Kevin, Ron and I headed out for a Sunday morning Mountain bike ride. For a change we decided to meet for a ride on the North Shore of Lake Hodges.  We met at the Park and Ride as suggested by Moutain Bike Bill (http://www.mountainbikebill.com/LakeHodgesNorth.htm) We headed out and after a couple passes around some beginner single track headed around to the climb up Bernardo Mountain.  Bernardo Mountain's elevation is 1,119 feet - not epic and the starting elevation for the climb is somewhere between 500 and 600 feet.  However the climb is challenging - more so then most anything in Calavera or Flightline. 

The image above shows Kevin finishing the climb up to what Bill refers to on his map as Point E.  Overall to this point the climb is challenging but very manageable.  While we all put a foot down a time or two and had a at least one blow on the way to the spot to keep together as a group it was not above our abilities.  We took a couple quick photo's from this vantage:

Looking East

Kevin and Ron - Part Way Southern View

Bill Part Way - East North East View

From here we continued up, but the trail definitely gets more technical.  Mountain Bike Bill has a picture of the rocky portion of the trail which comes immediately after this point.  However, I feel the real challenge was further on where the trail paralleled the fence for a water tank.  This portion bordered on unridable and all three of us took it on foot.  Above that there were some technical portions, but once again the climb was ridable.  We made it to the top and added our names to the log book.  If you do make it up to the peak you'll find the log book in plastic bags on top of the rocks.  The views from the top are terrific as shown (even with the poor resolution of my phone's camera)

View East over I-15:

View to the West

Bill & Ron Northern View

Kevin at the top East View

Other then a great ride there were no major wipe outs and not much blood left on the Mountain.