When the rains and snow come to the mountains of San Diego, you need to get creative in order to ride your bike in the mountains. Palomar is out. Julian is out. How about this little loop in the lower elevations of the Lagunas?
This ride starts in Alpine. The start, however, is not particularly interesting or special. Just pick somewhere in Alpine where you think your car will be safe from rednecks and other East County denizens and head south on Tavern road, take a left on Japatul and follow it East into Descanso. Once over highway 8 and in Descanso go right on Old Highway 80 and take it into Pine Valley. There is a store in Pine Valley. If you are riding this ride in the winter (like we do) and you leave early in the AM (like we do), Pine Valley is almost invariably a meat locker and you will freeze. If you consider complaining as you descend into Pine Valley - don't. Nobody wants to hear it from you. Please be silent.
Once through Pine Valley go left on Sunrise Highway and climb to the top. There is a store at the top if you need it. Follow Sunrise Highway all the way to the 79 where you will go left
and head back South to Descanso and then work your way back home.
Although this ride is 82 miles and there is 7356 ft of climbing, it is important to look at the elevation profile. Almost all of the climbing happens in the first half of the ride. This means that a) the first half of the ride is going to be terrible for you if you are built like a football player or b) once you are over the hills you are rewarded with a super-fast descent and ride home.
To download additional information about your ride, right click on
the links below and then click "save link as" to download the file to
your computer.
Download a GPX file you can use to upload to your Garmin
Download a KML file you can use to upload to Google Maps or Google Earth
