The biggish San Diego post

First off, a big thanks to Dave, Jenny, Steve, Pat, Mike, and Clay, all of whom (some San Diego locals, and some expats) made us feel welcome and helped us find the best trails and restaurants. You guys rock. And Mike, you'll get a rematch with Sarah when y'all come ride with us this summer, right?



Here we go... first up, the main reasons we went to visit, our nephews Adam (bigger) and Kyle (much smaller). Adam is just about ready to take the training wheels off his bike, and Kyle is just about ready to throw up on uncle Walt. He's pretty much the Nolan Ryan of barfing, but we expect big things from him. Extra bonus, we caught the UPS guy at just the right moment. Nice shooting, Dave.



Here's a shot of the Suycut Wash trail at Mission Trails Park (Sarah's down there somewhere). We spent a bunch of days riding here and didn't get bored at all - it's rocky, gnarly in places, and really reminds me of Green Mountain here in Colorado. There are also supposedly some sweet semi-legal trails just north of the 52 (the northern boundary of the park is highway 52) on Miramar air base, but we didn't venture there.



Here's the top of North Fortuna mountain - it's like 1200 feet above sea level, which doesn't seem like a big deal until you realize that you're coming from like 100. Our favorite loop here started at the Clairemont Mesa entrance to the park, and went down into Suycut wash, up the STEEP fireroads to the top of North Fortuna, then down the singletrack on the back side to join back up with Suycut. Great moderately technical riding with nobody else on the trails!



Here's Sarah on the singletrack on the north side of Fortuna. Lots of little ledges and babyheads keep it really interesting.



Sarah cranks out one of the granny gear climbs up Fortuna. I was amazed how steep the trails here are - they were built by the Army back when the whole area was part of the base, and I guess they didn't mind driving their jeeps straight up the hill. Weirdly, they're not very eroded.



Last shot, from our last day in town. Me, on the (false) summit of Fortuna. If it weren't for the freeways on all sides, it would feel pretty wild up there!