After riding Baldy and Angeles Crest last weekend I wasn’t sure what ride to do this Saturday, but I figured it would be one or the other again. Whitecarbondude, however, suggested doing Onyx Summit instead. Since I’ve never ridden Onyx Summit, I thought it sounded like a good idea. We had thought about doing Glen Oaks, but decided a couple days ago that we wouldn’t have the time due to other commitments.

We decided to start at Sylvan Park, which would give us another 1200 feet of climbing, and we were supposed to meet at 6:15, but I misunderstood the map I had and ended up at the corner of Sylvan and University, instead. Jon, however, went looking for me and found me around the time we were supposed to meet and led me back to the parking lot.

The temperature was in the 50s, I think, and I was cold! I ended up wearing arm warmers and my light Optik Jacket, even though I knew I’d end up carrying them in my pockets most of the day. No biggie, I wasn’t bringing any food except for a small flask with 3 shots of Hammer Gel, so I had the room.

We could see the smoke from the fire that had closed Hwy 18, and we think this closure was the reason there was a lot of traffic on Hwy 38, which made for a couple close calls, but we did a pretty good job of staying as far right as possible.

Anyway, if you haven’t ridden Onyx, here’s what it’s like to ride it from Sylvan Park (which is right by the University of Redlands):

Ride almost 8 miles and climb 1200 feet gets you to the ranger station at Mill Creek. Another 11.5 miles and 3100 feet and you’re at Angeles Oaks. 10.76 miles and 1288 feet of climbing mixed in with 775 feet of descending through the rollers brings you to the last climb, which is about 8.5 miles and 2100 feet. At this point you’re at Onyx Summit and it’s time to turn around to head back down to Redlands. The descents were fun, fast, and more stable than the descents off of Baldy, but the length of it wore out my back.

Totals for the day, 8615 feet of climbing, 77.31 miles. Woohoo, fun times!



I titled this picture "Chunky Butt Makes it to Onyx Summit"