This afternoon it was nice and sunny, and I decided to take bike ride up to Stanley Peak, one of the prominent mountains in Daley Ranch in Escondido. It was a 11.67 mile ride round trip. I go hiking and biking there quite often, but today I thought I’d take a few pictures to share.

Here is a map of my trip. I went up the mountain and then did a counter-clock-wise loop. Blue is slow (up the hill) and red is fast (coasting downhill).

I can literally do this ride from my front door.

There were some recent mountain lion sightings, so there are warning signs around the park to make people aware. In all the years of my hiking, I have never seen a mountain lion, even though I know they are there. However, yesterday I was really lucky (on another ride in Daley Ranch). I saw two Lynxes. One was an adult, about  the size of a coyote, with the characteristic pointy ears and the short tail. Its fur was grey-brown. Since I was on my bike, I was not able to stop and get my phone out to take a picture in time, before I disappeared. Then, a bit later I saw a juvenile lynx. It was about the size of a very large cat with the same color fur as the adult. Again, no pictures.

The trail up on the mountain gets quite rough.

Toward the top, the trail was steep enough I had to push my bike.

Finally, at the top, at 1,970 feet altitude.

The views are  great. This is looking south to Escondido from the top of Stanley Peak. The arrow points to a little nubby which is the mountain right behind our house. Our house can’t be seen from the peak, it’s behind that mountain. On the left you can see the road up to Valley Center, which you can also see on the map above on the right side.

Here is a view looking straight north from the same spot. The large ridge in the distance is Palomar Mountain, home of the famous observatory.

On the way back down I just had to take this picture of one of my favorite spots on this trail, an idyllic mountain pond.  There is all kinds of wildlife here, and I am sure it’s a great watering spot for the big cats, the mountain lion and the lynx.

I feel very fortunate that I can literally hike or bike to this wilderness area from my front door. It’s a very different world up there.