OT: mt. san bruno exploration

[Scott Crosby]

http://app.strava.com/activities/8479249

on sunday, Eric and I wanted to check whether there were passable trails atop MSB to allow a commute up MSB (DSB variant in this case), radio road, across the spine of the mountain, and reasonable descent into Brisbane or SSF.  verdict: it is possible with very little walking.  it would also be quite difficult on a road bike, but on a good disc-brake-equipped mtb, it can be done and is pretty darn fun.  is it a practical commute option, even by our krazy standards? not really.

pics: https://plus.google.com/photos/110115214811908801369/albums/5742913982333179009?banner=pwa

options for descending the mountain:

main trail (eastern escape): fun & pretty easy for the most part. if you just stay on the main hiking trail starting at the top of radio road, you'll end up here after ~2.5 miles of dirt.  the trail gets very steep at the end, but it's rideable until it takes a sharp left and is overgrown.  only about 30 meters of walking and you'll find yourself on a dirt road in brisbane.  from there it's easy to get to bayshore and the standard express route.

Fire Road #3 (northern escape): this, I think, is the way Xton and I once descended -- mostly doable on a cx bike with good brakes, but big loose rocks make it hazardous.  dumps you out in brisbane.  we didn't try it this time cuz we wanted to check out the other options.

Fire Road #2 (southern escape): this is probably the most fun way.  it's not all rideable unless you are a badass descender with a big hitter, but it is possible.  we walked maybe 40 meters. spits you out right at the summit of the colma shuffle, by the Hillside school with rainbow comic-sans lettering (appropriate use).

of special note: I am now the KOM on what has to be the slowest segment on all of strava... 1.3 mph: http://app.strava.com/activities/8479249#155328640 - funny that someone defined it (not us).

Eric probably has commentary/corrections.

-sc

[Christine Ryan]

Two very important questions (purely theoretical ones, seeing as I've never ridden any variant of that route):

Do you ever see any cats? (And what about mountain lions? I've heard stories...)

Who killed Snaily?

-sc

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[Alejandro Villarreal]

Myself, Bret, Chris Z, and the rest of the WPH crew did DMSB last night and we encountered a skunk. At least I'm almost positive it was a skunk. It didn't move fast or gracefully enough to be a cat and wasn't large enough to be a mountain lion.

Given the possible outcomes, I think we rolled away lucky. And not smelly :)

Please excuse Android brevity and typos.

[Eric Altendorf]

main trail (eastern escape) does drop you on some private
roads/driveways in brisbane. a lot of NO TRESPASSING signs and
trailer type action to set my shotgun-alert spidey senses tingling.

there were a couple cool cats in shades on the hill (us) and we broke
the rules and fed ourselves. i suppose it would be a pretty good
place to hang out if you were a feral cat.

can't think of much to add....

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 6:02 PM, Scott Crosby <scr...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Bret Lobree]

On the return dirt trip I saw one cat hop into the bushes before every one passed. Cute and kitten sized. Saw some other small narrow tailed creature hop into the bushes on the way out, but couldn't tell what it was. 

Who is Snaily?

Slightly off the OT: Last night's ride reminded me how much I like riding bikes, on dirt, in the dark. If anyone is ever up for it I'd be happy to explore the park and Mt Sutro at night. Yea bikes.

1T

[Christine Ryan]

On Tue, May 15, 2012 at 7:17 PM, Bret Lobree <blo...@gmail.com> wrote:

. 

Who is Snaily?

The occupant of the grave in the second-to-last row of photos...I'm guessing (hoping!) he/she/it WAS in fact a snail... 

pics: https://plus.google.com/photos/110115214811908801369/albums/5742913982333179009?banner=pwa

[Scott Crosby]

Appeared to be a caterpillar, tho I have seen a few small centipedes on bernal. "Snaily's" tomb was quite elaborate for his stature.

[Brett Lider]

Sent from my iPhone

I defined a segment on that same stretch which I guess Strava has failed to match you to. I defined it as only the dirt portion. We hiked it as part of this epic walk: http://app.strava.com/hikes/3409269#

Eric probably has commentary/corrections.

-sc

--

[Eric Altendorf]

I'm guessing strava (for all its run/ride/hike confusion) avoids
matching run or hike segments with bike segments....

[John Murphy]

Ummm screw that - this San Pedro mountain road - wow. Maybe Devil's Slide will compare in 30 years

Sent from my iPhone in half moon bay

[Bret Lobree]

Sometimes Murph's emails are as cryptic as his tweets...

[Yoyo Zhou]

Sometimes?

Although I _think_ this one means, "Wow, there's hardly a road here at
all. Impressive unmaintenance. Time destroys all things."

[Scott Crosby]

BL: our "ride" up the near-sheer north face of MSB did match a segment, but not yours I guess.  ride... we barely could walk it.  but it was still classified as a ride, since you can't have mixed-mode travel on strava :)

the fire "roads" running off the main MSB trail are also impressively unmaintained (new favorite word).  I doubt any vehicle short of a rubicon-prepped jeep could handle them.

[Beckett Madden-Woods]

I've always wanted to do PotA in pea soup fog. But the descent would be sketchy I think. Murph how'd the rest of the ride go?

[Peter Chang]

2012/5/16 John Murphy <ta...@murphstahoe.com>:

> Ummm screw that - this San Pedro mountain road - wow. Maybe Devil's Slide will compare in 30 years

and there are (at least) two options going down. one is 'trail-ier'
and the other 'road-ier'. i do wonder which way murph went. fun either
way.

\p

[Peter Chang]

2012/5/16 Beckett Madden-Woods <bec...@beckettmw.com>:

> I've always wanted to do PotA in pea soup fog. But the descent would be
> sketchy I think.

spring classic 1 was close but the peas were falling from the sky (pea
size rain drops, not hail/sleet/whatever).

> Murph how'd the rest of the ride go?

no offense to murph or john (his friend, i think), but if they
finished (down through san gregorio/backside of alpine) they were
definitely hammering.

\p

[Lina Mårtensson]

Nah after trying both options a few times, I think the left dirt path
is just "fun" and the right somewhat paved path is actually fun. :)

-Lina

[Brett Lider]

On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 10:03 AM, Scott Crosby <scr...@gmail.com> wrote:

BL: our "ride" up the near-sheer north face of MSB did match a segment, but not yours I guess.  ride... we barely could walk it.  but it was still classified as a ride, since you can't have mixed-mode travel on strava :)

It looks like you had lossy GPS data for that segment. I assume you stuck to the "fire road." Agreed that it was hard to even walk up it. 20%+ grade. Ugh. Photo or it didn't happen?: https://plus.sandbox.google.com/u/0/photos/100124389520659251191/albums/5698504750242767361/5698504747708142690

[Scott Crosby]

-sandbox and the url works :)

[Brett Lider]

Sorry about that. Here we go, for people who don't like to edit URLs: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/100124389520659251191/albums/5698504750242767361/5698504747708142690

[ta...@murphstahoe.com]

Planet of the Apes report.

It wasn't actually that foggy out there, I could see TJ 20 yards in front of me, but definitely misty. On the climb the mist provided a pretty cool vibe, on the descent it obscured what I suspect were some pretty nasty dropoffs from view.

We got a little lost trying to find it, looks like it's basically Linda Mar to Peralta to Adobe to Higgins. What's cool is that there are "BIKE ROUTE" signs with arrows pointing the way to a dead end road that leads to the trail.

For those who have never done it, this "road" is mostly "paved" as in it was paved at some point and in some spots it still is, and in some spots it is more pothole than paved. Was pretty straightforward on my 23mm tires and I don't have the best bike handling skills.

There is a fork in the road on the descent, we took the right fork which I think is the "road" as there were "paved" sections.

The climb is definitely longer than Devil's Slide and you can't go quite as fast because you are picking some lines. The big time addition is the descent, probably even after I sort of figure out what I am doing on it ("going slow might mean more likely to crash than going fast", "sorry, you picked the wrong line, tough shit, ride it out, changing lines equals crash").

The sun came out just in time for the exposed sections of West Alpine.

We arrived in downtown MV at Noon, having descended Page Mill to Moody and following El Monte straight in. A 6:30 departure could probably get closer to 11 AM with no PotA and no Starbucks stop in HMB.

------- Original Message -------
On 5/16/2012 5:23 PM Peter Chang wrote:
2012/5/16 John Murphy :

> Ummm screw that - this San Pedro mountain road - wow. Maybe Devil's Slide will compare in 30 years

and there are (at least) two options going down. one is 'trail-ier'

and the other 'road-ier'. i do wonder which way murph went. fun either

way.



\p