Hillbasher to Cajon Pass 06/08/11

Started out as a cool ride. I had never been up to Cajon Pass on bicycle from Upland (Mountain and Foothill). Talked Hillbasher into going up with me as he's always wanted to do the same. He's pretty familiar with the area since he and his son go up there to do some train watching. We're heading up with an open plan, if it gets tough, then we'd turn back early. I was in no hurry, just wanting to ride and HB had a swollen ankle.

We get to Devore Rd. and the both of us are feeling pretty good. Devore is a tough climb but we go for it! Nice and cool but this one miler is going to make you sweat, and we did. So we head over to Cleghorn up the pass and all is fine. We take a break to do some train watching. HB knows some interesting stuff about the train world. Heck, I just listen and look at the pretty rocks ha ha!

While we're up there, it's starts getting windy so we head down into a big headwind. Downhill and we're pedaling our butts off to get "down". Well the road is pretty rough and my tire wasn't the best. I didn't realize it was getting chewed up big time on the ride. It may have been worn before but I really didn't notice. That's strange that I missed something like that as I'm usually pretty aware of the condition of my equipment.

So we it Kenwood which is a (BLANK) of a climb, 13% according to HB's Garmin. It's only about a half mile but it's a real kicker after 35 miles and 3,000 ft of climbing. I actually felt pretty good on the short steep climb but when we got to the top, I felt a thumping in the road. I look down and it's not the road. I'm thinking I have a slow leak so I check the tire and nope, still hard. So I spin the wheel and notice it's catching on something. My brakes maybe? HB looks over and say it's hitting the frame. Dang! I had a big bubble on my tire. Wow, my tire is really worn! So I let out about half the air and try to make it as far back as possible. I have this fast descent on Devore Rd. and I know I'm not making it. Just as I mention it to HB my tire blows. I was actually pretty happy now that I knew I didn't have to risk it on the downhill. Gina works about 10 miles from the area so I was in luck.

I couldn't go any further so HB headed on back while I waited for Gina. HB ended up with 62 miles while I racked up 39. I was lucky, up in the hills I was able to get some cell reception. While I was on the phone with Gina, it cut out a few times but she got the message or I'd still be sitting there ha ha! An hour and a half wait, heck, I cleaned between my cogs with a little stick to waste some time! Funny, we checked out the llamas last time Gina and I were up there. So it was easy to find me when I said, "I'm by the llamas" ha ha!

Strangest thing. Plenty of riders on the road. Plus several cop cars. Looked almost as if there was some sort of organized ride going on, in the middle of the week? At one point, we saw a police motorcycle pulling a female cyclist at about 25-30 mph. I bet if I did that, I'd get a ticket!











Graph taken fom HB's data. Name white out to protect the innocent!