Long Live CRSP's Out-and-Back Rides
CRSP Ride Report, 12/20/23
Here we are at the end of 2023; this will be the last installment of the Cuyamaca Rancho State Park ride reports for the year. At the end of 2022, I decided I would feature a monthly report, sharing the views, the insights, the changing seasons, etc. of one of San Diego’s local mountain biking destinations that is actually in the mountains. It’s a favorite spot of mine, offering many trail options and lots of fire roads, which I don’t mind riding, especially when using them to link up singletrack on longer rides.
I couldn’t make it out for my annual winter solstice ride this year, so I went a day earlier, enjoying the moody sky.
We were forecasted to get heavy rains this week, but as I sit here on Friday morning, we got minimal overnight rain. Most of it went up to L.A. and Santa Barbara, it seems. Nevertheless, when winter weather arrives, it makes for great sky.
I decided to do East and West sides, along with Cold Spring, as an out-and-back. In the middle, I added on the short section of Cold Stream that goes over to the visitor center and did that as an out-and-back, as well.
I’m a fan of riding both ways, having been a kind of promoter of such rides for a long time. You get more miles and you also get different views. It’s a nice way to mix things up a little bit, the way I see it.
Though muted or maybe simply subtle, comparatively speaking, when you live here year round and do so for long enough, you see the seasonal changes of the desert-to-mountains landscape.
Out there, I saw no other trail users until nearly the end of my ride, when I saw 3 hikers. I am speaking entirely in selfish tone — I like having CRSP to myself.
On the way back through, Stonewall Peak shined like a beacon. The rhythm of the trail carried me as if suspended on air, one-gear riding making it more fun because of the dipping and swinging of my hips and the pushing and pulling with my arms and upper body.
Along the way, the manzanitas seemed to be decked out for the holidays. If I haven’t said it before, I love manzanitas. CRSP has some beauties.
Someday, I hope to have a custom bike paint job the color of manzanita.
Another change has come about with regard to paying for parking, as a heads up. The phone app method is gone. Good, I never get a signal out there at the parking areas off of 79. Now, they have the little brown envelopes and signs/boxes asking you to fill out/drop $10 cash into, assuming you actually have cash, let alone exactly 10 dollars. I don’t see that boding well, likely meaning it will be a rinse/repeat of the phone app. I’m gonna guess that if they ticket you, a first time offense will (hopefully) be a warning.
Anyway …
CRSP Ride Reports are now closed. Sure, I’ll have postings in 2024 from out there, but it won’t be a regular monthly feature. Gotta change things up, ya’ know?
