iRide

I finally got around to riding the Stewart Canyon trail in Fallbrook today. It’s basically a trail that goes straight up a pretty tall hill, forks about halfway up and comes back down. Dad and I have been eyeballing it for a long time. I checked out the trailhead a couple weeks ago. While I was there, I talked to a hiker. She said the trail was about a 4 mile “lollipop” loop and was pretty rocky for the most part. She said she has seen bike tracks, but never any bikers. I thanked her for the info and started making plans to ride it.

I mapped out the loop on www.mapmyride.com and found the hiker’s mileage estimate to be right on. I knew the elevation was going to be high and I was right. Mapmyride.com put it at 1,300′ of gain–all of which would be done in the first 2 miles.

I met Mark/Sladnas at the trailhead today at 3PM. We knew we didn’t have much daylight to work with so we set out right away.

Where does this trail go? It goes up!

The cars get smaller…

…and smaller:

…and smaller:

Sladnas was killing it today–even after knocking out a gnarly ride at San Juan yesterday!!

What do you mean we’ve only ridden 3/4ths of a mile!!!

Everytime we rounded a curve, we were greeted with yet more climbing:

And finally, the summit.

View to the West:

View to the East:

With the Sun setting, light was pretty bad so I was limited on the pics I could take at the top. Next time, I’ll have to start earlier and take even more pics.

The climb was actually fun–as hard as it was. It was pretty techy about 80% of the way, so it definitely kept you on your toes. And a techy climb = a super fun DH back to the bottom. It was over way too quick and before we knew it we were back at the cars.

Sladnas did manage to flat about halfway down. On a UST set-up with Stans. He actually had to throw a tube in it to finish the ride. Only Mark!! LOL

Keeping with my usual forgetfulness, I forgot to bring my GPS, so I’m not 100% certain on the mileage and elevation, but I think Mapmyride.com’s totals were just about right. We didn’t knock out many miles, but I think Mark said it best– 4 miles here felt like 20 at most places.

Lastly, here’s a couple pics from the climb up that I thought turned out pretty cool. I think Mark’s silhouette against the sky looks pretty sweet:

It was actually a pretty fun ride. Definitely a hidden gem here in North County. The climb is super techy and steep and gives a great work out. You are then rewarded with a super fun techy DH back down. There’s a lot of hikers out here, so one needs to be careful, but I will definitely be coming back–frequently!! Until next time, seek your bliss.

Ride Lots…