Ride a bike, share your experience and love. When I go biking, I repeat a mantra of the day's sensations: bright sun, blue sky, warm breeze, blue jay's call, ice melting and so on. This helps me transcend the traffic, ignore the clamorings of work, leave all the mind theaters behind and focus on nature instead. I still must abide by the rules of the road, of biking, of gravity. But I am mentally far away from civilization. The world is breaking someone else's heart. ~Diane Ackerman

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Monday, May 30, 2011

Pomona to Mt. Baldy Lodge

I had a grand idea of riding from my house in Pomona to the Mt. Baldy Lodge at 8,600 feet. Everyone seems to end their ride at the ski lifts. I wanted to "one up" everyone and ride to the Lodge.

To attempt this feat one must either ride a mountain or cyclocross bike. About 1/4 of a mile before the ski lifts is Falls Rd. Falls road is the only access to the lodge and after about 3/4 of a mile Falls Road turns into a fire road.

My plan was to get out by 6:00 am but I decided to do some work before I left the house. By 9 am, my work was done and I was geared up and on my bike.

I decided to ride my Kona CX bike. I figured this would be the best bike for paved/dirt road riding.

The ride up Mt. Baldy was hard and by the time I entered the village, I was BONKED! I rested, and re-filled my water bottles at the post office before heading up the switchbacks to Falls Road.

The switchbacks were lonely and brutal. Its hard to believe just last week the mountain was teeming with people for ToC Stage 7. Faded Messages in Chalk be-speckled the road.

By the time I reached Falls Road, I was cramping and down to half a bottle of water. I decided to rest for 5 - 10 minutes then walk/road up Falls Road to the waterfall. At the waterfall, paved road becomes dirt. I road up about 25 feet before I could go no further. My legs were done and the dirt road was just loose enough to break my pace. Defeated, I turned around and headed home. Total trip, about 35 miles round trip.

3 comments:

nathaniel said...

But you were the one trying. You're the man!

Michael said...

If I can pick up a new cross bike later during the summer I'll be in for the next attempt. I can't imagine doing those paved miles on my mtb.

BicycleFriends said...

Nate, it was a monster climb. You need to start riding again.

Michael, Coates is doing a Summer CX Series in July. I am going to race exclusively CX this year. Let me know when you get a CX bike and we'll ride.

Agreed, Riding up Mt. Baldy on a MTB would not be fun.

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