Saturday, October 29, 2011

San Pasquel loop

A few years back I bought a book that details different cycling areas and trips all around the San Diego area.


This is a great book.  It's been around in various editions for a long time now.  It describes the rides in great detail, including pretty accurate maps and elevation information.  The text description of each ride is in good order as well.

I've used this book several times to plan out routes.  Sometimes I ride the routes exactly as describes, and other times I use this mainly for information about part of the routes to plan out my overall ride(s).


It's been a good investment and well worth the small price I paid. 

http://www.amazon.com/Cycling-San-Diego-Nelson-Copp/dp/0932653529/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319946216&sr=8-1



Last night I decided to run a route that I noticed earlier, but have never gotten around to yet.  It circles around the San Pasquel area.  20 miles for the loop, 30 total including getting up there from where I live. 

I should have paid more attention to the elevation changes for this route befrehand.  There were some short, steep hills that I had some difficulty on.  But overall this was a very good route and very picturesque.  A few farms, a pine tree seller, and even a milk cow pasture was noticed.  There is also a battlefield memorial for the battle of San Pasquel  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pasqual_Battlefield_State_Historic_Park

This site has a lot of pictures that are on the same route or very close to - http://www.miriameaglemon.com/Birding%20Pages/San%20Diego%20Birding%20Pages/By%20Site/Highland%20Valley%20Road.html since I didn't bring my camera with me on this ride. 

The graph below shows the quick changes in elevation that I experienced.
The first sharp drop was at Bandy Canyon Road.  It had a lot of switchbacks.  Not having traveled on this road before and taking sharp turns at a high speed, I rode on the brakes a lot.  Not until the switchbacks stops did I let go of the brakes. 



A great ride for certain.  I just didn't appreciate the sharp increase in elevations that made climbing difficult.  But I'll definitely hit this route again in the future.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Lake Hodges/Del Dios loop

I've always see the Del Dios highway on maps, and it looked like a good way to get around when I'm up North.  I was finally able to ride it last week.  As usual when I'm checking out new territory, it took me 1.5 times longer than it should have.  I also got a bit lost even though I had a map.  The street names on the map weren't the same as what they were in reality.

This weekend I decided to ride the same route, but in reverse.  Went much better this time around.  The fog was really thick at 6:30 in morning (which will only get worse as winter sets in) .  At some points I could only see about 50 feet in front of me.  So the beginning was slower than usual. 

The nice part of this route is going past Lake Hodges.  You can see the dam from the road on the West side.  The tail part I ended going past my work and riding the same route as I always do going to work.  I wanted to head down South a bit more and ride the 56 bike path.  But I was running late and had an appointment to get to. 

The route is fairly flat, with a few short climbs along the way.  Typically when I travel this far I'm completely wiped out afterwards.  But I actually felt really good afterwards.



Goin' camping

Last month my family went camping.  Unfortunately we don't do so as much as we would like.  I decided to take off early from work and ride the bike up to meet with my family.  It's at Dixon lake, which is only 15 miles up there.  The ride itself is mostly on the outer edge of Escondido.  Nothing difficult about this ride.  But there is a very steep 1/4 mile section just before getting into the park.  If you notice the red line on the map, it actually breaks for a bit.  That's because I had to walk it up for a while.  My Garmin said it was a 70% grade.  No way it was that much.  It was more around 20%, which is still too much for me for that distance.  Dixon lake is a great place to camp!