You guys are doing great, there are so many rides and pictures, it is hard to keep up with them all! So on that note I will add some more!
Saturday the 25th I was able to get my # 18 in, it was almost a bucket list ride too. And using my best Helen Keller navigation skills, I only got lost twice. Pretty good, huh? The thing that dawned on me was that to reach most of the "good" ride places is enough for a qualifying ride by itself! That being said, it was Angeles Crest Hwy (ACH or Hwy 2) for the target ride, which starts 54 miles or 87 kms of sucky freeway to get there, but it proved to be worth it. The plan was to go up the mountian and then cross over the back roads to Cajon Pass then home, which I sorta did. The weather all this month has not been very inspiring with what they are calling " May Gray", we have only had 3 days this entire month with nice sunshine. So every day it looks like it is about to rain until about 2 o'clock when it burns off.
Now getting lost twice was a good thing, I should do that more often, I think. So my first re-route was at the top and I missed a turn and ended up almost going to Palmdale at the bottom of the mountian. A quick u-turn and about 18 miles of sweet mountian roads and I was back to square one. On the way back up the hill I noticed a sign that said "Upper Big Tujuga Canyon Rd" and another one farther up that said "Big Tujuga canyon rd", and with my reading comprehension skills I thought it might be a connecting road. Now since I had planned to go home that way, I made a mental note to go that way when going back down. More on that later..... Now back on track I found where I had missed the Hwy 2 sign and headed thatta way only to discover it was closed and I knew how Clark Griswald felt in Christmas Vacation. Oh well I could see the Mt Wilson Observatory across the valley and made a loop over there. Mt Wilson is the one they always show behind the Rose Parade on TV , and you can see down into the Rose Bowl from about 3,000 feet above. Too bad it was so gloomy down below so no Pic of that. Took a few pics of the broadcast towers, boy are those sucker's tall! I even got a pic of Mt Baldy way across the valley, that is where I rode a few rides back. It's the one with the snow still on it.
Now continuing on I headed back down the warm and sunny side of the mountian again then up pops the Big Tujuga canyon sign again, I figured this would be a cool side trip, I stopped at one point to take a bridge pic, seems many have peen posting bridges and I wanted to be one of the cool kids too! Big Tujuga canyon was a really nice ride but it seemed to not turning in the direction I wanted to go, this was "oh crap I'm lost" # 2. What tipped me off was the sign that said "Los Angeles City Limit" to which my thought was Hell No! A quick u- turn and things were right with the world again. Turns out these two roads are connected by nane only. Cruising back down the road towards Palmdale again there a is a tunnel (I got a pic) and a picnic area that looked like a nice place to empty my coffee and plan my next move. I met a guy and his wife and I was telling him I planned to take Pear Blossom Hwy over to Cajon, but I wasn't happy about that. Turns out he was a local and knew the area we'll, he showed me an alternate way and it was awsome, plus it went right into Wrightwood where I wanted to go. The only down side was it was pretty desolate and I was running low on gas from my creative navigating. I rolled into Wrightwood and hit the only gas station and Eeyore drank right at 5 gallons or 18.89 liters and I didn't even top it off! As I left Wrightwood it was getting dark and cold so I stopped and put on another layer and warmer gloves and headed home.
The whole ride was 267mi/431kms with the to and from and if I deduct the freeway back and forth miles, it gave me a sweet 164 miles/264kms of beautiful mountian riding! So getting "lost" WAS a good thing!😄
Some stats and pics
Start temp. 72°f/22°c
Angeles Crest. 55°f/13°c
Average temp. Mid 60's/18f
Wrightwood. 51°f/10°c
Home. 63°f/17°c
Picture time.