Big Bear. So I have a choice, I've finished with my 'chores' and it's 2:00 and I can either head over to the resort, rent some ski’s for about $25.00 and ski till almost 6PM. All told I’ll probably get between 2-3 hrs of skiing in for that $25, but the slopes will be damp and or icy….
Alternatively, I brought up my mountain bike and can for FREE go for a ride on the fire roads that surround Fawnskin and maybe head down into Holcomb Valley. Given that it’ll be my first mountain ride of the year (by that I mean ride in the mountains I’ve been out locally in Carlsbad) and given that one of my favorite all time rides was at the end of April when there was still a hint of snow on the mountain (off the side of the fire roads) I opt for the bike.
So I head out and up Polique Canyon Rd heading toward Holcomb Valley. The ride starts out great it’s a beautiful day and while I hit the occasional snow melt, the road is in reasonable shape as I ascend up past 2N71. But then the road gets ugly, real ugly, with lots of snow on the road. I proceed about 1/4 mile up the road in the ruts made by the various cars which have made the climb hoping it’ll get better. But unfortunately I’ve entered a valley without much sun and there is still 2+ feet (1/2 meter) of snow on the ground. Given that I still haven’t made it over the ridge to head down into Holcomb Valley on a slope where I expect some snow, plus I’m facing a climb back out of the valley that may also be snow covered I decide retreat is the better part of valor.
So I return to 2N71, which is my default route around Fawnskin. 2N71 is a solid fire road that crests at just under 8,000 ft elevation. So I continue my ascent after my failed attempt to get into Holcomb Valley. I hit my first snow as I wrap into one of the valleys. It’s only about 20 yards and here’s where I introduce the first rule of biking over snow.
Don't expect to climb more then 1-2 bike lengths through snow that is more then 2 inches in depth.
I walk through the majority of the snow section and resume my climb. On the way up I pass through about 3 or 4 different sections and bypass what is essentially a small lake over part of the fire road, but I basically crest the road which is in acceptable shape and now it’s time to head down hill. As I start downhill I run into a much larger section of snow, but I see I’m not the first biker to attempt this route so I forge ahead. I get through this section and then run into small sections on downhill slopes. This is the second rule:
When going downhill you can make it through snow up to the depth of your axel, any deeper and your front wheel is likely to bind.
Of course the view from up on top is awesome. It was great to get up and get a look over an almost full lake and see the snow covered San Bernardino Mountains from altitude. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera so I can’t share that view, but in some ways it’s OK since there is more to this adventure and a camera might not have survived. By now I’ve realized that based on the snow pattern, yes I am the second biker, but no cars/trucks/motorcycles have continued on this path. This is explained when I find a huge 3+ foot (1+ meter) diameter tree has crashed across the fire road blocking it. This brings up the third rule:
If the off road vehicles have avoided a fire road there is probably a good reason.
Now a sane person might have turned back, I still had almost 5 miles of my descent remaining and was on a road which was becoming increasingly snow covered and muddy (I'm talking 2+ feet of snow in many cases). I however had already been out on more then a couple mud rides this year, demonstrating my lack of sanity/good judgment and riding/walking through the snow obstacles was an interesting challenge so I forged ahead, plus I was already the second guy to try this so it had to be possible…
Below one of the larger sections of snow I ran into a portion of 2N71 which was facing a lot of erosion due to the melting snow, the result in a dirt fire road are ruts. However, the ruts didn’t start to form till well after I was doing a solid 10-15 mph (~20kph) when I suddenly caught my front wheel on the edge of a rut. The result, a spectacular wipe out, fortunately not an endo, but a great wipe out that separated me from my bike and left me with a thoroughly scratched up leg. This is of course the challenge associated with this sport, but in this case it falls under adding injury to the insult of being mud covered.
So I continue my descent, the road conditions remain ugly as I continue down the side of the mountain into Fawnskin. I don't have any other major incidents with exception of a 6inch mud puddle that I walk through because I'm concerned about my open cuts, and encounters with a ton of water - a small pond in the middle of the road that couldn’t be bypassed and a full-on stream in one section. The good news is on my return I had pictures taken of a mud covered me and a good shot of my scratched up knee which I will post below. However, the ride also taught me the most important rule of mountain biking in Big Bear:
If they still have skiing available – go skiing and leave the bike at home.
Today I got out for a second ride of the weekend with NCCC. The group has added a 'regular' ride for Sundays and I've been participating in it the past few weeks. This Sunday was South (down) the coast. We headed down to Torrey Pines and climbed the seaside cliff. I highly recommend this climb, it's difficult (more so then taking the large and easily graded coast highway) but the view is nothing short of fantastic. If you ever head down the Southern (below Camp Pendelton) coast, this is one climb not to miss. I actually wound up with some long riders for a the southbound portion of the ride, before they dropped me on the Northbound portion... as expected. All told this makes the 3rd straight weekend were I've managed to get in two rides each of 40+ miles. The net result is I've been catching up with my goal distances. To get to 2000 miles this year I need to average about 500 miles per quarter. I'm currently at 4384 which is just over my 500 mile goal for the quarter, and I still have a couple days of riding to work before this month ends, so I might make it close to 4450 which would be most excellent.
Aside from that my bike computer freaked for a little while today, I'm concerned the battery is going bad. I'm going to give it a couple more rides before I panic. I lost about 3 miles in the total mileage since I just got and am carrying a Timex data recorder. This is a cool set of hardward and software oriented around GPS and a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM). The combination allow you to track your speed and distance along with your heart rate. I'm still getting familiar with the combination and will talk more as I learn more about it....
So today I went for a ride with the NCCC again. Actually I've been going every weekend this month so I've been racking up some miles. More on that later. This weeks ride was from our normal meet point of Restaurant Row in San Marcos, out to the coast down to Rancho Santa Fe and then inland along Del Dios highway. The view on Del Dios is great especially with the Dam overflowing. Last weeks ride was wet and nasty on Saturday but I survived although I experienced a rare and doubly annoying double flat 2 miles from the end. This week wasn't too eventful and I did fairly well though I seemed to fade coming up on the climb to Citracado.
Overall the summary for this ride was:
I've tried a new method for uploading my elevation profile and summary information where I know split them so things will fit better and be more readable. I'll do another update tomorrow after the Sunday ride.
Jesmond Dene - Bonsall - Foothill
Starting Mileage for the year
Biking with the North County Cycle Club
Notes to me to help remember the tricks I learned today posting an elevation profile...
Here is a look at today's elevation
Went on todays regular ride with the North County Cycle Club. We headed out from restaurant row through North Escondido the Jesmon Dene. We followed that over to Circle R which was a solid 600' climb and then headed around West Lilac out to Bonsall. The return trip was back through Vista, of course the rain started in Vista which just made it that much colder. But even a cold wet day on the bike is better then a day at the office.
I got in 43 more miles today and wasn't quite as weak (although I'm not gaining much ground yet). Have to find more time to work out. At some point I'll start getting elevation profiles on my rides into my log to give a better idea of the amount of climbing on each ride.
41 mile ride with plenty of hills
Quick review of today's ride with Tim and Adam
Describe the 44 mile ride
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