Mt Palomar is a great climb in southern California not too far outside San Diego. The climb is close to the town of Rincon and has several approaches to ride. The East Grade is the most common and was climbed in the 2009 Tour of California on a stage won by Frank Schleck. An alternate path up the South Grade is much longer but it looks to make a good descent route. I also believe there is a north grade route which I don't know much about but it seems to pass through the National Forest. The junction of East Grade and South Grade roads isn't really the summit, but it does make a good point to declare victory. I believe that the Observatory is at a higher elevation, but it takes another 5 miles of riding up and down the ridge to get there. The 2009 Tour of California ascended the East Grade and descended the South Grade roads. The overall gradient of the climb is about 8+% average and the "summit" is over 5,000 ft so this climb involves over 4,000 ft of actual climbing. A good place to park for this climb is the Harrah's Casino in Rincon. There is plenty of parking there and security didn't seem to care that we parked there.
I was able to take advantage of a travel day for a work conference in San diego to ride Mt Palomar today. I rode with Tom and Bill (Note: This was a different Bill than has come on our regular trips.). Tom and I rented Cervelo Bikes from Nytro Tri shop in Encinitas California and Bill borrowed a bike box from another of our normal trip riders and brought his own bike. The weather in San Diego wasn't really up to expectations as it was cold and rainy on Sunday when we arrived. Tom and I rode towards Honey Springs road that day, but the late start and rain kept our ride fairly short. Monday had better expectations for weather, but as happens, the good weather never materialized.
We decided to continue around the planned loop as we needed to waste more time due to the weather. As we descended the South Grade Road, the fog eventually gave way to some reasonably clear weather. We thought we were in luck but before getting back to the casino, the rain returned. By this time it was 11:00 so we decided to get a snack at the casino and then decide what to do. No one was really interested in riding in these conditions, but we had come all that way. We decided it was not or never as the daylight hours were dwindling and we had a lot of riding to do. As a result we dressed up and headed out in cool, but dry and reasonable conditions. It was clear that the mountain was still fogged in but what the heck, we were going.
The lower slopes were not too bad and I set a reasonable pace where I felt comfortable. Tom was barely breaking a sweat as expected but I learned later that I was pushing Bill a bit. In reality we were all sweating like crazy due to dressing warm for the top which we knew was cold and wet. Tom was playing amateur videographer again, so here is a short clip he took just before we took the turn up East Grade Road.
Soon after taking this video, we turned left onto East Grade Road and Tom did his usual acceleration and rode off into the fog. Bill followed me for a few miles until I upped the tempo and started climbing out of the saddle on the steeper sections of the grade. I'm sure there were beautiful views on the ride but we saw NOTHING other than white fog. It drizzled almost continuously for the last 5 miles of the climb. I'm unsure if it was raining or just condensation from the fog. The climb wasn't too bad, but it still had sections that were challenging, particularly for March. Here is another video Tom shot from further up the mountain
I was about 1 mile from the top when Tom found me. He had already been to the top and said it was FREEZING up there. I had expected that as it was 39 degrees when we drove up. Now a couple hours later and wet, it had to be colder still. Also, the wind was starting to kick up. I rode the last mile accompanied my Tom and when we got to the top the number one priority was to put on my hat and gloves. We decided to abort the 10 mile out and back to the observatory as it was just to damn cold. We took a couple of pictures to document the ride. Here are Tom and I on top of Mt Palomar.
While we were waiting for Bill M to get to the top with us, I took a quick video to document the conditions. I'll apologize for the F-Bombs up front but it was really cold up there!
Just after finishing this video, Bill M emerged form the fog and completed his climb. The next priority was to head back down before we all got hypothermic! The initial climb was cold but manageable, but after 10 or 15 minutes, it was hard to squeeze the brakes so Bill and I stopped for a minute while Tom forged on since he wasn't wearing leggings. Another classic "Animal" story! Anyway, after a minute or two, we started back down and it wasn't getting any warmer. Despite the fact I said I wasn't going to descend at normal speeds with my rented Cervelo bike, I said the heck with it and started pushing the descent. When we reached the bottom of East Grade Road, we found Tom waiting for us and trying to warm up. We had 6 more miles to descend at this point to get to the Casino, so I just really cranked it up at that point, coming out of the saddle on every short stretch of straight roadway to maximize speed. I really be that the descent is amazing ion good weather and I know I'd be able to really fly.
Soon enough we we making the right hand turn back to Harrah's. I know I was frozen with my teeth chattering uncontrollably. At that point, before we knew it we were back at the rental van, all frozen, but glad we made the climb. I think in my opinion, this was the coldest I ever had been on a climb, including riding Tre Cimi in Italy in the snow in July, and my first Mt Washington hillclimb where I had sleet on one side of my body for a few miles on the upper slopes.
Here is a shot looking up towards the mountain from the parking lot of the Harrah's Casino in Rincon.
And here are the weary climbers back at our van. You can see the Cervelo's that Tom and I rented from Nytro Tri shop in Encinitas. Those guys were pretty good to us and a pleasure to deal with while renting the bikes. In the left shot you can see Bill M and my Cervelo with the big ugly rental sticker on the front fork and on the right shot is Tom looking cold and his Cervelo.
I think we were all glad we did the ride, but I still can't believe I went to sunny San Diego to do the coldest ride I've ever taken. What's up with that? lol .. anyway, I need to go back in good weather as I really enjoyed the climb and I bet the views are spectacular when not looking at white fog all day.
On a footnote. Tom and I flew home on Thursday while Bill stayed for the last few hours of the conference we were attending. When it was over, Bill went back to the mountain and climbed it again in what he described to us a perfect weather. Just our great luck!
|
|