Southern California - Cruisin' ride up GMR this Saturday

Sorry for a dumb question, What is the GMR? still trying to learn about bike stuffs:)

Sorry for a dumb question, What is the GMR? still trying to learn about bike stuffs:)

GMR= Glendora Mountain Road
GRR= Glendora Ridge Road

Thanks!

Hey JetWave,

Be sure to join us on the next Bike Forum ride up GMR and GRR now that you know what the letters stand for. It's a 44 mile ride with 4,800 ft. of climbing, but nothing real steep. You'll love it!

Best Regs,
Rick / OCRR

44 miles.....did I take the long route, I ended up with about 59 miles

44 miles.....did I take the long route, I ended up with about 59 miles
Yes... You took the long route! I believe you took 39 --> East Fork --> "Little GMR" --> GRR --> Village. We did GMR --> GRR --> Village. (when you went left on GRR, to the right is GMR). From the Village some of us road back down the way we came, others took Baldy Rd back.

Our start (http://maps.google.com/?q=Glendora+Mountain+Rd+%26+Boulder+Springs+Dr,+Glendora,+CA+91741&ie=UTF8&z=12&ll=34.189938,-117.840042&spn=0.165566,0.43396&om=1). (your route up 39 is to the west)

so you guys just parked at the road block and went up that fun downhill?? I wanted to click some pics of those hairpins but I was moving a lil fast:D Next time I'll go that route but I'll bring my Roadie this time, might be a lil MORE effeciant then pushing 2.0 knobbies and my MTB race saddle (OUCH).

What is your guy's average time to get up and down both long and short route. And how is the ride up to Crystal lake? I think I'm addicted to that place:D I'm gonna try Palomar Mt. this sunday;)

When are you going to be on Palomar? I'll be out there for work but will be free sunday morning and will have a bike.

Sunday morning, about 8ish so I can beat some of the heat on the climb up. I'll prolly park at Harras Casino other wise it's 74 miles loop from my house in Esco. Parking there will make it about 40 some miles for the loop. I plan on riding up the back side and coming down the front. I never done it before so I'm not sure what kind of pace I'll be doing. I know it's 1000ft more climbng then baldy and I climbed up that at 6-8mph on the MTB.

Palomar's a nice climb. Personally, I prefer climbing South Grade. Lots of great views, and for the most part just steady climbing. Almost no breaks in the climbing (there's a quarter mile or so that is essentially flat), but nothing ultra-steep to kill you, either. I would aim to do the climb in the early morning as it can still get pretty hot out there. Oh, and if you've never been up there, a short detour to the observatory and back may be worthwhile. Be careful with the descent. It's a fun descent, but a few of the turns can catch you by surprise.

jsigone, parking at the casino sounds like a good plan if you want to cut down the distance. You have to cover the first four miles of the South Grade climb anyway to get to where South Grade branches off from CA-76. If you get through that climbing okay, I would go up South Grade. It doesn't really ever get steeper. It just keeps going for eight miles of continuous climbing (from the split with CA-76).

If you so desire at the top, go to the observatory. Be forewarned that this adds perhaps 1300 feet of climbing round trip of comparable steepness to what's found on South Grade. If you want extra distance without much more work, perhaps descend East Grade and head back along CA-76. (If you need anything at that point, head east on CA-76 from the bottom of East Grade, and you reach a convenience store in two miles.)

thanks, Its been a while since I drove up there. I used to race my lil pocketbikes at the track they have about 10 minutes east of the south grade/76 fork. Maybe it will be best just to climb up the front and maybe go down the back where there is less motorcycles. Or come down the same way. I got some new brake pads ready for this ride, I'm sure I"m going to need them. I plan on climbing to the observatory. I'm a lil bummed with myself for not making it to the ski lifts at Baldy. So this time I want to make sure I go all the way up.

I've done both climbs (south and east grade) before-- it's not bad, but I've never pedalled all the way to the observatory. I've usually done them after riding from Pine Valley. I'll try to meet you there at the start-- I'll send a pm with my contact info sometime today.

I just went down the S. Grade across 76 and back up the E grade today-- it wasn't bad. I think the climb to the observatory from the intersection of the two roads isn't as bad as the south grade.