I finally got around to riding the Stewart Canyon trail in Fallbrook today. It's basically a trail that goes straight up a pretty tall hill, forks about halfway up and comes back down. I've been eyeballing it for a long time. I checked out the trailhead a couple weeks ago. While I was there, I talked to a hiker. She said the trail was about a 4 mile "lollipop" loop and was pretty rocky for the most part. She said she has seen bike tracks, but never any bikers. I thanked her for the info and started making plans to ride it.

I mapped out the loop on www.mapmyride.com and found the hiker's mileage estimate to be right on. I knew the elevation was going to be high and I was right. Mapmyride.com put it at 1,300' of gain--all of which would be done in the first 2 miles.

I met Mark/Sladnas at the trailhead today at 3PM. We knew we didn't have much daylight to work with so we set out right away.

Where does this trail go? It goes up!





The cars get smaller...


...and smaller:


...and smaller:



Sladnas was killing it today--even after knocking out a gnarly ride at San Juan yesterday!!








What do you mean we've only ridden 3/4ths of a mile!!!




Everytime we rounded a curve, we were greeted with yet more climbing:








And finally, the summit!

View to the West:


View to the East:



With the Sun setting, light was pretty bad so I was limited on the pics I could take at the top. Next time, I'll have to start earlier and take even more pics.

The climb was actually fun--as hard as it was. It was pretty techy about 80% of the way, so it definitely kept you on your toes. And a techy climb = a super fun DH back to the bottom. It was over way too quick and before we knew it we were back at the cars.

Sladnas did manage to flat about halfway down. On a UST set-up with Stans. He actually had to throw a tube in it to finish the ride. Only Mark!! LOL



Keeping with my usual forgetfulness, I forgot to bring my GPS, so I'm not 100% certain on the mileage and elevation, but I think Mapmyride.com's totals were just about right. We didn't knock out many miles, but I think Mark said it best-- 4 miles here felt like 20 at most places.

Lastly, here's a couple pics from the climb up that I thought turned out pretty cool. I think Mark's silhouette against the sky looks pretty sweet:






It was actually a pretty fun ride. Definitely a hidden gem here in North County. The climb is super techy and steep and gives a great work out. You are then rewarded with a super fun techy DH back down. There's a lot of hikers out here, so one needs to be careful, but I will definitely be coming back--frequently!!

A regular habit of this hill will put anyone in shape in no time.

Does that mean you're gonna ride it every day this week to prepare for 12 hrs Temecula?

On second thought maybe that's what I should be doing

btw - Nice ride report Doug

hmmm.......that bike looks pretty "blinged out"

Nice TR. Love the chunk.

All these training rides with elevation gains, what's going on around here.

Darryl running a tube in his UST Nevegal too.

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I should It would be freezing in the morning (sun on the other side of the hill), and one sketchy friggen descent at night. I'm pretty sure I can ride to the trailhead from my house though, so that's kinda cool.

Nice TR Pacman, the picures are nice also but the one before last came out pretty good.

Nice TR. Where is the trailhead? I won't be able to ride for a few weeks but that looks like a good get back in shape fast ride.

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Hey Doug,
Nice RR and pictures! I meant to hike that on my way home from work this summer before the time change (because it's too steep for me to ride up...). I used to play around in Stewart Canyon as a kid before I-15 was built, riding motorcycles on that hill. The actual name for where you rode is Monserate Mountain Preserve, owned by Fallbrook Land Conservancy, or maybe you knew that. Stewart Canyon Trail is as good a name as any. Come to think of it, I keep calling La Costa Preserve by the name Denk Mountain, so I guess I'll shut up now about place names...
Dan

Edit: a coupla folks asked about the trailhead -- see picture # 3 -- cars are parked there. East of Fallbrook, frontage road east of I-15 at Stewart Canyon undercrossing, north of Hwy 76, south of Mission -- cross under from old 395 on the west side.

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