The plan was to take off in middle of first November week to end up meeting friend Mark in San Diego for the weekend and Jerry in Palm Springs on Monday
Departure from SLC on Wed, my birthday, was less than spectacular. I sprained my ankle on f#$%ing sprinkler while dropping the house key off to Dina. I spent the next 6 hours driving to Vegas contemplating on the ankle's stability, pulling over at the parking lot of Bike Outpost in Blue Diamond, Nv. a bit before noon. In the store, I bought thinner socks, taped the ankle and took off on the trails in the area. The ankle held reasonably well, though I did not try to push it at all. Map and pictures are here.
I got back to the car at about 4:30pm, right around sunset, and drove to Barstow for the night.
On Thursday I left Barstow at about 7:30am and by 9:30 was parked at the start of dirt road leading to Trabuco Canyon, which I found relatively luckily after asking a guy who was just getting ready to go for a ride. It was the only rider I met the whole day. I rode up Trabuco to the Santa Ana's ridge, up to Santiago Peak, the highest in the range at about 5800 ft, and down, all in mere 34 miles. Map and pictures are here. It's interesting that in the mountains with millions of people living in 20 mile radius, one does not meet a soul in the whole day.
In the sunset I drove to the Orange County mayhem, stopped at a hotel near the airport for free wireless and then set up in Motel 6 in Santa Ana, across the street from a nice Mexican strip mall with good eateries.
On Friday I woke up early again, since it turns out that in California sun sets a bit earlier than I am used to from Utah, so, it's nice and warm already around 9am. I drove to San Juan trailhead in southern Orange County and rode a loop on Chiquito and San Juan trails. Map and pictures are here.
The GPS gave up on me in the middle of the ride, the display does not work though it seem to have catch the signal, but, not knowing if it's on or off, I managed to switch it off. In any case, I got angry and drove back to Santa Ana to REI and got a new one. By then it was dark and I drove to San Diego to stay at friend Mark's place. Needless to say, I was pretty trashed so we spent the rest of the evening just chatting.
On Saturday, I slept in a bit, then went to do some groceries, and since the forecast still looked good, decided to drive to the mountains east of San Diego to ride Nobel Canyon, one of the best rides in the area. Map and pictures are here. I finished about an hour before sunset and raced back to San Diego to just manage to see the sunset on Pacific Beach a few blocks away from Mark's place. Here's the proof. Then we went to a bar to get some food and drink and relaxed.
On Sunday finally came the long advertised rain. We started late, drove about 20 minutes to trail in Sycamore Canyon and rode what seemed to be most of the singletrack in the area. Map and pictures are here. We got done right when another shower came so the ride was a success.
Then I waited out the rain and before sunset went for a ride on the beachfront, right from Mark's place. Map and pictures are here.
On Monday me and Mark woke up early and in rain drove to Palm Desert. Here it was sunny, and we met Jerry and rode Art Smith trail. Map and pictures are here. Then we parted, I went to Trader Joes and then drove off and spent relatively warm night off I-15 near Baker, Ca.
On Tuesday I woke up to this sunrise. . Then drove to Boulder City, Nv. and rode in the Bootleg Canyon area. The soil was wet after recent rains but not muddy, since it's mostly sand and gravel. Map and pictures are here. Then I packed up and drove back to SLC.
U of U / CHPC / Cuma / Travel / English / SoCal 04
URL: http://www.chpc.utah.edu/~mcuma/fall04/socal04e.html
