Friday ride up Lake Wohlford, Mt Palomar (S6) & Cole Grade: Part 1 of 2

Last Friday I got up at 4:30am to catch the 5:55AM bus up to Escondido to pre-ride the hardest section of the Giro di San Diego gran fondo route next Sunday (had to stop to see to a neighbor's dogs before leaving, hence the early wake up time). Long bus rides to remote cycling routes is the price one has to pay for not having a car, I'm afraid. I'm lucky that there's a bus connecting San Diego to Escondido, though. I wouldn't be able to get up there for less than $10 otherwise!

I had planned on taking off from Del Lago bus station in south Escondido by 7:10AM, though my bus driver was so safe she refused to go faster than 50 mph on the freeway even though the speed limit was 65 or 75... so I didn't get to there until 7:45AM. Thirty five minute didn't seem like much... until a few hours later when the sun started its attempt to melt me into a mushy goo climbing up the big mountain in the heat of noon. At 7:45AM it was still cool enough for me to keep my arms and legs warmers on, though, as I rode up Del Lago Blvd to Beethoven St and spotted the bike path entrance on the north side of the road.

Bike path between Kit Carson Park & Beethoven St in Escondido.

On the left side was Kit Carson Park. Looked much like an ideal start/finish place for rides up in this part of San Diego. There were a few joggers and dog-walkers using the path. Pavement was pretty good, though lots of brush debris that may hide tire-puncturing goat heads.

Bike path along east side of Bear Valley Pkwy

Turning north on Bear Valley Parkway past the San Pasqual turn off (you'd turn right there to go to the Zoo Safari Park) another bike path appeared on the right (east) side of the road. An extremely ill-maintained one this time, though I had to use it since the main road has no shoulder and the cars
were in the hurry to get to work. There was a bit of gentle climbing up the Bear Hills. A good warm up stretch before the turn off to Lake Wohlford Rd.

Bear Valley/Valley Pkwy at Lake Wohlford Rd

The real hills began going ENE on Lake Wohlford Rd, with the narrow road shoulder that were prone to pebbles of various sizes, slid down from the cliffs above. Aside from a couple of semi-trucks that whipped by me in a shower of dust and the dreaded bike-sucking slipstream (I'm never keen on being vacuum-pulled up a hill behind a truck when there are other trucks coming up behind me!), it was a nice 2 miles long ascent on a moderately scenic and pleasantly curvy road. The gradient was pretty consistent at 5-6% until the bridge near the top of the climb.

Lake Wohlford Rd

Lake Wohlford

Lake Wohlford turned up on the right (east) side of the road, looking all cool and majestic, and well visited by hawks and water birds. Alas, the place is now only open on weekends. Beyond the lake were a few restaurants and shops. I didn't stop since I still had plenty of water and the sun was getting hotter all the time.

Watch out for those cow crossings. They're grated irons across the pavement... almost as bad as railroad tracks.

After the lake, I descended into Valley Center and its dairy farm scent. The sun was getting high in the sky and the temperature was on the way up. Turning right onto Valley Center Rd toward Rincon I rolled down the most scary bit of riding for the entire day when the narrow and ill-paved road hugs the hill to the left and drops right down to the valley floor.

Cars and trucks trying to speed past on my left, a huge vertical drop to my right, and the road surface under my tires that looked and felt like it had caught a particularly virulent strand of small pox. The bike bounced around so much that it was all I could do to hang on for dear life. By the time Valley Center Rd finally leveled out my arms and legs felt like they had caught the spell Gilderoy Lockhart used in his attempt to mend Harry’s broken arm in ‘Harry Potter And The Chamber of Secrets,’ – quivery and quite practically boneless.

View of the mountains to the east of Valley Center Rd (S6)

Naturally I didn’t manage to get a photo of that stretch of the road… As it was, my favorite water bottle bounced its way off to Lalaland some way down the grade without me even noticing. I only found out about it when I reached down for a drink to find a whole lot of nothing being held by the down tube bottle holder. Annoyed, I was, though I wasn’t all that concerned since up ahead was the big building that was Harrah’s Casino at Rincon, a gas station and a 7/11 store where I popped in and downed a 6 chocolate donut package and a bottle of Gatorade before re-emerging with a fresh bottle of Sprite to serve as my second ‘water’ bottle (along with using the restroom and re-filling the other water bottle with tap water, of course).

Water stops at Rincon

I wasn’t familiar with the area, so I decided to fill up at the first opportunity I saw… The 7/11 store was well stocked and has a really nice and clean restroom, though food price was a bit steep. Next time I ride in the area I would try the Rincon Market down the road instead. Don’t know if it is better, but at least I’d be supporting local business.

Jilberto's Taco Shop on Hwy 76 just east of Valley Ctr Rd, the traditional start of Mt Paloma climb.

Turning right onto Hwy 76 I spotted Jilberto’s Taco Shop on the left side of the road that usually marks the start of Mt Palomar climb for local cyclists (from this point on the road goes up at 6% grade and doesn’t level out any until a little stretch just before the turn off to South Grade Rd).

It’s 17 miles to the top of the mountain from here. It was also 11AM and the sun was flexing its muscles a bit and I was starting to appreciate every little bit of shades the road side trees threw my way. A mile or so up the road was the turn off to Cupid’s Castle; the daft resort castle that you could actually spot from the road if you looked for it, which I did if only to mark it as the ‘a mile or so back to the Valley Center Rd junction’ landmark for the way down.

Hwy 76 climbs on and on east toward Mt Palomar.

Turns on the road didn’t bring any relief in its gradient. After what seemed like miles a green sign finally appeared on the side of the road marking 2000 ft elevation. At what elevation did I start riding from this morning? I had no idea! I knew that the top of Palomar Mtn was a bit over 5000 ft, though. That meant I had 3000 vertical feet yet to climb. An icky thought when my legs were already starting to feel a bit worn.

Spinning the next-to-easiest gear on up the road as my supposedly sweat-proof sunscreen started to melt into my eyes. The road seemed to be endless! It was supposed to be only 10 or so miles to the junction… but 10 miles on a 6% incline slope tend to dilate time a bit. But just as I started to seriously wondered if I had missed the turn off to South Grade Rd somewhere in my myopic ‘climbing a bit of the road at a time’ mode, the road leveled out (and even dropped a little bit, just enough for a little recovery coasting) and the turn sign turned up on the side of the road.

To be honest, as happy as I was to finally turn onto the S6 (South Grade Rd) up the mountain, I was even happier to see that the Oak Knoll Campground at the base of the road had a store that sold cold drinks! I was hoping for fountain drink (so I could put ice in the bottles), but they only had bottled drinks… But they were cold, and there was even a chest of ice cream bars, too (now you know why it took me so long to complete the loop. I kept stopping to eat!)!

Oak Knoll Campground general store.

Loaded with 2 ½ bottles of drinks (1 ½ bottles of Gatorade and 1 bottle of water) – I would have taken 3 full bottles, but my light backpack was already feeling like the big globe on Atlas’ shoulders – I turned back up South Grade Rd and immediately started suffering. It didn’t help that every few minutes I would hear a motor roar from above and one or a pair of motorcyclists in full body armor would come flying out of the blind curve up ahead.

Here comes another pair of speedy motorbikes roaring down South Grade Rd.

You know how some people can’t stand the sound of paper squeak or metal on metal rubbing? I can’t stand the sound of revving motorcycle engine… especially the unmuffled Japanese-made ones.

I don’t know why they put down a mileage marker every .2 mile instead of every mile, but it was tremendously helpful in getting me up that twisty road of endless aggravation! I kept promising myself that I’d quit and turn around at the next marker… I got to, say, mile 42.4. It’s at the left-turning switchback, so from the up-lane bike lane I got to take the shallowest incline around and the ride wasn’t feeling so bad. Let’s get to the next marker instead. Got to 42.6, feeling like dropping dead, but there was the 3000 ft elevation marker up ahead. Let’s get to that!

This road sign wasn't talking to me...

Now there... why not get to 42.8? 42.8 was at an icky right-turning switchback where the bike lane goes up the steepest line of the turn… but it would be so unseemly to quit just short of completing another mile! No, go to 43 even and then I can turn back! Got to 43… well the gradient must have dropped half a degree since my legs weren’t feeling so dead. Maybe I’ll make it further yet… Mile 43.2 marker; oh gosh, this is awful. I’m not gonna make it! But how unesthetic! Quitting at .2 beyond a mile? Let’s at least get nearly to 43 ½…. You know the story. I actually don't remember where on the road all the markers are, but that was how it went... Had to keep breaking promises to myself the further I went.

By the 3000 ft elevation sign, though, the most aggravating thing about the climb manifested itself… Dive-bombing kamikaze flies that will crash land on your face in their attempt at eating it! It was past noon now (my original 'turn around time') and I had been sweating up a deluge. The evaporated sweat left salt on my face that the flies found irresistible, so they swarmed around my head like a pack of bees after the Pooh bear. I only managed to get rid of most of them by splashing precious drinking water on my face to wash the salt off every so often.

Palomar Artesian Springs on South Grade Rd. All dried up in Sept 2012.

They used to charge 25 cents per gallon, I suppose. None of the faucets are working now. All the levers were removed.

Anyone of you that have heard of the Palomar Artesian Springs a mile or so before the top of the climb can stop counting on it as a source of water refill while climbing this route up the mountain. The levers were removed from all the water faucets. The place still constitute a nice resting spot with its shaded rock wells... I sat there for five minutes or so feeling quite utterly depressed. I didn't know how far I had still to climb and there was now only 2 gulps' worth of water left in my bottles.

(This is getting epic. Part 2 coming up in a bit)

San Diego Steep Streets: Climbing the Short City Mesas (Part 1)

For a city with no major mountain within its limit (Mt Soledad is really just a big hill rather than a proper mountain, I think. It takes only 10 minutes or so to drive up to its top... not exactly alpine!) San Diego boast a surprising number of hideously slopey streets. With its succession of mesas, there is hardly a flat stretch of cycling to be had once you get inland from the immediate waterfront.

Lemon St heading toward Mt. Helix

After my escapade of a first group ride where I spent a morning staring at the rear ends of a group of 'advanced' cyclists and got repeatedly dropped whenever we went up a hill I've spent hours on the bike riding up a lot of hills mostly south of the I-8 in the San Diego city limit. It's been great! I'm still no mountain goat on two wheels (though may sound strikingly like one when the grade gets higher than 15%), but after two weeks I'm no longer the terminal pudgy slowpoke that can't handle a double digit slope grade either. Here are some of the steepest streets and notable climbs that have played host to my (sometimes barely) spinning wheels so far:

Tide Pool Hill in Cabrillo. If you get there before the park opens at 9AM you can play on this climb for free. Once the park opens there is a $3 entry fee, tho the pass is good for 7 days.

Tide Pool Hill in Cabrillo: This stretch of Cabrillo Road between the proper Cabrillo National Monument and its famous tide pool is neither the steepest nor the longest non-mountain climbs in the area, but it is just steep enough (avg 7%) and long enough (.8 mile) to serve as something of a landmark climb for 'beginner' cyclists to graduate to the 'intermediate' rank. The road is beautiful! It's smoothly paved, and there isn't much car traffic, which is just as well since it's narrow-ish. I don't know how crumbly the cliff it is etched into is, but there are occasional rocks and pebbles on the cliffside shoulder, so watch out for those.

Juan St from Haney to the Sunset Rd bend is not fun going up or down.

Juan Street in Old Town: Probably the best known 'steep street' to even non-cycling city denizens, this .4 mile long (measuring from the uptick at the intersection with Haney St in Old Town where Heritage Park and the Mormon Battalion are past the S-curve to the top of the climb where Sunset Rd turns into Sunset Blvd) is testy both for its 10% grade and its straightness. There is a stretch of faux level about halfway up the hill that provides a bit of respite before the nastiness continues. The surface is concrete pavement with cracks and bitty bumps. The road itself is pretty narrow from the parallel-parked cars (worse when there is a fest going on in Old Town), and there is no bike-lane. There is good view of the bay and the San Diego River to be had once you get to Sunset Rd.

I first went up this thing on my old heavy mountain bike and had to stop 5 times in the up-going process. The last time I passed through - on a much lighter road bike now - I climbed it nonstop and put in 2 repeats for good measure, though. The third time up was hard going (didn't rest enough after coasting down the 2nd time), but a car was tailing me so I couldn't really stop. That was better than having a cheerleader! At any rate, Juan St doesn't haunt me anymore!

Presidio Dr at The Indian and the intersection at the top of Cosoy/Jackson St.

Presidio St & Jackson/Cosoy St in Old Town: Presidio Dr is probably the least painful cycling route up to Mission Hill from the river. The narrow and curvaceous 7% grader even provides a mid-stretch flat relief for beginner cyclists in the form of the Serra Museum parking lot. The route is scenic all the way (tho you probably won't notice much view huffing up it on a bicycle). Once past the Mormon Battalion Memorial hill (and the worst of the climb) you can continues to wind up to Mission Hills proper (to connect with Ft Stockton Rd) past the park area, or loop back down the hill on Cosoy St which turns into Jackson Rd halfway down and connects to Old Town by bearing left on Mason St or continue on down until it turns into Presidio Dr back up the hill again. If you are feeling like a steeper climb than Presidio Dr you can climb up Jackson/Cosoy from Mason St instead. It is a shorter way up and steeper at around 10% (harder toward the crest). Both routes are very narrow, though. No bike lane (in fact there's hardly enough room for cars to pass each other going opposite way on the slopes!). 

Juniper St Dip in South Park: This dip between Felton & Commonwealth is what happens when the city engineers opt to pave a road down and up a ravine between mesas rather than making a short bridge across the chasm! Unlike Juan St where the thrill of downhill riding is ruined by the 4-way stop sign near the bottom of the hill (at Haney Rd), there is no speed brake in between the top of the mesas that Juniper St spans (this is to the east of 30th Ave), making this stretch a fun sling-shot of a ride. Indeed, I imagine it would be quite nasty to climb up either side of the road if you choose to stop at its bottom. I think it is steeper going west than east, with the steepest part about halfway up the hill (about 13% via eye-balling... the climb isn't long enough for me to accurately measure its grade).

South Park's Juniper St dip, North Park's Polk St out of Florida, B St east of Downtown

Polk St between Florida and Georgia in North Park: I chanced on this short block of horror while coasting about the neighborhood a while back and decided to have a go. It has a grade of 17%, which may seem intimidating, but its brevity makes it easier to conquer than you might think. This was the first >15% climb I tried my wheels on (and have since became a favorite 'repeat hill' whenever I roll through this area). If you haven't cycled up this steep a grade before, the most unsettling thing about it may be the sensation that the bike is trying to fall backward on top of you. Once you've sprinted up it standing up a few times it actually gives you a good shot of adrenaline rush! The surface is smoothly paved concrete, and it's a normal city backstreet (which means there's a 4-way stop at the top and the bottom of the hill... don't just roll on past the crest without checking the cross traffic first!).

B St between 20th and 21st in Downtown/Golden Hill: I found out about this out-of-the-way steep stretch of B St reading Matthew Alice's list of steepest streets in San Diego on the SD Readers and decided to check it out the next time I rolled into Downtown. With all the one-way designation thingy down there it was a bit tricky getting to this little slope that bites. B street is a one-way west going road from 19th St toward the bay. East of that it is a normal two way city street... except for the 22.5% gradient for the city block between 20th and 21st, of course! I'm afraid there is no view to be had, and this isn't the only (or best) route out of Downtown to South Park. The only attraction is the nastiness of the slope... but that in itself isn't unique either. The next street on the list features a section that is just as steep, but with infinitely more interesting views both above and below.

Laurel St at State St (Reynard Way going north) in Bankers Hill.

Laurel St in Bankers Hill: Truth be told, there is a whole neighborhood full of way-too-vertical slopes in this part of town, but the nastiest of them all has to be the block of Laurel St between State and Union. At 22.5% grade the block is something of a monster. Taken as a whole, though, climbing up Laurel St from the airport to Balboa Park is actually a good sporting route! The steep 3-4 blocks from the I-5 underpass up are naughty, but then you hit leveled out intersections that provide good breaks in the exertion. The planes' final approach to the airport runs just south of Laurel, so you are buzzed every few minutes by commercial jets that seem to descend down the hill nearly low enough to give the palm trees a close shave. The view down to the bay (and airport) from the various parts of the road is awesome. Then when you get to Front St there are a few really beautiful historic Victorian Era houses to peruse.... And then you get to the top and continues on El Prado into Balboa Park, cycling over the Cabrillo Bridge and the park's Spanish-themed west gate. Laurel St is one climb you have to make at least once to be a serious cyclist in San Diego!

Upas St from Florida Canyon up to Park Blvd. A nasty looking bit of pavement, isn't it?

Upas St between Florida St and Park Blvd in Balboa Park area: The whole stretch of Upas St between Florida St and Park Blvd averages 10% grade, but the long section between the curve near the bottom of the hill to the crest is an icky 20% grader. It is longer than the likes of Bandini, Polk, or B St, though the gradual leveling near the top comes just in time for fit cyclists to get up this thing without stopping, I think. Upas is a delightfully pitchy road in its entire length. Cyclists can keep going west on it past the boy scout camp (the road is closed to cars from that point on) down the old service road that now serves as a hiking trail and over the bridge across I-163 and then up the steep hairpin climb on the other side to pop up right by Marston House on the north end of Balboa Park. I don't necessarily recommend it for road bikes, though. The trail section has a lot of loose gravel, sand, and other debris along with quite a few pot holes.

 

Bandini St between San Diego and California Avenues in Old Town/Mission Hills: Riding my mountain bike northwest on San Diego Ave toward Old Town one day I espied this really naughty block of steep road going up the hill on the right side and decided to try to pedal up it. That was a bad call that resulted in a rather undignified method of dismounting and a lot more cussing than my mother would have approved of. I've since gone up it a few times on the lighter road bike, though. Once you cleared that icky first section the going is much easier as the road twists its way up toward Orizaba St that connects to Sunset Blvd into Mission Hills proper. Gorgeous mansion houses and great view of the bay from all over the place. Street surface is smoothly paved all the way up, too, and traffic is very light. A nice route up Mission Hills for sportive riders!

Bandini St (25%) and Torrance St (26%) in Old Town/Mission Hills.

Torrance St between Keating and Pringle in Old Town/Mission Hills: Just a few blocks to the southeast, going up Keating St from where India St turns into San Diego Avenue there is a queue of nasty steep blocks connecting Keating to Pringle (a good climb on its own at 13% average grade to Washington Pl). The nastiest of them all is Torrance St at 26% average grade. The first time I tried to pedal up the thing I died about 3/4 of the way up (about 10 yds past the beginning of the tarmac section) and the bike just fell over sideways. I have since climbed it, but in a decidedly undignified manner via zigzagging.

That's enough steep hills to entice you for the day, I think. More listing of San Diego's steeply cyclidelic streets to follow in a bit...

San Diego's Steep Streets on Bicycle: Cabrillo Tide Pool Hill

There was a time in my youth when I lived in Temecula Valley an hour or so drive north of here and found it 'fun' to pedal my mountain bike up the mountains surrounding it before turning around for a good hair-raising twisty descent (if you get really aero, you can zoom past cars on your way down the S-curving stretch of Rancho California from Santa Rosa Mtn, for example)... before turning around for second serving. I'm not a youth anymore, though, and, except for one particular hill that I am having a feud with (a blog post on that coming up in a bit), had been avoiding the many little (but abrupt) hills of San Diego since taking up cycling again a few months ago... That was until I decided to go for a morning group ride up to Cabrillo Monument (and down to the tide pool) a week ago.

Cabrillo National Monument with Coronado Island & Coronado Bridge in background. (Jun 2012)

It was great! Everyone was very friendly... and fit. They went up Canon St to Catalina Blvd at so crisp a clip that I was dropped like a lump of slow-moving slug halfway up the thing. They all waited for me at the top of the climb (which sort of made me feel worse. I'd rather not slow other people down with my lack of fitness), and one even rode with me all the way to Cabrillo Park. It was still early in the morning then, and so we didn't have to pay entry fee to get through the gate. Everybody took the 'optional' ride down the hill to the Tide Pool. I took a deep breathe and went with them (I had cycled up the Tide Pool Hill once before on a mountain bike, and it was not a pleasant ride!).

Cabrillo Tide Pool in the misty morning hours. (Jun 2012)

The morning marine layer was in, so the view was more mystical than spectacular. I stopped on the ledge of the tide pool and took out my camera to stalk the lone white egret fishing on the shore, figuring to hang around for a while while my super fit fellows did what super fit fellows do, repeatedly sprinting up and coasting back down that icky long 7% grader for fun, when one of the fellows good-naturedly asked me how many repeats I planned on doing. RepeatS! I looked up at the climb up to the top of the peninsula in horror and said; 'Me? Going up that thing more than once just for the fun of it? Are you quite mad???'

Yes, yes, I know I need to shed a few pounds to keep from getting smoked up the hills by folks who dance on their pedals when the road gets vertical!

And so I did... repeat. Hahaha... Well, it wasn't all that funny when I was still huffing and puffing up the spine of Pt. Loma. It also didn't help that I kept getting smoked every few minutes by cyclists who didn't seem to notice that the road was not as horizontal as decent roads ought to be! At the start from the bend near the new light house the climb is gentle enough, but about a quarter of the way up - just when you start to get a decent view of the coast to your left - it kicks up a percent grade or two... and there is no respite whatsoever to be had until the leveling out at the very top as the road merges onto the park's entrance road. I had to pause twice from sheer fatigue more from the length of it than the steepness.

Up the Tide Pool Hill during park hours.

I should like to blame my repeat climbs (featuring 4 rest stops a piece rather than two) on peer pressure... but I really don't know if that would be justified. I've been repeating up a few nasty hills riding on my own in town ever since. It's a sort of madness that I thought I had grown out of since my Temecula days going east across the San Jacinto Mtn, south through Rainbow into the hills north of Escondido and Fallbrooks, or west up the Santa Rosa Mtn or to twisty Ortega Hwy almost every weekend. I've been up to Cabrillo twice since last week, and repeating the Tide Pool hill a few times (the last two times without stopping, so I no longer have a feud with this slope). Hills rejuvinate you once you get on top of them on your own power!