If they held a Death Ride and nobody showed up, would it still be hard? That is the question that nearly came to fruition when the expected pack of 7-8 riders ended up being only 3 strong. The Death Ride is an informal annual Labor Day ride in the Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains in east San Diego county. I had never done the ride before, in fact I had never ridden 48 miles off-road before, but I'd been looking forward to this ride since I'd first heard about it a month and a half ago.
Joining me for the adventure was my friend Stephane on his Litespeed Ocoee and Frank on his tricked out, 23.5 lb Specialized FSR. I sensed the pace might be a little higher than I preferred when I noticed Frank putting his heart rate monitor on in the parking lot at the Sweetwater staging area.
We started out on a really fun piece of singletrack called the East Side trail. It was built by, or with the help of, the San Diego Mountain Bike Association. I could tell immediately that when the trail descended I was going to get shot out the back like a slingshot by the other 2 guys. After about 2 miles of twisty, rolling track we started climbing on the East Mesa Fire Road heading towards Pine Valley and the Lagunas. We pretty much stuck together on the climb over East Mesa as the trail turned into singletrack. Not unexpectedly I lost sight of the guys when the trail started heading downhill to Pine Valley.
As we regrouped before heading up the long climb up the Indian Creek trail, I figured I better drink the Gatorade I had in a bottle as the drink was already starting to get a little warm after only an hour into the ride. I really like Gatorade, but warm Gatorade is not high on my list of taste treats.
Indian Creek is an awesome singletrack that ascends the Lagunas reaching Champagne Pass at its high point. The climb is several miles of exposed, rocky, small-ring trail. I was having a good climb, making a few rocky spots that I often have to dab. At one of those rocky sections I was psyched to be able to pass Stephane as he dabbed and I was able to clean the rocks. He's much better in technical stuff than I am so this was very surprising. After riding a little further I looked back and he was nowhere to be seen. Finally he rounded a corner so I continued on to Champagne Pass. When Stephane finally got to the top he was feeling light-headed and generally not too good at all. He decided that since he wasn't feeling well he'd skip a couple of sections of trail that we had planned so he'd be able to conserve some energy. He was content to follow me as we descended the Indian Creek trail to the valley below and Indian Creek. I went faster down that trail than I ever had having the sense that Stephane was coming up on my tail. Even so, Frank was at the bottom, stopped and talking to another rider, while we were still descending. I guess those FSRs are as good as they claim, or maybe he's just fast, or maybe both. From the creek we continued on the trail as it climbed towards the Noble Canyon trail which we then took to the trailhead along the Sunrise Highway.
At this point we had ridden about 2 hours, but completed less than a third of our planned route. It was pleasingly cooler at the top of Noble compared to the hot, exposed trail going up Indian Creek. Stephane seemed to have made one of the more remarkable recoveries I've seen after feeling so bad earlier on the ride. We munched down some food, refilled our bottles from a spigot that I had never known about, and drank plenty of water, being refreshed by a cool breeze in the shade as we did so. Then it was a short 2 mile section on the Sunrise Highway to get to the south end of the Big Laguna trail. The ride along the highway is not bad because the views down into the Anza-Borrego desert are spectacular. Big Laguna is about 5 miles of rolling, twisting singletrack that is just a blast! There are enough rocks to make it challenging, but without being scary. I was feeling pretty good, but obviously not as good as Stephane and Frank as they raced ahead out of sight. Surprisingly we didn't see too many hikers or other cyclists on this trail as it can get very crowded on holiday weekends, or any weekend for that matter.
Back at the top of Noble Canyon, we topped off our water supply then headed off down the Noble Canyon trail. Actually, the first mile or two alternates between climbing and descending before the big descent begins. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with Noble Canyon - most of it is a blast, but some of the really rocky parts get me pretty scared. So its always with some anxiousness that I descend Noble. The top section is pretty fast, mostly smooth, and hot because it is exposed. The trail then drops down into the shade of the trees along the creek as it crosses the creek a few times. Coming out of the shade we started a long, rocky descent. It's the one just before the spot where everyone has to dismount for a water crossing over boulders, with lush ferns growing on the left. I'm not sure if I've ever cleaned this descent - maybe once a long time ago. I was having a good run at it - rolling off rocks, dodging the sharp jagged rocks, and trying to keep my front wheel rolling over whatever it encountered. I made it past the section over halfway down that has claimed me the last few times and was starting to think I might make it today. Then all of a sudden I was unsure what the line was, acted too late, and hit a large round rock in the middle of the trail. I just missed the clean line to the left. The rock sent the back end of my genesis geomety Fisher skyward as I hurtled over the bars landing on my left hand, shoulder, and finally my head. Yes, it is possible to endo with genesis geometry if you have skills like mine. After taking an inventory of body parts to make sure nothing was seriously damaged, I continued the descent only to realize that the rest was easy and if I could have just cleared that one rock I would have cleaned that section. Oh well, next time I guess. Looks like new helmet time as well as my Bell got a dent where my head hit the trail.
As we continued down we started encountering a lot of other riders, some going up, but most descending like us. On a few rocky sections, if I had any thoughts of trying to ride them, they were quickly vanished when they were jammed with other riders walking through the best line, if there was one. Soon we got into the lower section of Noble that is very exposed and always hot. They should have named this section Furnace Creek because it always feels like a blast furnace when you hit the exposed and rocky trail. I was pretty happy to clean one rocky section that I often have trouble on, but then got stacked up behind a group who were struggling on a rocky ascent. I waited my turn before attempting it, then made a pretty good ride as I was able to negotiate some loose rocks as another rider dabbed right in front of me. After that was another rocky downhill section that I've never ridden more than halfway. Somehow the other 2 guys I was with rode it, but I can't even see the line that you'd want to take to make it. I guess that's why I'm no good at rocks.
Shortly thereafter we reached an intersection where you can take a lower loop of Noble that descends even more. Stephane and I had talked earlier about not doing that section because we'd lose altitude and then have to climb back up past where we currently were on our way back to Cuyamaca. Frank took off on the lower loop as Stephane said we would meet him at the big oak tree at the intersection of Laguna Meadow Rd and Deer Park. I wasn't feeling too bad and I didn't want to regret not doing the entire ride that I'd been looking forward to, so I talked Stephane into doing the lower loop too. Before you descend more on the lower loop, you first have to climb a couple of miles on loose, slow, hot singletrack. I lost sight of Stephane early on so I ground it out solo. I'd only done this loop once and remembered some pretty tough rocky sections near the bottom. As I was descending I went over some rocks and started to wonder why I had feared them previously. Soon I realized I hadn't gotten to the hard part yet. Again I didn't see the line to make it through and over the rocks so I ended up walking. I was also pretty hot and tired by this point so I wasn't feeling real aggressive either. After walking several tough sections I finally decided the heck with it and just started riding through some of the sections. They were about equally as hard as some I'd walked, but not as hard as a couple others. I felt a little better about that and then found my way over to the trailhead to regroup with my riding partners. Fortunately, Stephane had just caught Frank as he was departing because he thought we were meeting him farther up the mountain.
Now we faced a 3-mile paved climb up Laguna Meadow Rd. This climb is hard at the start of a ride when you're fresh and the air is cool. It's absolutely brutal when you've been riding for over 4 hours and the temperature is hovering near 90 degrees. To make it worse, the road gets steepest at the top and fakes you out with several false tops - sections where you think this is the last climb only to discover another turn or three. If you can believe it, we were riding our granny gears near the top - on paved road! It was all I could do to keep from walking at that point. I wasn't too far behind Stephane and Frank on the climb, but I think I exhausted all resources getting to the top.
We then took Deer Park Road slowly over to the Indian Creek trail to head back the way we came to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. As we passed through the cattle gate into Cuyamaca my legs started to cramp. It was a slow granny ring climb up often loose and rocky singletrack. At times I just didn't have the strength left to muscle through the rocks and would have to dismount, hoping each time that my legs wouldn't freeze up on me when I unclipped. I'm sure this climb wouldn't be a big deal when you're fresh, but I was fried at this point. I was in full-on survival mode now. My legs were cramping, my biceps, triceps, and other muscles I don't know the name of were sore, and I couldn't keep the same hand position for more than 30 seconds because they were so sore and tired. After climbing through the high meadow singletrack of East Mesa I continued to grind it out until we reached the point where the fire road finally descends back to Cuyamaca.
Stephane and I took off descending while Frank pumped up his front tire again that was slowly leaking. I went as fast as my lack of energy allowed, trying to keep ahead of Frank, but I knew he'd catch me eventually. It actually took him longer to catch me than I expected, but it was no surpise. Every once in a while I'd hear my bike computer transmitter on the fork whacking the spokes because one of its straps had busted during my crash. As the road turned upwards at one point, my quads started to explode in cramps again. I tried pinching this spot above my upper lip that I'd read is an acupressure point that stops cramping but it didn't work. Shoot. At the bottom all I had left was the East Side singletrack that we started out on. The other 2 guys were long gone by then. Earlier Stephane had said that he hated to say it, but he was so tired that he wasn't even looking forward to this fun singletrack section. That's exactly how I felt. I didn't rip through the singletrack at all, just stuck it in the granny ring and gutted it out. I was looking at my bike computer thinking that I had about a mile more to go when I got to a downhill section that I knew was near the end. What a nice surprise! Relief! One more short pitch and I was done.
I had looked forward to this ride for quite awhile as a challenge and an adventure and it turned out to be all of that. I was so glad that I hadn't cheated myself and cut the route short like we had thought of doing at the intersection in Noble Canyon. I was also glad that we were finished. Back at the van, I guzzled a whole bottle of *cold* Gatorade in record time.
I've ridden over 100 miles of the Ironman bike course (day before the race) in the hot and windy conditions of Kona, and ridden over 8 hours on a fully loaded mountain bike touring the Pacific Coast, but I think this had to be the hardest ride I've ever done. We were out there for almost 7 hours with 5.5 hours of riding time covering 48 miles. I'm about 5 lbs lighter today than when I started yesterday so obviously I have a bit of hydrating to do.
Note: The photo links on this page are from San Diego Mountain Biking, http://mmc.usiu.edu/sdbiking/
