End Pavement

Some cameraphone photos from the Santa Ana River Trail exploration last Saturday.

This is next to Washington St in Colton, about where I entered.

Looking the other direction. Nobody else was on the trail during my 6-mile round trip — a handful of ATVs buzzing around in the riverbed, but that was it.

The trail heading under a railroad bridge — pretty much every flat surface had some sort of graffiti in evidence in the Colton/Grand Terrace section.

Under the La Cadena Drive bridge.

Looking to the right from the previous picture, the “on/off-ramp” for the SART from La Cadena. This is what I had been looking for via the older Google Earth imagery.

And turning around from the previous pair of photos, the lovely bike path ends. This is looking “down-river” toward Riverside, and the paved section stops…

…which never stops me, speaking of End Pavement. ;)

The temperature was alternatively comfortably cool and chilly as the sun moved in and out of the clouds.

Mid-construction. Looking good so far.

Whoops! Well, so much for that. :) Actually, it would have been easy enough to bypass, but I was about 11.5 miles from home late in the afternoon, so this was as good a place as any to turn around, about three miles from where I entered in Colton.

Ah, but what’s this? Off to the left, a promising dirt road heading into a canyon, with dozens of crows or ravens flying around. Time to explore!

Mostly heard rather than seen, dirtbikes were running here and there in the distance — otherwise, no people.

Pretty standard steep SoCal canyons, with various pathways heading hither and yon. Worth another look someday, whether on foot or two wheels.

So, a successful initial expedition, with some current and potential routes between Riverside and the east end of the San Bernardino Valley. Can’t wait until the whole trail is done from the mountains to the sea — it’ll be an awesome ride.

After plans fell apart for our big hike Saturday, with cancellations and postponements and whatnot, I struck out on my own for a bike ride — only the third of the year, but the combination of high-enough temperature, lack of wind, and desire finally coincided. I had extra motivation, thanks to my interest in finding out more about the Santa Ana River Trail.

The SART, in case you weren’t aware, is a mixed-use trail that will eventually stretch from the San Bernardino Mountains to the ocean, following alongside the Santa Ana River. Portions are already completed, and the rest is either under development or in planning.

While investigating the off-freeway area around the I-10/I-215 interchange (technically in Colton, I believe), I’d been looking for routes over the eponymous terrace in Grand Terrace that didn’t involve the rather intense grades at Barton Rd or Mt Vernon. I’ve cycled the former several times both directions, but sometimes you don’t want to expend that much energy.

On the other side of the 215, there are several dead ends thanks to the Santa Ana, apart from the Mt. Vernon Bridge to the north. I’ve been all around there on two wheels often enough, but hadn’t taken the time to explore much in earnest. Last week, I happened to be passing by in my car and decided to take a few minutes to check things out more closely, concentrating on finding a route that might connect the dead-end Washington with La Cadena, whence I could connect downtown Riverside with San Berdoo, Loma Linda, or Redlands.

Eureka! I found a lovely paved bicycle path going in both directions, which is so funny as it was just hidden from my view on the other side of a large dirt berm/hill from where I had been on my bicycle last year. :) Back in the car, I identified the SART’s dotted line on the road map, and followed the river with my finger to downtown Riverside. Sweet!

Then I had to find out where best to get on the thing around there. After a bit of sleuthing, I tracked down an actual SART “on-ramp” on the south end of the Mt. Vernon bridge over the Santa Ana. If you pull up that area in Google Earth, the imagery is a couple of years out of date, but you can see where the ramps go from the road down to the river.

So on Saturday, with the 8-mile hike cancelled, I decided to take my first nice, long bike ride of the year. I took some photographs that I’ll post another time, along with more details of the area, but suffice to say for now that I’m excited for that future time when I’ll be able to do a Crest-to-Coast Century. :) That’s something I’ve been contemplating for a couple of years now, ever since I initially did some research on the SART for this Celsius1414 page.

Last May, an article in the San Bernardino Sun (no longer available online that I have access to) covered getting the middle part finished. If you head over to the official SART project site and download this PDF map, you’ll get a good sense of the current state of the trail, including the portions I explored on Saturday. Again, more details to come.

The final tally for Saturday:

• 25.16 miles
• 28.9 MPH max
• 10.0 MPH avg

Due to weather conditions up in the Pisgah Peak area and our lack of proper gear, we decided to postpone that hike. Instead, we returned to Hulda Crooks Park and explored farther. Thanks to the additional climbing and distance, it was a good second hike, pushing our fitness a bit farther for bigger challenges later in the year.

Unfortunately, Alex was sick at home back in Hollywood, so Otis and I sallied forth, accompanied as always by the intrepid Pharaoh.

3D view of terrain (click to enlarge).

• 9.04 miles
• 910′ elevation gain*
• 4 hours car-to-car, with a couple of short breaks

(* = The difference between the parking lot at 1360′ and the highest point at 2270′. Hopefully we’ll have GPS capability hooked up soon to get better numbers.)

We kept going from the turning-around point of the previous hike, through some nicely hilly terrain.

Our legs were definitely getting a good workout…

…as were our cardiovascular systems.

It was also colder, as witnessed by the patches of snow and ice still lurking in various shadows.

There were no motorized folks careening around this time, thankfully.

The occasional tracks clued us in on the local denizens, but we also spied several coyotes in the distance, and the usual assortment of hawks and ravens kept us company throughout…

…not to mention a garter snake braving the chill to sun himself on the trail.

If I write a book on hiking, say "Travels with Pharaoh", this should be the cover picture. :)

Thanks to the late start at 1 PM, we had to hurry things along at the end. The sun was falling early behind Reche Peak, as evidenced by the long shadows.

Always exciting to explore new terrain, even if it isn’t too far from home.

This almost seemed like a Mediterranean scene we came across, despite the temperature — a large nursery we inadvertently came through from the back, leading to San Timoteo Road.

Stuck at a train crossing. :) This is currently closed to cars while they construct a bridge.

Thanks to the Blasphemous Bicycler for pointing to this BBC news story about an experiment to see if climbers back in 1924 could have made it up Everest clad only in the clothing of the time. I guess some folks have managed to convince themselves it was impossible because, God knows, people could barely walk upstairs before they invented artificial fabrics.

The findings are a step closer to proving the men could have reached the top, 29 years before Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary.

Over the past few weeks, climber Graham Hoyland has been putting the old-style clothing worn on the fateful Mallory expedition to the ultimate field test on the world’s highest mountain.

Wearing replica gear made from gabardine, wool, cotton and silk, he wanted to disprove the common myth that the 1920s climbers were ill-equipped to reach the summit.

Anyhow, the experiment was successful for protection purposes, but was actually better than the newer materials for comfort and (of course) style, the latter of which being of prime importance. If you’re going to be clambering around on freezing mountains unlike sane people, you might as well look good doing it. As the Blasphemous Bicycler says,

Surprise, Surprise, wool and silk work out just fine in outrageously cold conditions.

More importantly, a mountaineer decked out in stylish woollies, cuts quite the dashing figure, and is sure to be popular with any young ladies he encounters on his way up the mountain.

Nice goggles, too (also very important). I want that outfit now, or one like it, and I’m not the only one; according to Hoyland,

“All the other climbers thought the jacket was stylish and wanted to know where they could buy their own versions of the clothes!”

This story brought to mind another from a few days ago on the Commute By Bike blog, No sweat bike commute, in which Fritz writes about bicycle riding in clothing other than the latest high-tech fashions.

I spent 15 years of my life with a faster bike commute. Each year, I had a new personal best for the time trial home. I wore sport-specific gear — bike shoes, bike socks, bike shorts, bike jersey, bike gloves — to improve my performance and wick away the sweat and I carted my work clothes to and from the office every day.

A few years go I began a radical experiment: I wore my normal work clothes to the office. I discovered something that LeMond and Petersen didn’t know about: you can go slow on a bicycle! The secret to the no sweat bike commute is to take it easy.

Words to live by.

The first “true” hike of the new year was at Hulda Crooks park in Loma Linda. An easy one to get started with for the year, this marked one year to the day that we hiked the same trail. The park is named for a woman who climbed Mt. Whitney every year into her 90s, so it seems an auspicious name to begin 2007.

• 5.36 miles.
• 690′ elevation gain.

The park lies at the very end of Mountain View Ave (exit off I-10 and head south).

• 34° 2′18.75″N
• 117°14′38.78″W

KMZ file: Hulda Crooks Park.kmz

The parking lot is to the left just after the entrance. There are a ton of trails in the hills, and you’ll usually find a number of hikers and mountain bikers. Now, we’ve hiked this area a bunch over the past couple of years, but it wasn’t until yesterday that we met up with packs of dirtbikes and ATVs, forcing us to scurry off the trail a few times as they crisscrossed the landscape. Other than that, though, a beautiful day.

With all the trail options, you have sort of a hiking buffet to choose from. A route we enjoy, and the one we went on yesterday, takes a couple of hours and has a nice look at Reche Canyon in the middle, as well as good views of the San Gabriels and San Bernardinos to the north, along with the whole valley.

Otis and Alex on the trail heading up and out of the canyon during the first part of the trip.

Otis and Alex on the trail.

Pharaoh happy to be out and about.

Taking a break. Alex channeling Will Rogers. ;)

Looking over Reche Canyon. This is at the middle of the route, after which we turn to walk the ridges back.

An offshoot of the trails heads off into these hills.

Alex taking point, listening for motorcycle engines.

Making our way back to the beginning with Yucaipa in the distance. Pisgah Peak, our next planned hiking destination, is over there.

Otis and Alex descending one of the steeper bits.

Looking back over my shoulder at Otis and Alex on the trail.

After the hike, Pharaoh the standard poodle met a cousin — a silver miniature poodle named Bentley (great name). There were a ton of other dogs around in the parking lot, and it was rather tricky getting these two settled. So funny that they both struck the exact same pose. :)

More info on Mt. San Gorgonio:

The San Gorgonio Wilderness is the climax region of the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. Located on the San Bernardino National Forest approximately 75 miles east of Los Angeles, the Wilderness receives approximately 200,000 visitors per year. Its 58,969 acres contain two small lakes, meadows, streams, 100 miles of trail, densely forested northern slopes, and rugged terrain. Elevations range from 4,400 feet to 11,499. Eleven of twelve peaks in the Wilderness recognized by U.S. Geological Survey maps are over 10,000 feet in height, with Mt. San Gorgonio being the highest. Mt. San Gorgonio (Old Grayback) at 11,499′ is the highest peak between the Sierra Nevada mountain range and the Mexican border. The summit offers unparalleled views of metropolitan Los Angeles and the Mojave Desert.

http://www.etreking.com/eTreking/Pages/SanBernadino.html