After reading the "Where All San Diego Riders Gone???" thread last week and seeing the overall reaction, I thought it would be fun to have an "All San Diego Chapter STR Group Ride." I'm not sure STR has had had a large SD group ride since the Saldanas Ride, so I think we're overdue.

The purpose of this post is to make the suggestion and solicit general thoughts from the San Diego STR community. Once we reach some kind of consensus, I'll post it up as an official ride.

After studying a map of the county, and looking at the calendar, my suggestion is that we do the ride at Sycamore Canyon (Santee), at starting at 8:30 am, on Saturday July 26th from the Mast/Medina trailhead. That gives us just under three weeks to get organized. Also, depending on people's thoughts about temperature, we may be better of starting slightly earlier to beat the heat.

Sycamore is the most central location in the county I could find with the exception of maybe LPQ, and there are enough issues with LPQ that I don't think taking (what I hope to be) a huge group of riders through there is a good idea.

Sycamore is freeway close, fairly central, and has adequate parking options with the Mast/Medina dirt lot and spillover parking at West Hills High School.

Sycamore also offers options for multiple levels of riders. I envision the expert group ride including the switchbacks, Martha's Grove, and even Cardiac. The intermediate ride could include Martha's and back, and the beginner group could ride to Gooden Ranch and back.

This ride could be as big or as basic as we want. I don't have a lot of connections with local shops or SDMBA, but those who do have those connections are encouraged to tap those resources to gauge their interest in partnering with this event/ride. If we can incorporate a raffle or something to enhance the event, great. If not, we can still just have a fun, basic group ride.

It would also be nice to have a BBQ or some other social gathering afterwards to hang out and get to know one another better. I don't know if it would be possible (or advisable) to do something like that in the dirt lot off Mast, so it would be great if someone has any suggestions in that regard. Maybe a post-ride gathering at the Santee Lakes area just down the street would work? (We could even maybe stage the ride itself from there and ride to the trailhead, its that close. It has parking and picnic areas that might work quite well.)

As someone who has been a part of STR for a little while, but still less time than many, I don't intend to be presumptuous by being the one to suggest this ride.

However, I've benefited tremendously from the friendships and resources provided through this website, and with the current climate being a little off-kilter, thought it would be nice to have a large gathering where we put faces to screen names and further develop the friendships that have already been created.

I welcome your thoughts and suggestions, and look forward to riding with as many of the San Diego folks as possible sometime soon either way.

So if they don't change the date I will be going on the Bonita ride, if they do change it then both! I am going to try and ride further and more before the rides just to get in shape a little more. See ya everyone!

Yeah, I'd rather hit up Bajacabra's stuff than sweat it out in Sycamore.