Solo evening ride along the foothills. Wanting to avoid the more southern area of the Overstuffed Sausage ride, I stayed along the foothills. I like that ride but the section on Badillo is just too darn rough. And never a shortage of broken car parts laying on the road. I've hit car parts in the road a couple of times resulting in flats. Lighting parts, headlight lenses and such that are really hard to see at night in the bike lane even with lights. So been trying to avoid that section. At times I ride further west on Rt 66 to Valley Center then up to Old Foothill west to Lorraine that has a nice bike lane up to Sierra Madre.
But tonight, thought I would throw in Wheeler after seeing it on other riders' postings. Nice road that goes up toward the mountains after 4 miles from the start. Enough to warm up the legs. I rode to the top and stopped at a little park hoping to refill my bottle. But the restrooms and water fountain was caged up. OK wow ha ha ha! Another park I passed on the way up seemed to be open so I stopped there to refill my one empty bottle. I carry two but figure I'll need water somewhere along the way before my ride ends and I really wasn't sure where I would be going. I was hoping to get in at least 20 miles.
So across Baseline, up Wheeler, back down to Baseline then continue west till I hit Amelia. Drop down to Old Baseline then back east to San Dimas Ave. Down to Bonita then back east to Mountain Ave in Claremont. Then back to the start. There I have an odd number like 21.4 so I headed up Mills for a ways then back down to make it 23. Ah the things we do for fun. I think I added a little more elevation gain to my ride doing that. I think I had like 1200 or so feet.
Nice ride though. I thought it was going to be really hot but starting just after 7 PM, it was fairly nice. I climbed up Wheeler comfortably then on the way down, it started getting dark. Just enough light to see the road not having descended this road in 15 years, probably. It was nice as expected so no issues.
I did stop at that little park on the west side of the street. Nice little park and nice fountain. Nice and clean and a photo op ha ha ha! The rest of the ride was smooth and nice as usual. I sure like the roads up here vs the lower section used by the group rides I used to attend. Plenty of nice roads up here but seems the ride leader does whatever he can to avoid any kind of elevation gain so they stay on the lower section to get that impressive speed ha ha ha! I myself would rather stay on safe roads protecting my riders if I were the leader. The short time I rode with the group, there were a couple of hospital visit accidents on that crappy road. But again, the wimp ride leader would rather ride the dangerous easy fast section than keep his riders safe so he avoids the foothills as much as possible. Yeah, my ride average is a little lower with a few more hills but I'm safe and the roads are nice and smooth vs the pothole filled fast road of Badillo. I will do that section alone but the big group of 20+ riders doing 20+, not safe! I cringe when I do it alone, in a group is worse. When I did it with the group, I'd stay at the back a few yards away so I could see any danger ahead.
When it comes down to it, I'd rather stay up and do a little more ele than go down a lousy section just to impress myself with a speed numbers. Stay away from the hospital is my number one goal.
But either way, there is plenty of good riding out here in the foothills. We lived at the bottom of the foothills for 20 years and I really miss it. Living in the lower section near the 60 fwy, it really sucks. No ele gain at all and the traffic around here is not cyclist friendly. I sure miss living in the foothills.
OK, looked it up. The park with the closed restrooms is Lowell Brandt Park. Facilities were closed so I dropped back down to Mills Park where they had a nice water fountain to refill the bottles. Nice and clean. Didn't see a restroom though. Didn't have to go so I didn't look too hard ha ha ha!
Mills Park photo op with some daylight remaining.
Ah OK, Larkin Park on Mountain Ave Just above Harrison. I like to stop here for a breather but been getting grossed out with all the roaches around the water fountain. Nice place to stop as far as location but every time I stop, I see something new to gross myself out ha ha ha! Last time a huge spider where I lean my bike. Also these roach gatherings right below the fountain. I have stopped here 4 out of the last 5 rides but trying to avoid it now. These roaches gather under the fountain and if I put my light on them, they take off running. So I have to surprise them for a pic. Set the timer then when it is about to flash, place my helmet light on them before they know what's going on ha ha ha! All about technique. But I just haven't been able to get myself to fill my bottles here the last several times. I think I did twice but only as back up. Even the water basin itself is pretty gross.
I actually stopped at Kuns Park on Bonita and Wheeler the last couple of times before this. Nice park and far enough into the ride to use a good water stop. They too have a newer really nice water fountain there. I like this little park here but hoping to avoid stopping here from now on. Goodbye sad little park! :-(
This XOSS gps unit I bought for like $30, really digging it. Auto light goes on in the dark. I can see my stats along the ride without having to push buttons. Not good having to take your hands off the bars on night rides. So this little thing is pretty cool. I really like the light feature. Of course some idiots complain about it killing the battery. Yeah, the idiots who aren't smart enough to figure out you can set the light to auto, always on, or always off so you can avoid the light all together if you want. Not to mention it supposed to have a 25 hour life after a charge via USB. Pretty easy to set up if one has half a brain. But it is a bit different from the Garmin. Works more like a Cateye cycling computer. Have to toggle page to page to see certain stats as it is set up to its own program. 4 functions per screeen and 3 screens vs that of the Garmin where you can set up 7 functions on several screens. But I don't use that many anyway. The elevation reading could be a bit more clear but hey, it was only like $30 and I'm using it more than my Garmin now. I only take the Garmin along on rides as back up (turned off) incase something happens to this unit. But using it for 3 or 4 months now, working nice!
I have plenty of confidence now that I could go XOSS solo now and not have any problems. I added a speed sensor for $24 ? and it works even better. And the sensor is compatible with my Garmin so I can use both simultaneously. That's a bonus. I have gone XOSS solo a couple of times. But even vice versa. I have had more problems with my Garmin going off on rides than the XOSS. Of course the Garmin has been on every ride for years. But a couple of times I forgot to charge before a ride and it dies on my midride. Only has a 14 hour charge life but I think more like 10. That is why I bought the inexpensive XOSS in the first place. To back up the Garmin but I think I'm enjoying the XOSS more. I like that the stop start function is really clear. Push start then the arrow shows. Stop and the double bar pause shows. Vs the Garmin, I start it then have to watch the clock to see if it is running. If I am over and hour into the ride, the minutes read so I can not tell through watching seconds tick by. Hard to watch the minutes hoping to figure it out. The XOSS is friendlier if you ask me.
Also, the distance works on .xx hundreds of a second so I can always tell exactly how far I have ridden. Helps when you are at 30.5 and wonder if you are closer to .5 or .6. If it is point 6, I just may roll on to get it to 31 miles. Just more informative if you ask me ha ha!
Stopped at the park taking a night pic. I didn't realize my red lights were lighting up that much so it looks a little red ha ha ha! Tells me my red lights are working well!
Just a little graph of the ride.
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