Ride Report Strawberry Peak to JPL...

The ride on Saturday: Yet another MEMORABLE ride the "San Gabriel's" have thrown my way! SDyeti can do the honors of the actual Ride "Report." I will simpy get the ball rolling. Here goes...

The Route: Strawberry Peak to Red Box to Switzer to JPL
Elevation Change: TBA
Miles: 25

The Crew: Art23rockpile, Dino Brown, DenMother, Dirtmistress, EpicRideRat, Ironpeek, JayGoes, Man Blong Gaua, MtDew; MuddyEdgar, PainFreak, Roger, SDYeti, Stjunkie.... and The Kid!

Skill Level: ADVANCED! Rocky. Loose. Technical. HUGE level of exposure. Towards the bottom, sections of the trail narrow greatly- penalty for losing one's balance is not good!

Why: Strawberry To JPL is one of my all-time favorite SG rides. Some had never ridden the trail. Others had NEVER ridden The Gab's! I also grew "tired" of them complaining "...when are you going to set-up the ride?"

Why I Love the trail: In 25 miles, one is treated to everything one could wish for in a trail. Climbing, descending, technical sections, mountain views, peace, quiet, clear air, cooler temps, rocks, sand, step-downs, trees, multiple water crossings, natural obstacles, poison oak, even more "TECHNICAL" riding, 42 person hiking expeditions etc...

My Dillemma: Everytime I invite friends to (certain) trails in the San Gabriel's, I worry!
How will they adjust to riding at altitude? What if they get-in over their heads? What if they don't like riding an 18" wide trail with a 500 foot drop to one side? What if they are injured? What if the ground gives out below them (has happened to me). What if...

My Disclaimer: Just be careful up there!!! Don't get in over YOUR head. Don't invite beginners/weak intermediates to certain trails. Do respect the mountain. Do ride within your limits. Do ride more "cautiously" than you would normally ride your local trail. Do take pictures!

Note: My apologies to THE CREW for my apparant lack of coordination. I had a set number who RSVP'd to the ride. More showed up than expected! Made the shuttle situation a bit more difficult.

Epicriderat


Denmother smiling... Roger coughing up a lung!


Romeo and Juliet


MtDew- One of the STRONGEST (and toughest) riders I know!


Note to self: Don't fall!


Dan Rolling the Rock (Both Ways)


Kevin (IronPeek), Denmother and... The Kid!


Even the FLAT areas are not flat


Prom picture from 1987


Kevin... Diggin' the view


Keep pedaling Sister..... "One" more turn


Roger decending (between Strawberry and Red Box)


More pics are on the way...

 

Glad to see Alex made it out there.
I wish I could have. Looks like it was a good ride!

 

Awesome ride Dino, water crossing just got old with one side of a clip in being broke. Well can't wait for the next ride. What 500-1000 foot drops I never saw any.

Kevin

 

thanks for the invite!

 

That's because you were praying the entire way.
A few TEASER pics to remind you!

View of the trail


View to my right (70 degree slope.... 500 feet)


Strawberry Peak


P.S.- While Guero was playfully busting my chops about not being "invited" to the ride... :lol: :beer:
....I feel more comfortable riding "certain" trails with smaller groups (fewer mechanicals/injuries/shorter regroups)!!! He knew that already!

Back to the Laker game..

 

That's more like it! Thanks.

 

Thanks for setting up this ride in the SAN GABES Dino, had a great time. Missed grandpa on the trail. Muddy Edgar has made HUGE improvements since i last rode with him, good job Edgar.

 

Edgar and I took off together but about half way up he rode on ahead. I guess he wanted extra credit, because when he got to the saddle he kept going and continued on up to Josephine Peak. I think Dan or MtDew went up and got him.
I told you, you couldn't get lost I just didn't realize you need to stop at the saddle.LOL

 

Looks awesome, I'm there next time.

 

You guys are oozing "awesomeness"!

 

Good stuff, Dino. Thanks, mang! :wave:
Wow, you guys had a hell of a turn-out. They came from the north and they came from the south. Dino, you have such clout and pull with the fellow STR gang. Glad everyone finished safe and sound. Lucky dawgs on a perfect riding weather day.

 

Major Props Dino to getting the group together, getting it on, and gettin 'er done! Epic in it's own way almost every time you do a ride that includes Strawberrry as part of it.

 

Okay, per Dino, here is the "official" ride report:

Through the grapevine, we were asked to come up and join the Mayor and a few other folks for a ride up in the San Gabs. Dan and I had a great time out there a few weeks ago, so we said "sure!"

We met up at the JPL parking lot around 8...the weather was misty and cool, and I was worried about the weather up top (hint: it was not going to be cold the rest of the day).

The Mayor


All-mountain madness


Twins? Dan (Man blong Gaua) and Troy


Liz is going into the construction biz


Shuttled up to Josephine and went up right away...straight on up.

A climbing we will go...a climbing we will go


Dino and Joel


Look out below!


So pretty


In fact, Dan's Garmin showed 2.6 miles and 1250 feet of elevation gain by the time we reached the top of Josephine. Whew! And not a tad of a warm up!

Dan-o practices his nose-wheelies


We hopped onto the singletrack after waiting up for MuddyEdgar (who got an extra 3/4 mile climb) and taking a rest The singletrack going toward Strawberry was typical San Gabs...exposed, loose, and rocky in many spots, but never disappointing.

Stjunkie leads the way


Just_me


Epicriderat on Strawberry


Pain Freak (er, Mr. Freak) and MuddyEdgar


art23rockpile and MuddyEdgar


From there we rolled down to a large clearing (don't know the name) where we regrouped and the boys played some futbol...

Trail art


Uh, Dirtmistress...where ya going??


Futbol in the woods



We rolled on and had some fun watching the boys session the rock.

Troy on the rock


Ditto for Joel


Then, it was up...lots more up and climbing! Dino warned us to conserve, and rightly so...the switchbacks were tough and pretty steep. From here, we rolled on along some really fun singletrack, though we had to stop and play nice with enough hikers to fill half the teams in the NFL.

Me, sdyeti...with my favorite plant...fucca yucca :lol:


Stjunkie and MuddyEdgar


Just_me and Dino Brown jus' rollin' along


Man blong Gaua


to be continued.....

 

It was a sweet descent down to Red Box, where we lunched and rested in the shade.

Mmmm...denmother's special PB & J


Stjunkie's lunch...McD's


Joel sunning himself, er, resting


From there, the fun REALLY started with the descent down Red Box...not much stopping to take pics here!

Denmother and Just_me arrive at Switzer's


Troy does the rock sesh


The Mayor takes a walk, making sure his IH stays dry


Man blong Gaua making the switchback...


art23rockpile on one of my favorite parts of the trail


caught in the act


hey look...we picked up Aosty on the trail!


and we also found Burner...or did they find us?!


Burner on a cool part of the trail


dirtmistress, this one's for you


and HUGH, this one's for you!


stream crossing, anyone?!


Dan-o


Troy


Me on a small roller


Stjunkie with epicriderat following


Two random dudes on vintage Kleins...they told Liz that "That's how we roll" :lol:


Coming through


The rest of it, well, you know the drill...ride, descend, tap your brakes, whoa! close to the edge, cool shade, mossy rocks, little streams, big streams, off the bike again, water crossing, repeat and repeat again!

Mmmm...recovery drink of champions


Need we say more?


Ultimately, we had a fun day with a great group of riders! Dinner was another trip to Big Mama's BBQ on Lake in Altadena...mmm...good stuff!

Stats were 26 miles and 3200 feet of ascent.

Thanks to our ride leader, the wonderful Dino Brown for sharing one of his favorite rides with us!

 

Steph, great photo captions of the ride. You have quite the camera eye. Thanks!

 

Strawberry Peak Diary Entry...

Memorable Moments: :bang:
* Mr. Freak and STJunkie. Riding the Gab's without them is not the same.
* I LOVED riding with our group today
* Played Tour Guide to San Gabriel's Newbie's
* Finally got a real ride in with SDyeti and Dan (aka Man change name)
* Impressed with the improvements MuddyEdgar has made (cardio/skill)
* Saw my Turnbull Homie's (Cesar/Ray) in the JPL parking lot
* Met up with Burner and Aosty (Cool Dude... Crazy Guts)
* Crossed paths with a friend whom I had not seen in years (WheelWorld-Woodland Hills)
* Rode one my favorite stretches of trail in all of the Gab's
* Rode the ENTIRE day (all 156,987 bumps) with my fork locked out! #-o
* Listening to Art23rockpile's "stories" at dinner
* Following Troy down an "extra credit" section
* Stopping for 30 seconds as a "Rock Slide" made its way across the trail! 8-[
* Stream crossings
*The very attractive German Blondie we met along the way! :wave:


Not so memorable moments:
* Rode the entire day with my fork locked out (Said that already)
* Lost set-screw to my front brake
* Took an hour longer than expected (even though regroups were greatly reduced)
* Didn't ride with Dan as much as I would have wanted.
* Witnessing Aosty's crash
* Hearing Burner slam into a rock
* Yours truly nearly riding into a giant shrub
* Watching SDyeti smash her shoulder and arm into a rock while preparing for a switchback

Moments I want to forget:
In one word.... YUCCA!
* If you ride the San Gabriel's, surely you will come across these needle-like shrubs. They are the reason I wear arm pads. When the trail is 18-24" wide- you simply can't avoid them.
* Due to their close proximity to the trail, they make me bleed on every ride. I am used to it. What one cannot get used to is the EXTREME pain caused when these PIN NEEDLES make contact with human bone! They did on Saturday! And Yes, there is a difference between getting poked and having one impale itself into human bone!
* I have been riding INJURED since Steppie's Flannel Ride (3/29/08). I could NOT figure out why a pin-like spot below my left knee (soft tissue) has been causing such pain- for such a long time. Now I remember. I got stuck BIG TIME by a mature Yucca (i.e. solid knife edge like needles) on that ride.

The dreaded YUCCA!

(SDyeti)




View of my RIGHT shin!
One puncture pierced its way to my SHIN BONE!


Bonus Pic: JayGoes attempting to REPAIR the damage done to THE BRIDGE!


More pics after the Hornets/Spurs game...

 

lol :lol:....when Mr. Pain Freak told me that I can pass him "you can pass me- we will all meet at the top There is no way you can get lost"...... Not knowing that I was suppose to stop at the saddle..I just kept on pedaling to the peak. Once at the peak I looked down and seen MtDew flagging me down.
GOOD TIMES:drunk:

 

Thanks for the RR, all. I knew I was gonna miss a great ride, and the photos confirm it!

 

Sorry I did not make it but I had committed to other plans. We will ride another day. Besides I hate climbing Josephine Fireroad...let me come down Colby Canyon any day instead.

yrrebwarts is better

Thanks for the RR's.

Dean

 

I agree... but it still looked like a great ride

Strawberry Potrero is the name of the clearing. There used to be a picnic table there, but it's long since rotted away.