Been doing a lot of riding so I figured I should put a TR up once in a great while.
I've got a lot of spare time while waiting for something lately, so I've been trying to come up with small tours/multi day rides to do. Problem is, the weather isn't cooperating (how dare you) enough for me to get a solid week without a LOT of rain at some point, which is pretty important for my routes I've planned. I'd like to ride down to the MX border, go east through the desert, visit Anza, ride through JT, and see some stuff in the high desert, finishing through the mountains. I've cancelled the trip several times now, and considering how bad the weather was, it's been the right decision. I'm ok with riding through rain, but storms really aren't all that great when you don't have the right gear (or a tent).
So, I've looked for shorter alternatives, like loops going through the San Gabes. I'd like to do a multiday one through the SG's, but I haven't drawn up one that fits yet. I always find I'd rather keep riding that lie down and try to sleep.
Anyway, I don't know where I'm going with all this anymore so I'll just talk about yesterday. I rode from West Covina to Altadena, up the dirt road past Eaton Canyon to the summit of Wilson, down Wilson rd, right turn on Redbox down West Fork or whatever that canyon is, up to Newcomb Pass, down to Cogswell dam to 39, then down to WC for 80 miles and 7,700ft of gain. HERE IS MY STORY *shitty music starts playing, maybe limp bizkit or something really awful*
The first 20 miles go from WC to the start of the Wilson dirt road. It rained a bit in Arcadia, so I stopped for a break under an old auto service station thing. I waited a bit and it let up a little, so I put my jacket on and rode a bit further before I could remove the damn thing again. I hate wearing layers as I heat up very quickly and I don't like slowing down.
Made it to Eaton, rode up the road a bit, and took a break at one of the benches. The political commentary on the bench has impeached crossed out and replaced with assassinated.
Rode past the telephone trail, the furthest I've been up the road. The rest was kinda nice and not too steep. Made it to the summit of Wilson around noon and had a look around. I haven't been up around the observatory/telescopes since I was a little kid.
Felt cool to walk where Einstein and other famous dudes who I don't know have worked. Let's stop killing each other and being dicks on Erf so we can escape the only home we have and are destroying through our continued ignorance so we can fight over shit in space and kill each other on a much grander scale, spreading like the disease that life truly is, exploiting other planets and hopefully alien races for their resources. That will make for great movies, or however we entertain ourselves in the future.
Anywho, rode down to Redbox Junction or whatever it's called where Wilson meets the 2. Had some delicious fish. I should make a camelbak type hose thing where liquid fish gets drawn into my stomach so I can never stop riding. Granted you need more than fish meat, but I'm lazy so let's ignore nutrition and just go for nasty thoughts. Yummo.
I took the road east from here down into the canyon. I saw sign of others here in the form of footprints, but I don't think they went far. Many downed trees. My bike is heavy and I have only really been riding so I am not very strong. Had to lift the bike over stuff and push through downed trees a lot.
There were some nice stream crossings which were pretty easy. I didn't get too wet.
The road climbs out of the valley for 1,000ft. Once out of the valley proper, you have a lot fewer downed trees and obstacles, so you can just ride up the damn thing and not have to play any spartan race trendy jump games or whatever.
Reached the ridgetop, and considered taking Rincon dirt road down to 39 instead of Cogswell, but nah, there's probably a bunch more uphill that way and it was raining lightly.
There was a good amount of water in the reservoir, more than last time I was here.
The ride from the dam down to the 39 is all downhill, so you can really haul ass and relax. I stopped to take a pic of this boyo right here.
Got back around 730 or so, so about 11 hours of time out or something like that. I don't keep too close an eye on things.
Fin
