Last Saturday, two Team Fun rides set out from Carbon Connection for hill challenges of varying degrees. The Advanced group met up at 8:00 am for a long-ish ride down to La Jolla to tackle the mountain of the month, Mt. Soledad. Michell provided the directions for ascending the lesser known “Bridge Route”, and Heather managed to convince Judy and Julie to give it a try.
“Trust me, it’s awesome. It’s my favorite,” said Heather.
By the end of the ride, Julie had coined a new phrase, “a Heather Bruemmer special”, which indicates anything steep and maybe with poor road quality, and pretty much I know no one will ever “trust me”.
It involves bridges, tunnels, views, narrow side streets, and even locked gates. It doesn’t get better!
Each month I will be picking a “mountain of the month” and challenging the team to ascend it at least once. There are many paths up Soledad Mountain, with the easier ones being on the south side of the mountain. The easiest route in terms of grade is Soledad Mountain Road, but there are many paths to the top – some more adventurous than others. The route we chose did include some chopped up pavement where we got to practice our cyclocross skills, but it is not as difficult as some of the steeper sustained routes (such as Via Capri). The view from the top is the same, whichever route you take, and if you’ve never been up there, this is one of the best vantage points in San Diego. If you make it to the top, be sure to comment here or post your pictures on meetup so I can add it to the website. If you want information on routes or tips on climbing Soledad, either post here or ask me on a Saturday. I will probably be heading down there at least once more this month.
Julie, Heather, Judy and Michell atop Mt. Soledad
The beginner and intermediate groups met at 9:00 am and enjoyed a route that took in some of the local Carlsbad climbs – ascending Palomar airport road and then moving on to the steeper College climb.
We are looking forward to our rides tomorrow with the Advanced and Intermediate riders heading out for the classic Elfin Forest/Del Dios route, and the Beginners riding the San Luis River trail.
Swami's Team Fun 
Next time you come down to Soledad you’ve gotta try the Hippy Crit ( http://www.strava.com/segments/4349713 ). It’s a marvelous route created by my friend Hippy. You or David might know him, he’s a cat 2 racer with special fondness for super steep hills… and he likes to ride in cleated sandals! (which makes for the coolest ever cyclist tan pattern!). 😀