Cols, Coffee and Cervezas

Hate Harrison Grade Palomar Mountain is one of the infamous climbs in Southern California.  The Tour of California has even graced its slopes in the past. Usually you climb it from the South Grade and deal with the speeding "crotch rockets" as they race through the switchbacks, or you take the gentler slope of the East Grade. Today we are going to tackle Nate Harrison Rd. The road is named after one of San Diego County's legendary pioneers - a freed African-American who lived up on the southwest side of Palomar Mountain. I first learned about this grade/road from a couple of friends as we were preparing to hike the Grand Canyon. The steady 10 plus mile incline was the perfect training ground for preparing for our rim-to-rim experience. The Motivator learned about it from a friend who rode it on his mountain bike. When I asked if he knew about this gravel road up Palomar Mountain, he quickly replied, "Oh, you mean Nate Harrsion Grade?" It took us a few mon...

Bird Rock Coffee Roaster - Delmar, CA Saturday was our first semi-official ride for the blog. We are new to this blogging and want to take it slow as we feel our way around and learn how to do the simple things, like changing our profile name. For Saturday's ride, we met up on what is becoming our meetup corner and headed towards the coast. The ride itself wasn't the most challenging, but the first few miles together was an uphill climb to the HWY 56 bike path on Black Mountain Road. We then proceeded east to Camino Del Sur where we turned and headed north to San Dieguito. Turning west on San Dieguito, we headed down the Three Witches, an approximately 800 foot climb that occurs in three segments. Thus, the Three Witches name. (We will cover this climb some more in the future.) Following our climb, San Dieguito took us to El Camino Real, where we turned and headed south to Carmel Valley Road. There we turned and headed West again towards the ocean to reach our destination, Bi...