Yeah, I haven't had a chance to ride up Palomar Mountain either, but everyone who talks to me about bikes here in North County mentions it. From what I hear about how many riders go there, I imagine there has to be cops from top to bottom? DeLuz, on the other hand, is a ghost town.
There are three roads from the 76 that go up to Palomar, or at least to Mother's, a kinda of Vegan restaurant where the three roads intersect. There is one road past that that goes up to the Observatory
The aforementioned Nat Harrison Grade is the western dirt one. can be steep and fairly tight. It's about 7 miles in the dirt and about 3 of not great pavement. The South grade is the middle one, fairly short, about 7 miles, fairly steep and is very tight, the East Grade is the longest one and made up of medium to fast sweepers in about 12 miles. Not as steep as the South Grade. The South and East grades are nicely paved and maintained. All of them are great fun. It's about 5000' at Mothers.
The cops do run there on weekends. They have a lot of squids to pick up. Usually, during the week, traffic is very light. It's about 5000' at Mothers.
Back in the '90s there were several San Diego groups that essentially lived there racing, literally,up and down the mountain. The traffic was really heavy, but cops, and a dwindling interest in sportbikes have cut the crowds, but it still draws a lot of people on weekends.
DiLuz is totally different riding. Deluz itself is about 17 miles from Fallbrook to Carancho, where I usually turn off. DeLuz goes for a couple of more miles up to Rancho California. It's generally well maintained, with a few rough spots when you get into Riverside County. From Fallbrook, it climbs up some foot hills on a medium twisty open road then starts back down into a nicely wooded section the tightens up as it follows a creek bed in the bottom of the valley. It's a beautiful ride down there and there are a few spots where if it's been raining, the water passes over the road and can get mossy in a wet year. It's been fairly clean the last few years. Then it climbs up out of the valley and trees onto the end. the valley is a big farming area for oranges and avocados and there are some beautiful houses down there on the other roads that twist down among the orchards. It's easy to do 50-100 miles down there without repeating your tracks if you familiar with the area. There are some dead ends and there are some dirt roads to throw in the mix. It's a great place to ride and even on weekends the traffic isn't too bad. It's one of those spots that if you don't know about it, you're not likely to accidentally stumble into it. It's generally not even particularly well mapped.
Bare
Topic: Dirt riding tips? (Read 4789 times)