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Update on trail work in Mt. Laguna area, San Diego May 2021

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Discussion starter · #83 ·
Congratulations to Ian, winner of One Up flat pedals courtesy of Cal Coast Bicycles! Ian has been a great volunteer for us, putting in the hard work to make Mt. Laguna more fun! Thanks Ian and thanks to Cal Coast Bicycles, long time supporter of our efforts!

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We managed to get this in before the storms....(Upper Noble before the 2nd road crossing!) - Ian in action
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As usual, when coming across downed trees in the Mt. Laguna area, please take photos from both sides of the trail, note the diameter of the tree trunk, and pin the location so we can locate it.

Here is a big one we cleaned up midweek...(before)
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AFTER
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Please consider supporting our efforts to improve your ride in Mt. Laguna. We need more helpers on our work days to get things done!
 
Discussion starter · #84 ·
Great news for us!!!

Proud to announce our new beer sponsor! Mike Hess Brewing will be providing beer for our post trail work refreshments (thanks Greg)!

This is in addition to Cal Coast Bicycles, our long time bike shop sponsor (thanks to Charlie for supporting us all these years!)

Also, The Lost Abbey will also have beer for us on our combined trail (Road) work of cutting back the brush on the paved Pine Creek Road on Sunday March 26

If you ride up Pine Creek Road to get to Indian Creek, Noble, BLT, we need your help to clear the brush along the road. This is a joint effort with SDMBA and the runner's group Trail Fit to improve access from Pine Valley to Penny Pines, etc.


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Additionally, even before today's cold storm, many of the trails still had snow/ice on them and a lot of muddy spots. I don't recommend riding up there for at least 3 weeks. It will be a mess for a while.
 
Discussion starter · #86 ·
Cold and raw work day on Sunday, thanks to the hearty crew who braved the weather to create better trails up on Mt. Laguna!!


Enjoying Mike Hess Brewing Co. post work and passing out swag from Cal Coast Bicycles
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Still very messy and icy out there on the higher elevations. Muddy in the usual areas, please ride the low land trails for probably a couple more weeks. The snow and ice are melting but the areas that stay shaded because of tree cover take much longer to dry out.
 
Discussion starter · #87 ·
We cleared out a bunch of trees on Noble. There is still significant snow on Upper Noble near the peak coming out of Penny Pines. The BMX spur off of BLT is a total mess, stay away. Lots of water running down in the canyon. The problem isn't the depth of the water crossings, it is the speed of the current. If you do ride Noble, expect to get wet up to your knees with mud and yuck. Pine Creek Road was closed at Sunrise Highway and in Pine Valley. Water overflowing the little bridge as you enter the Noble Canyon trail head in Pine Valley. With this rain the next few days, I would recommend staying away until mid to late April.


Upper Noble near Penny Pines
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BMX spur off of north BLT
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Noble Canyon trail head at Pine Valley
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Second major water crossing on Noble
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Discussion starter · #88 ·
Good and bad news regarding the BLT and offshoot trails...
Good news - 90% of the trails are either dry and amazing or hero dirt and amazing.
Bad news - 10% are a mud bog. Like walking into ankle deep or deeper plus tearing up the trail. Basically all the low lying areas suck.

I would advise not riding anywhere near the Water of the Woods area. Nor crossing over from the bottom of the Chico Ravine trail along the fence line to get back to the Sunset parking area (where cars park on both sides of the road).

I would not start at the Sunset trailhead, things get really messy once you descend into the meadow area. Penny Pines would be fine (and dry), Wooded Hill ok, Red Tail Roost (although the trail will be tore up).

Gatos was fine but because of the water running down the trail in some sections, it has become rutted a couple of sections.

Upper Noble coming out of Penny Pines still had a little bit of snow but it is quickly melting. After that, Upper Noble was great. Noble proper (down in the canyon) will have very muddy crossings, water weeping out of random areas. Be careful of ticks, we have had multiple reports of them.

Obviously California has had a lot of rain and therefore trail damage and rutting. Please do not ride on the shoulder of the trail (grassy area). Ride through the mud and ruts. Riding on the shoulder leads to widening of the trail (making it not singletrack anymore).

Here is part of the trail from Sunset trailhead heading toward Water of the Woods... The meadow is on the left in this picture. The trail in the distance is also similarly a mud bog and rutted on the shoulders.
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This is the area just south of the campgrounds and the little Laguna Lake. That metal grate that you ride over is straight ahead in the distance. The wood bridge is behind the picture...
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This is the Water of the Woods area, usually accessed from the Sunset trailhead. Usually you can ride through this (dry) drain area around the body of water. It's a pretty strong current too. But again, mud bog city once you get past this section until you get to the cluster of rocks just beyond here. It sucks.
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But good news! We cleared the downed trees on Gatos! Should be smooth sailing here...
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Enjoy and feel free to give specific updates.
 
#90 ·
Gatos is running so well. Great work by the trail builders. Poor Chico Ravine has taken a beating. Boggy areas flagged above are still very wet and muddy.

Large tree down across at the bottom of what's listed as the "Wooded Hill Trail Connector" on Trailforks (i.e., connector up to the Luge). Fully blocking the fire road. I forgot to take a picture, as always.
 
Discussion starter · #92 ·
Thanks for the info about the downed tree. We will get to it as soon as possible.

We recently did some work at Penny Pines right where the BLT and Upper Noble meet. Very subtle if you aren't paying attention. Thanks to our volunteers!

So about the Chico Ravine Trail and all the mud bog fest going on...

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According to the Mt. Laguna Trails Project, Chico is to be virtually completely rerouted, likewise the bottom of Gatos and the swamp at the bottom of the Sunset trail head and Chico will be redesigned. We are holding off on doing any work right now on those areas as we await FS sign off on the Project. We had an existential discussion about bandaging the crappy sections. But ultimately if we put lipstick on the pig, we felt the Forest Service could theoretically say "see, everything is fine here, you guys are using the trail, nothing to see here. These are not the droids you are looking for."

What you can do - send emails with pictures of the water and trail damage, call the district ranger (Bob Heiar) and let the Descanso district of the Cleveland National Forest know that this is unacceptable and not safe.

We need this project underway!

Make your voices heard, make your ride better, make our government work for us!

Here are their contact info
 

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Discussion starter · #93 ·
Update!

So there is still a mud bog-a-rama at the south end of the meadow. Really bad. As in don't traverse through there bad. Trust me. If you do park at Sunset trail head (which I don't recommend because it really almost forces you to take the south end of the meadow to avoid retracing your route), I would recommend start by riding up Old County Road right off the bat and ride the trails at the top of that climb (i.e. Gatos and others).

We cleaned out a bunch of drains and finished the final drop feature on Gatos. It is definitely fun with multiple choices depending on your goals (smooth and safe or up in the air!). Thanks to all the volunteers that helped make that happen.

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Looking up the trail
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#94 ·
Is it possible to put up some signage at that trailhead to let riders parked at Sunset TH know it's better to climb up the old road? In my experience riders won't turn around when they encounter bad mud, they'll just try to go wide around it and make a bigger mess. Whereas if they know in advance they might go the better direction to start with. Putting a message in Trail News would probably help too. With pics!
 
Discussion starter · #95 ·
We've been doing some band-aid stuff on Chico to get it somewhat rideable. If/when the Trails Plan goes through, most of existing Chico will be completely rerouted away from the fall line s____ hole that it is. Sorry, that's the best I can offer at this point.


Just below Old County Road. What a rut-fest that was...
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On the Chico-Gatos connector just above Chico
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We also patched up the area on Chico just before the connector junction that basically had you traverse a bicycle depth rut. If you crossed it in the past, you know what I'm talking about.
 
#96 ·
wow Oink - that looks great! I last rode that trail when we camped up there just over a year ago and those spots were giant ruts... super bad. That looks really good.

Will there be any Trail work up there at the end of October? I plan to be up there camping and could spend a few hours digging if there is a crew around.
 
Discussion starter · #99 ·
Extra special thanks to Cal Coast Bicycles for fixing up the trail work ebike! Charlie really hooked us up and turned it around back to us really fast! Those that were behind me when we rode out to the work site can attest to me doing the "superman" over the bars and the trailer detaching from the bike.

Back in action! Thanks again Cal Coast Bicycles!

SDMBA meetup
 
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