June 24, 2011 SkyLine by a different perspective

Chuck heading back to the Notch for a cold one From one summit to another.

Top towers on Thunder lift.

Taking a break after a hard hike up SkyLine

Is he making a statement here or what?

Back down SkyLine from near the top.

Chuck getting started near the bottom. Was steep, but a nice workout.

Two lifelong buds have a cold one after a great

hike in the local mountains.

Me getting started up SkyLine, with all the

damage to the run below me.

The start of the day.

Well, I gave Chuck a call on Thursday and said "Let's go do Thunder tomorrow, as they are giving away free lift rides." So guess what? He took me up on it. As usual for me, by the time I got home from work I was tired enough that if he had cancelled on me, I would not have minded at all. But he didn't, so off we went. It was around noon or so when we got to the parking lot and got out free tickets from the lady that was in charge. After the usual long ride up, it was already worth the effort we had made just to be up there again at the Notch for the second time in three days for me. We hemmed and hawd about rather to stick to the road or do something stupid like hike to the base of Thunder and take one of the runs up to the top. Chuck voted for SkyLine, and off we were. Took a little route finding to get to the base of the ski lift the way we went, but we did indeed find it. Wow is all I can say about all the damage done to the base area from last winters heavy rains. Never would have imagined that much destruction had been done up there. After checking it out, we finally got our butts in gear and headed up. Steep and loose, but not as bad as I was expecting. A beautiful warm day with the wind blowing most of the time enough to keep it about perfect. Once we were at near the top of the run, some guy was heading down it to get back. He said that was the first time for him hiking that run, and his buddies had taken the road back to the notch rather than go straight down a run. Nice to see that at least those 2 guys knew what they were doing. LOL Once we hit the top, we went over and sat at the top of the lift for a while, taking pictures and having a little something to celebrate being there. Like I said before, great day up there, well worth all the effort we put into it. Once we finished on top, it was a nice leisurely walk back down the road to the Notch where we had a pitcher or two of brew, and jumped the lift for the ride back to the car. Great day, great time, great place to be.

June 22, 2011 Thunder Mountain

Fred at Baldy Falls at the end of the ride. Baldy Falls

Fred on downhill of steepest part of ride.

Looking up the STEEP part of the ride.

Fred's trusty steed with CCS and GRR in the

background.

Fred on top of Thunder Mtn.

Never thought I would see him pushing a

bike up hill, on either dirt or pavement. LOL

Fred's bike with mine hiding in the corner.

My ride.

Work getting done on the first tower below

the Notch.

Another ride of firsts. Fred up at 6 AM for a ride, and him doing something I never thought I would see. More about that later. He was good to his word that he would be ready at 6 AM, ready to roll right when I pulled up. Fred is not an early riser, as anyone that rides with him knows. We hit Manker Flats and where on the bikes right at about 7 AM, early by even my standards. The first paved part of the ride had me huffing and puffing, as starting at over

6000 feet elevation always does to me. Took me a while to catch my second wind, but even then I couldn't keep up with Fred, which is usually the case. We had the road mostly to ourselves with a few hikers thrown in to make sure we were paying attention. Made the Notch in one piece, and found a source of water, which was a good thing. After resting for a short while, we took off for the top. It wasn't too far up the road before I hit soft sandy areas and had to walk a few short stretches. Man am I OUT OF SHAPE. LOL And throw in being over 8000 feet now and you have a recipe for some very heavy,short breathing. Trying to keep Fred in sight wasn't even a consideration, as I had told him earlier to not worry about me and for him to ride his pace. After getting off and on the bike at a few hard spots, we finally got to the base of the crux of the ride, the last quarter mile to the top of Thunder. Fred saw it and just laughed. I had already known about it, but he didn't know just how steep it was going to be. Well he found out soon enough. Even he wouldn't think of trying to ride up it, as steep as it was. He had told me he had pulled back on his handle bars lower down on a steep part and got his front wheel off the ground, and there was no way he would be able to get up this even steeper part, so we hiked the bikes. Even doing that was harder than hell. Push the bike up 3 feet, put on the breaks, then haul ourselves up 3 feet. What a way to go. After what seemed like forever, but was only maybe 10 minutes or so, we got to where we could see the top of the ski lift at the summit and claimed our prize. The view from the top, quite spectacular. After hanging out for a while, we headed back down, taking a different way than going straight down that ridiculously STEEP part. Once at the base of the steep, we hopped back on the bikes and headed down. The upper part of the ride, above the Notch, dowsn't get as much use as below the Notch and the road is a lot sandier and loose in places, so paying attention is mandatory. Had a good ride down, interrupted by meeting 2 guys that we stopped and talked to for a while. They were hiking but rode bikes also. so they were interested in what we had done. After leaving them, it was only a matter of minutes before we were back at the car. Nice day in a great place, even including all the bugs. Yucchhhh.

June 15, 2011 Potato Mtn. Almost.

Looking back uphill towards the saddle just below Potato Mtn. Fred on the downhill off Potato.

View of the local area.

Fred on the ride up Potato Mtn.

Two people I had never ridden with before,

Milton looking left and Minor looking right.

A ride with new firsts for me. New people to ride with, Milton, a friend of Beanz and Minor, who I believe is a friend of Milton's. LOL . Everyone got to meet new people except Fred, but then he knows everyone that rides a bike anyway. Also did a new ride, off road at the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. Located at the Mills Ave., Baldy Rd. junction, where all the big power line towers are located. We rode from Minors's house, which gave us a little bit of a warm up before hitting any climbing. See how I was the most out of shape person there, they took it easy on me and let me pick the easy route on the loop. Lots of people for so early in the morning, on a Wednesday no less. Very few riders, mostly walkers and runners, with plenty of scenery to keep ones attention. The ride was fairly easy until we hit the turnoff for Potato Mtn., at which point the climb become much more noticeable. One spot had me off my bike and cussing when I hit a sandy rocky area. Having not done much MTBing, I feel really out of place riding on dirt. Need to do more to try and increase what little skills I have. About half way up the Potato turnoff, Milton had to turn around, as he had to go to work. Minor, Fred, and myself bringing up the rear, continued a little further up to the saddle. Once there, Minor let it be known he was not very interested in going to the top, as you have to pass an area with bee hives, and as warm as it was, they would more than likely be active. So we rested up a bit and then hit the fun part, downhilling. Ya , Baby. That is why I am here in the first place. Once down to the parking area, it was a fast ride back to Minor's house and the end of the ride. Minor, it turns out, is 65 and can ride those hills with anyone half his age. He told me he is up there 3 to 4 times a week, and it shows. Never did see him on the downhill part, as he was off like a bullet from the beginning. Says he is going backpacking in Utah in a few weeks and I told him I was jealous. All in all a great day of riding, new area, new ride, met new people. They should all go so good.

June 9, 2011 GMR in the clouds

Fred's neighbor Jeff. Says he wants to start riding, but we will see. At top of GMR Fred at top of GMR

Cloud cover just below Newman's Point.

Yucca plant against the clouds.

Hard to see back down road with all the clouds.

This ride today kicked my butt about as bad as it has ever done. That is more a reflection of having done 62 miles yesterday than anything else. Pretty uneventful, other than it took me for ever to get to the top, where Fred and Jeff had just arrived. Almost caught them, LOL .

June 8, 2011 Kenwood Ave. and Cajon Pass area

Train coming thru at Joe's Diner. The original Route 66 going through Cajon Pass area on Kenwood Ave. Me up at the end of the road, Kenwood Ave.

Fed getting some locomotives on the point.

Don't quite remember how this ride was chosen to do, but I do know that Fred and Gina have done most of it and I have seen it on the videos. Was a cloudy day right from the beginning, which helped greatly on keeping the heat down. Had a nice ride out to the Devore area, and was glad Fred knew where we were headed as I sure as heck didn't. Things went along nicely until on the way back, Fred had a catastrophic failure on his back tire. He discovered it at the top of a very steep climb, tried to make some adjusments so he could keep riding it, but after about 100 feet, even the tube didn;t like him any more and blew out. Lucky for him it did it then and not 2 minutes later, as that was a steep downhill and could have been ugly. lucky for him, Gina works not far from where this all happened, and he was able to get her to come get him when she got off work. That left me with riding the last 25 miles back to his house by myself. At least I didn't get lost, though I tried at a turn or two. Nice ride all in all.

A quaddrouple header going up Cajon Pass