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| 01-11-03 | 01-14-03 |
My friends and I have a sort of esoteric loop
that we do whenever we do Noble Canyon. Some people either park at the bottom
of the trail and ride up Pine Creek Rd then they have the option to turn onto
Indian Creek before they get to the Noble Trailhead. Others simply shuttle to
the top of Noble itself and then just ride down. I've never actually ridden up
Pine Creek Road but I hear it's basically just a 60 minute grunt of a climb and
I'd never shuttle just to the top.
My friends introduced me to a wonderful ride that does include Noble Canyon, but
we've already ridden 18 miles before we ever even get to the top of this famous
San Diego trail. I will say that we do shuttle the ride but that's more just to
cut out 60 minutes and 7 miles of extremely boring road riding. I've done it
the "manly" way without shuttling and there definitely isn't anything missed by
cutting out those road miles. Now although this is a "shuttle" it's a true X-C
shuttle in that there's still climbing on the ride so the shuttle is really just
a convenience thing. The first 18 miles that we do (sorry, I don't really know
many of the trail names or even my way if I'm not on the bike) include some
fantastic forest single-track and some wonderful grassy meadow riding. They
include the Big Laguna trail but I'm sure we hit many other trails too.
Because we're so used to riding through desert scrub in San Diego, it's a treat
to ride through big Pine Trees and wind your way downhill cutting tight in next
to the trees. That's what I like about this route most I think. The first 11
miles or so cut through the forest, the next 7 or so cut through the Laguna
Meadow and then you have the last 9 of desert, rocky terrain that make up Noble
Canyon. The first video depicts the first 18 miles of this ride and the second
depicts the true Noble Canyon Trail.
As you can see, there was a bit of snow in the shady areas of the trail and some
of the sections were very slippery from mud which made for an interesting ride
but the weather was great and it was only a little chilly at the start of the
ride.
Those of you familiar with the second trail are probably saying to yourself that
the video doesn't really do the trail justice. That's exactly what I thought
too! I know that in other videos I've done, the trail doesn't come out quite as
steep or technical as it really is but boy is that the case here. The rock
gardens are much steeper and much more treacherous in person than they appear.
The footage of the Stairway to Hell makes the trail look almost smooth! Oh
well, those of you who have ridden this trail know what it's like and those of
you who haven't can only imagine. Regardless of how the trail looks in video,
it's a fantastic ride and one that everybody who comes to San Diego needs to do!