TR: Bike ride from Mt Wilson to Highway 39 West Fork

TRs for the San Gabriel Mountains.
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mattmaxon
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Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:48 pm

Post by mattmaxon »

After meeting at the La Cañada Carpool point we got off the trailhead @ Keyon Devore Trail on Mt Wilson @ 9:20am

Of course by the time we got to the Parking lot for the observatory, the gate was open...

Once we got to the trail we had to walk about the 1st ½ mile or so as falling along here could be very serious indeed

There was several more legs where the trail was soft and the slough narrowed the trail or it was very narrow with steep drop off, we walked along here too.

We got to Newcomb Pass (3.83 miles 1:23) and the bugs where out in force, I should have brought a bandanna, we met a couple guys on mt bikes who rode there from Red Box, though it was bit unclear where they where going to.

The bugs where a serious pain so we moved on quickly, stopping at a gate about ½ mile on but they where worse here, we quickly removed some clothing on this warm day and continued on.

5.82 miles 1:51 we stopped again to enjoy the view and the strong breeze which kept the bugs at bay.

A nice view of Twin Peaks, Devils Cyn, and other High country peaks

Further on we stopped to check out the mother of all bear scat piles and stopped several other times to marvel at the view

At the Cogswell Dam (11.14 miles 2:43) the road is paved to Highway 39, there was a bit of a headwind so the going was slower than when we where here a month or so ago, the hillsides had a heavy sprinkling of Foothill Larkspur , which petered out to lots of Blue Dicks choking the road sides

As I suspected there where tons of people out on this Easter Sunday, we arrived at the trailhead @ 12:30pm 3hrs 15min after leaving Mt Wilson, my GPS indicated 19.22 miles, Ken's odometer indicated 17.89 miles, my estimate was 18.3. But figuring 18 miles and 3.25 hours we averaged 5.5 MPH!

This was a super ride, may make it longer the next time riding from Red Box
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Taco
Snownado survivor
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Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 4:35 pm

Post by Taco »

"petered out to lots of Blue Dicks choking"


:lol:

Sounds fun.

Hey, did you have to do any special wizardry to get through the gate at Cogswell Dam? I hiked up the road to the dam, but there was a sign saying something along the lines of I can't go there.
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