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Mt Baldy
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george vargas
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Nov 22, 2005 23:04 PST
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Hello Everyone:
51 miles 6500 ft of gain
go to the link below for the elevation chart (at the bottom)
http://www.epictrain.com/epic_rides.html
Short ride because of the travel time. 92 miles each way cuts into riding time. However, THIS IS A MUST DO CLIMB. It starts off fairly easy and lulls you then it pitches up. There are sections that avg 9% and more for miles at a time. The top couple of miles are well over 10-15% with really tight switchbacks. You have to swing wide because if you take the inside line you will suffer. Beautiful weather cool at the top though. Very fast descent.
As you come down Baldy make a right onto Glendora Moutain Ridge (GMR)This puts you on a ridge road with fantastic views and solitude. Makes all the climbing worth it and reassures you that "yeah I love to ride my bike, where else would I rather be?"
One scary thing happened. GMR connects to another rd ? and it was closed because of the recent fires. Well, I was descending like a stone (doing my best il Falco imitation) because the road was closed and there wouldn't be any other traffic why--- because the road was closed right? When out of a turn here comes two dump trucks (I think they were racing each other) staggered and taking up both lanes. I sat up, waved my arms frantically, so they would see me (all this while going 40 mph). You should have seen the look on their faces. I think they were more scared than I was. As they tried to get into a single file, in their lane, I had to skid to a stop at the edge of the road with enough time to dismount and run into the ditch. It is an eeire feeling when you feel that draft --- that air turbulence, that trucks leave in their wake as they passed by.
all for now,
george
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