Long time lurker, first time poster -
Today was going to be my first attempt at GMR. Perfect opportunity since it was closed to motor traffic but when I got to the gate around 12:30 I was turned away by CHP. I told him my understanding was GMR was open for cyclists and hikers then he went into a long winded speech about how the road is closed to "vehicles" and when a person is on a bike on the roads they are considered "vehicles" and must obey all "vehicular" laws etc etc etc. I didn't argue, really didn't need a citation on the 4th of July. There definitly seems to be some confusion amongst the governmental agencies that patrol the road. I hope those involved in the accidents are OK. I'll make it up GMR sometime. |
Sounds like I had the right idea going up on the night of July 3rd. Had the whole place to myself (and two coworkers that came with me). Rode from 8pm to 10pm under the stars down to camp williams and back. Descending at night is such a thrill, and we kept most of our lights off on the climb so it was a little surreal.
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Originally Posted by John R
(Post 15816274)
It looks like there were two seperate incidents today. Both required emergency responce. When we finished at the lower gate there were two Glendora police cars. They were stopping riders from going up. I have a bad feeling they might close the road to everyone in the future on the 4th Of July.
I'm pretty slow and wondered why nobody was passing me on the way up. Saw tons of people going down. About 3/4 the way up to the shack, three matching kitted riders did pass me, but that was all. When I got to the shack, the people there said I was nuts to come up at that time of day. Have to agree. It was hot enough that I had to nix going on to the village and just went back down. GMR is really lonely in the afternoons. |
We came across the first accident - a few miles past the shack, fire trucks, ambulance etc... We also gave out water and GU to one guy who was sitting on the wide of the road about 7 miles from the village. Came across another wreck on the way back, and a third had fire and police responding up the hill and we went down. Overall it was a great ride - felt like one of the more popular century rides in terms of the crowds. But I cant help but wonder if they will shut it down completely next year to save $$$ on the cost of responding to the accidents. Given the crowds climbing up, it seemed like some folks were descending way too fast.
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Found out the guy on GRR had mostly scratches but it looked much worse. The ranger/firetruck/paramedics/ambulance came from the village side. I didn't hear about the other incident. Lots of riders up there and lots of riders who are unfamiliar with the road. The guy who went down was on a fast descent where there is sometimes road debris but not sharp turns, unless he was in the other lane?
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I, for one, had a great time seeing so many riders on a closed road. It would be a tragedy to close up GMR completely during the holidays. I had never seen so many riders up there and good ones too. My only complaint was a couple of groups (wish I got there names) that were pacelining and cutting corners on the way up! The first group almost rode me off the right-side of the road and I'm used to riding in close quarters. Keep in mind that the entire road was available. The second group tried doing the exact same thing on a small descending section. This time I sped up and jutted slightly to the left. Think they got the message. 4th of July is not the venue for road race riding... Not cool.
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In all my cycling years, I have never seen that many riders on GMR at the same time. I knew the law of percentages meant the increase of riders would mean the chance someone would crash. There is no one to blame here, it just happened. It will be interesting to see if the road is closed next year on the 4th. The police will weigh the cost of placing a officer at the gate vs the cost of 2 emergency responces.
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Man I hope they don't close it next year. I live in Covina so I can go any day but it was very nice not having cars on the road. I had a very close call myself. While decending into a corner I hit a small patch of sand/dirt which caused my rear tire to slide since I was applying my breaks. I slowly let off the breaks but I was still going too fast which made me over shoot the corner and I ended up riding into a dirt lot and coming to a stop on one of the retaining wall/dirt mound. Very scary situation and although I've ridden GMR dozens of times I have a new respect for it. Just like anything else that involves risk, don't let your guard down.
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Should add that when I got to the gate on the way down, there were no law enforcement cars at the gate stopping people from going up. That was sometime around 2:00. If you wanted a hot, uphill ride in the afternoon, there was nobody stopping you.
The one thing that really disgusted me was all the GU wrappers that were discarded along the side of the road. Surely, nobody on BF threw their GU package on the side of the road after downing the contents. Please, if you see someone discard a GU pack, scold them and tell them to bring a sandwich baggie next time to put the dang thing inside when they're done. I wouldn't be surprised if the forest service says, "screw this, if the cyclist are going to trash GMR, we just won't let them have this special privilege." |
made it back to the gate at the base of gmr at 1:20pm yesterday and there was no police presence. rode back from the ski lifts and only saw 10-12 riders heading towards the village after noon. big difference from the hundreds headed there from 7:15am-9:00am. it was just too hot on gmr/grr after 11am for the unconditioned/unprepared. if the officer was preventing cyclists from ascending gmr because of the heat, i can understand that. the whole "bike is a vehicle" argument rings pretty hollow when there were hundreds of "vehicles" on the road earlier tho.
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and started at 7:25am (left san diego at 5:10am) but will try to start at 6am next year. was getting fairly toasted on the way up to the shack even before 8am.
next year, will just ride to village and back and prob descend grr into east fork to the 39 and loop back to sierra madre. the ascent to the lifts is just brutal but the descent is even worse due to the road quality and brake grabbing, especially when compared with gmr/grr. |
Originally Posted by Lesper4
(Post 15817227)
Found out the guy on GRR had mostly scratches but it looked much worse. The ranger/firetruck/paramedics/ambulance came from the village side. I didn't hear about the other incident. Lots of riders up there and lots of riders who are unfamiliar with the road. The guy who went down was on a fast descent where there is sometimes road debris but not sharp turns, unless he was in the other lane?
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Are they letting cyclists through the gate today?
Forest Service web site says that the road is closed to _motor_ vehicles. http://www.fs.usda.gov/wps/portal/fs...ons-road.shtml Stated reason for the closure is to prevent fires. I'm not sure if it means preventing people from shooting fireworks up on GMR, or preventing people from parking there to watch fireworks and causing accidental fires. In either case, hard to see why bicycle crashes should affect this policy. |
Originally Posted by Cord
(Post 15816380)
Today was going to be my first attempt at GMR. Perfect opportunity since it was closed to motor traffic but when I got to the gate around 12:30 I was turned away by CHP. I told him my understanding was GMR was open for cyclists and hikers then he went into a long winded speech about how the road is closed to "vehicles" and when a person is on a bike on the roads they are considered "vehicles" and must obey all "vehicular" laws etc etc etc. I didn't argue, really didn't need a citation on the 4th of July.
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Originally Posted by John R
(Post 15817678)
It will be interesting to see if the road is closed next year on the 4th. The police will weigh the cost of placing a officer at the gate vs the cost of 2 emergency responces.
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Good advise. I was pretty sure he had the wrong info and I didn't even think about checking the Angeles Forest page and showing that to him. I did consider showing him the Glendora Mountain Road Blog but I didn't think he'd care about that. Subconsciously I may have welcomed the turn back - I was starting pretty late, it was getting warm and the road looks a steep.
I'll be attempting GMR again very soon. I'm off on Fridays so I'm hoping the road won't be that crowded anyway. I do think I'll contact the Forest Service on Monday and let them know about the confusion. |
Also - if they say it's a county road and the county wants everyone off, you can point to the county website where it says the road closure is controlled by the Forest Service:
http://dpw.lacounty.gov/roadclosures/ who say it's open to bikes and hikers. |
Originally Posted by Cord
(Post 15820694)
...I'll be attempting GMR again very soon. I'm off on Fridays so I'm hoping the road won't be that crowded anyway...
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Originally Posted by volosong
(Post 15817855)
The one thing that really disgusted me was all the GU wrappers that were discarded along the side of the road. Surely, nobody on BF threw their GU package on the side of the road after downing the contents. Please, if you see someone discard a GU pack, scold them and tell them to bring a sandwich baggie next time to put the dang thing inside when they're done. I wouldn't be surprised if the forest service says, "screw this, if the cyclist are going to trash GMR, we just won't let them have this special privilege."
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Originally Posted by m2tiguy
(Post 15826400)
For the life of me, I just don't understand this one - it is an embarrassment to all cyclists that we continue to have some knuckleheads that actually think it's ok to litter - - after passing diapers, beer cans, beer cartons and those damn mylar balloons - wake the F UP !!!!!
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Originally Posted by volosong
(Post 15817855)
The one thing that really disgusted me was all the GU wrappers that were discarded along the side of the road. Surely, nobody on BF threw their GU package on the side of the road after downing the contents. Please, if you see someone discard a GU pack, scold them and tell them to bring a sandwich baggie next time to put the dang thing inside when they're done. I wouldn't be surprised if the forest service says, "screw this, if the cyclist are going to trash GMR, we just won't let them have this special privilege."
By the way - I don't use GU. :p |
Originally Posted by JimmyNH
(Post 15827652)
- I don't use GU. :p
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Originally Posted by volosong
(Post 15817855)
Should add that when I got to the gate on the way down, there were no law enforcement cars at the gate stopping people from going up. That was sometime around 2:00. If you wanted a hot, uphill ride in the afternoon, there was nobody stopping you.
The one thing that really disgusted me was all the GU wrappers that were discarded along the side of the road. Surely, nobody on BF threw their GU package on the side of the road after downing the contents. Please, if you see someone discard a GU pack, scold them and tell them to bring a sandwich baggie next time to put the dang thing inside when they're done. I wouldn't be surprised if the forest service says, "screw this, if the cyclist are going to trash GMR, we just won't let them have this special privilege." |
Sorry I missed the last two GMR / GRR 4th of July rides! I was in England on the 4th last year and in Scotland this year. Typing this from Edinburgh on my IPad. No GU wrappers here V.Bob!
After getting used to riding on the left and going through round abouts, it has been fun and pretty much the same weather as SoCal. Lots of small climbs, lots of castles and abbys but no mountains like CA. Rick / OCRR |
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