Cuyamaca Peak by Road Bike

At 6, 512 ft (1985 m), Cuyamaca Peak is the second highest point in San Diego County (second only to 6533 ft tall Hot Springs Mountain near Warner Springs), and its distinctive wave shape in the middle of a rectangular mountain block is easy to spot from afar. As there is no paved road all the way to the top of Hot Springs Mountain, Cuyamaca Peak is the highest point a road bike could go in San Diego... and it was the main objective of my adventure bike ride a couple of weeks ago.

A friend and I started riding from Santee Trolley Station and picked up two more accomplices in Alpine. I'm afraid my plan was a bit more ambitious than prudent as I didn't quite realize how relentlessly steep Lookout Rd is. We all crested the Hwy 79 climb at a good clip, but the 3.5 miles from Paso Picacho Campground (where we stopped to refill our water bottles and to use the excellent restroom) to the top of Cuyamaca Peak took a whole hour in itself (running into stiff headwind about 200 vertical feet from the top sure didn't help). Lookout Fire Rd is a popular hiking route to the top of the mountain, so we ran into quite a few friendly hikers on the way. They are quite awesome about making way for us and were full of encouragement.



As you can see from the video, the view is quite spectacular both along the way up and from the top. We were also lucky about running into a lot of wild birds and deers. My friend Dezary even almost got rammed by a very cage-free chicken as we rolled up Hwy 79 through Descanso. It came tumbling out of the bush on the bank of the road as if chased by a coyote and made quite a racket... just a few yards from the 'honor system' basket selling eggs for $3 a dozen.

By the way, the stretch of I-8 between E Willow Rd and Hwy 79/Japatul Valley Rd is open to bicycle because there really aren't any reasonable alternate surface road between the two exits (we fit lycra crowd on lighter bikes might not have much trouble coping with the Japatul Wall or Viejas Grade Rd detour, but not all on bikes are light or fit!).

My riding buddies called it finished when we rolled back into Alpine and I spun on alone back to Santee. I had meant to detour into Crest and Granite Hills to check out a couple of enticing-looking roads along the way, but the afternoon was getting old and my legs were insistent that I shut the &%@% up about more double digit grade climbing after all they had put up with up the big mountain, so I settled for a very minor side trip around Lake Jennings before catching the trolley home in Santee.

It was quite a good trip. Only 80 miles, but with a decent elevation gain of 7920ft (most of the climbing were done in the first 40 miles). From Santee to Alpine and then through to Paso Picacho is really a long drawn out gentle climb (nothing steeper than 6%). The Lookout Rd up Cuyamaca Peak, though, is very gnarly. Once it starts kicking in earnest about a mile up it averages around 17% in endless series of very steep ramps, some in the high 20's grade. The last 2 turns had to be walked due to the very unfair combination of very steep gradient and very gravelly chopped up pavement. Unlike Mt Woodson Rd, however, you can carefully ride down most of Lookout Rd (you can't let the bike run, but the turns aren't as tight as Mt Woodson Rd and there's a bit more room for error if you skid off the pavement).

Souvenir from a ride: Otay Lakes Rd with the LUNA Chix

I think this was from August 2012, my first time heading east on Otay Lakes Rd toward Honey Springs Rd climb. I was with the LUNA Chix group ride and took this shot from the back of the group... and I wasn't progressing toward the front. It would take me another 20 miles before I thought to check if my tires could free spin and found that the rear brake was rubbing... Having ridden in to the ride from North Park area, I only made it half way up Honey Springs Rd and had a hardest time on the little rollers on Otay Lakes Rd and Olympic Pkwy on my way back to town, seriously questioning my fitness just a month shy of my first epic century ride.

It was a very humiliating experience and a very educational one. Aside from squeezing the tires to check air pressure I always spin the wheels to check for rubbing brake and/or wobble before every ride now (and even during the ride, whenever I stop I'd check the tires and wheels again before remounting and continuing). I'm also eternally grateful to the LUNA Chix ride leadership. The day's sweep rider, Ellen, refused to leave me as I fell further and further behind the rest of the group on Honey Springs Rd and all the way back on Otay Lakes Rd. Ellen carried extra water and energy bars with her and was full of encouragement. Then ride leader Barb came upon us struggling up a little hump just before Wueste Rd turn off and actually gave me a push.

Seriously, if it weren't for Ellen and Barb I might have just rolled off the uncomfortably hot tarmac somewhere east of Skydive San Diego and became coyote food before my friends could send out a search and rescue party. Instead, I went on to finish the inaugural Giro di San Diego gran fondo ride, have climbed Honey Springs at least 20 times now and other bigger mountains along the way. The LUNA Chix have been taking the winter months off from cycling, but I'm quite looking forward to more rides with them when their season starts again in a few months!

Update (11Mar2014): The LUNA Chix have re-organized! They are now called the Wheel Women of San Diego. More info on their new Facebook page (first ride of 2014 season coming up on Sunday April 13th from Moment Cycle Sports in Liberty Station).

Guest posting: What A Jamul Casino Would Mean for Local Cyclists

I average around 200 miles per week on my bicycle, riding in and out of the city of San Diego. Many of those miles are spent on Otay Lakes Rd, Honey Springs Rd, Lyons Valley Rd and bits of SR 94 in Jamul because they are often the shortest and least hilly way for me to take to go visit Black Jack the perpetually hungry donkey, the adorable Beacon Hill llamas, all sorts of cool mountain birds and flowers and a particularly adventurous and friendly pack of house dogs along Mother Grundy TT. 

The mostly shoulderless Otay Lakes Rd at lower lake.

These roads are mostly sleepy (the busiest of them all, SR 94, is still pretty sleepy compared to anything closer to the coast), but they are all quite unforgiving when anything happens. The more traffic on them, the more chance of things happening, however, and since there aren't many (and in some parts of Jamul, 'any') alternative routes to get to and through the area, when something like a crash or a fire or a stuck giant super semi-truck happens, it really causes problem both for the local residents who are just trying to get home from work (or work from home) and for passing-through traffic like me. 

SR94 east of Jamul Butte.

With the current (and apparently not-very-legal) construction of a casino off SR94 in Jamul that would increase traffic through it and the nearby feeder roads, I have been eying this project with alarm. So many previously cycling-friendly rural roads have been rendered nearly unridable post-construction of a casino (Pala Rd into Pala Mission, Valley Center Rd between N Lake Wohlford Rd and Hwy 76, Wildcat Canyon/Borona Rd, Dehesa Rd in Sycuan area). I wondered what can cyclists like me do about such a project... and so I decided to ask Kim Hamilton, a Deerhorn Valley resident and the editor of the Antlers, the area's newsletter, for a guest blog post on the subject. Here is her response:

  ..........................................................................................................  

JOIN WITH JAMUL & SAVE HWY 94 AND OTAY LAKES ROAD

A Chance For Cyclists And Drivers To Work Together

(...What A Concept!)

 

If you have ridden Otay Lakes Road or Rural 94 (Campo Rd) during the last couple of weeks, no doubt you have encountered large numbers of heavy-duty trucks plying the narrow roads. Double yellow lines are no deterrent to wide swings on tight (even blind) curves. In straight sections they push the 55 mph limit in a rush to dump off their tons of rock, dirt, and debris. And we’ve been told to expect this for the next 18 months.

Map of affected area.

The trucks are hauling excavated material from the Jamul Indian Reservation on Hwy 94 and Melody Rd (the Jamul terminus of Proctor Valley Rd). The tribe and their backers have launched a desperate attempt to construct a mega-sized Jamul Hollywood Casino on a tiny 4-acre parcel of disputed land. 

The problems for this big-city construction on this rural site are huge. Most serious for cyclists and drivers are the impacts on two-lane highway 94 (Campo Road) and rural feeder routes like Otay Lakes Rd. 

In a stark turnaround from normal protocol, Caltrans required no road safety improvements before it granted access to Hwy 94 for hundreds of daily trucks along two of the most popular and heavily used cycling routes in South and East County—part of the Great Western Loop that the Campagnolo Gran Fondo, the Olympic Training Center, and hundreds of cyclists use regularly.

One of the casino construction trucks was recently photographed having difficulties staying on the right side of the road on SR94 near Steele Canyon Rd. (Photo: James McElree)

Some history: Over the past two decades, four big-money corporations* bankrolled efforts to build a Jamul casino — to no avail. Tribal members collect monthly payments, but the legal, environmental, and safety issues are huge. The first three backers withdrew, losing millions in the process. The tribe itself is now more than $60 million in debt. A year ago Penn National Gaming came in with some (conditional) financing—and an in-your-face attitude. This is Penn’s first experience in California and they hope the Jamul’s proximity to San Diego might boost depreciating stock prices. So far Caltrans has made sure it hasn’t cost them much: a couple of flaggers and some caution signs. They approved the tribe’s Traffic Management Plan that included not one reference to cycling or cyclists. [*Lakes Entertainment, Station Casinos, Harrah’s Casinos, and Penn National Gaming]

So here lies an opportunity for drivers and cyclists to find some common ground—a chance to prove cyclists and rural drivers can co-exist and share the rural byways. The payoff could be in preserving access and improving safety for us all, and bolstering understanding that roads are for everyone. After all, they are shared public assets.

This Hollywood-themed Casino is no done-deal by a long stretch. San Diego County is suing Caltrans over their approval to allow hauling trucks such unrestricted access to Hwy 94, Otay Lakes Rd, and other feeders. The Jamul Action Committee (JAC) is filing a separate suit, and expects support from the Rural Fire District—with its concerns about increased crashes and a slowed response time to wildfire and medical emergencies. In fact the land itself, JAC argues, was never taken into “trust”— a vital pre-requisite for gambling, and upheld by recent Supreme and lower court decisions. That suit is due to be heard in federal court beginning March 28^th.

I encourage the cycling community to stay informed and lend their voice and actions to this fight.  Rural roads are already the most dangerous in California, and Hwy 94 stands at the top of the list for fatalities and crashes. As the lawsuits wind their ways through the court system, it will take some organized action to keep the public informed. A mega project like this has no business being built without the space and infrastructure to keep roads safe. Period.

Here’s how the cycling community can help:

1) Register for email updates at: http://jacjamul.com. They won’t share your info with anyone else. 

2) Contact your county and state reps and share a cyclist’s perspective about Hwy 94 and Otay Lakes Roads would be impacted by casino traffic.

3) Consider joining together with rural drivers, pedestrians, and others to demonstrate the implications of thousands of trucks, cars, and buses added to Hwy 94.

4) Check out JAC’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/JamuliansAgainstTheCasinoJac

 

This needs to be a shared fight with a positive outcome for all travelers, riders, and drivers.

 

Thank you for this opportunity to reach out.