I Rode My Bike Today...

The AQI continues to be a concern in the Southland. It was hazy when I drove off toward JPL but I figured it was just remnants of the soupy fog we had here this morning. NOT! The AQI was in the low 100s here while I was climbing the lower front range. :mad:

And, I'm just gonna say that the lousy air was the cause of my not feeling too hot on the grind up. Never mind the fact that I was flying up the mountain, passing other riders. :laugh:

Anyway, I had originally planned to ride through Millard CG, climb Lower Sunset, drop Horsey, roll back around the hill then backtrack down Lower Sunset to El P. Didn't happen. I was fairly cooked when I reached the Fern TT/Brown Mtn FR junction. I took a bit of a break to wait for one of the riders I'd passed on the way up. He was riding an OG Sentinel and I was beautiful. He passed by and continued up BM FR toward Ken Burton just as two e-bikers came blasting down BM FR. They were moving so fast that it was actually loud. Full Face helmets and nice gear. I decided to let them drop in toward El P first. I followed not far behind. When I reached El P TH, they were dropping in. Again, I paused a few moments then followed. I was on the hunt! :laugh:

I caught up to one of them that had spilled it on one of the tricky switchbacks. I asked him if he was OK and he was fine and he let me pass. His bud was a bit ahead now, probably thinking it was him behind when it was actually me. :Roflmao He looked back and stopped and waited and I passed with his bud was not far behind me. I never saw them again but the one rider who was waiting appeared to be scratching his head wondering how in the world an old rider on a mere trail bike could reel them in and pass by in a cloud of glory. I was on my home dirt, that's why.... :cool:
 
Been out of shape for some time and recently been feeling a bit stronger on the climbs, so been pushing myself to do a little extra milage and elevation. Did 2 laps at El Prieto, on the first climb I thought I had a mechanical situation as I spinned the cranks heard a knocking and didn't want to keep climbing I was a mile into the ride, turned back down calling it a day. As I got back down at the trailhead of Fern trk. trail I spun the cranks foward and reverse didn't hear a dam thing the hub was normal? F%#k it stuck around for some good riding. 2nd loop half way up was tiring felt like maybe I under fueled or just a bit to much, at that point had to be extra cautious on the downhill chunk on El Prieto feeling worn out total stats
17.71mi/ 3102ft
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Fueledbyex8 said:
Been out of shape for some time and recently been feeling a bit stronger on the climbs, so been pushing myself to do a little extra milage and elevation. Did 2 laps at El Prieto, on the first climb I thought I had a mechanical situation as I spinned the cranks heard a knocking and didn't want to keep climbing I was a mile into the ride, turned back down calling it a day. As I got back down at the trailhead of Fern trk. trail I spun the cranks foward and reverse didn't hear a dam thing the hub was normal? F%#k it stuck around for some good riding. 2nd loop half way up was tiring felt like maybe I under fueled or just a bit to much, at that point had to be extra cautious on the downhill chunk on El Prieto feeling worn out total stats
17.71mi/ 3102ft
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That image^^^^ wow!
 
Since my daughter is dog watching for us my wife and I stole away to Vegas for a couple of days. Today I drove to Late Night Trail Head Red Rock Canyon to ride. Rather than doing a famliar ride I chose to ride a new trial. Angles Landing trail. With no shuttle I rode the 160 highway for the 6 mile climb. Many cars passed me and I hung to the shoulder. That smells like gas. That one is a diesel. That's a WRX redlining passing another... Just stinky. I made it to the trailhead to ride down in the preferred descending direction. After going off trail I recovered and continued. I found myself on narrow, loose exposed hillside single track. New trail to me and I was by myself so no rush. Fortunately descending the hillside sloped from high right to low left and in my own mental balance It favored me. About 1 mile of riding near the cliff edge looking over here and there saying no.. no broken bones for me today. It dropped down into a beautiful canyon riverbed with plenty of trial work to be seen. 3-4 combinations of rock to ride across. The last 2 miles back to the car was trail single/ double track. I like fast flowing feel good trails and this wasn't that but I suspected it wouldn't be- The trial just more narrow than expected. I'd ride it again- 11 miles/ 1,700 climbing. Las Vegas, Nv.
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Stkx66 said:
Since my daughter is dog watching for us my wife and I stole away to Vegas for a couple of days. Today I drove to Late Night Trail Head Red Rock Canyon to ride. Rather than doing a famliar ride I chose to ride a new trial. Angles Landing trail. With no shuttle I rode the 160 highway for the 6 mile climb. Many cars passed me and I hung to the shoulder. That smells like gas. That one is a diesel. That's a WRX redlining passing another... Just stinky. I made it to the trailhead to ride down in the preferred descending direction. After going off trail I recovered and continued. I found myself on narrow, loose exposed hillside single track. New trail to me and I was by myself so no rush. Fortunately descending the hillside sloped from high right to low left and in my own mental balance It favored me. About 1 mile of riding near the cliff edge looking over here and there saying no.. no broken bones for me today. It dropped down into a beautiful canyon riverbed with plenty of trial work to be seen. 3-4 combinations of rock to ride across. The last 2 miles back to the car was trail single/ double track. I like fast flowing feel good trails and this wasn't that but I suspected it wouldn't be- The trial just more narrow than expected. I'd ride it again- 11 miles/ 1,700 climbing. Las Vegas, Nv.View attachment 95923View attachment 95924View attachment 95925View attachment 95926View attachment 95927
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Those rock bridges and paths are super cool. ive rolled that stuff several times. That trail used to he called Fook Yu.
 
My daughter was going a little stir crazy and I gave her a list of options. She chose to go for a mt bike ride!

She's not an accomplished rider, but I am glad she is enjoying it! We did a few lower trails at Aliso and she did really well. We were going to ride up to the first turn on Meadows then come back down, but she kept going. No - she didn't climb all of Meadow, but she did make it up a few steep turns before I suggested we went far enough. I think she likes climbing better than descending! :eek: :stop: :facepalm:

She did very well on all but the one hardest section of Coyote. Yes - I know some of you had 6 yo kids who could do that. but I am proud of my nugget nonetheless!

9.2 mi 500'
 
My final ride in California, I did a mega enduro at Aliso. 5 oaks, stairsteps, carwreck, mentally sensitive sheep’s run, rockit and lynx. Did cholla 3 times o_O plus Mathis, hiking back up stairsteps, and the climb to 5 oaks. I was able to ride all of 5 oaks after a stop for line scouting, and about 98% of stairsteps, car wreck and sheep’s run. Not bad considering it’s been over a decade since I rode (walked) those trails. The very bottom portion of car wreck I rode, but I was a little sketched out and rode unclipped on my left foot! Wish I had committed. And did some awesome runs down lynx and rockit. So much fun! And I wore a jersey with an S on it @Mikie ;) 22.5/4406

I did 15,600’+ of climbing in the four rides over seven days on my trip, almost 13% of my entire climbing for the year.

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milliontown said:
My final ride in California, I did a mega enduro at Aliso. 5 oaks, stairsteps, carwreck, mentally sensitive sheep’s run, rockit and lynx. Did cholla 3 times o_O plus Mathis, hiking back up stairsteps, and the climb to 5 oaks. I was able to ride all of 5 oaks after a stop for line scouting, and about 98% of stairsteps, car wreck and sheep’s run. Not bad considering it’s been over a decade since I rode (walked) those trails. The very bottom portion of car wreck I rode, but I was a little sketched out and rode unclipped on my left foot! Wish I had committed. And did some awesome runs down lynx and rockit. So much fun! And I wore a jersey with an S on it @Mikie ;) 22.5/4406

I did 15,600’+ of climbing in the four rides over seven days on my trip, almost 13% of my entire climbing for the year.

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That's a big, aggressive ride! How many vertical ft? I will guess just under 4000' of Aliso climbing, including Stairs.
 
I Greered today, with the Master @Tom the Bomb!

Sooooo much fun out there. Love the rocky stuff especially. Climbing out there is not as steep as Aliso, but cumulatively much harder. So many switchbacks and punchy little sections - kinda like PCE - the numbers don't tell the story.

14.5 mi 1900' (felt like 2500). 5 1/2 descents Distortion, Monk Dogg, 1/2 unnamed descent on the way back over to the other climb, then Overdrive, Underdrive, and finally Jumping Mouse and the fun stuff to the bottom.

Thanks for the tour today Tom, and thank you for hanging with me on the climbs and leading the way on the downs. And for lunch!

Great day out there, and nice to break out of the "fitness" routine for some chunky, jumpy, bermy fun!
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Rewarding exploration today, Smith Peak area again. I found a trail that's a lot like the upper part of Logging Road in Wrightwood, but very remote. It's an official Forest Route, 1S22, but it is going feral like LR or Dome Rock Connector at The Needles. Right now it's track-and-a-half, tight squeeze for anything with 4 wheels, some flow some tech, and neat stream crossings. Bagged Smith Pk 2x because it's only 5 min extra climbing each pass. Sorry, no pics, but I shall obtain some apparatus for the making of video recordings...this one is a scenic cruise!

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herzalot said:
That's a big, aggressive ride! How many vertical ft? I will guess just under 4000' of Aliso climbing, including Stairs.
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It ended up being 4400, I did the little extra credits on the ridge and had to ride back to my car by canyon vistas to get a water bottle after 5 oaks. Plus coyote run twice. Definitely at the limit of what I could do after a week of big riding. I’m taking a week off of riding to recover :sleep:.
 
Fueledbyex8 said:
Been out of shape for some time and recently been feeling a bit stronger on the climbs, so been pushing myself to do a little extra milage and elevation. Did 2 laps at El Prieto, on the first climb I thought I had a mechanical situation as I spinned the cranks heard a knocking and didn't want to keep climbing I was a mile into the ride, turned back down calling it a day. As I got back down at the trailhead of Fern trk. trail I spun the cranks foward and reverse didn't hear a dam thing the hub was normal? F%#k it stuck around for some good riding. 2nd loop half way up was tiring felt like maybe I under fueled or just a bit to much, at that point had to be extra cautious on the downhill chunk on El Prieto feeling worn out total stats
17.71mi/ 3102ft
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This is a perfect San Gabriels vignette. Makes me quite homesick, thanks.
 
Stkx66 said:
Since my daughter is dog watching for us my wife and I stole away to Vegas for a couple of days. Today I drove to Late Night Trail Head Red Rock Canyon to ride. Rather than doing a famliar ride I chose to ride a new trial. Angles Landing trail. With no shuttle I rode the 160 highway for the 6 mile climb. Many cars passed me and I hung to the shoulder. That smells like gas. That one is a diesel. That's a WRX redlining passing another... Just stinky. I made it to the trailhead to ride down in the preferred descending direction. After going off trail I recovered and continued. I found myself on narrow, loose exposed hillside single track. New trail to me and I was by myself so no rush. Fortunately descending the hillside sloped from high right to low left and in my own mental balance It favored me. About 1 mile of riding near the cliff edge looking over here and there saying no.. no broken bones for me today. It dropped down into a beautiful canyon riverbed with plenty of trial work to be seen. 3-4 combinations of rock to ride across. The last 2 miles back to the car was trail single/ double track. I like fast flowing feel good trails and this wasn't that but I suspected it wouldn't be- The trial just more narrow than expected. I'd ride it again- 11 miles/ 1,700 climbing. Las Vegas, Nv.View attachment 95923View attachment 95924View attachment 95925View attachment 95926View attachment 95927
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:( Maaaaaaaaaannnn! I love those kind of trails and totally miss desert riding.
Thanks for posting the xtra pics!
 
milliontown said:
My final ride in California, I did a mega enduro at Aliso. 5 oaks, stairsteps, carwreck, mentally sensitive sheep’s run, rockit and lynx. Did cholla 3 times o_O plus Mathis, hiking back up stairsteps, and the climb to 5 oaks. I was able to ride all of 5 oaks after a stop for line scouting, and about 98% of stairsteps, car wreck and sheep’s run. Not bad considering it’s been over a decade since I rode (walked) those trails. The very bottom portion of car wreck I rode, but I was a little sketched out and rode unclipped on my left foot! Wish I had committed. And did some awesome runs down lynx and rockit. So much fun! And I wore a jersey with an S on it @Mikie ;) 22.5/4406

I did 15,600’+ of climbing in the four rides over seven days on my trip, almost 13% of my entire climbing for the year.

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Wholly chit! Mega Enduro!
 
herzalot said:
I Greered today, with the Master @Tom the Bomb!

Sooooo much fun out there. Love the rocky stuff especially. Climbing out there is not as steep as Aliso, but cumulatively much harder. So many switchbacks and punchy little sections - kinda like PCE - the numbers don't tell the story.

14.5 mi 1900' (felt like 2500). 5 1/2 descents Distortion, Monk Dogg, 1/2 unnamed descent on the way back over to the other climb, then Overdrive, Underdrive, and finally Jumping Mouse and the fun stuff to the bottom.

Thanks for the tour today Tom, and thank you for hanging with me on the climbs and leading the way on the downs. And for lunch!

Great day out there, and nice to break out of the "fitness" routine for some chunky, jumpy, bermy fun!
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Oh yah you slayed the rocks today. That unnamed trail over to the climb up to the towers was Double D. I left my place with fog and cold. Got to Greer to sun and warmth . After the first climb we were stripping layers off. Had the place virtually to ourselves. The Mint chip and Ms. Slasher got along nicely.
You're the best Herzy!
BBBBBaaaaalllllz baby!
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