I have been riding the mountains near my house in North San Diego consistently for the last number of months and wanted a change of scenery this weekend.  Last year, I rode with a group up to the top of Mount Soledad located between La Jolla and Pacific Beach in San Diego.  I remembered that while at the top, one of my fellow riders told me that there is a challenge that many cyclists try to complete which includes completing five different climbs in the same day that all lead to Mount Soledad.  She called it the Five Fingers of Mount Soledad.  It’s in the city for goodness sake, how hard can it be when I am used to climbing out in the mountains?

Last night, I logged into Ride With GPS and searched for a published route that someone else did that I could download on my phone.  To my surprise, I found one that showed 7 climbs!  Again, how hard could climbing be in the city?  Sure, let’s download the 7 climb version and go for it.  Yes, the route I downloaded below showed that the total feet to climb was 4,600 feet, but it was only a 37-mile ride.  Easy-peasy right?  I usually ride around 60 miles on a Saturday and climb between 5,000 and 6,000 feet.  We got this.

I parked at De Anza park at Mission Bay which would have quick access to the beginning of the climb.  Thinking ahead that maybe at the end I would take a spin around Fiesta Island on some flat land after a few hours of urban grinding.  After peddling down an old paved trail next to a small stream, I accessed Soledad Mountain Rd and began breaking off the first finger as one would say.

That climb is 3.5 miles long, but it is a smooth climb with an excellently sized bike lane all the way there.  At the top is the payoff.  A 360-degree view of everything San Diego.  It is all inclusive of downtown, Miramar Marine Air Station, Northern Mountains (so clear this day I could see the San Bernardino Mountains with snow over 100 miles away), and of course the big blue Pacific Ocean.

As I did the slingshot around the monument, I headed for my first descent for the second finger.  All seemed to go well and I headed back up a shorter, but steeper climb on Cardeno Drive.  Only 2.6 miles, the steep stuff was out of the way in the beginning and I was back up to the monument in no time.

Slingshot around the monument again and back down to finger #3.  This time the climb was up Nautilus.  Hmm.  Steeper again.  Looking back this one was mostly between 7% and 9% in grade.  Shorter fortunately at 2.3 miles.  Ok, now I am warmed up and almost halfway through.  Again, we go this.

Slingshot and down finger #4.  This is where it all went sideways.  Just as I start heading down Via Capri, the phone tells me to go left on Hillside Drive.  I stop and see a street sign that says Hillside Drive, but I don’t see a road!  Just a gravel hillside.  I just came to the logical conclusion this must be a mapping error and continued down Via Capri as my phone continued to give me directions.  Thus, I didn’t think I missed anything.  Wrong.

To keep a long story short, I spent the next four climbs basically going up Via Capri in some fashion other than one route actually down the real Hillside Drive.  What I discovered was that there was actually a little trail that connected after a quarter mile to Hillside Drive and it started right behind that gravel I was looking at.  In total, I did complete seven climbs as shown below, but not the seven climbs I was supposed to finish.  The result is that I ended up climbing more vertical feet and harder climbs.  Just my luck.  In fact, half of Via Capri is over 10% grade and I did it three times.

With seven climbs completed, I headed back to the van remembering that I might want to peddle out my quads around a nice flat course on Fiesta Island.  I decided that I would go for it as a nice end to the day.  I also remembered a few years ago the city of San Diego erected a plaque commemorating the “Birth of The Triathlon.”  Seemed like a perfect day to seek it out since I was kind of on a San Diego sightseeing tour in the first place with visiting Mount Soledad 7 times already today.

After circling Fiesta Island I did not find the plaque.  However, just as I was exiting I spotted it on a rock next to the parking lot.  Needless to say, with my Ironman Canada quest, I had to pay my respects to the San Diego nut jobs that started this whole sport.

A fitting end to a day where I had to dig a little deeper on a trek that exceeded my initial concept of what I was getting into.  I mean urban climbing in San Diego…how hard could it be?