Calavera Randomness

Five shots taken while riding at the local trails this afternoon:

rotting roadster

fennel

foliage

bees
wall

And one showing the red dirt of Rancho La Costa, clinging to my Pivot mountain bike:

Calavera MTB: Dirt and Detritus

I'm pretty fortunate to have a nice trail network less than a mile from home. Carlsbad's Calavera Preserve has a decent network of flowy trails on decomposing trails. I've posted pix and words about the park in the past, but this time I went out to try to discover some new connectors and loops. While riding I came across an old weathered boot...
...which inspired me to take pix of some of the other interesting (to me anyway) old junk that is spread about the preserve. Since this was a ranch prior to the city obtaining it, and, until a few years ago populated with a few migrant camps it's no surprise that one comes across such items. So I dialed up the phone's Hipstamatic app and fired away on the subjects that captivated me.

charred fencepost

nopales
banana palms
John Deere disc harrow
steel w/holes
Corolla
Corolla plate
British roadster
trail, Encina power station and the Pacific
handy ladder bridge
more trail
fridge
cairn
1970s Japanese pickup
a-arm, shock absorber
pickup bed
pickup dashboard
graders, for construction of Carlsbad's new high school
pale painted peeling plywood
tagged chair, describing my mood as of late
shack, view
junkman, watching the trails
self-portrait

Calavera Hills MTB Morning

Nothing quite like a little dirt before work...

special thanks to the trailside cactus for the support

Sunday At Calavera

Since we're due for crummy weather all week...
...and in spite of Celeste's cold and Allie's lingering sickness, I suggested that we get out and do a little local exploring this morning. No Field Trips to San Diego or LA, we just took Juno all of five miles up to the Calavera Lake trails in Carlsbad.

Parked the car at the closed produce stand where Carlsbad is planning to build a new high school...
...slipped thru the gate...
...and walked down a dirt road to get on to some of the trails. Unfortunately Celeste didn't have a whole lot of energy, so we didn't get too far. But the grrrls both needed and appreciated the fresh air.
Celeste found a perfect retrievin' stick for June Bug...
...and, being a Lab, we pitched it down the creek over and over and over and over again. After all, it's unpossible to keep this dog out of water.
We headed home after an hour or so, with a wet, stinky and happy dog panting in the back of the wagon.
After lunch I returned with my bike, a 2.5 hour "hall pass" and the desire to get a better feel for how the extensive trails intertwine to form the fun network. I've ridden Calavera a couple of times with a local friend as well as brought Celeste to the lake on the north side of the open space, but still didn't know it well enough to be able to fully navigate it solo.
Most of the trails I rode today consisted of relatively-smooth and twisty singletrack on decomposing granite and surrounded by abundant California Sage. Minimal elevation changes and everything I rode today was in my bike's middle ring.

Being the car dork I am, I made a point of stopping to check out a long-abandoned Toyota.
Amazingly, the '71 Toyota Corona my dad owned from 1976-85 had far more rust on it than this "KE20" (second generation) Corolla of similar vintage does. Early Japanese cars + Midwestern road salt = a very bad case of tinworm.
The block and transmission were still in place...
...but the 1166cc (55HP) block had been "well-ventilated" - a thrown con rod perhaps?
Just across from the Toy, but far-less complete and unidentifiable (by me at least) was another CARcass...
My hunch? Some small British roadster. The British Racing Green floor pans are a good clue.
Nice flaking paint on the inner side of the door.
All-in-all, I put in about nine miles and 1500' of elevation gain over an hour and a half of exploring the trails, sometimes doubling-back to better figure out how the puzzle pieces fit together.
Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. Now this storm front needs to blow through quickly so I can head back next weekend.