Yes John, V.Bob and Dave,
You are all correct! It was very windy on GRR today, but not so much on GMR. Several times I was almost stopped in my tracks by unexpected high-fast winds. By "unexpected" I mean that I would be cycling in apparently dead air one moment, and get hit by a full head-wind blast a moment later.
Then as I would round a corner, the mountain would block the wind, and it was pretty much dead air again. Weird!
This was pretty much all on GRR during and after the start of the 3-1/2 mile climb (you know the one!). However stupid it might have been, I carried on regardless, and did make it to the Village whilst staying upright the whole time.
On the one-mile descent to Mt.Baldy road there was a strong headwind. I usually descent at 35+ on that drop, but today I was lucky to see 25. On the flip side, I had a v.strong tailwind when climbing back out of the Village! At least a couple of mph faster than usual on that climb!
Going back there were still gusts (front, left, right) and the occasional tailwind, but the 2nd part of GRR and GMR were all fine. I had a long-sleeve base layer on top, plus a short-sleeve jersey, shorts w/no leg or knee warmers, and while it was very coolish at times, I was never seriously cold. A light wind-shell would have been good, but oh well . . . it was quite warm when we started from Glendora at 9:00 AM.
Ice? Yes, but only one patch, all the way across the road, probably 4 ft. wide. Outbound I didn't see it soon enough so just stayed straight and rode over it no problem. On the return (on a climb) I slowed down and walked the bike over it, so overall, no problem!
Best Regs,
Rick / OCRR