jimincalif

You're killing me! I did just 1/2 your mileage and 1/4 of your climbing today. Looking forward to meeting tomorrow.

Don't forget to spring forward everyone!

TrojanHorse

I still have to find a chain... LOL. I have a little bike maintenance to do in the AM I guess. Swap the wheels, maybe different cassette, brake pads etc. Should be quick. See you guys there!

TrojanHorse

Scathing comments about all you skippers will be posted later.

We had a nice little group today consisting of some clydes and near clydes and some visitors from Irvine. It was GORGEOUS out and we actually got to the village in time to scarf down some of the famous cinnamon rolls that Rick is always talking about and man... good.

TrojanHorse

Alright, so total participants included:

Me
Tunavic
Jimincalif
LGHT
TGT1
Rick@OCRR (on the express pass to the lifts plan today)

Jim brought a couple of his fellow club members so we blew the red light with about 9 riders in total. We kind of got spread out on the hill, which is pretty much what happens on a big hill but we did regroup at the shack. LGHT hit it in about 1:27, about ten minutes behind Vic and I and I'm calling that totally respectable for a first GMR climb. We did a Clyde ride to the shack 2 years ago or so and people were coming in at about 2 hours, so really - well done.

We roved our way to the village and sat down to lunch at the baldy lodge - famous for slow, dicey service but a good atmosphere, and I already mentioned those home made cinnamon rolls. Holy cats - tunavic shared his so I got a couple bites. Wow. I'm never not going to order that again. They put a big scoop of ice cream next to the roll on the serving plate too - oh wait, that was butter. Uh, what am I supposed to do with a pound of butter on this thing?

The crazy (chinese?) guy who has no idea how to fix a flat was also in the village when we got there - PhotoJoe calls him Mr. Miyagi for no particular reason but he's freaky weird. He has a tendency to randomly blurt stuff out that I can't understand. He was blissfully flat-free today, apparently.

We headed off back "down" the mountain - this is when we learned that having a nice sit-down lunch and letting your legs get cold really feels great when you're struggling up that 10% hill out of the village. Most of the rest of the ride went well on the way back, although TGT1 busted his chain. That's raw power baby. Good thing I brought a chain tool, a spare quick disconnect and a few spare links of chain with me. Oh wait, so did he - no problem at all reconnecting the chain and off we went. The rest of the ride went uneventfully. Aside from a light burn on my face and arms & knees, it was a terrific day on the bike.

jimincalif

It was a great ride and a great day. Rick did a horizon job on us and then showed up at the lodge after doing the ski lift climb, impressive. I was more than happy to chill at the lodge for a bit to rest and socialize.

The weather could not have been better for this ride, comfortable temps and spectacular views. A great first time for me. Thanks much to all of you who came out. Here is a picture of some of us.

tunavic

Those of you that didn't go - you missed a really good ride.

A few more photos


[IMG] by Victor 1953, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG] by Victor 1953, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Untitled by Victor 1953, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG] by Victor 1953, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG] by Victor 1953, on Flickr[/IMG]

PhotoJoe 

I had a video project I had to shoot Saturday night. That lasted until about midnight. By time I got home, unloaded and to bed, then the hour loss, I just couldn't bring myself to roll out of bed in time to make the drive out there. I clearly made the wrong choice. Looks like it was a great day.

TrojanHorse

Clearly. The wrong choice.

Pamestique 

Thank you for the summary... what a difference a week makes... so glad there was still some snow (although not much) for photographs and scenary. LGHT congrats! Very impressed! I would not have been able to keep up with you! Well hoping some day I can attempt this ride. I might mountain bike the Monroe Truck Trail just to get an idea of the climbing down but what I am really looking forward to is the "stroll" along GRR...

Well my road bike is put back together and my eye is healing nicely. Have my second surgery March 19 (so can't ride two weeks after that so 4 weeks in total off the bike). Hopefully April/May will stay cool but sunny and Kathy and I can give the climb a go - Beachgrad hopefully you can join us!

jimincalif

I forgot to mention that I passed "Mr. Miyagi" a couple of miles before the shack on the way down - yeah he was blurting out all kinds of random sounds, at first I thought something was wrong but then he passed me and seemed to be having a good time. He stopped at the shack too, said something I couldn't understand but he was smiling, so whatever, it's all good.

LGHT

Had a great time and a great ride. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with the stronger riders and didn't bother trying. I kept my pace between 5mph and 5.5mph to the shack. Hit the shack and felt good seeing the other riders were still there and I wasn't crawling up the hill. Rested about 5 minutes and pushed on before my legs got cold. The downhill portions were welcomed, but the few short hills just wore my legs out and I eventually realized I wouldn't make it so turned back. My route total was 29 miles with just over 4000' of incline. My HR never really got past 150 and my cadence was around 50 the entire time so with a new cassette I may have a better chance if I can spin more.

I may try again in 2 weeks if my parts come in before that.

The weather was nice and the views were amazing!

jsigone

I think you will find it easier the 2nd time up because now you know where the top is, rather than looking at a number on your stem.

Nice pics from everyone, sorta glad I missed the ice cream size butter scoop.... eww

TGT1

When he passed me he blurted out "heavy bike, you strong!"

Answered , "No, light bike, not strong just fat motor"

He's a character!

Rick@OCRR

Great ride, beautiful day, perfect temperatures and the usual lovely scenery. Not even too many motorcycles and very few cars. What a wonderful place to ride! After my cinnamon roll and coffee I felt good, so yes, I did do the Ski-Lift climb.

Many more cars/truck going up Baldy Road to the lifts than on GMR/GRR. Still, a fun climb. Here I am at the sign:
Rick / OCRR

HunkerDown

Sorry guys - I'd forgotten just how far San Luis Obispo was from home. Finally got to bed about midnight. We took third in the horse show, though, so it was worth it!

MM

jsigone

sounds like you guys didn't have problems with the oil spill I read about on friday

Residents Think Oil Spill on Glendora Mountain Road is Deliberate | Claremont-La Verne, CA Patch

jimincalif

I didn't see that the article says exactly where this is. Maybe it is past the split with GRR or maybe it was dumped after we went by. Fortunately I didn't see or hit any oil between GRR and Glendora, nor did we see any CHP closing the road. That's scary, hope they catch the perp. Something like that should warrant felony attempted murder.

jsigone

it could also been on lil GMR, which is a bit more popular to the cars at after hours. To me that is a more dangerous decent, less time to set up between the turns, and most seem blind.

Beachgrad05

I'm sorry to have missed this but my hip was bothering me and I'm still out of riding shape at least as my legs seem to be telling me. I hope to convince some of my lady friends to do this with me SOON.

LGHT

Wow I did recall reading a sign posted "over" a road sign saying racers go home, but don't remember smelling any oil. As slow as I ride I would have smelled it.

The article says it was "Between 1 p.m. and 1:30 today (Sunday)".

Looking at my strava log I was coming down around 12:30pm. The funny part is I remember seeing that red SUV because it was driving pretty slow behind me at one point when most of the cars just drove by. I hope no one got hurt.

TGT1

There were brown stains and signs of sand about every mile and a half or so that weren't there last month so Caltrans must have cleaned it up. What was left was not all that obvious.


The first one I thought, "there must have been a bad wreck here since last month", but there were several more spots. They all seemed to be on the up side of the road in the spots as described in the article.

Clean oil as described in the article would have very little remaining odor.

I hope they catch him/them.

But, a couple of smokeys with a radar *** could have made Gerry a fortune in speeding ticket fines this weekend.

TrojanHorse

You'd need more than a couple... those guys would just take off. But yeah, it's what we used to call a target rich environment when we were young men in a bar.