Anderson Truck Trail

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	Before the Fire	After the Fire
	06-13-02	11-09-03

This image shows what the trail looked like before and after the devastating Cedar fire.  The images are screen grabs from the video so they're not the highest quality in the world.  But, side by side you can certainly see the difference.  The shots are at almost the exact same location on the trail.  The camera angle is a bit different but you get the point!

Anderson Truck Trail is a fairly short trail located about 20 miles East of downtown San Diego.  Although it is somewhat short, it is quite challenging so you still get a good workout.  There's been a lot of talk about the trail being closed but only the upper part of the trail is closed because it enters Indian Land.  The lower part of the trail is not on Indian land and will remain open.  The shuttle monkeys like this trail because the upper section of the trail has two sections called Upper and Lower World Cup.  These trails were carved by downhillers and the obstacles on them are quite severe.  I've ridden up there once and I don't think I ever need to go back.  On a cross country hardtail a lot of the obstacles are simply unrideable (okay, even if i had a good freeride/downhill rig I still lack the balls to do most of them) so it's just a hike anyway.  But, what is cleanable is a lot of fun.  But, it's technically off limits so the point is moot anyway.

Since we are not shuttle monkeys and we generally believe that if you want to play you first must pay, we always ride up before we ride back down.  The trail has a challenging 2.5 mile climb which is a very rewarding 2.5 mile downhill on the return trip.  Since the trail is cut into the side of a hill, there are numerous spots where one would fall quite far should one miss a turn and venture off the trail. 

The second video was taken on 11/09/03 about a week and a half after the devastating firestorms roared through San Diego County.  Many trails were on areas of land that were totally burned.  This trail is one of them.  All of the land surrounding the trail was burned.  It was definitely surreal riding out there with no vegetation at all.  Even amongst the burning, we did see signs of life though.  We saw a lizard, a rat like (but not a rat) thing with singed ears but otherwise in good shape, we saw some tracks in the ash for coyotes, and several birds circling overhead  If you haven't seen the first video, I'd recommend watching it first to see a comparison over how the terrain has changed.  Most of the second video contains the same trail although we did do some extra riding for the second one and that footage is included.  But, the entire area was affected so seeing the before and after would be a good reference.