Well, it was closer to 93 miles, but I thought I'd post up some video of our climbfest last weekend.
I think this is my favorite route in all of the San Gabriel Mountains up here. It mostly free of traffic, and has great pavement. On top of that, it has 3 of the most important things:
1. 3 great climbs.
2. 3 great descents.
3. 3 great mountain cafes.
Here is the route:
San Gabriel Triple - A bike ride in Duarte, CA
It would be perfect if it came out to 100 miles, but we only did 90. Rick did the full Monty ... with the 2000 foot STEEP climb to the ski lifts and back, so he made it to 100 miles and about 13,000 feet of climbing.
The route starts at a park, and heads up Highway 39. This section is pretty busy traffic wise, and can get windy too. But after the Forest Service kiosk, you're facing a 14 mile climb to Crystal Lake. The reward up there is a nice little cafe. I fueled up with a hot dog. Here are Willy and I at the cafe parking lot.
From there, you have an incredible descent. OMG, this is a half an hour of fun.
At the intersection, you turn to Camp Williams, and after 5-10 miles or so, you can fuel up there, before starting the climb up to Glendora Ridge. Here is Pixie ... making us all look bad.
And you might have seen the Glendora Ridge on one of the recent Tour of Californias ... great views of Mt. Baldy the whole way.
We all stopped at the Mt. Baldy Lodge for some food. They were really busy, and service was slow, so any though of adding the ski lifts to the ride were quashed. But we had a good meal.
After that, there is a short uphill,
then downhill along Glendora Ridge Road and a really sweet downhill down Glendora Mountain Road ... one of my favorite descents anywhere.
Here we are at the bottom. That's me, Rick, Pixie, Steve, and Willy. I forgot the guy on the far right's name.
I have to say, I spent most of the day feeling pretty damn grateful. Grateful for being healthy enough to do this kind of thing and enjoy it, and grateful for the terrific company. It seems in life, your companions matter more than just about anything.
This video takes in only part of the ride. It includes the descent from Crystal Lake, a little of Camp Williams, the ascent up East Fork ... the Mt. Baldy Lodge (craking jokes with other patrons, while the waitresses filled our bottles), and some of the descent down Glendora Ridge Road.
