outwest5

Today my husband and I took our new bikes, new shoes and boundless excitement to try them out on the San Gabriel River Trail in Southern California. We have ridden this trail a number of times on the hybrids and were interested to see how we'd do on the road bikes.

Ready to go:


The trail goes from the San Gabriel mountains down to the ocean with a number of branches off of it. Our goal was 30 miles on it today, so we chose one of the parking lots near the base of the mountains and away we went with a part of Whittier Narrows park (Legg Lake) as the hoped for destination.

The upper trail. We took a small side branch around a nature trail near here:



From the top of the Santa Fe dam. There is a large park and lake down there (didn't get a picture of that park):


One of the rest areas along the trail. I think it is neat that they have a drinking fountain set up to fill your water bottles:


the trail goes under a number of freeways. The 'river' has been cemented in this heavily populated area:


made it to the park! Whoo Hoo!


While sitting at the park bench watching the ducks in Legg Lake I noticed something hidden on my one week old bike that I hadn't noticed before:


After lunch and a short rest we headed back.
Almost back! Spring is starting when the wild daisies are blooming.


We continue to be amazed at how much easier it is to ride these road bikes compared to the hybrids. I actually rode my bike up the dam face in granny gear and didn't walk it as usual (100 foot elevation gain in 1300 feet- 13% grade). I am tired now and so is husband, but neither one of us fell off the bikes using the clips today. Big accomplishment! My mother (who now lives with us) had a delicious dinner all ready when we came back. Boy was I hungry. I think we need to bring more food on the rides.

While we were gone my niece who is in college in Los Angeles called to ask us to get her and take her somewhere, but we weren't around. My oldest daughter called because she got a flat tire on her car and wanted Dad to do something about it. By the time we got home, both had figured out how to take care of the things themselves. Another nice reason to not always be available.

I wonder how long it takes to get into shape for one of those century rides when you are in your 50's? Hope all of you had as nice a day as we did.

10 Wheels

Nice post and pics.

TJClay

Pick a relatively flat century and you'll be ready in no time. I did my first century after about 9 months of riding at the age of 52. I ride the upper end of that trail along Santa Ana River Trail quite a bit. Let me know some weekend you want someone else to ride with if you don't mind someone old and slow

outwest5

We are old and slow, too. We thought we were doing good passing up young people on department store bikes. Then groups of tree trunk thighed men/women in their 20's decked out in advertisements perfectly coordinated with their bikes flew by us, the lead hollering, "On your left!" We watched the dots of their butts disappear over the next hill. chug chug chug. Hey, we got to the same place they did...eventually.

DnvrFox

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post pictures and write a nice story. At age 58, I started bicycling just about a month from now when I was 58, and rode 350 miles over Colorado passes in a week (including one day of 100 miles) in June, 4 months later. That was 13 years ago. It should be a breeze at 52.

B. Carfree

I'm drooling, and I'm too young to be doing that. I'm trying to decide if it is the beautiful bikes, the awesome weather or the clean bike path that is turning me green with envy. Thanks for sharing. I wouldn't be surprised if you get that first century done before the end of summer.

Robert Foster

I just love dedicated bike paths. The SGRT and the SART are two of my favorites but we also have one we did today around Lake Paris. It is only a few miles but we got in 51 going there and getting back.

outwest5

Nice pictures! Where's that one? I haven't seen it and Lake Perris isn't too far from me. I love the dedicated bike paths, too. There is one that runs east/west from Claremont to Rialto about 35 miles round trip(?). It has a number of road crossings compared to the others, but not too many. They are also in the middle of extending it further West. We rode the new section (still just a few blocks) yesterday. I have also done the one in Norco. It's nice, too, but there is a hard pack dirt section they haven't finished yet. It was fine with the hybrids, but we may have to walk to roadbikes through there. Somewhere around there it joins up with another one heading south. I need to investigate that more.

I like the dedicated bike paths. I feel very safe on them and can concentrate on riding and not being careful of cars. Most are in good repair. Luckily, many cities are building bike paths on the shoulders of their roads, so I like doing those, too. Cars are used to bike riders around here, so know what to do around them. That helps.

Here are a couple of pictures from the Pacific Electric trail (put along the routes of the old railroad throughways). A little more suburban than the SGRT. It has cute bicycle crossing lights at the busier streets to the West:

kr32

I am not a big fan of trails but that one looks very nice! It looks like a road.
Nice posts thanks for sharing.
Not sure I ever said it but very nice bikes you all got there too. The more you ride the more you will become one with the clipless pedals and not fall or even think about it. They become second nature.

RonH

Nice pics. I'm jealous.

alicestrong

That's my neighborhood path! Thanks for the ride report...

Have you ridden to Seal Beach/River's End yet?

Phil85207

Thanks for posting, someday I hope to do that ride when visiting the mother in law.

az_cyclist

Great pics!

rdtompki

Great MUP you have there and beautiful pictures! The lynch mob from the frozen Midwest is tracking you down via your IP address as we "speak" NP getting ready for a century in your 50's, just find a first one without too much climbing, less than 3000' should do it which is probably as good as you'll find in your neck of the woods. If you wanted to wait until January Borrego Springs is pretty flat and Palm Springs in February is about 3000 gradual feet, but you can easily get ready for a Century sooner than next year. I'm sure there are others about.

Oh, and when you look at climbs on Ridewithgps, Mapmyride, etc. be mindful that 100' in 1300' is 7.6% so don't be shocked when you hit a real 13% grade!

Mr. Beanz

You have tried SART haven't you? Santa Ana River Trial is sooooo much nicer than SGRT. Smoother, cleaner, no tricky underpassses, prettier, no isolated areas, and so many more parks and stores. Plus it's about 10 degrees cooler in the summer. I've tried that electric trail, can't go anywere. Stop every mile and Euclid? Busiest road in the nation (exaggerated) with no stop or crossing. I see children with parents trying to run across.

SART isn't as far as Perris and it travels 30 miles one way (60 roundtrip) with no stops or crossings. Several places to start. Greenriver for 60 miler. Weir for a 50 miler. Imperial for a 40 miler. Lincoln for a 30 miler and Anaheim Stadium for a 25 miler. SGRT is a little closer to our home but the trip to SART is well worth the drive to do SART over SGRT.












102409A by gulpxtreme, on Flickr


Untitled by gulpxtreme, on Flickr

This is about as bad as it gets on SART

kr32

+1 take your vertical in feet divide by distance in feet and multiply by 100
100/1300=.076x100=7.6% grade

DnvrFox

From an old post in the Road Forum. The above is NOT the correct way to calculate % grade, at least not exactly.

"Not exactly. Assuming that by "distance" the poster is referring to distance travelled, the correct formula is as follows:

Of course the the ascii slope below is waaay out of proportion, but anyway...

......... /|
........./.|
...D../...| (rise)
...../.....|
.../.......|
./______|
(run)

%grade=100* rise/run

D (distance up the slope) is what your odometer reads and the rise (altitude gain) you get from an altimeter or topo map

therefore: %grade= 100*tan[arcsin(rise/D)]

BTW--%grade can be *very* confusing because it can go from zero to infinity (not what you'd think of for something expressed as a percentage); it took me a while to get this fact throught my thick skull"

pmcq

Outwest35,
Great pics and story of your ride. The SGRT is one of my fav rides and like Alicestrong mentions, the ride all the way to River's End from Encanto Park is quite nice - from the mountains to the sand and back. Some of the trail isn't as well-maintained as what you pictured, but overall it makes for an enjoyable ride. As to getting in shape for a century ride, I did mine 13 months after starting to ride for the first time since I was 9. The ride was a pre-birthday present for myself - I will be 60 next month. From all of the riding you have been and are doing, the training would not be difficult for you. You go, girl! Perhaps we can connect for one of these rides in the near future.

cranky old dude

I consider this an advantage to riding slow.

Great pics and ride report!!

My daughter lives in L.A. .....looks like I'll have plenty of trails to ride when I get out for a visit, and seeing your pictures and report makes me want to get out there real soon!!

trackhub

Very nice pics, and a fine looking trail indeed! Needless to say, I am envious of you very nice looking weather. No snow, no potholes, not even an ice patch to mess you up. Nuts.

outwest5

I did one part of the SART from Rialto to Norco and it was really pretty and well maintained, but the trail ended. My husband said that it isn't completed between Norco and Corona, so we need to catch it further West. to get out to Anaheim (long way!). Maybe we will try that part next. I like the SGRT upper portion. We have ridden all the way up to the mountain base and then back. The upper portion is well maintained as in the pictures and I think it is pretty. I don't care about stores, but the parks are really nice. I hear the middle section is not as nice and gets gritty, but I haven't done that part. I also heard the lower part is good.

I also want to ride along the ocean on that beach front path, it goes for miles, but you have to dodge the beach bunnies.

So much to try! Whoo Hoo!

Have any of you ridden in Joshua Tree National Park? That is one of my favorite places.