San Marcos Mountain Tower

There are a few distinctive local hills in San Diego's North County between the Pacific Coast and I-15, and north of the San Dieguito River (Lake Hodges and on west to San Dieguito Lagoon) that are dead useful for orientation purpose whenever you get turned around on a bike ride and can no longer tell where you are and where you are headed. One of these striking looking hills that look different from different angles is San Marcos Mountain, particularly if seen from Vista proper (from WSW looking ENE at the mountain), with the steep zigzag of the very private Catalina Ave etched to its western face. 

The tantalizing Catalina Ave is, however, private and tripple-gated so tightly that even an amoeba would find it hard to squeeze through. The only viable route up to the San Marcos Mtn tower is the southern assault up Hardell Ln from Buena Creek Rd. 

Hardell Ln branches into three after the last house. Take the middle branch.

Past the gate, be sure to stay either on the road or on the trail to the right of it. 

I used to range into the Hollyberry neighborhood via a dirt trail approach from the south, over the Santa Fe Hills (from Borden Rd & Las Posas Rd) for a car-less gravel-bike-friendly ride with good deer and coyote sighting opportunities. A new subdivision is being constructed there, however, and the trail is currently fenced off.... hopefully just temporarily. (I have hope.. since this is in the City of San Marcos, and San Marcos has been pretty consistently awesome about putting in hike/bike-able trails whenever they build a new subdivision. If only I could convince the mayor of San Marcos to come and mayor next door Vista as well). 

There are almost always a few locals out walking the lanes in the Hollyberry neighborhood, and they are always a joy to stop and fraternize with. People are so much friendlier on foot and on bike than they are in a car. We are all going to get somewhere, and we are going to actually enjoy the process of getting somewhere... together!

 

Stay right at the Y-junction and head up the mountain.

 

Anyhow, going on past the car gate, there is a short firm dirt section before the tarmac returns as the lane meanders up to the saddle of the San Marcos Mountain. The area to the left of the road is strictly private. To the right a single-track trail runs along with the road for a while before veering off to take a more bushy way up to the radio tower complex (hiking boots- and full-suspension mountain bikes- friendly. Gravel bike... not so much). 

 

The big gate at the saddle with a narrow opening on the right side.

At the saddle, the fence gate to the tower complex is usually closed, but there is a narrow opening on the right for hikers to squeeze thru. If the gate is open when you head up, be sure to assume that it had closed when you head back down... and ride at a speed that would allow you to safely stop! 

This is an out-and-back ride, so be sure to scout the downhill conditions while you're going up. 

After the gate, the road climbs at around 6% toward the tower and then makes a sharp left with a gradient hike to around 8-12% and doesn't let up until after the next right curve. The view is pretty fantastic. 

Approaching the KGMG-FM Oceanside radio towers, with 360 view of San Diego's North County. It is amazing how analgesic the wide open vista is. 

There is a use trail to the proper summit block where the American flag is, but the actual benchmark is on the top of the rock cropping, and you'd have to do some bouldering to acquire the actual summit. It's worth hiking a bit onto the narrow ridge to have a look around. For all the energy you spent and all the suffering you endured to get up to the hard earned view, you might as well take the time to enjoy the reward. That... is my excuse for loitering, and I'm sticking with it.

Here are some views from the various side streets around the southern shoulder of San Marcos Mountain.

And a few video from the steepie-rich neighborhood. 

Camino de las Lomas.

El Paso Alto down to Hardell Ln. 

Hardell Ln to the radio tower complex.

This is San Diego's North County, my friends. No climb, no view! 

Belgian Wafer Ride 2022

 The Belgian Waffle Ride AKA The UnRoad Race that I had sworn a few times to never do again. Just to clarify, though, I've survived 2 previous editions of the Wafer (the shorter ride) rather than the full Waffle. I had signed up to do the full Waffle in 2020, but then COVID-19 came to town and all mass events were swiftly shelved. The stars didn't align for me to for the 2021 ride, and they weren't much in agreement for this year's either. But then a few things changed. 

My good buddy Suzanne had signed up to ride her first Wafer this year, but her riding buddies all dropped out, and rumors were abound that Mike Marckx had been out scouting changes to the route (the 2018, 2019, and 2021 routes were essentially the same) that would alleviate the bottlenecking problem entering the first dirt sector at Del Dios Gorge Trailhead (AKA Lemontwistenberg). So, the prospect of actually having a riding buddy this year, along with a significant change to the route that I had done twice before gave me the much needed excuse to actually ride... but to downgrade to the Wafer rather than the full Waffle. 

To be honest, I wouldn't have survived the 135 miler this year anyhow. 

As per BWR tradition, we didn't have a confirm official route until just a few days before the ride, even though most of us that have done this thing before in the last few years had a good idea of what it'd look like, thanks to Michael Marckx (BWR's godfather, so to speak)'s frequent email teases. I wasn't jumping for joy at the prospect of starting the day off climbing most of Double Peak from the north (and dirty) side, and still having to scale the whole of it again from bottom of Questhaven Dr in the final 8 miles.  

But the real unknown on the Wafer route was really Raptor Ridge, the mountain bike trail connecting Mule Hill and San Pasqual Valley. In its usual firm dirt condition, the singletrack west of the summit of Raptor Ridge is rideable if not easily so (there is a couple of very steep narrow ramps you could punch up them if you know where they are and have good traction approaching them... and low enough climbing gear, of course). 

Alas, a not so thin layer of soil was dumped on Raptor the week before the ride, which obliterated any traction to be had, and the singletrack turned into a hike-a-bike sufferfest for the fit and the pudgy (like me) alike. It also made the wider descent to the east more hairy than usual of the 'let your bike run and you might fly right off the cliff at the next curve' variety. 

Raptor Ridge proved to be my kryptonite for the ride, thanks muchly to the hike-a-bike festival that happened to coincide with the first day of Aunt Flo's monthly visit. By the time I crested the ridge I had a persistent cramp going where the sun doesn't shine, that soon spread to both quads. The rest of the climbing on the route was done in endless zigzags that would put any paperboy to shame... My awesome riding buddy Suzanne N waited for ages for me all the way to the top of Double Peak, the day's last substantial climb, and her equally awesome brother even popped up on Harmony Grove Rd to revive us with ice-cold cans of V8 to keep our muscles firing. 

It took us a long while, but we finished the ride and even remembered to shift down for the post-finish-line-concrete ramp. It wasn't a pretty performance from yours truly, but with a lot of help from my friends, it was still a finish... and quite a motivation to return for a rematch (or perhaps even a full Waffle... if I can manage to stick to a training regimen to be in good enough shape next year!). 

 

It took a long while before I managed to put the recap video together, I'm afraid. Much of it had to do with the shock of losing Mo Wilson less than two weeks after the ride. Mo had obliterated the field with the ridiculously large winning margin of 25 minutes ahead of Flavia Oliviera, the runner up. We expected to be following Mo's rising stardom for years to come, and then just two Wednesdays after BWR the news broke of her having been murdered in Austin, TX, just a few days before her next race. 

Murdered. It wasn't a plane crash or a car crash or a bike crash, but a murder. And I don't know anyone nicer and kinder than Mo... 

Her family is raising money to fund community organizations to help youth find self-confidence, strength, and joy through biking, skiing, and other activities that Mo was passionate about. 

Kaitlin Marie Armstrong is a fugitive wanted for Mo's murder. She may be going under her sister's name, Christine Armstrong. She was last spotted in New York and may have crossed the Canadian border. 

Here is her wanted poster by the US Marshal Service.

If you see this woman anywhere, please contact the US Marshal and help get her caught! 

Edit (06.30.2022): Kaitlin Armstrong was finally captured by the police in Costa Rica today. She will be extradited back to the states to answer for her crimes!

Happy Bike to Work Day 2022

This past Thursday was the annual Bike to Work Day, the first one since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled just about all mass events in all the cities. Yours truly has been working from home more or less ever since, and really enjoyed the luxury of making up my own 'bike to work' route. 

Predictably, the route involved some gratuitous hills along with the inevitable ones. It isn't so much that I like to climb as there is something psychologically less defeating in electing to ride up a hill I know I'll have to suffer through than having to go up one because it's on the only possible way home. 

Some analgesic views along the bike commute from my front door to the rear one.

And, since my neck of the woods seems to consist of hills that only range from ouchy to murderously ouchy... I'd just as well opt for the latter to get more bang for the ouch. If you weren't a masochist before taking up cycling, taking up cycling seems a sure way of making a masochist out of you. 

San Marcos Civic Center pit stop on Bike To Work Day 2022.

Tho, on Bike to Work Day, the masochistic pain is more bearable than usual since there are many more people out on bike to commiserate with. And, there are bike-commuting-oriented pit stops all around town manned with cheerful people who can't wait to feed and ply you with nice (and very useful) swags. My pit stop this year was at the San Marcos Civic Center, manned by the lovely folks of the city's Park and Recreation Department. Thank you so much!  

Wheeee!

If you rode your bike to work last Thursday and found it enjoyable, why not do more of it through out the year? It's so nice to spend more time outside and away from the computer screen, getting to know the town a little better (so many little nice things are missed when you speed by in an automobile), and save quite a bit of gas money and your area's air quality in the process. 

Happy Holidays 2021

 Well, folks, we survived year two of the COVID 19 pandemic! Here is wishing you all good health and a lot of good adventures and memories on and off the bike thru the holidays and 2022! 

 

May the bike be with you! 

Veterans Day Arms Service Memorials Ride

 This year's Veterans Day fell on the first day of a really hot Santa Ana Wind event. I was hoping that the heat wouldn't arrive until closer to noon, but the mercury was already in the 80s when I descended into Mission Bay to meet up with a couple of friends at 8:30am. The messenger of the gods obeys no cosmic speed limit when carrying a big load of hot dry air!

Mission Bay Beach Club meet up spot. A huge improvement to the old MB Visitor Center!

My friend Bill R was the day's ride master, and he had plotted us to visit the many military memorials scattered around town. First on the list, especially on a hot day like this, of course, is to get the Veterans Memorial Cross on Mt Soledad out of the way as soon as possible. 

Climbing thru the Muirlands.

We took Fanuel St thru Pacific Beach and scooted clockwise around the mountain via La Jolla Hermosa and La Jolla Bike Path to start up the hill on Nautilus and then Muirland Vista into the Muirlands and then La Jolla Scenic Dr for a more scenic (and less trafficky) ascent. 

Veterans Memorial Cross on Mt Soledad.

On a clear day you can see almost forever!

The Mt Soledad cross was giving good visibility payback to its visitors. It was so clear across the county that you could see tens of miles away and identify most of the mountains in the distance. We didn't linger for long, mind you. It was to be a 50 miles ride and there are more hills to scale in the ever-warming weather, so we took the fast descent down Cardeno Dr and traverse Mission Bay on Ingraham Dr (pretty safe to bike on between Crown Point and Dana Landings), making our way to Ocean Beach on the posted bike route before climbing to Ft Rosecrans National Cemetery via Catalina Blvd. 

Ft Rosecrans National Cemetery.

Most of us know or are related to someone interned at that green lawn overlooking the Pacific Ocean, so we lingered a bit longer before heading back down the hill via Canon Dr... and into the Naval Base for our third stop, Ballast Point - the actual historical whaling station rather than the popular local brewery! 

Along with the Ballast Pt marker, the same site also holds 3 military memorial markers... and quite a fantastic view of the San Diego Bay, North Island, and Downtown. There is also a convenient store nearby to refill our water bottles. The warm dry wind was starting to pick up, and I was going the way of the over-sunned beef jerky.

We were mostly done with the hills for the ride, though, and spun through the scenic and flat Harbor Dr into the Marina District to the USS Midway Museum and the USS San Diego memorial just north of Seaport Village. 

USS San Diego Memorial by Fisherman's Warf

After a quick swing through Balboa Park and Mission Hills, we stopped at the top of Presidio Park to pay a visit to the Mormon Battalion Memorial and Fort Stockton's Historical Marker in the peaceful hilltop clearing overlooking Mission Bay.  

Fort Stockton (1828-1848) changed hands many times during the Mexican War, was last occupied by the Mormon Battalion that had walked here from the Midwest and got here a bit too late to join in any fight. They have a museum just down the hill now, across the lane from the Old Heritage Row of well preserved Victorian Era houses in Old Town San Diego.

One of my dream bucket list items is to mountain bike the Oregon Trail from Independence, MO to Waiilatpu, OR (Honore Morrow's On To Oregon being one of my favorite childhood books. Of course, I've since read Catherine Sager's Across the Plains in 1844, so my perception of the trek is now a bit less romantic). I could hardly imagine doing a 2000 miles trek on foot and pushing or pulling at a hand cart full of belongings and supplies, though. 

Incidentally, once we are done with our late fall bouts of Santa Ana wind, it should be cool enough again to go roam the eastern side of the county, and visit the slot canyon spot that still bears the groove that the Mormons had carved in the process of pulling the handcarts up to the Old Stagecoach route out east of Julian. 

But, that's for another ride... For the day, we finished our 50 miles loop back at Mission Bay Beach Club in the early afternoon feeling thankful both for the friends we get to ride with and the far too many military personnel who had perished in the process of providing us with the peace time we enjoy. Thanks on many fronts, Bill!