My last ride on 2015 was on Wed. 12/30 with a 10:00 AM start. A friend of mine (Lois Rubin) took a day off work to ride with me on a couple of mountain roads in the San Gabriel mountains: Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road (GMR & GRR). It was cold at the start (low 50's) but we were dressed for it, so no problem, at least on GMR.
As we gained more altitude on GRR we lost a few degrees and by the time we hit the 2nd summit of GRR (just under 5,000 ft. of elevation) it was down to 35 Deg.F. so a might chilly in the shaded sections, still comfortable in the sunny bits.
We had seen snow along the side of the road for several miles before the summit but after the summit we encountered several sections of frost covered roadway (don't try to stand a pedal on that!) and then sections of fully ice-covered road.
Yikes! But we stayed steady, no quick acceleration or braking, emphasis on smooth! Scary, nervous riding, but we made it. A couple on a motorcycle weren't so lucky and they were picking up themselves and the motorcycle as we approached. No injuries, fortunately, so we carried on; at a slow and careful pace.
After 21 miles we succeeded in making it to Mount Baldy Lodge but our slow pace had put us behind schedule since I was supposed to pick up my wife from LAX (airport) at 6:00 PM. Not having time for a full lunch we ordered pie and coffee (I had Blackberry while Lois enjoyed Apple). I checked my phone to find that my wife had given up her seat on the plane in exchange for a free flight voucher and wouldn't be arriving until 10:30 PM . . . giving Lois and I ample time for lunch after all.
Having eaten our dessert first (never allowed when we were kids, of course) we then split a toasted BLT on wheat and an order of French fries. Wonderful, lunch, really! We sat at the bar since all the tables were full.
That done, we decided to go back to the start on Mt. Baldy Road, rather than GRR/GMR to avoid all that nasty ice. Started as a cold descent (through the tunnels!) but warmed up as we hit lower elevations, so overall not bad.
Here it is on Strava:
https://www.strava.com/activities/459691795
So . . . overall a nice ride but for sure some scary ice riding we hadn't planned for! 40 miles, 4,888 feet of elevation gain.
Rick / OCRR
Lois at Mt. Baldy Lodge
Rick at Mt. Baldy Lodge