PART 1...
For our first hike as Scoutcraft
Academy, on President's Day weekend we decided to start tackling one
of the two great trails that run through San Diego County. The best
known of these trails is, of course, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)
http://www.pcta.org , a 2650 mile
trail which begins at the USA-Mexico border in Campo and continues
north through California, Oregon, and Washington, finally ending at
the USA-Canada border. As number two of the eight National Scenic
Trails, the PCT is hiked by tens of thousands of short hikers and
over one hundred thru hikers annually. Since we don't have the time
or the money to take several months off work to hike (my idea of
heaven), we will have to settle for hiking all these trails one
weekend at a time for the next thousand years.
The second great trail in San Diego is
a bit of a mystery. I didn't know it existed until two years ago,
and I have heard it called the Sea to Sea Trail, the Great Western
Trail, and the San Diego Trans County Trail. Since the kiosk at
Torrey Pines State Beach North Shore calls it the San Diego Trans
County Trail, I'll have to refer to it as such, though I'm not sure
what the heck it is, just that its there.
The San Diego Trans-County Trail
begins at Torrey Pines State Beach North Shore (yes, there is a
kiosk, see picture...).
This appealed to us because, unlike the PCT,
the beginning of the TCT is seven miles from our house and it passes
within a mile of home. The TCT follows the native canyons of San
Diego eastward up into the mountains (past Lake Cuyamaca) and then
back down into the Borrego and Imperial Deserts. It continues
eastward to the Colorado River, through Arizona, Grand Canyon State
Park and into Utah where it passes by Canyonlands and Arches and up
into Colorado where it finally ends at a junction with the 3100 mile
Continental Divide Trail at Tincup Pass, Colorado. Now do you
understand my confusion as to why it is called the San Diego
Trans-County Trail? The Great Western Trail sounds much more
accurate to me. Oh well, I guess that's why they don't put me in
charge of such things, how boring would the world be without stupid
naming conventions to make fun of? Oh my, I guess that was improper
English....good thing I'm not English.
Back on point. It was the day before
Presidents Day, Sunday February 19, 2012. The day was nice. The
weather was pretty cool, in the mid 70's F (Low 20's if you live
anywhere else in the world). There was a bit of a crowd down by the
beach when we finally arrived around 11am, but the only time there
isn't a crowd near the beach in southern California is when its
pouring rain outside, so we decided to pack up and get away from the
beach as fast as possible. We refused to park at Torrey Pines State
Beach North Shore on principal since California has closed most of
its state parks and jacked up prices at the rest to compensate for
their stupidity. TPSB used to be free for as long as I can remember.
Now it costs $10 to park there. All this to compensate for the fact
that our state government really sucks at budgeting and finances.
Anyway...
The trail looked more like a street
with a dirt sidewalk for the first mile or so. It was little more
than a small dirt trail beside Carmel Valley Rd until we reached the
intersection with Portofino Rd, then the trail disappeared. No
sidewalk either. We walked in the bike lane for about a third of a
mile. I could see that there was an old trail in the brush to the
side of the road, but it was so overgrown that it just wasn't worth
the energy to tramp it all down. I wished I had brought my machete,
that would have made quick work of the overgrowth and opened up the
trail in case other people wanted to hike the “Trans-County
Overgrown Trail”. I suppose the sight of some guy in an outback
hat swinging a machete beside the road near the beach may have been a
bit much for the delicate sensibilities of most Del Mar residents, so
I'm (kind of) glad I left the big blade at home.
We turned right at Sorrento Valley Rd,
a small two-lane road which once went through all the way to Mira
Mesa Blvd when I was a kid, but was, for some unknown reason, shut
down and never reopened when I was a teenager. The rumors said it
was because of a gruesome murder of teenage lovers along the
roadside...whatever. Now the road is a bike trail. There is a
Park-N-Ride there, its actually a MUCH
nicer place to begin the hike (with the fee or wait parking down by
the beach and most of the rest of the trail really nothing more than
a street). We walked along Sorrento Valley Rd
for a few hundred feet past the Park-N-Ride before we found the trail
that cut under the I-5 freeway bridge to meet up with Carmel Valley
Bike Trail on the east side. Now this isn't what you'd imagine a
freeway bridge looking like, large, tall, concrete, monumental. No,
this was made of concrete and it was about three hundred feet wide,
but other than that, it sucked. We had to walk in a crouch the whole
way since the lid is probably only about five feet high. At least I
didn't collect any spiders or other nasties in my hair as I went
along, but Jake and Josh complained moist of the way. =) LOL,
Once we reached the far side of the
bridge, we continued on up the trail for a short while before we
reached the end of the Carmel Valley Bike Trail, which is paved all
the way from Interstate 5 to Interstate 15 along the south side of
California State Route 56. After a short ways on the black top and
nearly being run over by a half dozen bicyclists barreling by at
35mph, a dirt side track appeared and we eagerly took it. <<
WARNING, RANT AHEAD: We love riding our bikes, and mountain biking is
awesome. I have a LOT of friends and co-workers who are avid
mountain bikers. That said...WHAT THE HELL!?!?! I know its fun to
ride fast off road and go around blind corners at 45 MPH, but really?
You come flying around a blind corner at 45 and almost run over a
kid hiking on the far right side of the trail because he is hiking
in fear that he will be run down by an insane lunatic
on a monstrous monstrosity, and then you get mad because he's
in your way? No wonder the city of San Diego doesn't
want law-abiding citizens like me carrying guns....really... <<END
OF RANT>>
There were some interesting things to
see along the two miles we spent on the Caramel Valley Trail. Most
notably is a horse ranch with a three story house which has to be one
of the oldest in the county.
Finally we reached the Carmel Valley
Trail kiosk and turned right to head southward toward the Shaw Valley
Trail. After a few hundred feet we passed through the Shaw Valley
Tunnel, which passes below Carmel Country Road, and continued onward,
skirting the Meadows Del Mar golf course on our left. It was nice to
be away from all the people. Until Shaw valley the trails had been
very crowded, and no more than a minute or two could pass without
seeing someone else. Besides that, the constant freeway noise from
CA route 56 was a never ending background sound. Shaw Valley was
different, quiet, solitary. We only saw one other group of people
the whole time we were going up Shaw valley (a family riding bikes).
By the time we reached Shaw Valley
Bridge at Carmel Mountain Road, however, Joshua was beginning to
complain that his feet were burning. He had some boots made by Bates
that we had bought his several moths ago, but I guess that he had
never worn them around the house to break them in. He was breaking
them in on what was supposed to be a ten mile hike, and now his feet
were getting ready to blister at mile 5.5. We took off his boots on
break and verified that he had a few hot spots. Another mile and
blisters would rise. He needed to stop now or he wouldn't be able to
hike for two or three more weeks. We climbed up to the street at
Shaw Valley Bridge and called for a pick. We all went home and were
bummed for a while that we didn't finish our hike. Later on we found
out that we were not going to be able to go off-roading in the desert
the next day, so we decided to use the extra time to finish our hike,
picking up where we left off.
PART 2...
The next morning we headed back to
Shaw Valley Bridge around 11am, parked the 4Runner, and picked back
up as if we had never left off. Josh had aired and washed his feet,
walking around without shoes for a total of probably ten hours (plus
his sleeping time) before we had to suit back up and head back out.
By the time we left, his feet were fine. He put the mustang boots
back on, however.
We headed east along a trail that went
beside Carmel Mountain Road, still under construction. The day was
overcast and hazy, but it was easy enough to see Black Mountain
rising ahead of us to the northeast. We could also see Mt Woodson,
Iron Mountain, and the Five Mountains of Mission Trails, but we
couldn't make out the big eastern mountains such as the Cuyamacas, or
even El Cajon Mountain. Palomar was not visible to the north either
(as it would on a clear day). After a few hundred yards we turned
right and took the trail out to the small hill we call “The Nob”
because it kind of just out into Penasquitos canyon, giving a great
view of the canyon in both directions. Climbing the nob from the
north was not as steep as descending it on the south, but it was
overcast and beautiful and we were thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We
stopped briefly at the Nob to film the intro for the associated
YouTube Video.
The Nob
The Nob
Once we reached the canyon floor, the
high winds died off to virtually nothing. We followed the trail for a
quarter mile or so before crossing the footbridge and approaching the
waterfall from the west. As the waterfall came into view, we were
not surprised to see that well over fifty people were hanging out
around it (After all, it was President's Day). We made our
way down to the waterfall and staked out a spot to stop and have a
break. The boys explored the waterfall for thirty-five minutes,
climbing granite boulders and jumping back and forth across Los
Penaquitos Creek,
The Footbridge
The Footbridge
Finally I convinced the boys that it
was time to leave and we made out way out by the South trail, quickly
locating the sidetracks which are so important to hikers who do not
wish to have to be on guard against fast-moving bikers throughout
their entire hike. The scenery was beautiful, the glades and glens,
meadows, and creek side wetland. These are the things I think about
to stop me from losing all hope when I am in the middle of a
particularly difficult industrial shift at work.
Eventually we came out near Black
Mountain Road and were picked up by girly (aka.My wife and Jakob &
Joshua's mother). Its strange; the TCT crosses Black Mountain Road
right at the end of Revelstoke Canyon, just 0.8 miles walking
distance from our house. Perhaps this should be our start point (or
end point) for TCT hikes in the future?
All in all it was a good hike. We
didn't move as fast as we used to because we are a little out of
practice. Jake and Josh made it clear that they have goals to work
up to, however, and if we ever want to climb Gorgonio, Whitney,
Elbert, or Denali, if we ever want to finish the PCT, TCT, AT, or
CDT, Josh absolutely has to get a better pair of hiking boots...
RESCOURCES...
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