![]() The flume had numerous trestles in this area. I found the delta between the flume grade and the valley floor grade to slightly mess with my visual senses as the valley floor rises to the east at a higher rate than the flume corridor giving the illusion that you are going slightly uphill when going west. The flume was built with a grade of four feet five inches per mile. There is a kiosk nearby that should draw your attention. When you reach the flume trail take note of the Cape Horn tunnel at the bottom of the switchback. ![]() Due to the topology you will actually climb above the level of the flume and then decend a little down to the flume. The El Monte Park trail offers no warm up as you are straight into steep switchbacks that go from the valley floor up to the flume trail. This route has you picking up the El Monte Park trail in the southwest corner of the park. Recommended Route: (El Monte Park Out and Back) While this trail may not be an epic ride, there is certainly epic history here and somedays you might even find a healthy serving of Chicken Noodle Soup for the MTB Soul. It is a nice little gem of a trail that is exceptional pretty particularly in the winter months. ![]() A roughly six- mile portion of that flume corridor has been preserved for the public and you can ride your bike on it. The construction of the El Captain Dam in 1933 made the flume pretty much obsolete and in 1935 the wooden flume was replaced with an underground pipeline The nine million board feet of redwood lumber used to construct the flume has long been reclaimed for other uses but the corridor still remains through El Monte and Blossom Valley near the town of Lakeside. The flume utilized 315 trestles and five tunnels to tame the grade as it transversed 37 miles of mountains, valleys, ravines and other manner of rugged terrain. It was completed in 1889 and provided much needed water to support the growth of the San Diego region. San Diego County had a pretty amazing flume that went from Lake Cuyamaca to the La Mesa area. ![]()
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