Road Report: Alpine-Campo-Jamul loop - 91 miles

kettlebell · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:47 pm

Did a fun and challenging road ride in the east county this weekend with fellow DT’er, Dustin. This was my longest road ride to date and I was happy to find out that my legs/lungs were up to the task. The ride covered 91.2 miles with 6929’ of climbing/descending. It was a great day in the saddle. The full map and elevation profile of this ride can be found here:
http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Southwest-Roundabout

We started in Alpine, and headed east to Descanso on Viejas Grade, a dirt road. I would hate this road on a mountain bike, but riding it on a road bike with skinny tires was a completely different experience. The route then continued on through Pine Valley on Old Highway 80 and then turned south on La Posta road to Campo. This portion was spectacular with sweeping views of the mountains and fast, rolling road underneath you. The miles flew by on this section:

At one point the route gets close enough to the Mexico border to give a clear view of the border fence - pretty sight it ain’t.

This part of the ride was polluted with the San Diego Finest and Border Patrol vehicles. Do not break the law on Hwy 94 – chances are, you’ll get caught :lol:

Past the little town of Potrero, the road turns into 5 exhilarating miles of downhill bombfest.

We finished the ride in 8 hours with only one flat tire (which happened within 2 miles of the finish). It was a great day of adventure discovering some new backroads and getting a killer workout at the same time.

jonathan_sykes81 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:52 pm

Great job. Nice TR. I am definitely interested in checking out this route.

EMFC · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:53 pm

That is one hell of a route.

jonathan_sykes81 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:59 pm

Dude, more than anything. Thanks for introducing me to that site. There are some SICK routes on there.

kettlebell · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 9:08 pm

jonathan_sykes81 wrote:

Dude, more than anything. Thanks for introducing me to that site. There are some SICK routes on there.

I agree, this is a cool site. But I have to give credit where credit is due - Dustin introduced me to it a couple of days ago. This ride was his idea :thumbsup:

luna · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 10:57 pm

Did you get a free cookie at Albertson's in Alpine.

Los · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:00 pm

luna owning the board tonight?

luna · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:01 pm

Los wrote:

luna owning the board tonight?

I don't get to log on much anymore just catching up to my "New Post" button.

kettlebell · **Posted:** Sun Jun 21, 2009 11:44 pm

luna wrote:

Did you get a free cookie at Albertson's in Alpine.

???? Free cookie? Please explain.

Dustin · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 4:03 pm

Will also be planning some other epic loops of this variety in July if other DTers are interested.

I think some of the best loops in this area really beg for a road/cyclocross bike that can handle at least 28s if not 35s. That way you can throw in equal mixtures of dirt road and pavement w/o too much discomfort. Speaking of which, there is a nice 60 miler scheduled for July 5 that will combine lots of both dirt and pavement:

http://www.xo-1.org/2009/06/semi-epic-p ... 5-you.html

This is the one I'm thinking of sometime in July:

Alpine > Viejas Grade (dirt road) > Boulder Creek (dirt road) > Lake Cuyamaca > Sunrise Highway > to Pine Valley > Old Highway 80 to La Posta Road to highway 94 > then cut back up to Alpine through the middle of our previous loop, perhaps by using Barrett Lake Road (partial dirt, I think).

I need to figure out the mileage using Google Maps or Bikely, but suspect it's pretty high, with a serious amount of climbing.

EMFC · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 6:08 pm

Not sure if I would take my road bike on a gravel/dirt road. But this may be an excuse to get a cross bike.

Dustin · **Posted:** Mon Jun 22, 2009 8:26 pm

Dustin wrote:

This is the one I'm thinking of sometime in July:

Alpine > Viejas Grade (dirt road) > Boulder Creek (dirt road) > Lake Cuyamaca > Sunrise Highway > to Pine Valley > Old Highway 80 to La Posta Road to highway 94 > then cut back up to Alpine through the middle of our previous loop, perhaps by using Barrett Lake Road (partial dirt, I think).

I need to figure out the mileage using Google Maps or Bikely, but suspect it's pretty high, with a serious amount of climbing.

Whelp, here it is after mapping it out:

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Ro ... -Randonnee

124 miles w/ some killer climbing. This may go on my calendar for mid July, but not sure if I am man enough for it! :shock:

I'm guessing it'd take 10-11 hours.

Dustin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:47 pm

EMFC wrote:

Not sure if I would take my road bike on a gravel/dirt road. But this may be an excuse to get a cross bike.

Here is the type of "road" bike you need for this style of riding. This was built by Kirk Frameworks up in Montana a few years back. It comfortably fits 700x33s, which work well on dirt roads, and don't seem to slow me much on pavement. This is the same bike I'll be using for the Death Valley Double Century in October (assuming my knee doesn't keep bugging me, in which case I'll probably stick to the century).

Without going custom, there are various options for an allrounder.

The best might be Rivendell Bicycle Works: http://www.rivbike.com

EMFC · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:01 pm

I like your bike, however I am eyeballing this one.

Attachment:

fisty_main2.jpg [ 109.19 KiB | Viewed 8099 times ]

Dustin · **Posted:** Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:10 pm

That's a really sweet looking monstercross rig. Seems like an excellent choice.

Here's my monstercross, which will fit up to a 29x2.1 tire:

And here it us dressed up as a touring bike for my bike camping weekend a while back:

Road Report: Alpine-Campo-Jamul loop - 91 miles

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