bikes, friends, MTB, travel, USA

Up early for a ride

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Somehow managed to wake up to hear the clock chiming five & suddenly remembered that I was to get up in five minutes for a big ride. Stumbled around the house – being the longest day, it was nice & light – getting ready & managed to force an extra piece of toast down & I was on the road before six. Met up at Chip’s house & we loaded our bikes on to the borrowed old Volvo (it has racks). Annoyingly burnt my tongue on the liquorice tea, & we arrived at the trail head (down the I8 again, towards where I rode at Big Laguna last week) fifteen minutes early & waited for the others to arrive. In the end, there were seven of us – me the youngest (easily having less than half the years accumulated as the most senior), a couple of guys on singlespeeds – one a very nice custom titanium 29er.

Started off at 8.00 & it was a little chilly as we cruised along some singletrack not too far from the road. After a while we started to climb a little & I was impressed to see the singlespeeds leading the way – usually the case, I remember having to just go at hills & not being able to cruise. Found a big rock for first rest stop.

The whole area we were riding in was destroyed by wildfires in 2003, so there weren’t a lot of sizeable trees around, but the scrub has had a few years to regenerate. It’s a bit of a blur, but we did a lot of climbing (middle-ring the whole way for me, so not too difficult) on some nice singletrack – quite dusty, but otherwise fine.

I think we started at about 3000 ft & eventually we crossed the Sunrise Highway (~5000 ft) & continued climbing on the singletrack. Stopped a couple of times for a rest & for the tourist to take photos:

By now we were looking out towards the edge of the desert (further north of the one we drove through to go camping last week).

Some of us felt that we should leave the Perfect Cycling Trail & hike-a-bike up to the road. Unfortunately, this was twenty minutes of clambering, pushing, carrying through scrub getting very scratched legs. Probably the hardest part of the day for & somewhat draining. We rode up the Sunrise Highway for a few miles, down a bit & back on to singletrack. What followed was pure bliss – we must have had two or three miles of downhill & it started out nice & dusty (of course) & twisty & then proceeded to get rockier & rockier – it was great fun barrelling down there. The closest I came to riding off the side of the hill was looking up & seeing Billy two or three hundred yards down the trail & trying to work out if I could catch him. I put my head down after that & concentrated on staying on the trail a bit more – the rocks got bigger & combined in some nice chutes, where having suspension soak up the occasional poor line was comforting. Pleasingly, I managed to catch Billy right at the end of the downhill & we sat & waited under a tree for the others to turn up. Those few miles were fantastic & the riding (& perhaps, the) highlight of my trip so far.

Having regrouped & rested we begun the climb out of the valley on singletrack & eventually were riding up & down a meadow. The dust turned quite slippery here – I’m used to dry surfaces being grippy in NZ, but here I’d hit a switchback too fast (as it turned out) & my front wheel would just slide as if on slippery clay – I managed to turn front wheel inside out once or twice, but somehow stayed upright. One final rest stop before we hit the fire road down all the way to the car – it was quick. I’m still not a big fan of the High Rollers, there were quite a few instances during the day when I think the Nevegals would have helped me out a lot more. First puncture of the day for Cliff about ten minutes from the cars; once that was repaired we easily finished the six hour epic – 27 miles all up. That was about the limit of my endurance, up the last little rise (which was nothing compared to what we had already done) I found myself chopping back to easier gears & struggling up the hill. Got home & realised I was covered in dust – a great glove mark:

& it was just as well I didn’t get talked in to having a pedicure the day before – this is through MTB shoes & socks.

Big nap & watched Master & Commander – as I had been on the HMS Surprise a couple of days before. Must pack & plan & organise a few things (rather, everything) for my road trip today.

city, engineering, history, travel, USA, vehicles

Ships – of various shapes, sizes & uses

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With no bike rides planned, it was off to the San Diego Maritime Museum yesterday. The museum has eight historic vessels – the oldest being laid down in 1863. The main part of the museum (displays relating to the US Navy in SD, passenger ferries between SD & Coronado, fishing industry, navigation & so on) is housed in an old steam ferry. I easily spent a couple of hours looking at the displays & the upper deck, which was the main passenger seating area – for a twenty minute trip to Coronado, it was quite spacious & bordering on ornate. The next couple of hours were spent cruising around the harbour on a small pilot vessel (named Pilot, strangely enough) with a very informative talk from an ex-Navy guy. The much-mentioned “June Gloom” was in full force & for the first time since I arrived in SD the morning cloud didn’t lift in to a brilliantly sunny & warm day – just as well I’m from NZ & I am in the habit of taking clothes along on trips on the off chance the weather may change. One of the highlights of the cruise was going past the USS Nimitz, at over 330 metres long it somewhat dwarfed our 52′ vessel. An impressive sight to say the least.

Also neat to go around the other naval & commercial vessels (not as many in port as in Portsmouth last year) & under the Coronado bridge – this bridge was the death of the commuter ferries & is really quite tall to let the war ships pass underneath.

The guide also pointed out the San Diego Toolbox – sky scrapers that resemble common tools if you use your imagination a bit. There were two flat-screwdrivers/chisels (depending on which way one’s imagination went), a Phillips screwdriver & a set of hex wrenches. I was impressed that such an effort managed to be coordinated.

Back to land for a brief moment before checking out HMS Surprise which was a replica & was used in the film “Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World” – this was OK, but nowhere as impressive as HMS Victory. I was however impressed by going on B-39, an ex-Soviet submarine. As far as I remember, I have never been on a submarine – this one was 300 feet long, diesel powered & commissioned in 1974. Naturally, it was all very cramped & the watertight doorways were difficult to get through with a backpack on. I was suitably baffled by all the controls as they were in Russian & thought it must have been quite difficult to cope with only three toilets on board when there was a crew of seventy. Apparently vodka was banned on board (is this really a Russian sub?), but the crew was given white wine instead – when the museum took possession of the sub, about three-hundred bottles of vodka were found secreted in various places around the sub.

Torpedo tubes

Making my way out of the sub (it’s a lot harder to get lost in a submarine than parts of SD Zoo it turns out), it was off to the Star of India:

This 1863 ship is the oldest vessel that is still sailed – & was one of the first iron hulled ships. She started life as a cargo ship sailing from Britain to India, then spent over twenty years transporting emigrants from Britain to NZ (21 circumnavigations), at the end of the 19th century it was off to bring salmon down from the Bering Sea to California until 1923 – she has been in San Diego since then. Of course, it was of most interest to me that she had carried thousands of Britons to a new life in NZ. I was fascinated & somewhat humbled to see & read about the small cabins & life on such a voyage that Pheasants, Montgomeries, Wallaces (& others of which I forget the surnames) must have endured as they made their way to NZ. That concluded the maritime museum, & it was quite a walk to go & find some lunch. But well rewarded, with my first bagel in the States – delicious. After that very late lunch, there was just enough time for a very rushed tour of the USS Midway.

So after the confines of the Russian sub, the USS Midway seems even larger than it normally would appear – that is, it seems bigger than huge. Commissioned at the end of WWII, it went on to serve until 1992 (was flagship of Persian Gulf air operations in Desert Storm – I thought that quite impressive for a WWII era ship). Unfortunately, I only had the two hours before closing to get a quick glimpse at most everything – but it was fascinating. Just a few numbers to try & convey the vastness of it & because that’s the kind of guy I am:

  • 220000 hp
  • 69000 tons total weight
  • 2000 electric motors
  • 1500 telephones
  • 20 ton anchors
  • 4 acre flight deck (three inches thick)
  • 3400000 million gallon fuel capacity, 100000 gallons used daily, 260 mpg
  • Crew of 4500
  • 10 tons of food a day – 225 cooks & so on

But of course, all that doesn’t really compare to walking around the hangar & flight deck, up to the bridge & then down a bit the galley, wardrooms (officers’ facilities), laundry, sick bay & ICU. Pleasingly, there were also 25 historic aircraft on board – fighters, bombers, choppers, fixed-wing radar. I’m still amused every time I see a Skyhawk here that they are described as being very useful in the 1960s, yet NZ used them until the combat air wing was discontinued in the last ten years & still has some sitting in an glofiried garage somewhere.

Out for dinner Friday night as Anna-Marie is shortly off to Norway & England & other parts of Europe for four weeks. Italian fare was great – almost a year since Tuscany (which must mean my bike turned two a couple of weeks ago). Nice big sleep in Saturday & then chilled out, finished reading Tom Sawyer, due to the “June Gloom” setting in – I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that phrase in the last two weeks – just as well I missed “May Gray” weather. Five of us drove up to Orange County, Google Maps has been blamed for getting us lost, four came back – Anna-Marie should be well on her way to Norway by now, it’s a little quieter around here.  Back home & in bed by midnight, eager to get up again in five hours for a big ride.

bikes, city, MTB, travel, USA

SD Zoo & two more rides

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The day off from sightseeing today – I get a bit sick of it & today’s early start hasn’t helped my energy levels (it may have been the three hour well-paced ride this morning). Yesterday I went off to the renowned San Diego Zoo nice & early. I’m not much of an animal person, but it’s a great place & it exceeded my expectations. Particular highlights were the reptile house & all the snakes, lizards & komodo dragon.

Also, was pleased to see a different kind of pheasant (Malay Great Argus) – the photo is a little poor through the netting. And I spent a good while looking at the kiwi foraging in the dark – I don’t remember ever having seen one so close in NZ (that’s not to say it didn’t happen – only I may have been quite young).

The new elephant enclosure was pretty good – but it’s not quite the same as seeing them roaming the streets in Thailand or Nepal or even going for a trek on one. Giraffes have always been a particular favourite of mine, so it was cool to see some tall-tall ones & some short-tall ones (the youngest being only a few months old).

The gorillas were good to watch as well & a special mention must be made of the polar bear. I have never seen one so playful & active – all the ones I have seen in exhibits (or anywhere for that matter) have looked rather bored. This one had oversized ball to play with in its enclosure. It was a big day of walking & some pretty decent hills in there too – so I hopped on the Skyfari cable car to get back to the top – as you can see it’s a big zoo:

Back home & a brief refuel (for me, not the car) & then off to meet another MTBer from mtbr.com . We rode for about an hour and a half on some tracks that are supposedly off limits (“I mentioned it once – but I think I got away with it”) – not that you would know, we must have seen thirty other riders out there. Some nice rocky & dusty trails up a canyon (interrupted by a brief mechanical – Allen managed to bend a tooth on his granny ring perpendicular to where it should be – this in turn caused shifting problems & then broke the chain – just as well I had a breaker & Missing Link), before we went up a side canyon under a pretty canopy. Quite a nice middle-ring climb with a few technical bits to keep it interesting. Reached the top of the mesa & then we hit one of the five routes down. Really tight trail with very low overhanging twisted trees – reminded me a little of beech forest riding in the South Island. The first route downhill went for ever & it was a lot of fun. Reaching the bottom, we went up the same route & down a different one – this one was even closer & more technical – good fun, but a bit shorter & didn’t seem to flow as well.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was up at 5.30 this morning for another ride (the one that got canned on Tuesday). Drove about twenty minutes to meet another mtbr.com mate. After a bit of tuning (my brakes don’t squeal quite as much now), we were riding by 7 o’clock. A few miles of road before we hit Mission Trails, then under another freeway before we hit the outskirts of the same Marines air base as Monday – this time on the opposite side & well away from anything. The riding was extremely hard packed drit trail with a few ruts left over & the odd rocky patch. Hard & fast. A nice long series of switchbacks to climb a fair way & then the switchback went all the way down – some were quite gnarly & very dusty, rocky & rutty. Started to miss 2.3 tyre on the front when I almost lost the second corner, but no problems after that – just fun. Continued winding our way up the valley/canyon for a while with a few pinch climbs. Reached a gate & decided since it was 9 o’clock, it was time to head back. Big chain ring down a lot of the path back down & really starting to enjoy the rocks. With a brief mechanical stop (it turns out the pivot in Chip’s Blur had snapped) & a couple of good climbs, we were home at 10.00.

Popped in to the SDPD Northern District HQ to try & get my stolen money back – apparently I have to wait until Monday 3 pm when we go over the scene of the crime with the DA & detective. Which is a bit of a pain in the butt, as I was planning on driving to Vegas that day – it will be a late night, but which night in Vegas isn’t?

A bit worn out & not wanting to do the tourist thing again just yet – I drove Chris out an hour east on I8 to pick up the van – which has had its radiator replaced. It got back safely & our eventful camping trip can finally be put to rest.

bikes, city, history, MTB, travel, USA, vehicles

A car, a ride & a few museums

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Hopefully a quick update before bed tonight – it was a restless night & early morning. Yesterday was pretty uneventful – read a bit of Mark Twain (thought I better start one day), picked up my rental car – it’s a black Dodge Avenger that easily swallows the bike in the trunk (which is the main thing of course), has some interesting build quality & unfortunately for the size of it, is underpowered (2.4) & mated with a good old jerky automatic gearbox (sure beats riding all over town though)

– & went for another ride. This ride was much closer to home with one of the guys I met on Sunday, generally around Rose Canyon – we crossed railroad tracks, scrambled under the freeway, clambered up & down canyons, bushwhacked where the trail was overgrown, crossed the bottom end of a military base (the Topgun one incidentally) – a good work out for almost two hours & all only five minutes from home.

Monday morning up bright & early (5.30), bike in the car & off for another ride. Surprisingly, it rained a little in the night & I was not expecting that the ride would be cancelled because there was a small chance of rain. Nevermind, there is always Thursday morning!

So the cancelled ride freed up the rest of the day & I was off to Balboa Park to check it & some of the museums out. The park is one of the oldest in the States & 1200 acres, home to numerous museums & the world famous San Diego Zoo. Many of the buildings along El Prado were put up for the 1915 Panama-California Expo (that was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal) & are Spanish themed & are pretty darn cool.

I went to four museums – the San Diego Air & Space Museum (heaps of cool old planes & space stuff – suits, Apollo 9 command module), I quite enjoyed this as it had a lot of modern history in it; the San Diego Automotive Museum, this was OK – too many hotrods, but the old original cars were quite neat (but I rate the old Te Puke Vintage Auto Barn higher); the Fleet Science Center – was OK also, lots of hands on sciencey stuff; & lastly the Museum of San Diego History – the smallest of the lot, but I loved it & finding out more of the history of the people of San Diego.

Booked a room in Las Vegas for the start of my road trip next week. The plan keeps changing, but hopefully two nights in Vegas, two or three in Southern Utah for riding & visiting Grand Canyon (North Rim), a day riding in Mammoth, riding around Tahoe somewhere, a bit of sightseeing in San Fransico & then come back to San Diego down the coast. I’ll just have to see how much I can fit in & how much driving I can take (that’s getting close to 2000 miles).

Bed & hopefully a better night’s sleep calls – off to the zoo tomorrow.

Biking to go places, going places to bike.