After two years of staring at the squiggly line on my Auto Club map of San Diego County which depicted an intriguing alternate - and unpaved - road up Palomar Mountain, we decided to go check it out in person on Thursday, November 6, 2008. The dirt road itself, which goes literally all the way up Palomar Mountain, is 9.5 miles long and ascends about 4000 feet - from about 700' to about 4700'. Once you add in the last, paved, climb to the Boucher Fire Lookout, you've climbed 11.1 miles and ascended to 5438'. Then you have some rolling paved miles across the top of Palomar Mountain through the State Park to Mother's Kitchen, the General Store, Post Office, and bathroom. There you head over to the stop sign where you can take South Grade back down to where you started, for a total of 40 miles. Plan on five hours, to allow time to enjoy the views along the way and especially from the top, plus the water / food / bathroom stop at Mother's. Though the route can be climbed by an accomplished rough rider on a road bike with 28mm tyres, definitely I wouldn't recommend descending Nate Harrison without a full-on mountain bike. South Grade can have a lot of "crotch rocket" motorcyclists on weekends, so go on a weekday if you possibly can. This is really a phenomenal ride and we highly recommend it! More info at http://www.XO-1.org
your RB1
is one of the sweetest bikes
ever made!
especially in the early morning sun
goatopera 1 year ago