For those of us lucky enough to own multiple bikes, one school of thought says that you should pick the right tool for the job. If the route involves rough dirt, go with a “mountain bike.” If it’s smooth road, go with a “road bike.” Horses for courses.
While this approach makes a lot of sense, sometimes there is a lot to be said for picking the wrong tool for the job. Not only are many “road bikes” capable of doing a lot more than we give them credit for, it can be a lot of fun to take a skinny tired bike off road. It makes tame trails challenging again.
Other times, there is no right tool for the job to begin with. Mixed surface routes can require riding over paved road, dirt road, fire road, and trail–all on the same bike. Fat knobbies will slow you on the paved sections, but skinny road tires will be a bit jarring off road. It’s all about compromise.
Some people trying to popularize this style of riding call it “under biking.” Others call it “Rough Riding.” The rest of us just call it plain fun.
On May 1, I led a group determined to show its solidarity by engaging in 42 miles and 5600 vertical feet of mixed surface heaven about an hour east of San Diego. The ride began in the small hamlet of Descanso, CA and did a loop around Cuyamaca Peak. The mixed surface route combined a bit of everything from pavement to singletrack.
The ride begins on the pavement of Boulder Creek Road, which soon turns to dirt. You can see the ribbon of road we followed carved into the hillside:
At the top of the pass, we stopped for a short break.
And looked back at how far we had just come:
The rolling dirt road has a series of great climbs and descents, forcing you to dump all the elevation you just gained before working hard to earn it back. At the bottom of the one of the steepest elevation dumps, there is a great stream crossing. This is a lot of water to see in this parched region of the planet:
The climbing continued, with Sky of Velo Cult bike shop and Chris Kostman of Adventure Corps & Rough Riders fame leading the charge:
At the top of Boulder Creek Road, we settled for a bit under the shade of a huge tree while waiting for some of the slower climbers. This gave plenty of time for glamor shots of all the different bikes being used on the course. Everything from a Rivendell Roadeo with 33mm Jack Brown tires, to a single speed 29er mountain bike with 2.5″ tires. You run what you brung. That’s the spirit of rough riding!
After a steep paved climb up Engineers Road, we made it to Lake Cuyamaca and the small general store there. In this picture, I’m chugging a positively non-Paleo Red Bull energy drink.
As we turned south for the second half of the ride, the route got a lot rougher, involving the Cuyamaca fire roads. There was a huge fire some years back in the park, and every time it rains you get a lot of dead fall across the trails due to the rotting burnt out husks of trees. This was a good chance to practice our cyclocross skills:
As the ride neared its end, we hit some fabulous stretches of single track, before a final series of fire road climbs. We were all getting pretty tired. Here’s a pic of Sky cresting one of the final fireroad climbs on his Nobilette:
All in all, it was a glorious day in the sun. I can’t recommend this loop or this style of riding highly enough.
Here are the Garmin stats and map.
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