Appendix G: Post Outings

2006 October 14.

This has been the first time we’ve gotten out since the trip, nearly two months.

It was the church youth ride from Descanso Gardens down to church, via what I measured as a 20-mile (32 km) route. We were to meet there at ten. John and I were going to ride. Michelle, an adult volunteer, lives nearby, wanted to borrow a bike, and walked up to our house to borrow it, arriving at 9:30.

We were out in the light drizzle airing up tires. She tried my mountain bike, but it is way out of adjustment in most ways. I can barely ride it myself. Fooled with it for a while, then put her on John’s old bike. It was a lot less worn, much better. Made a note to take my mountain bike down to the Montrose shop for a complete tune up when we get home this afternoon.

So John rode his bike, I rode the Ryan Recumbent (see http://cbduncan.duncanheights.com/Bikes/Bikes.html ), and the three of us rode past Marshalls up the hill and down to Descanso Gardens where nearly everybody else, excepting Axel Roose, was waiting. The ‘bent was popular. James tried it but wasn’t quite tall enough. John got on it and nearly wouldn’t get off. I said we might swap some later.

Jim Cornell led. Axel brought two friends with him. David Purgason was there, Eric Dorman, adults Stephanie and her husband. James’ wife drove the truck and went for Subway lunch for the group. Also present were Anna Cornell and another girl.

Axel got there about half an hour late. They unloaded; I inspected their bike carrier. I might could carry the ‘bent on that, I thought, with enough bungee.

Maybe on our next car I would see what kind of hitch deal it has and get one of those three-bike carriers for it. Then we could go places without having to take a huge vehicle.

So Jim gave directions, having forgotten the route handout slips, and we all got underway. The kids mostly don’t know how to shift. They would pedal too hard, or too fast, goof around trying to ride without hands or seeing how unstable they could make things (Eric mostly), then would get in trouble and shift under pressure, clacking their gears with that irritating mis-shift sound.

The unwieldy party proceeded down Descanso Blvd. and up Chevy Chase to Highland. I rode in back at first, then near the front. John and Eric were right with Jim in the lead. At Highland we stopped and Jim gave more directions about safe riding etiquette and the laws. This helped some, mostly with the girls.

The group strung out along Highland and around Lida and down Linda Vista. There was, of course, more car traffic than anyone could want. On Linda Vista we went all the way down to San Rafael, encountering our first big hill going up to the San Rafael freeway exit from the 134. Stopped there to recollect riders and get more direction. From there it was across the bridge over the freeway, left, then left again onto the Colorado street bridge where there was also plenty of traffic. At the end, we took a right on Orange Grove, then right again at the first opportunity and over to Grand Avenue, a much less busy street running along the arroyo cliff where the old courthouse and other historic buildings were. We were so spread out by now that some of us, particularly me since I was so recognizable, would stay at corners so that people would see where they needed to go.

I wasn’t seeing John much during all of this except when we would gather up for more directions. He stayed near the front and I stayed all over the place, kind of keeping an eye on everyone and trying to keep the stragglers in view. Michelle was usually last, with James in sight, by design, but while trying to stay in view of the next bike in front of me, usually Stephanie, I finally lost her and the other two in the back lost me.

The route continued south and down and down. I was beginning to think that all this coasting was not representative of bicycling. Then we turned left and left again and pretty much coasted along the edge down into the Arroyo. Then the road turned right and climbed steeply to go back under the east end of the Colorado Street Bridge. The group came together there, except for Michelle who had taken “the downhill route to the Aquatic Center.”

We arrived down in the Rose Bowl depression and stopped in the Aquatic Center parking lot where Jim had parked his car. He gave us granola and water then loaded up and went to his next meeting. Stephanie’s husband Billy took over as leader.

Michelle started out first so as to not get so far behind but took the wrong route and got totally lost, finding herself eventually at a freeway entrance ramp up on the crater rim. The rest of us made one clockwise circuit of the Rose Bowl (still, I had nearly no one else in our group in sight) then went up the hill to join Mountain and thence to church as we usually go, Mountain, El Molino, and finally Santa Barbara.

This was where lunch was waiting. We ate, goofed around a little, and then John and I headed back up the hill on our bikes at about one fifteen. Michelle was to leave the borrowed bike locked up in the youth room, we’d pick it up with the van tomorrow.

I let John ride the recumbent home. He had more trouble than I expected. The shifting is a little tricky, nothing is done for you in the mechanism and I work around stuff so much that I just get used to and put up with things being more out of adjustment than they should be. So, we had to stop here and there to do training.

El Molino is really busy and people aren’t very forgiving. When we came to Elizabeth, I turned off and we tried to stay on less busy streets for a while. This was in fact better, but Elizabeth crosses several other busy streets (like Los Robles) at two way stops. This made for lots of starting and stopping practice. When we came out on Woodbury we found that even the sidewalks were too busy for riding. It got better as we neared Devil’s Gate Dam, and we rode up the usual Berkshire to Chevy Chase to Descanso route to go home. All uphill, this was moderately slow going. I had to stop and fix things on the ‘bent a few times. The silly, badly designed idler bent out of shape and at one point and the chain came all the way off it. This doesn’t happen to me much, due to my operational workarounds.

John thought he might not want to go up the steeper Alta Canyada hill, but I told him he could do it easily and he did. He even made it up the last hill to our house with only one fall-over.

I was not in bad shape for this. I ride about an hour a day, and often push it because I’m in a hurry or just feel like pushing it. This was more like three hours and I worried about hitting a wall, particularly when leaving for church before the big uphill ride to home, but didn’t. Others, like Michelle, had, but they hadn’t been riding home.

Traffic was bad on Verdugo. John was riding better than he had been going to school, possibly due to Cornell’s directions. We went through the Marshall’s parking lot and found it busy there too. As we came up Waltonia at the end, Viann was there, on the way to see Joanne. We stopped and talked for a minute before going on home.

I put my mountain bike (which had not been on today’s outing) right in the van and took it to Montrose Bike Shop for a tune up. Ready Tuesday, they said. Went up to Rite Aid to get me another water pick. John took a shower. I came home and drafted this. We’re about to go to the joint 50-year birthday party for Joan and Scott.

I’ve tentatively scheduled the “ride up Lukens the ‘easy’ way” for November 4, which looks like the next good time on the calendar, given that such things as this need to be in balance with other things. The expectation is that it will be harder and harder to get on John’s calendar for such events, but there’s no indication of that yet. He and Loren broke up and he hasn’t learned to drive yet. (These two things may be related, now that I think of it.)

2007 February 3

At the end of our trip there were several “training events” that we still hadn’t done, and some others that we had done and wanted to do over. I, of course, had an exhaustive list and said that I’d schedule them for John’s remaining time at home, through summer 2008 that is.

But, once the trip was over the pressure was off for this and other priorities took over. First it was the AMSAT Symposium preparations that ended with the trip October 8. Next it was the 2006 music CD that took a couple of months to prepare and produce. Then it was Christmas, then preparation for the Sedona AAS/AIAA Conference and now I have a week left before I go to Hillsboro to spend a month tending to my mother’s double knee replacement. So, I scheduled the first short ride for yesterday and just made time to have it happen.

John had Ampgard at noon at Hahamongna Watershed Park but wanted to go on this ride. I envisioned leaving the house at 8:00, but we didn’t even get up until 9:00 and didn’t leave the house until 10:50, after packing up eight water bottles and airing up the tires on both mountain bikes. I thought of taking the recumbent on this trip but decided against it.

We started out going over to the accident shrine under the freeway. (A truck with two young people in it had run off the Ocean View exit at 5 a.m. on a previous Sunday morning.) A new accident had occurred at the same place while I was in Sedona and there was new damage and debris under there from that. It is still hard to see how people manage to go off right there and how they cross the road and damage the west side of the underpass without touching anything on the underpass or on the east end.

Then we went out Waltonia to Crescent and Rockland. John thought we were going the wrong way. Then, it was continuing the climb across Foothill and up Cross to Castle, and the trail entrance off Tulip Tree up to the Palm Crest playground back entrance. John noticed several things that had changed since he had been there, now five years ago.

We went up the back and, finding ourselves locked in and not wanting to go back, handed the bikes over the gate and climbed. People walking their dogs discussed this with us.

Then it was up Jessen, across Fairmont. We didn’t remember if John had been here when Kevin Costner was. Probably, Costner had a child between Katy’s and Viannah’s age who had gone to school here.

It is necessary to climb some more on Fairmont before you can take Alta Canyada down to El Vago, down La Canada to Vista del Valle, and across to the 2 Highway. John didn’t like me not stopping for stop signs and we discussed the legal implications if we both got tickets.

Of course there was fast traffic on Highway 2, including groups of motorcycles. We stopped and called Neils to see if he could join us, as we were nearly to his house and he was going to Ampgard too, but he was down at some rehearsal at Caltech, some production with which John had declined to be involved.

So it was up to the parking lot at Gould Mesa Mountainway and then down the road to the campground.

John got way ahead starting down. Being careful, I didn’t see him for a while and wondered if he’d run off the road and disappeared. No he hadn’t, but I didn’t know this before I started planning for catastrophe….

Down in the Arroyo, we noted the place where Julian had wanted to ride down into the water (I wouldn’t let him). At the last water crossing, we saw someone from church, Denise Klitze, it turned out, though I didn’t recognize her on the spot. We didn’t stop. I felt guilty. I didn’t know until we were driving away from church today and we saw her then who it was.

Down at JPL, we decided to cross the east gate bridge and go to the park along the perimeter, a well known route to me. We came up to another locked gate, but I knew how to get around this one.

Once on the straightaway behind the south end of the lab, where cars used to park illegally, it was smooth(er) and level, I took the lead and we rode fast to the actual park where people were just arriving for Ampgard.

John stayed with the group after we loaded the bikes to drive them home. They wanted us to pick up their pizza. I was worn out and just wanted to sleep, early stages of that activity blocking condition I get after big workouts, like at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, remember?

The stop time was 12:30.

2007 April 13, Friday

Not really having time, I had rushed to get that last bike ride in before the trip to Texas for mother’s knee surgeries. I had also planned to try to get back in stride, with this ride, quickly after returning, but, due to just being overwhelmed by behind-ness (taxes, etc.) didn’t get to it until today.

Yesterday morning John was supposed to go have his blood drawn, but he didn’t get up so Viann told me we could ride today. I dictated that we would get up between 6:00 and 6:30 and ride our bikes down to the blood place at 2520 Honolulu. John would be fasting for this so we would go to breakfast afterwards, then continue on our planned ride.

This meant not having to eat or make a lunch before leaving in the morning, a significant time savings. I did have to get up, dress, do the cats (very involved), put Gatorade and water in our backpacks, air up all four tires, and leave. We actually got to the blood place around 7:20. It went routinely and we were away by 7:35, then went back east on Honolulu looking for what turned out to be the City Hall Coffee Shop.

(See

http://www.smoola.com/Company.aspx?state=CA&city=Montrose&companyID=466235

)

John and Viannah had gone there for breakfast once, perhaps in connection with the dog groomer nearby, and John had wanted to go back. I had a “Dave’s,” John had the Bisquit thing. When we got up to leave it was around 8:00 and the place was full. They had smaller portions than Denny’s and were not cheap but were well done. One waitress said she knew how to do most things with one hand because she had raised four children. Panenos and other familiar looking people were in there.

Our bikes were locked to a tree. We went out, unlocked, and continued back west.

All the way out on Honolulu and past Gene’s Body shop I explained the difference between body work and a mechanic. We passed El Sol and Apple Market and turned up the hill, then over to the park and up to Montrose and again turned up the hill to go under the freeway and perform a dangerous merge with exiting cars. This place is bad in a car and worse on a bike. We crossed to the median supports under the freeway, then to the left sidewalk. That was better. Little stacks of sand looked like a map of the Channel Islands. I said we could make little roads and put little cars on them. John said, “CBS!”

He thought we had gone on the left sidewalk before, but I thought later that last time we were here we had been on the right sidewalk, which has tough crossings heading up to the La Tuna area, and had said that next time (this time) we should go on the left sidewalk.

Then it was up the side road, half riding half walking, to the peak of the hill. Coming down into the Mountainway turnoff, I reached my maximum speed, 52 kph.

We stopped for a rest and half a bottle of Gatorade each at the entrance gate there. Green Gatorade, kind of like a lime colored swimming pool.

We talked about the logistics of those dozens of locks on the gate. How would you add one? How could you add one or block one without cooperation? Tricky. The gate had been run over and didn’t fit into its lock guard anymore. The eleven or so locks were just hanging loose. Hikers and bikers, dog walkers and joggers came and went.

This was nearly 10 km from the house; I remembered that from before.

And at this point we had to decide which of the four routes to go on today. We were going to decide this last night but Katy called wanting help renting a house at college (for next year, but starting now) (lease signing is today) and kept us tied up until late with that.

The choices were.

1. Down La Tuna to Hansen Dam, explore the water potential there (for kayaking, I believe this is the closest such body of water), then back past Ranch Side Café and Tujunga, similar to when we came back from the shop with the recumbent but without so much high climbing.
2. Up and then turn left at the top and descend towards the golf course south of Montrose., along the ridge top.
3. Same as 2., but at the top turn right to see what’s down there first before going down to the east.
4. Lower Edison Roads route into the Crescenta Valley Park as we had done before, on a wetter day.

Looking at the road above, “Hey, we could be up there wishing we were down here.” Or, “Hey, we could be down here wishing we were up there wishing we were down here.”

Because it was shortest and because it was what had been originally planned, John picked “4.”

So, riding where we could and not riding where we couldn’t or dared not do otherwise, we went along the steep, sandy, rutted grades of the lower route. This would be a nice meadow except for all the freeway noise, not negotiable, however, except by a suitable 4 X 4 or equivalent. Some of the hills would be difficult and dangerous even on foot, much less walking a bicycle. I didn’t think one could stay on riding.

The route comes back to civilization at the back yard of a villa-like place at the top of Cedar Bend, pictured here.

On the road just before were some shovels where kids had piled up dirt for dirt bike jumps. I tried one, not really knowing how to do it. Didn’t do well but at least didn’t get hurt.

Then, as before, we went down the uphill side of the captured stream, reminding John of Psyclone, the wood coaster at Magic Mountain that we used to say had square wheels.

And from there, along back streets until one forced us out at the Montrose Bike Shop, then back up to the traffic triangle and past where Maria used to live, then up Waltonia and home. Tired, I walked my bike up the hill to the house. Just now warmed up, John pedaled up.

We got home at 11:00 and found Maria cleaning. Now we’re going to go to lunch.

2007 July 20 – Lukens the “easy” way.

Three summers ago we had been dropped off at Haynes Canyon in Tujunga and climbed Lukens from he west. That day had been a disaster. We had been under-prepared, under-informed, and under-stocked for a hot climb and I had hit the wall about a mile from the top. With no water, we went down the easier truck road to the east and were picked up by Viannah on a semi-emergency basis just at dusk.

It seemed for some reason like that truck road would be easier to climb.

So, “Lukens the easy way” had been carried as a possible outing ever since. Major, it would still last all day, but hopefully not be devastating.

Every time we’re out driving around and see Mt. Lukens, somebody says, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to be up there!” Usually the answer is, “Sure, but not to get up there.”

So a couple of weeks ago I asked John if he would like to try it again on my Regular Day Off Friday, July 20. This would be close to the three-year anniversary of the disaster.

I made several preparations that were different from he past. I planned four workout rides on regular returns from work. These were July 11, 13, 16, and 18.

July 11: Took the recumbent up past the Country Club then Palm Crest. This had been very difficult in the past, especially the first steep hill but went quite well. I was encouraged.

July 13: Took the mountain bike up Gould Mesa. This did not go well. The un-maintained bike malfunctioned – the lowest gears would seize, causing an abrupt halt. Put a lot of WD-40 on the chain and derailleurs.

July 16: Took the recumbent up to Sacred Heart then down and back up Cerro Negro. Stopped for snacks to test how well that helped. This went really well. Both climbs were fine. The eating seemed to work well. No despair. The dirt roads past Cerro Negro weren’t so good however. The ‘bent didn’t like them. But other than that I was encouraged.

July 18: Gould Mesa on the mountain bike again. This went a lot better with the bike working right but I still walked most of the hard part of the climb.

For ride day we were going to carry plenty of food and water this time and I was going to get enough sleep. That would prevent leaving very early. Still, the plan was to leave the house at 7:00 a.m.

I divided the ride into seven stages, each of which was expected to take 30 - 60 minutes followed by a 10 – 30 minute rest with required eating and drinking at that rest. These were:

0. Home
1. Country Club
2. Fire Station
3. Knee
4. Earl Cyn Mountainway (back to Palm Crest)
5. Summit
6. Pavement in Tujunga
7. Home.

The estimate was 10-11 hours worst case.

Here’s the actual:

As done.
Stage	End	Arrive	Leave	Remark
0	Home		8:23	up at 7:00, "borrowed" a trash bag (newspaper wrapper) from a neighbor on the way up. Odometer didn't start until half way up the first hill - 300 to 400 meters lost.
1	Countryclub	9:03	9:23	4.2	Starlight Crest Drive. Called Viann to check in.
2	Fire Station	10:05	10:30	7.11	saw Martin coming down Hwy. 2. No phone service.
3	Knee	11:15	11:40	9.62	FSS team of 30 workers marching down. Three bikes down, two trucks up. Us mostly walking.
	early stop	12:35	14:30	11.94	Shade, lunch, nap.
4	Earl Cyn. M.	14:50		13.14	Actual passage. Second call to Viann
	Road	15:05		15.11	Road down north, passage.
4A	Under Tree	15:55	16:40	16.03	Couldn't make the top without stopping again. Got into red ants.
5	Summit	17:30	18:05	19.12	3:42:52, 5.1, 28.8. Third call to Viann.
6	Pavement	19:03	19:15	28.15	So, what do I enjoy about this. An hour of dangerous, butt beating descent.
6A	Mt. Ave. Park	19:52	20:00	35.48	Pavement is nice.
7	Home	20:11		37.94	5:07:01,.7.4, 45.5, 4881.8
					Went to In N Out
2007 July 20 Checklist
Tool and WD-40 check
Refrigerator & Freezer
Cats
Lamp Order
Bug Spray and Sun Screen
Tire Air

From before we were even on the mountainways, John asked, “So why do we do this?”

There are lots of reasons. The one I didn’t think of was that we used to train for our big event and said we would continue some things afterwards.

So, I said things like, “Because I sit at the computer on perfectly nice days and think it is a shame to waste my life not getting out.” Or, “Because it makes us different. Ten million people visit the Grand Canyon every year, but only ten thousand go down in. That makes them (us) one in a thousand. Same here. Twenty thousand people in La Canada, etc. and how many of them come up here? More than one in a thousand, but the people we were seeing today weren’t from La Canada.”

And then there were the views. We took lots of pictures. That’s what we are thinking when we say, “Wouldn’t it be nice to be up there.”

The 4000 foot smog inversion was obvious.

We saw Martin coming down from accompanying Tom Lockhart and others on an RDO (Regular Day Off) ride. He was coming down early because he doesn’t do RDOs and was therefore actually on the way to work. Forest Service guys in a truck pulled over thinking we were in trouble, three bikes on the side of the road, and told us to go to the fire station right there. Before we left they asked about that third guy. “Oh, he was going down,” I said.

Martin, like John and everyone else in creation asked why we didn’t get dropped off at the beginning of the road there at that station and picked up at the first place you could drive to on the other end. This is what we had done in the past on hikes and on that day three years ago. There was no good answer. I’m just philosophically opposed to putting bikes in cars. But, granted, this was an extra nearly two hours at the beginning and more than one hour at the end.

We counted trucks coming and going, keeping a balance. For a while it appeared that there were minus two trucks at the top. When we left the summit there were four trucks and a trailer. There were guys still up there working.

At one rest I was talking about this, what it would take to have privilege to come up here. You could either work for someone who maintained facilities there and do it as a job, or you could work yourself into being the guy in the radio club who went up to the site and worked on club equipment. That guy would have to be well known and trusted both to the club members and the site operators who were permitting them. I talked on and on about this for maybe ten minutes.

John listened quietly. At the end he said, “Well, if you could do that, mom could drop us off at the top.” We thought this was funny and laughed and laughed. Later, after having our butts and hands beat on for an hour coming down a rocky road, even that didn’t seem so ideal.

.John would ask if airplanes we were hearing were higher than us. Usually I couldn’t even see them. Usually they were. We saw Mt. Wilson to the east. John said, “Hey, wouldn’t it be nice to be over there!” “Yeah,” I said, “if we were in an F-14 and it just meant moving a control 1/8 of an inch and juicing the throttle and just being there in about ten seconds.”

We then resumed our climb.

The other funny thing was when we were nearly to the bottom we came to this locked gate.

We were exhausted, sore, sunburned, and nearly out of everything, having just descended about 2000 feet. I said, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to go back.” John didn’t think that was funny.

Here we are at the summit around 1745

.

It is a pretty place. The views are worth some effort. We took over 170 pictures and a couple of movies. This was my fourth time to the top if I remember right, but the only time I remember going and finding the geodetic marker, which is about as far from the road as you can get in the summit area.

The eating and drinking plan went well but, as I had known from the workouts, I could not know what would happen after a couple of hours. It got to where we couldn’t ride up even a two percent grade but had to walk. We didn’t run out of food or fluid but it was hot and we were dripping salt sweat most of the way. The frozen liquids worked well except in the canteen, which thawed earlier than expected. Of two frozen half Gatorades and a water bottle, we still had some ice after lunch and cool liquid up to the ‘4A” stop.

We realized at that extra “4A” major rest stop near the top that this hadn’t been any “easier” than the other route three years ago but, as John put it, we had “better information.” That time, I thought it was “only” another mile or two to the top for the whole six miles. That was discouraging and caused us to plan and consume badly. Today we knew what was up.

I’d been here with Viannah and Katy on hikes in the past. That was mentioned and commemorated.

We’re going to take a picture of all the empty bottles we brought down. And the few that still have something in them as documentation.

So, why do we do this? While we were eating after it was over, I felt like Obi-Wan Kenobi. “I’m getting too old for this sort of thing. It’s time for someone else to be jetting around saving the universe.” But, for what I have to work with, I’m not in that bad of shape. F.O.G.

2008 July 18 – Down the Arroyo

[Editing note: Notice that it’s a year later. Events have really slowed. John is now out of High School and getting ready to go to Baylor. 2/27/10, cbd]

For some time I had been trying to arrange a bicycling outing on the scale of Lukens or the long trip down to Long Beach. July 18 was the last RDO (Regular Day Off) weekend when John would be at home. Two weeks hence we would be at grandma’s 80^th birthday in Texas. Four weeks hence would be right before we left for Baylor. Six weeks hence would be the four day Labor Day weekend but John would be gone.

In our closeout counseling session with Karen Allen, John mentioned that he enjoyed the bike rides. That was just Tuesday. That was hard to forget.

But, I had been riding a bike to work only once a month for the last several months, for many reasons, some of which had to do with all the senior in high school conflicts and activities going on. I was certainly in no position to work up to another major ride like that. And, John’s calendar was hard to get on too. Anyway, we decided to go for it that Friday.

2008 July 18 10:30

getting ready

Hagmeier

Baylor Housing

Fridge e-mail

Credit Card PIN

Gatoraide

Sunscreen

Granola

After getting up around 9:00 and puttering around a bit, I started getting ready and getting John up at 10:30. He had some chores to do. Call Baylor Housing, e-mail his roommates about the mini-fridge, call Ann Hagmeier, write thank you notes. I got him to do the first three while going around finding the PIN for my credit card and making a list of things we needed and would have to get at a store on the way.

11:20 82^o

shoes, pants, tires

By 11:20 the tires were aired up and we both had on the right shoes and pants. The plan was to go down the Rose Bowl via Devil’s Gate Dam, then on down the Arroyo to some point at which we would cut across to Glendale and come back up Verdugo road to the area of our house. John had his camera but did not take many pictures.

It was midday already and only in the low 80s. It would not be blazing hot like it could be, but I was worried about sunburn.

Bike

11:37 = 11:38 loading to leave 0.0

The bike odometer had a time difference to the cellphone (network set) of about two minutes.

After some adjustment on John’s seat we got underway. Turning right at the bottom of the hill, John pointed out that the Rose Bowl was the other direction. I said we were going to get money. He said he had money (as always). We were also going to the store.

The goal today was to stay mostly on surface streets and away from the killer climbs that are quite available around here.

11:50 ATM 1.62 $200

Three ATMs, all three in use.

12:10 CVS $17.40

Got all the stuff on the list above. Checked ourselves out at the automatic machine. We locked the bikes and I brought in my backpack, talking loudly about having had stuff stolen here in the past.

Climbing out of the CVS lot behind what used to be the Texaco station, I commented that (for some reason) we thought that little lot might be made into a Wendy’s. It was still vacant right now. We also hoped that this would be our worst hill to climb.

Went up the left sidewalk past the theater, past that hydrant where I had broken the steering mechanism on my ‘bent when it was new (to me) and crossed the street to go down Alta Canyada. Katy had been known to just follow me into traffic, but John drove for himself and was more conservative about where he went, who he goes in front of, and how he treats the lights and stop signs.

Proceeding past Descanso Gardens where they were watering the grass and the street and us, I coasted well ahead and waited at Chevy Chase. John was having water bottle troubles so I ended up carrying all the food and water in my hung-on-the-seat backpack.

At the Berkshire intersection we remarked again about me getting a ticket there years ago towing the girls, and how the ticket could be fought and won.

Continuing on what I call the south route to work, we came to Oak Grove and went straight across into the park and down the road past the Tom Sawyer campers, the new footbridge, and onto Devil’s Gate Dam. Going through the east horse tunnel under Woodbury, we started down the trail / switchbacks into the Arroyo basin below the dam. This was a little much for the street recumbent and I nearly lost it a couple of times, as I did further on when the road became predominantly sand.

Right at the bottom someone had set up a ropes course like structure. John took a picture.

We then made our way out to the road and passed the Rose Bowl on the east side, turning past the Aquatic Center and going on down under the Colorado Street bridge.

We noticed many hiking areas along here that I hadn’t known about. This seemed to be the west border of South Pasadena.

I’d brought pages of three Thomas Guide maps with me: 595, 594 and 564. We were now on 595. We followed what seemed to be the right path until arriving in an area that didn’t look like it was where we wanted to be. We stopped to eat a banana and consult the maps. John, it turned out, didn’t like bananas.

13:28 San Pascual & Gold 16.52

We were at San Pascual & Gold. I found this on the map (F-1) and decided that we should go back over the Arroyo and try to follow Stoney Drive to Arroyo Drive to stay in the basin that way.

Trying this, it went well enough at first and John recognized the area. The youth group and later his bunch of buddies had played inexpensive miniature golf down here somewhere. He knew all about the area. I asked where we should go then; he didn’t know.

13:50 14.87 Arroyo Road End near Metro 27.46

Arroyo came to Monterey, an artery with “obscene levels of traffic.” We crossed the freeway, noted we were passing San Pascual again, and turned left on N Ave. 64. This led down a hill where the only choice was a freeway entrance or to go down into the north end of Arroyo Seco Park, which we did.

I was thinking that there might be a bike trail along here or some way to go through the park and stay off of major streets. Although we missed a few opportunities to explore this possibility, it didn’t look organized. It was easy to see we’d be riding across golf course grass in some places to try to do that, and other place might be fenced off.

Metro trains went by going both ways.

A guy in a camper with a tree-sized birdcage on the back was parked there with a generator running. High-class homelessness?

A few people were sitting in the parks or parked in the shade on their lunch breaks.

After some water and more map consultation, we went up to Arroyo Verde, up and crossed the Metro tracks, then down Monterey to S 60^th Ave, and across the freeway to Hayes.

I wanted specifically on this trip to see the Metro (Gold Line) bridge over the Arroyo. I just barely glimpsed it through the trees on this crossing, not what I had in mind. John, a block behind, didn’t see it at all.

14:15 Gold Line & 29^th, Marmion

Hayes was just a way to get off of busy streets, but they are hard to avoid for long. Soon we were at the 59^th street and Marmion Gold Line station where we stopped to study the map some more and consider our options.

The plan was to proceed west from here toward Glendale, trying to stay in the semi-flat valleys and not climb any hills like Mt. Washington, prominent on the map. I had a plan that looked like it would do this on a couple of miles of residential streets.

There was also the possibility of getting on the Gold Line and going up into Pasadena from which we could ride home. That wouldn’t be a lot less riding or a lot less vertical.

Franklin School

Trains came and went. We decided to keep riding. Up 59^th, a hill where kids were out in wading pools in the barely-big-enough front yards, to Nolden, and down Hub to Franklin High School. This was a big, lock-down looking campus. We rode around it, up to Buchanan, and continued west through interesting middle class neighborhoods. They looked more homey than where we lived now….

It was hilly but not severely so.

Buchanan & N

Chuck Vandeweg and Larry selling Chuck’s Dodge Dart

Not having memorized the map well, I didn’t realize that Buchanan would dead end. In the last block before this happened, at N Street, Chuck Vandeweg from church was standing there with his 1973 Dodge Dart and a guy named Larry. He had just washed it and had it for sale. For some reason, he left it parked in Eagle Rock (not here, but a few blocks away in a safer place) though he lived over by the defunct K-Mart in Sunland.

Selling points for the Dart? 1973: exempt from smog checks, very cheap to insure, low mileage engine, trunk full of spare parts, had been babied all it’s life. New paint job, new interior, new vinyl roof, easy to work on. Like many old cars you could nearly ride in the engine compartment.

He was asking $3500 - $4000. I said I’d talk to Katy about this.

Continuing on, down N (for the second time – after Chuck recognized us, John came down the steep hill and got me and we rode back up to him) to Lincoln and left to the west into the corner between Thomas Guide maps that is usually confusing. (We live in such a corner too, equally confusing.

Lincoln – York – York Hill – 43^rd

We found York and Eagle Rock Dr. and crossing, started climbing the hill that turned out to be York Hill. Luckily, this let out onto 43^rd which let us back down to Eagle Rock (but a little higher) and we crossed under the 2 Freeway on Verdugo. I had hoped to cross under on York (not an interchange) or a footbridge further north, but didn’t know how to get to them.

41 – Trent – 42 – Verde Oaks – Acacia – Verdugo – Colorado – interchange

Soon as we were under the freeway we turned onto 41^st and started up the residential streets by the freeway. The neighborhoods eventually ended and dumped us out back on Verdugo Rd., which John pronounced to be too busy for bike riding. We discussed the reduction in cars due to gas and the possible increase in cycling, and busses.

I asked if he wanted to run by the Garfield Glendale High campus where he had retaken English 3 over the last year. No.

From here we could see the tower in the 2 / 134 interchange and thought we might like to go to In N Out for lunch. The only plan before that was IHOP over on Glendale Blvd., about equally far out of the way in the other direction.

John knew how to get to In N Out and directed us there, east on Colorado into the interchange area where we had thought of buying a condo years ago. This led us to a discussion of the difference between condos and apartments. We also saw “Lukens” street. I said, “Hey, we could do Lukens.” “Sure, let’s go, without stopping,” John said, thinking about the mountain that we could now see ahead of us several miles and several thousands of feet up. But I was just talking about the block long street there across from Glendale High.

We got honked at a few places in the interchange. Freeway drivers are impatient and not used to pedestrian or non-auto traffic.

15:45 NN Out 31.37 #61 $12.64

We got to In N Out, rode through the drive through path just because we could, locked up out front, went in and ordered. We cleaned up a little, studied the map while we ate and noted that the division between Glendale and Eagle Rock came right up on this property. There were big U.S. / California / Eagle Rock flags in the interchange area right here. After we were done, we rode over to the Minx parking lot (that had a few “Rusty Pelican Only” signs left over) so we could be in Eagle Rock and Glendale rapidly.

16:25 go on – Avonoak – Sweet Briar – Verdugo – Sparr

Back through the drive through and out onto the street, up Harvey (mostly sidewalks) to Glenoaks then up an increasingly steep hill to Avonoak and Sweet Briar which appeared to be a residential shortcut around heavy traffic getting back to Verdugo.

Climbing Avonoak, I noted the top of my legs turning red and stopped to spray SPF 50 sunscreen all over the exposed places again. This was a second application. I ended up with mild burns on my legs but nowhere else.

On Verdugo, we passed Glendale College and continued up the right, mostly sidewalks, towards Montrose. I remembered this route from having done it before myself on company picnic day and other such occasions. John also knew it from having come home from Garfield.

17:13 Meehan’s – swap bikes 37.88

We turned on Spar, a residential street that would go up to the tire swing park, and stopped in front of Meehans house. Told stories about them at work, ate the last banana and swapped bikes. John ended up having 10-15 minutes worth of shifting problems climbing the last two or three miles towards home. I told him, “It’s engineering –I don’t like messing with it, so just use workarounds which are quicker.” That’s not really engineering, that’s just that I’d rather be operating the bike than working on it.

Viann called wondering if we were OK. Initially the expectation had been that we’d be home around three.

17:48 = 17:51 home 40.69

Katy was home for the weekend.

Before going in, I loosened the bolts and moved the recumbent seat forward half an inch so it wouldn’t bang on the luggage rack. Somehow it had slipped since the last repair, maybe all that pushing. I’d been noticing this several rides before this one.

I unpacked and we both showered and all of us watched the Jim Lehrer News Hour (Judy Woodruff today) over dinner.

At the end of the day I asked John what he thought. He had genuinely enjoyed the ride, though there was some complaining as we went further and further below the Rose Bowl, he not realizing what the goal was. I could have been clearer about the goal.

But indeed, this did remind me of being that age, or even younger. We used to ride our bikes around the cities, within the limits established by our parents, and looked at things closely because of how slow we were going, and felt that we could go anywhere due to all this mobility. We used to do it every day. Part of me wishes John and I could have done this every week.

2009 March 13 – Chevy Chase, In N Out, Camino San Rafael

John’s first spring break, not in Galveston.

The pictures are on John’s camera; I didn’t bring mine.

We negotiated for home between noon and 1 p.m. This eliminated a Verdugo Mountains / Brand Park route that I had been contemplating. Hiking this had taken ten hours and two cars. Riding, I expected it to take an hour to La Tuna Canyon, two to the top, an hour and a half down, an hour back home, and an hour for lunch, 6-1/2 total. We were going to get up at 7 and leave at 8. That made 2:30 which was too late.

Ashley (the latest girlfriend) left late; it looked like John gotten to bed about 3:30. I got up before 8:00 and got him up before 9:00. We looked at the local Pasadena Quadrangle for something we could do in only three or four hours plus lunch.

9:00 Viannah calls with printer problem.

She had new ink but the printer wouldn’t run the print head out where it could be serviced. It looked from the online manuals (that I had to look at because she didn’t have internet in her apartment) like it should. I gave her the 800-number to call Kodak directly.

9:10 loading – water, EQ Gatorade

I took the magazine stack out of my backpack and put in about a gallon of water. John had a quart plus bottle too and went to the shed for a big bottle of Gatorade. He had a single-sling backpack that wouldn’t work with a mountain bike, we decided to just use mine

935 ride

We aired up the tires, checked the breaks, moved cats around and got off at 9:35.

VHH Tour

We proceeded to Montrose and up by CVS (used to be Sav-On) and Subway, up the steep little hill there that used to be behind a Texaco station, now a vacant lot and up past the movie theater. I crossed the street and went up to the Verdugo Hills Hospital Emergency Room.

“John Duncan’s Birthplace.”

I told the story, noting how the building had changed. Went up and toured the parking lot, saw the fence line that we had once come down from above.

Alta Canyada

Back out the VHH east parking lot, we lifted bikes over low wall, continued down to Alta Canyada, passed Descanso Gardens, and onto Chevy Chase

Tighten bolt

The front steering bolt on the recumbent kept coming loose. This is a critical part. If it failed while going uphill it would be no big deal, I’d just fall over and stop. If it failed going fast, like downhill, it could be fatal. Feeling play in the steering, I had noted it bobbing around, loose but not off, and had hand tightened it several times. At an intersection I stopped to look for a tool. I had none but John had his under-seat tool pack with a multipurpose wrench, one of which fit the nut and a flathead screwdriver which would hold the hex head on the other end. After tightening it as well as this would allow we carried on. There were no further mechanical problems.

Chevy Chase

John was reluctant to go down Chevy Chase and asked what it was I liked so much about Glendale. In particular, he didn’t want to return home up Verdugo again, which was the nominal fast route, given time constraints. There were three possible routes: Verdugo, Chevy Chase (back the way we came) and up Mountain into Rancho San Rafael and across that mountain road to Cerro Negro. Anything but Verdugo would take longer, but John didn’t like Verdugo because he had ridden home from Glendale on that route too many times, and last time we had been out on bikes we had gone that way too.

Chris Stones

Alan Kaul

Chevy Chase climbs up through a pass in the hills when going south. The house where Chris Stones used to live and the house where Alan Kaul (a ham) had lived were both up there.

Big Hole

There is one overlook on Chevy Chase where it looks like a natural green valley with minimal development. There is a golf course there that looks too small to be one. John tried some pictures.

Down in the club area, an enormous hole was being dug in the ground and an enormous pile of dirt, maybe 50 feet high, was sitting by it. We stopped to look. Perhaps it was construction of a major building.

Now going fast, having to use brakes some, we passed a little neighborhood café right on Chevy Chase.

We came out down under the 2 Freeway and discussed which way to go to get to In N Out. After looking around, we recognized some stuff and proceeded up to the left. This turned out to be correct.

11:02 In N Out

It is good to get to In N Out early; it is popular. There were several already eating, mostly older folks, but there was no line. We both got #2s, John with animal style fries. We learned another secret, you can ask for jalapenos and they will give you a little package from under the counter.

Talked about “the rules when kids move home” among other things (like conspiracy theories). The present problem, the kid who may move home, may be Viannah, but it could also be John. The three points are: housing, cars, and financial (moving out is the ultimate goal). (I won’t go into more detail here.) We didn’t talk about his college grades. This had been discussed separately.

00:58:31 13.11 13.11 13.4 45.4 615.8

So we’d been on the road nearly an hour, over 13 km with an average speed of 13.4 kph (duh) and a max of 45.4 (coming down Chevy Chase). The new odometer on the bent had 615.8 km on it.

1157 Rusty Pelican

The other restaurant on the lot is Minx and they don’t like sharing the space with In N Out, at least with respect to parking if not in all ways cultural. It used to be Rusty Pelican. There’s one “No Parking” sign back in the back that still says Rusty Pelican on it. We sometimes go back and look at it. Today we got a good, full sized picture of it.

Now it was noon and the place was getting crowded. It was time to move on. John had locked the bikes together with his metal rope lock. They were leaning on a post, but he hadn’t lock around it.

Even though it was the hardest and probably slowest route, John wanted to go up the steep climb on Mountain and along towards Cerro Negro to go back. We headed off and found a downhill coast to Verdugo Blvd. Climbed sidewalks on both sides of Mountain, resting often, going past Glendale Community College tennis courts and other facilities. Crossed the freeway and entered Rancho San Rafael. We expected six stop signs but only found three. One had a perfect, near-hill-framed, view of Mt. Wilson. I thought it was Lukens. John was surprised at compass directions for this view. We took a picture. He later figured out it was Wilson from different context.

At the back of the subdivision, the road goes downhill for maybe half a mile then proceeds on up toward the local peak, Cerro Negro. Going down for a minute, I peaked out at 48.3 kph, 30 mph.

When it gets below first gear range, John walks and he was doing a lot of walking. I was trudging along at low speed, having the usual low speed problems, stopping more and more frequently with increasing grade and just general high-heart-rate tiredness.

Just after the top of the pass, the fire road breaks to the left and starts up a steeper hill. We took this way and I started pushing. Going was slow. It was another half mile of climbing on fire roads from there to the high point of the road.

Pushing (or carrying) the recumbent was not ever easy. This route was more of a job for a mountain bike (though John’s seat was hurting). I tried leaning over the back (backpack) and steering, leaning over from the side and steering. None of it was very efficient. In the final push to the top I felt like throwing up once. John admitted later that he did too at that point. (Quoting from 2010, “Yes, I felt that way the first time I did this too.” “When did you do this before?” “Never.”)

I stopped and took off the sweatshirt, but was continually plagued by the back pack dragging on the tire and couldn’t seem to come up with a way for it not to do that.

14:00 Top 21.40

We arrived right at 2 p.m, my odometer showing 21.4 km for the day so far.

Then we started talking about how to go down. No one wanted to go east back to Chevy Chase so we started in the general direction of VHH overlook, noting that the Glendale Police firing range was in that direction. Later we heard some Glendale Police gunfire (presumably).

Soon we had the choice between more climbing on Descanso Mountainway or taking Edison Road to Forest Hill Dr. and down to Alta Canyada in the much flatter (but still uphill) Descanso Gardens area. Thinking about all the additional climbing, the steep descents, the climb again to the VHH overlook, and the single trail from there which was difficult even on a mountain bike, much less a street one, I suggested the latter and we started down.

Around the water tank (lower left in the google satellite picture) we went straight instead of going right down Forest Hill Dr. Soon we noticed this, and could easily see the road we were supposed to be on across that canyon to the right. Note the thinner trail above Forest Hill. That’s Conservation Trail, a new trail that was built since we lived here. In fact, we were on a whole family hike some years ago and got on this trail while it was still being built. This meant thrashing through at least 100 yards of underbrush in the not yet connected middle. Towards the end it’s right below the road.

This single track trail was a real challenge on both bikes. The trail is barely there between steep descents on the left and cliffs on the right. With erosion and the usual sand, it was hard to stay on the trail and to stay in control, and I got tired of listening to my rear brake squeak.

John was jazzed by all this. “Intense,” he said. To me it felt more like “falling with style” (a quote from Buzz Lightyear)

1423 end of Conservation Trail on Forest Hill Dr. 23.65

Out on the main trail, and in another hundred yards we were on the paved road. We had driven up here just the other day for some reason. John remembered it.

On Alta Canyada, relatively flat and easy (but still uphill) John was pushing to make up time. I had another first – I developed a cramp in my right leg. After trying a few things, I decided to get off and stretch and walk for a bit. This slowed us down, of course. After the cramp wasn’t gone, but it was controllable in motion, I continued to ride.

At the Verdugo Blvd. light we again discussed which way to go. Right to the Indiana flume bridge, straight, or left down into Montrose. I said right then turned left (never having been able to tell the difference between left and right), but John wanted to go right so I turned around.

After the usual struggle at the trailhead (steep and sandy) we crossed the bridge, proceeded up to Foothill, and turned down La Granada to go home.

Coming up Ahlin behind me John remarked that I was dripping something. The tire had worn a hole in the bottom of my backpack, worn a hole through a towel in the bottom of backpack, and worn a hole in the water bottle that we hadn’t been using. I would try to repair the backpack and towels aren’t that important anyway but the water bottle is a lost cause.

[editing note: Viann repaired the backpack last month, and a couple of weeks ago, still tired of this, I bungeed a piece of cardboard on the rack so the pack can’t sag through. This temporary solution suggests a fairly easy permanent one. 2/27/10, cbd]

We hadn’t opened the Gatorade. I returned it to the earthquake shed, and therefore we wouldn’t have to fool with the shed disaster food inventory.

1449 home 2:44:11 27.69 27.69 10.1 60.3 630.3

In Debt got out of the garage when we opened it, as usual. John brought him into the house and went straight to the shower while I tightened that steering bolt good with proper tools, dealt with the water bottle damage, and brought in the mail. While I was dirty, I went around and watered. This was the first time it had been dry enough to water the new trees between us and 4406 Rockmere and I talked to Jon (the neighbor) up there, pulling vines off one of the new trees, about them.

After I was cleaned up, John showed me some things in his current Sim City. He’s interested in this too. Maybe he should major in city management. You know, he should go to a counselor at Baylor and tell them that he likes Geology, Choir, and Sim City and see what they can come up with.

He packed his tiny backpack and Ashley showed up. They left right away, 16:02, for the overnight visit to her college. This was three hours late (and all that time I had been worried about 2:30 p.m.). They didn’t waste time but neither was there any anger incident.

It was interesting, in spite of this negotiation he had previously made with Ashley, he didn’t push it today and he chose to return by the hardest possible route, and enjoyed it more when we were up on the hard part than any other place (including getting up and starting). He plans to have a bike at school next year (and he plans to be in school next year, though this may still be in question), but today he seemed to know that he’s not going to be around here much anymore and seemed to want to enjoy “home” as completely as possible.