Southern California - Red Box Saturday 9/1

John , Sarah and I are going to Rose Cafe, you can wimp out with us.

If you do that, will you be leaving from CSUN at 8:00? What about coming back? It might be pretty sucky coming back. I still have to see how my stomach is in the morning, guess I got some bug that's going around at work.

There were some torrential downpowers in the Wrightwood area today; hope the weather holds out for you guys.

I hope you guys got to Dawson Saddle, probably nice up there. I went back to Red Box and sat around, then went to the top of Mt Wilson. It was nice there, too. I got home before noon and was shocked by the heat when I got out of my car.

Was it cloudy and cooler ? The valley ride was nasty hot.

Was it cloudy and cooler ? The valley ride was nasty hot.I think it was in the high 70's at Dawson with a nice cloud cover. My thermometer ,which always reads high, said 82. We saw several other riders up there including a guy with a brand new Root Beer Brown Land Shark, cool. The two elder statesmen , Rick and myself, were the only ones to do the complete ride. No surprise there:) We had a nice ride, 8720ft in 81 miles.I knew that it would be much cooler up there and the clouds helped some too. There was actually some police presence up there today but few people. They must have thought it was too hot. Anyone want to do one of the Tujunga's on Monday?

Thanks for the (mostly) cool ride today Vertical Bob!

Back in Whittier it's 101! Yikes. And no, Jackie and I don't have air conditioning. Lots of fans though . . .

Excellent ride, today, and sorry the others couldn't make it all the way to Dawson Saddle. The guy on the new Lank Shark is Brent; he works at JAX in Irvine. He adjusted my rear derailluer right there on Angeles Crest! Worked great after that. His friends were Carrie and Ben, and they were going on to Wrightwood.

Overall a great ride and I'm sure I'll be back to the area. It's about an hours drive from my house in Whittier, about and hour 45 return with heavier traffic.

Thanks to Kevin for getting the day pass "Adventure Pass" since I'm sure I would have gotten a ticket if I didn't have it.

Rick / OCRR

The two elder statesmen , Rick and myself, were the only ones to do the complete ride. No surprise there:) We had a nice ride, 8720ft in 81 miles.

You guys just wore us out!

Oh, we had a little over 80 miles, too, but 9000 or so feet (mine said 9202). :D

Thanks to all for alowing me to tag along on this ride for a while. I had a great time but once we left Newcomb's my legs were toast. I thought it a better idea to live to climb another day - Dawson's will be next goal. Thanks for the tips and for making the new guy feel welcome.

Thanks to all for alowing me to tag along on this ride for a while. I had a great time but once we left Newcomb's my legs were toast. I thought it a better idea to live to climb another day - Dawson's will be next goal. Thanks for the tips and for making the new guy feel welcome. It was nice to meet and ride with you Kevin, your always welcome. The performance curve for new cyclists is pretty rapid. I think you will see yourself get stronger fast. Ask Agua Terror. :)That was a pretty hard detour around to Upper Big T yesterday. Had we gone straight up A.C. you would have made it much further, next time.

Yes Kevin,

I thought you rode very well, and esp. since you're new to all this. I'm sure you will improve rapidly if you keep climbing up Angeles Crest! You might also enjoy the BF rides on Glendora Mountain Road, and/or the rides in the Santa Monica mountains. Keep an eye on the bikeforums board and you will see lots of BF climbing rides!

Today, Jackie and I did a recovery ride to beach (she rode a century yesterday), so 40 miles and I was on my single speed, so just taking it easy. I keep telling myself, "Recovery is just as important as riding!"

Rick / OCRR

Hi Guys. It's Brent with the land shark. It was great meeting you guys up there and riding a bit. We made it to Wrightwood after several tire cuts left us tubeless and no more co2. We got rained on HARD! in Wrightwood so called for a ride back down the mountain. big cuts in my new contis. Bummer. I'd love to ride some more with you guys. I'll keep my ears open here.

Here's my ride report:

It was HOT!!

Hi Guys. It's Brent with the land shark. It was great meeting you guys up there and riding a bit. We made it to Wrightwood after several tire cuts left us tubeless and no more co2. We got rained on HARD! in Wrightwood so called for a ride back down the mountain. big cuts in my new contis. Bummer. I'd love to ride some more with you guys. I'll keep my ears open here.

Hi Brent,
Welcome to the SoCal area of bikeforums.net! Sorry to hear of your problems with the cut tires and multiple flats. That washed out section must have been brutal. The rain, on the other hand, probably felt good!

Bob and I were hoping some of the rain would fall on us, but it didn't happen. Just seemed to be getting hotter all the way back to Red Box. It looked like it was going to rain "somewhere" and I guess Wrightwood just got lucky.

Rick/OCRR

Hi Brent,
Just seemed to be getting hotter all the way back to Red Box. It looked like it was going to rain "somewhere" and I guess Wrightwood just got lucky.

Rick/OCRR

It was hotter on the way back to Red Box than it was past Red Box, for some reason. Actually, once WhiteCarbonDude and I got down to La Cresenta is felt even cooler.

It was a warm start at 6:20 in the morning it was already 80 degrees. Thanks to the company of Jpconrad the first climb went by quickly. We meet up with V.Bob, Big John, Rick and the new guy kehrhart at Clear Creek and descended to Upper Big T and back to AC. That was the "cool" part of the day as it dipped into the upper 70's but once back on AC it warmed up again. It wasn't that hot really until we descended into La Canada where I saw my temp rise to 111:eek: John and I headed back just past Cloud Burst because I promised the little lady I'd be home by 2. It worked out perfect, we got back to the cars at 1 and I live an hour away:)

Thanks for the ride guys.
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Here's my ride report:

It was HOT!!I rode from home in Van Nuys to Santa Monica this morning, now THAT was hot. Much worse that anything yesterday. I'm gonna try Little T Monday at 6:30 am. from the Rec Center in Lakeview Terrace. Short but sweet.

It was hotter on the way back to Red Box than it was past Red Box, for some reason.

That was definitely the hottest part of the day for me. The little climb back into Red Box seemed to be very hot! At the end of the day I felt pretty good about my first ride up there - 46 miles and 5,152 ft of climbing - but I'm annoyed at myself for not at least getting to Cloud Burst - the way Bob described it as we were riding to Newcomb's made it sound great. Oh well, something to look forward to.

By the way, I ate a Cliff Bar while at Newcomb's and it really made me feel terrible. I had felt just fine up until that point. Do Cliff Bars (or similar bars) bother anyone else - I'm just wondering if that was a bad choice of food for refueling?

. Do Cliff Bars (or similar bars) bother anyone else - I'm just wondering if that was a bad choice of food for refueling?

Dude, I can't handle Clif bars either. Every time I eat them my stomach gets bad cramps. I don't know why. I usually eat regular old power bars when I'm out of my liquid fuel of choice, Sustained Energy and Heed. Hammer products like me:) they're not for everyone though I've heard, you just have to keep trying different things to see what your body likes.

Jon

That was definitely the hottest part of the day for me. The little climb back into Red Box seemed to be very hot! At the end of the day I felt pretty good about my first ride up there - 46 miles and 5,152 ft of climbing - but I'm annoyed at myself for not at least getting to Cloud Burst - the way Bob described it as we were riding to Newcomb's made it sound great. Oh well, something to look forward to.

By the way, I ate a Cliff Bar while at Newcomb's and it really made me feel terrible. I had felt just fine up until that point. Do Cliff Bars (or similar bars) bother anyone else - I'm just wondering if that was a bad choice of food for refueling?Cliff Bars [ Black Cherry Almond] are the only bars I eat. Be sure and drink water with them.

Yes Kevin,

Cliff bars are not for everyone, but I do fine with them! I ate a Cliff bar at Newcomb's during our first stop there and it helped power me up the mountain (yeah, the Gatorade helped too) all the way to the top.

I had a Hammer Gel at the top, then Vert. Bob and I had french fries and Cokes at Newcomb's on the way down. I'm thinking the salt from the fries (a tad over-salted to my taste, really) was probably really good for me, and the sugar and caffeine from the Cokes couldn't have hurt either.

I agree with Jon that Hammer Products (pills, powders and potions) are all very effective and easy on my stomach. Still . . . not for everyone and your milage may vary!

Overall, and in spite of the heat, I felt fine all day on the climbs and descents. One time, early in the ride, I put out a little extra effort to catch up to Whitecarbon Jon and jpconrad, and was feeling okay until they started talking about their kids!

"Jeez," I thought, "my Grandkids are older than their kids! What's an old geezer like me doing trying to keep up with these youngsters?"

So I rolled it back down to reasonable speed for AARP bike riders and still had a really good ride! Later found out that Vert. Bob is a few years older than me . . .

Rick / OCRR

I agree with Jon that Hammer Products (pills, powders and potions) are all very effective and easy on my stomach. Still . . . not for everyone and your milage may vary!


I'm going to try some of the Hammer Products and see what happens. I've heard other people say good things about them as well. Glad you had a good ride and I look forward to trying it again sometime soon.