So we went camping over the weekend & threw out a few e-mails for some friends to come meet us & go for a ride Sat.

Shad,Dustin,Karen,B-Rad & myself all headed out for the ride.

First Off, Never ridden Cuyamaca, WOW, beautiful, place is SSSSOOO underrated.

So we leave TT & ride up the road to East Mesa Fire Rd. Climb to the Oakzanita Trail. Ride up to Oakzanita Peak. Beautiful View AWESOME trail to & even better view at the top. A definite go to on a ride out there.

Took in the views & decided to carry on on East Mesa Fire Rd. We are cruising along through the meadows & I'm taking pics of the surrounding place. We go to leave & as Shad pedals, Snap, broken rear hanger. Guess who doesn't have a spare rear hanger, did you say Shad, right. Spent time making it to SS, later on he tols us it didn't work the chain kept coming off.

So the trail guide tells us to go ahead without him. Dustin & I haven't been here before. Karen & B-Rad have.The say continue on this trail & it spits you out at the fire road to Indian creek to Noble.Brain didn't compute what they said, get to the bottom of the trail & here we are looking at Indian Creek trail, to go up to Noble.

OK problem, Dustin has ridden only for the past few weeks, so I say how do we get back, they say turn around & back track or go up Deer Park rode & go left at the fork. WARNING THIS WHERE THINGS GO BAD!

So up Deer Park Rd we go, the gnats were horrible on the climb up, we climb to a fork in the road, I see downhill left & uphill right. Excited about the DH left, was short lived aas Karen & B-Rad say we have to go right. Again i don't know where I am so I go along. Lets just say on the climb up the ling Fire Rd, ole Dustin, just doesn't have the legs no more they're Jello. He walks. I walk with him, he tells me to go ahead, but hey it's a group ride. The climb was long & walking was not helping.

We finally made it to the top to the relief of Dustin who informs me we, he is out of water.As wedescend down for a bout a mile maybe I see karen & B-Rad waiting at a single track trail head. Take this & we end up on Sunrise Highway, two miles North of Noble. This is bad. This is really bad. Dustin is out of water & we are on Sunrise Highway.

Karen goes across the street & bums so water & gives all she could to Dustin. So we head North on Sunrise Highway to La Cima Fire Road. Karen goes again to find more water. Stops at the hang gliding place & fill's her Camelbak & brings back 4 medium size water bottles.SCORE. You rock Karen AKA Water Girl.Meantime Dustin is trying to get cell service to call his wife to pick him up. No Service, Noone's picking you up.

So pound the pavement get to La Cima do the Green Valley Fire Trail, & end up at camp Cuyamaca9sixth grade camp) To the relief of Dustin he could see a paved road. Did the Westside trails, but no more legs for east side trail.

Pounded the pavement & got back to TT.

Total mileage 32 miles & 6 hours.

What I had in mind 15-20 3-4 hours.

Dustin who six weeks ago couldn't do 4 miles, 4weeks ago did his first 12 miles, 3 weeks ago did 17 miles & that's the farthest he has MTB all at Sycamore down the middle.

Saturday 32 miles with a bunch of climbing, I felt bad so I called him Sun & he said he went on a 12 mile ride He's a trooper.

It was a blast riding with everyone, was not prepared for the mileage, food wise, but felt strong was not tired & had alot of legs in me when we were done.

Thanks to Shad, Dustin, Karen, B-Rad for going it was a blast looking back on it now.

For sure going back, place is UNDERRATED, saw hardly any MTB tracks on the trails, it is absolutely stunning up there right now.

Here's some pics..


On the way up to the trailhead





Trailhead Entrance








MMM Oakzanita Trail to Oakzanita Peak, Karen calls the Magic trail as it feel your going downhill riding it both ways.



Steve doing the Patrol & B-Rad



Dustin & Shad at the right before the oakzanita trailhead.





Self portrait



Destination Oakzanita Peak

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Nice report Luna, I don't think I've done that part of Cuyamaca, you'll have to show me those trails one of this days.

At the top of oakzanita Trail



Watergirl



Dustin has no idea whats in store for him hear, he should be on the phone saying pick me up at Sunrise Highway while he staill had service



B-Rad telling Watergirl lets climb to Sunrise Highway



This is when the ride turns South, err I mean North literally.



Got Rear Hanger?



The dreaded fork in the road



Sorry for the lack of pics from the fork in the road, we climb up to Sunrise Highway, pound the pavement to La Cima & started at the trailhead Green Valley



Watergirl ripping up the water crossing.









It was a great time look forward to riding up there again the future.

Here's all the photos if you want to look.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v727/ ... ?start=all

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Thanks bajafresh, I think a bunch of us are doing the OCT. 12th Poker ride up there.

For sure need to do a ride up there, it is a blast.

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This is pretty much the route I am going to do (viewtopic.php?f=2&t=642) but I am going to go up Indian Creek, I've done that fire road before and it is a long grind. You would have been really pissed if you would have taked a left at the fork it dead ends about a mile down (I made that mistake before)

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A mountain biker who doesn't ride road has no legs
A road biker who doesn't ride mountain has no soul

Good thing we didn't go left then.

it was clear blue skys sun shining & nice cool breeze, it was so scenic & surreal I really didn't pay attention if I was tired or not, because I was soaking it all in.

Your ride will be awesome, absolutely stunning to ride there. I know ours was.

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Nice TR luna. Oakzanita Peak is a real nice place and a great reward when you get to the peak. Was the "mailbox" there? It is a climber's register that was an ammo box, that got lost, then a buddy of mine dragged a big plastic box up there to replace it several years ago. I've found all kinds of things in there.

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"We'll ride it until they pave it."

-Big Clyde

Hey, Dustin the "Noobie" here. Thanks for the great ride Greg, B-Rad and my new hero CrazyK for hookin' it up with the water. That was more grinding than I've ever done and the legs were done but that's alright, good times made up for it. The views were freekin ridiculous out there, can't wait to go back.

Dustin glad you joined buddy.

It was a blast, glad your looking forward to doing it in the future.

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