CA National Forests (roads/trails) closed until September 17th, 2021
 

Well, damn. That kind of limits my MTB rides for a little while.

Here's a list of what is open (as of 8/31):
-Cherry Canyon (La Canada)⁠⁠
-Glendale Sports Complex (Glendale)⁠⁠
-Verdugo Mountains (Glendale)⁠⁠
-Deukmejian Wilderness Park (Glendale)⁠⁠
-Tapia Canyon (Castaic)⁠⁠
-Turnbull Canyon (Whittier)⁠⁠
-Rocky Peak Area (Simi Valley)⁠⁠
-Bonelli Park (San Dimas)⁠⁠
-Santa Monica Mountains⁠⁠

Looks like a hard closure that includes hikers, cyclists, MTB'ers. . .
Guess they're afraid carbon frames will assplode and cause a conflagration. :rolleyes:

I'm betting the closure goes until Thanksgiving, or the first rain, which ever comes first.

wondering how many of the paved roads will be closed during this time? angeles nf for example...they could close hwy 2 from just above the last set of homes in
la cañada to wrightwood but will they? gmr/grr is a given. closing everything but the state highways through the forests? all it takes is one idiot with one blunt...

Phew--Cherry is one of my regular rides right near where I live.
Thanks for this list. I literally just about an hour ago attempted to ride out Gabrieleno to the dam, and they were there closing off the gate.

Looks like I will be on Cherry and GSC for my dirt rides, unless I toss my bike in the car. I drove by the Windsor gate last night about 6:00, and the sign indicating that it was closed was already up. It will be no surprise if some people ignore it.

I hear ya. I ride out Gabrieleno all the time on my gravel bike when I don't feel like climbing my arse off around here!

I've been doing Brown on my singlespeed a lot recently, and descending via El P or Millard, depending on what I'm feeling like. My out and back route to Cherry via Hahamonga and Flint Canyon Trail is not very challenging, and is starting to get a bit stale, but riding from home doesn't leave me a lot of other options with ANF closed.

Verdugos?

Kinda sucks the NFS decided to shutdown all recreation instead of allowing hikers and cyclists access to GMR/GRR like last time.
Even San Dimas Cyn is shutdown.

$10K fine. There's a lot of ways off the beaten paths to access the ANF.
I imagine a lot of air support will be on patrol as well.

Not riding from my house - too much road to get to the dirt. My 32x19 SS gearing makes flat-ish road riding painfully slow. I'm pretty spun out above 13mph. Besides, I find the Verdugos pretty uninspiring and dull.

I think I might need to make more trips to the west side to ride with my buddy in the Sullivan Canyon area.

[QUOTE=Eric F;22212138]Not riding from my house - too much road to get to the dirt. My 32x19 SS gearing makes flat-ish road riding painfully slow. I'm pretty spun out above 13mph. Besides, I find the Verdugos pretty uninspiring and dull.

Funny you say this - I was just thinking I need to go back to the Verdugos now more often - I'm really close - but I find it just a slog and the thought does NOT get me stoked!

I'm fine waiting out the September heatwave. Last year's fires were a mess and I saw the worst of it when I was up in Oregon driving back down to California with fire/smoke everywhere.

Lately I've been doing my east side route riding the LA River, Elysian and Griffith which gives me access to fast bike lanes, challenging fire roads and long hill climbs. Plus I'm looking forward to the trails dampening up a bit so my bike doesn't get so dusty. I'm always hosing my bike down of all that brown trail dust!

I agree, they turned me back on Mt Baldy Rd this morning =(

Fire is the natural state.
Lack of fire is the disturbance.

Where are the fire roads you're speaking of? Bikes aren't allowed on any dirt in Griffith, correct? I've never checked out Elysian. I could head over thataway from Glendale easily...

Bikes are not allowed on any dirt paths in any LA park, not just Griffith.

Griffith has two uphill fire roads, one near the Los Feliz Blvd. side and another near the Riverside/Forest Lawn side. I ride either route starting from the pony rides. Once to the top you can take either fire road back down or take the Griffith Observatory or Greek Theater road (with car traffic though) depending on where you want to end up. Yeah, no bikes on the dirt paths at Griffith, but I use the hill climbing mainly for training.

At Elysian, I see quite a few MTB'ers and gravel riders low key riding the dirt trails. There are also fire roads, though I haven't explored all of them yet, but they make for some fun riding as well. Just be mindful because there are homeless encampments around the outer edges of the park and unfortunately Elysian doesn't get the same maintenance Griffith Park gets. During the daytime though I'd say it's pretty safe and I've had no issues riding there.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy also has a few nature areas in LA with hiking/gravel trails, and interestingly many are bike accessible (marked on the website). Usually if I don't see a sign prohibiting bikes, I'll ride there. Though I try to be respectful to the walkers and hikers, so they don't find an excuse to complain about bikes on the trails!

Are you talking about the beat up, pot holed paved roads (Mt. Hollywood, Vista del Valle)?

Have you checked out Dirt Mullholland yet? Looks like there's a whole lot in that area that would be awesome on a gravel bike. I saw quite a few gravel bikes when I rode Sullivan Ridge and Sullivan Canyon with a friend a little while back.

Cool, I gotta figure out where the Griffith fire roads are---I gather these are paved? I've always been told "pavement only" for bikes there--bummer!

I have ridden Dirt Mullholland a couple times on my gravel bike. Lotsa climbing, some killer views for sure.

It's been years since I went up Mullholland and that was with my old 26" MTB. I need to revisit it again. I mostly ride locally on the east side, but I definitely want to explore more of the west side trails.

ANF closure extended to September 22.