San Diego Sunday Ride

My friend David and I went out on an epic ride yesterday with the intention of hitting at least two of the ‘famous’ San Diego roads I keep hearing about. Well, we ended up hitting more than just two.

(Photo by Rick Clemson)

Our ride was a great one indeed, over 200 miles (I lost track) and countless amazing views. Ramona -> Old Julian Hwy to Santa Ysabel -> Mesa Grande to Lake Henshaw -> 76 -> South Grade to Palomar -> lunch -> Palomar State Park -> East Grade -> 79 to Santa Ysabel -> 78 to Julian -> 79 to Sunrise up Mt. Laguna -> Hwy 8 all the way back to San Diego.

We headed into Santa Ysabel to grab gas- apparently this is a very good “home base” out of which to operate for rides in the area. This becomes painfully (and joyously) apparent when you’re there for more than five minutes. A whole line of bikes, coming and going, some hanging out for a while.

Palomar was absolutely awesome, insanely tight turns (road could be nicer) for seven miles. We went up South Grade, and I came around a corner to see photographer Rick Clemson (rickclemson.com) with his camera locked in on riders. He snagged two rad shots of me- one up above and one below (thanks man)!

Up at the top I met Tony who had this bad ass early ’80s Yamaha SR500, he came over to check out the Ascot because he also has an affinity for singles.

This tree was absolutely amazing. Huge.

What’s that David? A bird, a plane… a totally amazing tree?

After I chowed down on a grilled cheese with avocado (mmm) we headed down to the State Park to check out the view.

There were so many amazing views once we left the park, I had to pull over for a few more photos. It was such a clear day we could see Point Loma and Los Coronados in Mexico.

The air was unbelievably cold up on Mt. Laguna- David and I were freezing our fingertips off.

But we snagged a pic anyway before hopping on the 8 and heading home. Sunset on Sunrise was chilly, but beautiful.

Traffic returning from Thanksgiving weekend trips was heavy- we ended up having to lane split for 15 or so miles. I will never, ever want to go back to sitting in traffic… not that I enjoyed it before or anything.

SoCal, I love you.

☣