Cuyamaca Poker Ride

[jimfab]

Hello to all

First time poster. For those in the So. Cal area you may know there is a benefit poker ride in the Cuyamaca mountains just east of san diego on October 11th. I am not sure on all the details yet, but it sounds like a good ride for a good cause. Anyway, My wife has to be in San Diego that weekend for some goofy shin-dig. My plan is to have her drop me off somewhere near pine valley on the 10th and pick me up the next day on her way back. What i would like to do is ride up towards nobel canyon and ride around till dark, camp out somewhere close to nowhere and far from mountain lions, and catch the poker ride the next day before rolling down sunrise for my freeway extraction. A few of my old buds are going to do the poker run, so i will catch them in the am. can anybody offer up any routes, i know the area a little, but not great. I was looking at the Indian springs trail to nobel. I dont think i will get out of the car till around 13 or 1400 hours cause of the 5 hours from Phoenix. This will kick off this years bikepacking season for me, and i cant wait. I have got a bunch of new gear to try out. I will post a ride report if anybody is interested.

Thanks 

[Chad B]

I did the Cuyamaca to Noble and one big loop around last summer. I think I have the GPX on my PC somewhere.

[jimfab]

Just a follow up to my weekend, it did not turn out to be the pure bikepacking adventure i had hoped for, but i had a ton of fun sticking to self containment as much as posable. I got dropped off at the top of sunrise highway by the start of the big laguna trail, i was supposed to meet my buddy at about 3, but he was way behind, so i set out to kill a few hours by myself. I had about an hour down when i ran into some friends of some friends, so i rode with them for a couple hours. For those in the southwest that have not ben to the cuyamaca area, do yourself a favor and treat yourself sometime. My buddy showed up finally, I met up with him, ditched my heavy gear, and went back out for some more riding. We finnished into the dark and went back to his truck for portage to the area of the poker ride about 30 miles away. here we met up with the folks from IMBA that were hosting the poker ride, had some dinner, sat around the fire before retiring to my bivy sack on the ground beneath a big pine tree. This was my first test of my new bag bivy and sleeping pad. Considering it got down to 26f that night, i think it did great, my feet got a bit cold, but after i covered them with my jersey i had few issues. The next morning i awoke to anxious poker riders and there nauseating debates of proper training regimen and weather cytomax or gu20 is better . I got up and fixed myself a nice cup of instant coffee and freeze dried lasagna. I then got my poker card and took off, the course was a fun 25 mile loop with more than its fair share of climbing, it was here that i was reminded why i ride alone most of the time. For some reason there are a HANDFUL (not everyone) of people that find it necessary to shove, push and curse there way around a trail with little regard for others fun or safety. Oh well they are what they are, and i can only do my best to avoid them. I finished with a 6 high straight, but the guy at the end said there was already 4, 4 of a kind hands turned in. They put on a great pasta lunch that i enjoyed quite a bit. I then packed all my stuff up and headed out another 10 miles to my pickup point and back to AZ. Not quite a true bikepacking weekend, but fun none the less. I would recommend the poker run next year to anybody, it was allot of fun for a great cause.