2008-11-23 Marron Valley-Sycamore Canyon

[BlueFJ]

Fun run today! Was pleasantly surprised to find Borrego Wrangler at the AM/PM station in Jamul. We headed over to Pio Pico campground and met up with dionysius around 10. We went back out to the 94 and down to Marron Valley and checked out the newly dozed trail. After turning around, we went the opposite direction and headed East along the border climbing into the hills for some fantastic views. We a saw six horses grazing on the hillside. We turned around and headed back over to the Otay truck trail and turned off into Sycamore Canyon where we found a hunter who got his 2WD Ford F-150 stuck going up the by-pass trail next to the dry waterfall. Borrego Wrangler handed the guy his shovel and had him dig out some dirt in front of the buried wheel and was able to pull him up and out. I tried going up the dry waterfall, but alas, it was just to loose and it beat me. I wasn't aired down and didn't feel like doing so just for that area. We continued out thru the canyon past the old homestead and out to the 94 where we parted ways and headed home. All in all a pretty easy run with the most difficult part being the little rock garden behind the old homestead. The whole area desperately needs some rain... the dust was like talcum powder in places. Thanks to John and Dennis for showing up and making it a fun day! I'll post up the GPX file of today's run later when I get done editing it.

[dionysius]

Nice day for a ride, a bit hazy though. Craig pretty much covered the ride's key points. We ran to the end of the new trail. Ends near the highway in Mexico. They made a lot of progress since the last time i was there. From there we checked out the old abandoned ranch area near the wetlands. Then it was off to the Cuchama trail that goes to Barrett Junction. We followed that to the top of the switchbacks and then returned to Marron Valley to go play in Sycamore Canyon.

There we were met by a hunter how was in need of assistance, had his 2WD pick-up stuck going up the bypass by the dry waterfall. John had the hitch that had a shackle so he was volunteered to do the pull. After a couple of tries the pick-up was dislodged and brought up the hill. Good going John!!

Craig was going to attempt an ascent up the waterfall, but first we had to wait for the dirt bikes to clear it. Of course they got stuck too. After that we made our way back through the canyon to 94.

I had a great time and it was great to see Craig and John again. Thanks John for the a good lesson in handling strangers and loaded firearms.

Here are the pictures I took

Ride GPX file

11-23-08_Ride_TOPO.jpg (293.02 KiB) Viewed 2707 times

11-23-08 ride.gpx

(282.72 KiB) Downloaded 498 times

Denis

[BlueFJ]

Here's my GPX file...

[BorregoWrangler]

Yep, it was nice getting out today. A big thanks to Denis for showing me new stuff. Helping those guys recover their truck sure made things interesting. Ok, here are my pics!

[OLLIE]

Looks like it made for a nice day. Could have sold tickets to see a Jeep recover a full size truck... and uphill at that.

[gon2srf]

Great pics guys, thanks for sharing.
Something about the haze makes this picture look like a painting, very nice shot.

[dionysius]

The haze that day was not the best for picture taking. Still the ride was great. We could use some rain, the dust and silt were really bad.

Denis

[gon2srf]

The rain is coming. Let's hope it's not a torrential downpour and the land has a chance to absorb some of it.