20260209 Spheroid of Discontent

[Taco]

The name is a play on the Circle of Doom ride, which takes the 39 to the 2 down to La Canada. It's a pretty big road ride for cyclists. I, an uncultured smelly dirtbag who constantly rides bikes and has disagreeable opinions on things, added a couple things on. I ride 39 a few times a month, and I don't mind it but I do like how much quieter and nicer overall GMR is, and descending backside is very fun. Thus, I went up frontside from Glendora, down backside, took East Fork to 39, and so on. East fork is predominantly downhill going westbound. Traffic on 39 is low above West Fork, so you cut out the highest traffic mountain section of the route.

I continued up 39 at a good pace on my road bike, which is faster and lighter than the bikes I normally take up here. I just rebuilt an older wheelset with a dyno so I am enjoying unlimited light and riding at night without worrying about batteries. There are a couple parts of upper 39 that have gone bye bye:

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Minor washout

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Major washout

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Major washout from far away

I got to the 2 and knew the part from Islip Saddle to Vincent Gap is closed. I had a break at the PCT bathroom, then headed west at a decent clip, passing Williamson Rock. Nice cloud cover and some haze kept the light diffused and the temps cool, in contrast to the direct sunlight beating down on you every time you ride up 39 from West Fork to the 4,000ft spring. I came across some dirt and small washouts and realized that this part is probably closed, which would explain the lack of traffic. A few spots were in poor shape and I figure it'll take a long time for the road to open again. Business as usual. Hey, it's California in 2026, if they taxed us specifically for this project the money would go somewhere else, nobody could ask why or investigate, and it would remain closed and over budget until probably 2166. Hey man, don't say that!

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Kept on goin to Mount Wilson, which I climbed and descended. My dyno headlight, a Schmidt Edelux, has a cutoff beam like a car. Unlike cars, bikes lean in corners, and the cutoff no longer illuminates a flat horizon, meaning you really can't see. I recommend bringing a good bright light to mount to your helmet if you use a cutoff light. Nice in theory and on streets, though I've had just as many tweekers yell at me for having a bright light when I have a properly aimed cutoff beam as when I have a standard MTB round beam that goes everywhere. Hey, its Ca in 2026, what do you expect? Where did all the homeless funding go? And there are more now?! Hey man, stop saying that!

Wilson was fun despite how I had to take it slow due to lack of visibility. What a fun road. Gotta come back with a bright light on my dome. I was afraid to hit some dirt or a big rock and had to dodge a few, as I could only spot em when they were about 30ft ahead, which comes up real quick on a descent. I was happy to hit the 2 with its gentle curves and lower chance of dirt and rocks and bombed down that to the city. Got a double bacon avocado cheeseburger, chili cheese dog, and oreo shake at Lucky Boy near Las Robles in Pasadena. Incredibly tasty. I survived off snacks all day.

Total was 130 miles with 12,600ft of climbing. Left home a bit after 8am and got back a bit before 11pm.

Big takeaways were the road damage and how much time it'll take to reopen the 2. The huge washout on 39... I don't know much about civil engineering or any of that, but it doesn't look like there's much to build the road on there. I don't know what they'd do short of building a tunnel through that spur, and since only the state uses this road and not the general public, I doubt they'd put much into fixing it. Maybe they'll 'abandon' it? Let it go back to nature?

[dima]

Damn, that's the part of 39 that google maps says exists. What will those people do now?

[Taco]

Damn, that's the part of 39 that google maps says exists. What will those people do now?

They'll hafta rely on RideWithGPS which won't let you set a track on it, since it doesn't exist.

[Nate U]

I was hoping to get up to the Waterman area at the end of March... this is not giving me much hope the 2 will be open that far

[HikeUp]

I was hoping to get up to the Waterman area at the end of March... this is not giving me much hope the 2 will be open that far

Right now you can get to Three Points. Close enough?

My understanding/interpretation of unofficial info from what I've seen on Facebook, there is a big washout of the 2 at or near Waterman/Buckhorn area. Currently, as far as I know, the western closure point on the 2 is at Three Points. I have not heard of any time line for opening the portion of the 2 west of Islip Saddle. East of Islip Saddle, however, will be a couple of years I've heard.

Rumors passed on by me.

[Taco]

Would be a bit of a walk, or an easy ride, Nate.

Hikeup, I plan on seeing how bad the Vincent Gap side of things looks soon. The few washouts on the Three Points side of ACH aren’t too bad. Granted, that probably doesnt mean much, but compared to the pics of the VG side, that’ll be done when we are all in space prison under loving guard of the robots.

[406]

Thanks for posting. I'm curious how the Vincent gap side looks.

[Matthew]

hell yeah dude!