This Sunday Driver (ride report and quiz)

[MacDuncan 131]

Decided to go out on a loop today, solo, with the goal of not over-lapping pieces of the route. 7 hrs, 232 miles in true Dual sport fashion.

The veterans here likely know it all from memory, so just for fun, I will present it as a quiz.  Check your scores with the route pic at the end.

Can you vision the route as I describe it?  Ready? 

Cool gray gloomy 7am start at Gillespie Field. My new to me Bike sounds nice, and smooth...

Staircase randomly across El Cajon to get to Washington so I can drop down Dehesa to Singing Hills golf course, enjoy the smooth windy roads that eventually take me by Sycuan Casino...

Enjoy the beautiful twisties that lead up to the back of Alpine, turn right and roll by Loveland Reservoir...

In the chill, and the fog, find that best set-up while traveling at speed that allows me to see the road and keep the inside of helmet from fogging up...  And be a bit grumpy that I cant leave the shield a quarter inch open because the wind on new bike hits me right on the nose and keeps closing the shield when I pick up speed...

Wonder about the wet roads and how slippery they may be if I want to open it up a bit, especially as it has actually started raining as I passed Lyons Valley turn off... but keep on Japutal Valley towards Descanso

Slow down as visibility is down to about 50 yards as I roll through cloud/fog....

Youza, right as I pass under Hiway 8, the sky opens up to bright sunshine... spectacular... but dropped a few more degrees..

Followed some slow movers on 79, but no problem as they all may turn towards Cuyamaca... they did, so I enjoyed the climb up to Guatay...

Dropped down the hill towards Pine Valley, and took the first turn on Pine Creek road....  Dang... 36 degrees here... I left my Hippo Hands at home    bumped along in the dirt, and slowed down as I tight turned the paved section up to the big Oak tree...  Dang, the gate going north on Deer Park is locked...  so cruised up through the trees on Pine creek...  hmm, lots of campers, more than I usually have seen...

Hit Sunrise hiway and opened it up on my way to Cuyamaca Lake..I could feel the warmth from the desert to the east, so now a nice 46 degrees..A brief look to my right while on the ridge allowed me to see where I hoped to be in an hour... Blair Valley.

A bit surprised that the clouds were still covering Julian.... as it was crystal clear on Sunrise Hiway.. zipped into the clouds,, and then quickly out of them as I turned to the desert to go down Banner Grade.

Very appreciative of the folks who worked hard to pull over and let me by, but I didn't know how to tell them "all good" as I was turning at Banner to ride dirt and rock over  Mason Truck and then Oriflamme. 

Zipped onto the dirt and opened the closed gate, and closed it after letting a jeep cruise by. I quickly caught the jeep and they pulled over cordially.  Pretty smooth until the descent..  I worked a little harder on this dual sport given smoother tires, other than knobs in the rocky terrain that included some stair like drops on occasion.. and slower travel mostly because my skid plate was only a bit thicker than aluminum foil... so kept a look out and was cautious.

Hmm, kinda nice that it was easier at the bottom than in year's past as someone has made a nice road that parallels the wash, so oriflamme exit was much easier...

Nice zip zam zoom once on tarmac, then up to Blair Valley, in and around the lower valley, and a cut across to upper, and then around upper valley  to exit the valley from the upper corner to get back to S2 on a different road...  Then S2 to scissors... turn right.

Then a buzz east down 78, passed the left turn to Grapevine as I had other plans...  Pulled over to let a sport tourer moto traveling at 3 digits pass me like I was standing still, and continued into the narrows canyon looking to the left for the turn onto Old Borrego Valley Road.

Dropped into the sand and rock mix and followed for a short while until the turn to follow utility poles, instead of following Marrows road.  Nice bumpy mix-match of rock and sand (and 86 degrees) to get to Borrego Springs road proper.

Buzzed down to Yaqui pass road, turned left, and flew up and over the pass to Tamarisk Grove Campground. Note that like a few other times on this route, I may have come close to overlapping, but did not cross prior routes on the journey...

Turned right on Yaqui Wells road and headed to Grapevine... a Nice standing route while in the beauty of the desert.. It had been graded, easier for me today, but I missed  the road of old because I knew some of the strategies to get through some tricky stuff when it was almost single track (including that one rock that was always hidden by that one bush... ouch for many).

Zipped over to Culp, hopped on to the Montezuma grade S22, and then up and over to the yeti...  and quite sad that the market burned down this week...  I looked for signs that might mention how to support those folks... but didn't see any mention of the community gathering to help yet. 

A smooth cruise, although quite windy, over to S2, San Filipe Rd. and a turn right to 79.  Gas light started blinking, so a zip over to Warner Springs for some fuel.  A U-turn, and then, all of a sudden,  on the way to Santa Ysabel, around noon, there were about 45 - 55  motorcycles..solos, small groups, and big groups... heck, you had to ride one handed just to wave to them all . maybe one of them was you   and it was slow go too... heck, after a full morning of having the roads to myself to travel at any speed I wished, I found myself in a Geico commercial.... haha. Maybe they all are magnetized to the Hideout.....

Patience, and nice that all motos and cars were going west, or actually into Dudleys or the Pie company in Santa Isabel, but I went east back towards Julian, 

A right turn on Pine hills road before Julian and a meander my way to Eagle Peak.  I was getting a bit knackered and was really hoping the gate was open, so I cruised down 13S06 to the dead end.... so nice, The gate was open and I really enjoyed the ride on Cedar Creek, and such a nice reward to buzz along that route to get back to Boulder Creek. 

The 3 sisters trail Head was very busy, but I cruised by the folks and rolled along Boulder Creek.  It is so dang nice to hit the tarmac, recently paved, ands lean into the corners...  just as I caught some cars, they went left and I went right, twice, and rolled down Goudie rd.  Never knew that name as I always call it Viejas Grade.  Was a bit tired so hopped on the hiway 8 to cruise back to Gillespie Field.  

7 hrs, 232 miles... some of it a 3 mph    

 

How did you do on the quiz?  100%- Knew every turn??  Old news for many, I know, but maybe a good route for those new to san diego on adventure bikes. Here is the pic, Cheers 

 

[Zubb 1061]

We could overlay or maps and they'd match up for much of this. 😁

[MacDuncan 131]

Zubb, I figured as much, that it would be, from our chat last week.  Your Saturday ride with your gang was quite close to my solo loop on Sunday. As mentioned before, I did see some fresh tire tracks of a big bike that went a little wide on some of those dirt turns.....  but I did too  😬  (not you of course!).  I thought it would be about 6 hrs, but I was a little slow on some of the deeper sand and rocky steps.... not quite as easy compared to a 525 on the rough stuff. But on the hard pack, and the tarmac...... oh my    .  It really is a nice local loop when you wake up early and need an adventure ride moto outing out of San Diego. Cheers.

[Zubb 1061]

Yes, this is a GREAT day ride/loop.  Pretty nice for the big bikes if I subbed in Rodriguez for Mason Valley.  The rocky drops slowed the crew down some.  The sand in lower Grapevine is a hoot but requires confidence and a steady dose of roost juice.  Failure to comply results in tracks gone wild as you saw first hand in our signatures.

Funny thing about going out on good rides. . . . they just make you wanna do it again.

[SirLancelot 2]

Looks like a great loop, can you provide the GPX files for those of us that are newer?

[MacDuncan 131]

Sorry SirLanceLot, that route is done often so I didn't save the tracks (mostly because my GPS list gets too big too quick if I save them all, and I then end up scrolling through lists on the side of the trail like a numb nut while trying to find the correct route - grrr. ). If you are a track builder, it should be quite easy given the narrative above as I may have come pretty close to stating each turn with names... which was on purpose to help newer folks.  I didn't think about tracks.  When I do it again, I can PM them to you, or I may be able to piecemeal them as I do not always do that entire route. Some folks may PM them to you if they have them.  Or print the descriptions and explore   That would be an adventure - haha. 

[Zubb 1061]

18 hours ago, SirLancelot said:

Looks like a great loop, can you provide the GPX files for those of us that are newer?

PM me your email.  I'll send them over from Rever.