To: labiker@ph.ucla.edu Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 04:10:34 -0400 From: gayathri Subject: Labiker:My July 5th ride... Since I live in Pasadena, I decided to see if we could catch the group coming the other way, so Andrea and I met at DISH at 9 am for breakfast. (Thanks for sayin' you were showing up, Blas. :-p Doncha have my cell phone number?) After a pancake breakfast that couldnt be beat, we headed up, Angeles Crest to Angeles Forest out to Aliso Canyon -- Aliso was in pretty good shape and remarkably clean, out to Soledad to Sierra to Lake Elizabeth Road -- few cars here, but mostly open and happy. Waved at the Bison and the golfers and the parked Harleys by the Rock Inn while we headed towards Lake Hughes ROad. The start of Lake Hughes is really beat up, and of course, I had to pee. Plus the suspension on the t5 is pretty stiff. argh! My kidneys hated me. Andrea was a good sport about me being so choppy on that road 'til it opened up and was newly paved. We let some cruiser by who wanted to do a million miles an hour on the straighter portions and just kept it to a quick pace in the canyons and curves and a relaxed pace in the straight sections, the better to keep Mr Piggy off our backs. Lake Hughes really showed signs of the fire, with burned out sections on both sides of the road. :( At Castiac, we stop at the gas station where I'm stuck in line behind 4 chicks who have to take forever. ARGH! *dance dance dance* Look at the map once I got some gatorade in me, and we head south on the 5 for a bit, off at 126 and some back roads to hit San Fransquito Road. WOW, there have been a lot of buildings recently. I couldnt find my way and rode by braille to find San Fran, but we found it, and headed on towards Spunky Canyon. Lots more burned out sections, tho there were patches where there were houses that were still green and houses standing. I saw a mobile home trailer that looked half melted along one side of the road... all black and grey and dead trees. harsh. Just before Spunky, as we entered the little town of Pleasant valley or whatever its called, and I see a large sign on the side of the road, saying, "THank you to all that helped save our town..." I didnt see much damage in the town, tho while we were trying to ride thru it, we got stuck behind some kid on a ATV behind a car. I passed the ATV, but it seems he was following the car, and I got stuck with him being agressive about lane sharing. Finally I gave up and passed the car too. (who then turned on the next intersection. doh.) Spunky was great, and really clean -- the few patches of sand were easily avoidable and really forced me to keep late apexing those left hand turns. (As did Lake Hughes.) took Bouquet back to Lake Elizabeth, back to 14 to the ACH back to the crest to home. No Piggies. Much Bison. Some horses. ~180ish miles. Milestones: Turned over: 44,332.2 miles just as we hit the end of Aliso Canyon Road. Turned over 44,444.4 on AFH just as it got twisty again... Thanks to Andrea for being a good sport and coming along. We didnt meet up or catch up to anyone I recognized... oh well! (Oh, and I finally watched Rustler's Rhapsody tonite. What a RIOT!) Gayathri, tired ass, literally.