Los Angeles

I've spent the last several days staying at a cousins house in Los Angeles. Its hard to believe I spent 4 years here going to college. I was expecting Los Angeles to still feel like a second home, but a lot has changed with so much time away. Most of the people that were here for college have spread back out. When I lived here I didn't get off campus much, so I didn't form a connection with much of the area. Even parts of the campus are unrecognizable. Still, it was good to see family and a few old friends I could track down. There's still a lot left on the to-do list here. I'll need to come back soon.

I've eaten so much food the past few days. When I wasn't eating and catching up with old friends, I was out riding. First stop was La Tuna Canyon, which is the closest place I could find to my cousins house. Riding here seems typical of the area: take the fire road all the way to the top and then take the single track back down. This place was the first wake-up call to the west coast trail philosophy. The fire road was a 4 mile long, 1300' climb. As it wrapped around the mountain I'd freeze in the shade and bake in the sun. Once reaching the top with all the radio and communications towers, I came across my first sleeping homeless person. Welcome to LA. From the top you could see Glendale, Pasadena, Downtown LA, Burbank, the ocean, pretty incredible stuff. 

Downtown LA just left of center

Finding a trail to get back down was a little challenging. There were several that went down the wrong side of the mountain. I finally found one that headed in the right direction. Steep and narrow with hairpin turns. I get the impression that this place is a personal playground for a small group of bikers. 

From here, I headed out to Hollywood to meetup with my old friend Six, check out one of my favorite music stores Amoeba, and grab lunch. Then, it was up to Malibu to check out some real mountains.

Back in college I always wanted to ride in the mountains above Santa Monica. Not having a car, I never got to do it. Now, I finally had a chance to check things out. There was some single track, but it was mostly fire roads with several 1000ft climbs. More incredible views of the mountains, ocean, and Malibu estates.

Looking down on rich people

Saturday, I wanted to check out the trails down in Orange County. A friend recommended checking out the San Juan trail outside of San Juan Capistrano. I took the San Juan trail to the top, a grueling 14 mile 3600' climb of bench cut trails and plenty switchbacks. After passing a bunch of the locals (and some guy with an Italian accent) on the way up, there was no way I was taking the same trail back down. All I'd do is run into people. I took the adjacent Los Pinos trail back down instead.

Ever since seeing this video on YouTube, I've been curious about ridge trails: the ones that go straight down the spine of the mountain. Theres a short one outside of Penn State in Rothrock State Park, but the Los Pinos trail is the real deal. Or, at least as close as I'm going to get to one on my bike. Let me just say, I'm no longer curious about ridge trails. I think this trail is as close to riding in the Andes as is possible in the continental US. 

The trail goes right down the top of the mountain in the center of  this shot

Steep ups and downs. Where the brush pulls away from the trail I could see almost straight down. I've never been surrounded by mountains like that before. Truly a remarkable place to ride, even if I walked about half of it. I can't wait to check out what else California has to offer.

5700 miles in, its been raining in San Francisco the past several days. Both my college roommate and my cousins girlfriend had their flights cancelled. The weatherman in LA was really smug about how the cold front had stalled and had given SoCal an abundance of warmth and sunshine. Although its sunny in San Francisco now, everything is soaked. Looks like I might be paying for that primo SoCal weather now. Unfortunately I won't be able to meetup with my cousin in San Francisco, she went back east for the holidays. I'll see what I can find to do instead.