I started riding on Wed night in central LA. The MTB is clearly slower than a road bike, but it's really not that bad: I was averaging 17-18mph on the straights. Met up with Taco in Azusa, and rode together to Claremont and up Mt Baldy road. The sun came up somewhere between Mt Baldy village and Manker Flat. Eventually we arrived at the ski lifts, and got the obligatory photo
The ski lifts parking lot is the end of the pavement. The connector road between the parking lot and the road to the Notch is chunky and way too steep to ride. Once up on the road, it's plenty rideable, and we were up at the Notch in no time. We took one of the ski runs to the top of the lift on the West side. It was too steep, and we walked most of it. I think there's a rideable road option too somewhere. The Devil's Backbone area is really picturesque. I never come up here, and it was cool to see it again. A photo of the trail, NOT of the cool views to either side:
Most of this wasn't rideable, as expected. But it was also relatively short. Eventually you get to the traverse around Harwood, which is rideable and has views.
The final climb to the summit is also not rideable. As expected. Eventually we were done, and got the other obligatory photos
This was a Thursday morning. There were a few people here, but it wasn't mobbed at all. When we left, there were 3 others at the peak.
Now we had to think about the descent. I wanted to ride down to the village on the Bear Canyon trail. I haven't been there in maybe 10 years, but I thought it'd be doable. Taco has never taken that trail, and wanted to see Baldy from a different angle. So he decided to take that route too. This was a mistake. Being generous, I could ride maybe a quarter of this thing. MAYBE. Taco's bike was not suited to this at all, however, so he carried his bike down most of the 5500ft descent. It wasn't fun. Taco told us all about his descent from White Mountain, and he can chime in here about THIS descent. This trail is really steep, narrow, soft and has lots of tight corners. It's also very chunky, and the section between the main ridge and Bear Flat is brushy as well. The brush has a human-width slot cut through it, which is a bit smaller than would fit a bike comfortably. At Bear Flat the conditions improve, and an MTB can ride comfortably all the way down. The creek in Bear Flat is dry. And to be clear: if WALKING, this trail is in fine shape.
The cool narrow section at the head of Cattle Canyon:
This descent took way more time and effort than planned. So once at the bottom, we felt done, and spent a while eating food and chugging strawberry lemonade at the Baldy Lodge. I initially had grand plans to take GRR and descend down Lower Monroe, but once I found out that I could take Metrolink out of Claremont instead of riding to the Gold Line in Azusa, the choice was clear. I hit 37mph riding downhill! On my MTB.
And I'm told that I missed the mark: a REAL mountain biker would have driven to the ski lifts.
