Three plus hours and twenty miles of pristine dirt single track around Carmel Valley in San Diego ' s North County was enjoyed by we five members of (SCAR) SoCal All Rounders. David Greenblatt, Mike Shiller, Tom Virgil, Curtis Mckenzie and I socalpedalpusher.
We all met at David's home and promptly dropped into Gonzalez Canyon zigzaging through dense chaparral with abandon. The weather was sunny and pleasant with a slight breeze. Apologies to the the Northern climes. Our dear Tom had run out of time and made an exit, for he had Christmas tree trimming duty waiting for him, it was great to see him but too short for me. Tom and I met the next day for coffee outside which was great. As with gleeful joy on single track often a sacrifice is made to the trail gods. Our Mike Shiller was gallant enough to shed some blood for the cause when he and a tree had a disagreement, Mike' wounds were treated a red bandanna was added to his outfit (made him that much more gnarled) and off we went resuming our ride...by the way the tree was fine just in case you were wondering. This has been David's playground for a while now so he put together a bow tie dirt event for us...he tied together two Canyons and a Mesa with next to no cars to contend with. Literally the GPS mapping is a bow tie as we crossed under the 56 freeway multiple times. After Gonzalez we dropped into Penasquitos Canyon after climbing a short steep access road. We cheerfully glided down smooth undulating single track along the North side of Penasquitos Canyon heading West where we crossed paths with the few hikers on our adventure. Soon we made a short stop at the Waterfalls for snacks, bike talk and future rides. Continuing we looped back around and headed East up Penasquitos. David saved the best till last the Del Mar Mesa Preserve where the tunnels exist. These are scrub oak grown over making a tunnel canopy with yet more singletrack winding it's way down another small canyon a technical sheer blast! One had to be vigilant so as not to have your head smashed backward from low hanging branches. As I rolled through the tunnels hugging *(Ole Willy's) top tube I wondered how Curtis at 6'7" was fairing? He came through for the most unscathed a little bit of bark was seen in his vicinity. Concluding our ride at Greenblatt ' s Ale House David was a great host lots of chips & dips, some Sculpin grapefruit ale and Speedway Stout was had, adding at least on my part 10% by volume the extra cherry on the proverbial cake on the perfect day in the saddle. With the sun set... ...we parted ways I was left with the image of all the broad smiles while playing in the dirt. Up next? Sweetwater Regional Park Camping. Mike' Flickr images, https://flic.kr/p/qeA3nc David's Flickr images, https://flic.kr/p/qbXzqG My Flickr images, https://flic.kr/p/pXaLGJ Tom's Flickr images, https://flic.kr/p/qe4Su2 * The name I've attached to my 2003 Rivendell Atlantis. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
