I left sometime in the morning and headed to Alpha Omega in Covina to get a breakfast burrito. My highly professional testing of breakfast burritos along the west coast has solidified Alpha Omega as the reigning champion, with their sausage burrito being the gold standard. This bad boy would fuel me for the rest of the day.
The heat really started to let itself be known near the bottom of Baldy Road. Last time I rode up here I was sweaty, with my grips being soaked in sweat. This time I was dripping sweat everywhere. When I got off the bike at Baldy Lodge to get a beverage my crotch looked like I lost all control of my bladder and my saddle was soaked. I put a dollar in the gatorade vending machine and pressing the button on lemon lime did nothing. Arright, how about the red flavor? Out popped a bottle of water. I chuckled and bought a Dr Pepper for some flavor and caffeine, then filled two of my bottles at the water bottle filling thing. Had a conversation with a gentleman about bikes before heading up higher where things began to cool off above 5,000ft.
Got to SA Falls Rd and walked and talked with a nice Sudanese man who hadn't been here before. He went up the road and I carried the bike to the base of the falls where I filled all my bottles up before continuing on. I had to decide if I'd hit Thunder first when I reached the notch, but I figured I'd be more motivated to go up it after Baldy, since it's an easy fire road with a steep end on Thunder. I pushed and rode up the ridge to Devils Backbone as usual, then pushed along the backbone to the trail junction with Register Ridge or thereabouts. I made a right and headed up to the summit of Harwood for snacks. I surprised a male Bighorn Sheep up here and he headed north away from me.
Continuing on towards Baldy I noticed how much easier this had become for me, this being the third time riding up Baldy over the past month or so. I used to have to stop and lean over the bike trying to catch my breath, but now I'd just stop for 30 seconds or so and my heart would quickly calm down and I'd be off again. I love feeling more fit after lots of hard work like this. The summit came shortly thereafter without any trouble, and I took some dumb photos before heading back down. I still have to walk a lot of the way, not being skilled enough to ride a lot of the more challenging stuff. My rear tire is real worn out as it's got 1,000 challenging miles on it and has been getting punctures more often now, so I babied it. Once you get to the end of Devils Backbone you can really haul ass down to the notch, which is super fun. The ride up to Thunder was chill, and if you don't wanna push the last steep part you can just veer right and follow that road near the summit to the end.
Had some snacks and headed down at a decent clip to the notch, then hauled ass down the road to Baldy Road. Bombed down quite fast to the lodge, got water, then rode to Glendora Ridge Road. Despite how slow this bike feels on pavement, I set a pretty good time to GMR, which I bombed down while managing to stay just ahead of a stock Impreza, which I had to work pretty hard to do. Went to the Hat, ate too much too fast, then rode home.
Another fine day riding up high in the mountains.
