Carrizo Gorge Ride

This was not an official club ride, but I had so much fun, I had to write about it. Our own offroad Bills (Sefton and Rountree) say they'll lead an official version of the ride in October when the weather cools down.

Carrizo Gorge is where the old San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad drops out of the mountains into the desert.

Our ride started in Jacumba, just outside the De Anza Springs clothing optional resort. Within minutes, we're on the railroad tracks. Immediately you get your teeth shaken out because the only place to ride is between the rails...and over the ties. Except where the trestles are. Then you walk. As long as you keep your speed up, the shaking from the ties becomes bearable.

Very quickly, the grade widens and begins to slowly crawl down the side of an extremely deep and steep gorge across plenty of trestles and tunnels.

There are plenty of railroad relics including operational rail switches, track oilers and most of the fire control system for the Goat Canyon trestle.

Goat Canyon trestle is pretty amazing to look at and to traverse. At 200' high and 750' long, it stands as the largest curved wooden bridge in the US.

There were a couple of men rappelling off of the top of the trestle. A couple of our intrepid (or is that insane?) riders explored the catwalks under the trestle.

We traveled about 2 miles past Goat Canyon and a through a couple more tunnels to a point where boxcars have fallen off the rails and made a little trip down the gorge wall. Bill and Jane scrambled down the hill to check the cars out.

This point on the road also provides a great view from afar of the Goat Canyon trestle.

If you ever saw the KPBS program The Impossible Railroad you know what a treacherous place Carrizo is. The gorge is deep, steep and rocky. I'm in awe of the people that built this back in the early 1900's.

O.K. this was an awesome ride, but here are some caveats:

• Most of the route consists of steady, gentle ascents and descents. There is some singletrack with a couple of steep places. The entire route is interspersed with trestles and tunnels. Since the entire ride is 22 miles and the last half is generally uphill, I can't honestly rate it as easy. If you have low intermediate offroad skills and reasonable conditioning, you can do it.
• This ride is not for acrophobes or claustrophobes. Riding over steel mesh hanging out over a cliff is truly an experience. You quickly learn not to look down!

  

• Jeff completed the ride using a non-suspension bike equipped with 1.5" hybrid tires. Front suspension and wider, more aggressive tires make this ride more comfortable

Needed for the ride:

• Lots of water
• Food
• Sunscreen
• Spare tubes (RR ties and chollas are hard on tires)
• Headlight and/or flashlight
• Pliers to extract cholla spines
• Camera
• Advil

And thanks to Bill Sefton for the photos!

On November 11, 2000, we did a second Carrizo Gorge Ride. Check the Photos Page for some pictures of that ride.

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