Walking the San Diego River: Week 3.2 Deerfield Loop

The entrance to Mission Trails Regional park, marks a true transition zone in our journey. Here teh river gradient increase by a factor of 5 over what we had in Mission Valley. Also we are beginning to leave the Quaternary and Tertiary Sediment deposits and encounter more hard bedrock, here some un differentiated volcanics. The river which had been meandering and depositing is now well constrained by the gorge in incises through this first ridge of the Peninsular Range. We are looking at a true Water Gap here. So it seems fitting that we spend an entire episode of this blog exploring this zone.

And this is where we start

We can't get to the river through this sign

We had originally intended to hike this the day before, but arrived late enough in the day the it seemed wiser to catch the bus and just come back here today. While we could theoretically tack it on to next week's journey, that will also be a long day, so here we are doing 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile on a balmy February afternoon. Although we have been doing public trans, the distance from here to the nearest stop combined with the looping nature of the trail made driving more practical.

The river is between the foreground and the background

I've done a number of the trails here including just about everything south of Mission Gorge Road, and I have only missed a few trails near Route 52 in the north. The Deerfield Loop is billed as a BMX loop, so perhaps the shortness and the BMX presence has led me to seek other areas in the past. It's nice to get here finally.

So close but so far

The ridge with a view.

looking back at the BMX park

BMX'ers in an old quarry

The BMX park turns out to be pretty cool, though small and primarily for BMX bike riders. There were 3 of them in the old quarry, riding without helmets, enjoying the terrain. I was reminded a bit of Slopestyle, a sport I had not heard of until a few days ago, in which downhill skiers act like skateboarders and jumpers in one spectacular run. I like cycling as well, though the BMX is not what I do. I do however fund myself admiring these BMX'ers more and more as I diversify.

The Two Fortuna Peaks, North and south

The ever steepening river

Anita in the late afternoon sun

We made our way across the BMX terrain park and onto the ridge that overlooked the river. For a few minutes we enjoyed the babbling of the river. There was nowhere to sit so we did not linger, except maybe to snap a few a photos up and down the valley, before continuing our journey.

Water gap in 3-D

We made our way around the loop watching the land glow as the day drew to a close. The hills began to glow an otherworldly tone as we gazed at what lay ahead. Back near the trailhead in what seemed like very little time, we then found ourselves a place to sit as the colors in the sky matched the land. Pictures seem to do this better justice than any words I can use. The chemistry and physics of our atmosphere along with those of the sun sometimes paint quite a pretty picture.