It happened again another awesome SoCal Riv ride...Met Curtis and Mike in Del Mar after I dropped off the Atlantis Frame and Fork with Mr. Allen Wanta in Carlsbad for additional braze on's and a fresh coat of paint, had to tear my self away as talking bike stuff can make me lose track of time and space, oh right I did lose some time! Was about half and hour late to the meet up fortunately I have one of those modern devices and gave Curtis a heads up.
We left the Del Martians behind and traveled South toward Torrey Pines State Beach and made a turn East along Carmel Valley Rd skirting the Torrey Pines Preserve lagoon fed by Penaquitos Creek. Just before Interstate 5 we make a right onto Old Sorrento Valley Rd which transitions into Sorrento Valley Rd, we made a pit stop at Cycle Quest tucked into a strip mall in the shadow of Interstate 5 need to go back and really check the place out, you can see the mixed terrain vibe is growing as this shop had Surly and Salsa among other brands. I think we were all anxious to be free of automotive traffic so we rolled over the rail road tracks up Sorrento Valley Blvd and crossed into the Western edge of Penasquitos Canyon making our way over a dry water course and had ridden no more than a couple of miles before we spotted a group from the San Diego Randonneurs travelling West...Mike chatted about their web site and future rides and Randonneur bikes, very nice fellows all atop 29ers. We made our way up the canyon and okay about this time I was in bliss smooth fire road and single track oh and floating over the rough patches were the remounted Hetres hooray for balloon tires. Continuing on we paused at the Penasquitos water falls and ook in views of the surprising amount of water, but we had a meet up with our fellow Riv rider Tom Virgil so we picked up the pace and giddily glided to the Eastern edge of the Preserve at Black Mountain Rd. From here we climbed North up to Carmel Valley Rd turned left West toward Camino Del Sur and Tom, who had camera phone in hand.and his luxurious Sam Hillborne with flipped Albatross bars (unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Tom's Sam, on the next one) which has me thinking now. We had a brief chat and Tom took us into new territory! At a fair clip riding West down Carmel Valley Rd we turned right on to Lopelia Meadow Pl past new model homes and a Danger no pedestrians sign with orange barrier fencing http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedalpusher61/10785042006/in/set-72157637527430185 (hey it didn't say no bicyclists) before us was a surreal graded plain with farming discards, tomato stakes, graffiti-ed trailer and massive sewer section also adorned with graffiti. We pressed on for our second canyon "Gonzales Canyon" which we dropped into and the rest of the world melted away...more smooth single track with undulating sections as the trail traced a line from canyon floor to it's sloping sides. We paused often both to take in the solitude and route suggestions from Tom...at a point he mentioned a 45% climb and I must say I was skeptical...wrong we all fsound our LCG as we topped out of the Canyon at it's South Western terminus at Torrey Pines Public Park on the back side of Torrey Pine High School. We lost Tom to family obligations and we all thanked him for showing us a new playground as this area has a network of fire roads and trails which run for miles upon miles in nearly every direction, more to explore. Can't thank Tom enough he's a wonderful man and great riding partner. The three of us rode down to El Camino Real heading North and picked up our third dirt section near Via Del Valle Rd (This is near the Equestrian Center Tom spoke of thanks to Tom we avoided any nasty horse people) we entered the San Dieguito River Park Lagoon trail and rode along the edge of the serene waters of the lagoon with blue sky and soft wispy clouds above and the Del Mar Fair Grounds across the lagoon to our right. Exiting the trail at Camino Del Mar at River Mouth we headed North onto Hwy 101 to Solana Beach and Pizza Port for refreshments. I always experience a bit of sadness as a great ride comes to it's end but in the end was completely satisfied with the ride and so pleased with the company as Curtis, Mike and Tom are great fellows to ride with. Here are my set of pictures to prove that it indeed happened. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedalpusher61/sets/72157637527430185/show/ ~Hugh -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
