Message-Id: <199711122349.AA28298@world.std.com>
To: nedod@linus.mitre.org
Subject: its been a week..
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 1997 18:49:31 -0500
From: gayathri <gayathri@world.std.com>
Sender: owner-nedod@linus.mitre.org
Reply-To: nedod@linus.mitre.org
Precedence: bulk


So its been cloudy and rainy for the past few days and today is so
perfect it hurts to be inside, except I cant leave work early today.

My Trumph needs a new front tyre. I'm on call all weekend for
Cassini's first orbit correction (yea, let's see if we can send it
into the sun), so I can't go too far from work. hrm. *looks at the
map* I've lived here more 'en a year and I've never taken THAT road. 

	Rt 39, up tino Crystal Lake is about 26 miles of pure
fun. Down at the bottom, its similar to Rt 2, the Angeles Crest
Highway, with one thing I liked better - its less crowded. Nice quick
turns, turning into wide open 90+ mph sweepers over a dam and around
this lake in the mountains. Then, we hit the tighter nasty technical
stuff. *wow, the F3 has nice brakes!* The Trumph would hate coming
back down the next part, where the road goes down to one lane with a
cliff on one side up and a cliff on the other side down, still with
trees (oaks and pines dappling the road with shadow and light like
being in New England). The uphill traffic has to yield, but one cannot
go faster than the posted 30 mph sanely. 

The nice thing about the wide open stuff is that I had plenty of time
to admire the gorgeous scenery - there is soemthing about a river in
the mountains that is just perfect. By the time I hit the technical
stuff, I was ready to concentrate on the ROAD - after that, we hit the
campsite. Further up the road -- its closed to all but mountain
bikers. Just before the tight stuff, we hit a bunch of traffic -
carrying off - road bikes and those four wheeled things - there is a
while bunch of the Angeles forest that is open for off road riding. 

UP at the top is a campsite near a lake, I think we're going to try
and get some of the hiking crew out here to come up and hike whilst
the bikers terrorize the roads. I'm gaining a new apprectiation for a
light small bike, and am looking forward to getting the honda hawk 400
on this road. :) 

We were passed on the downward side by a few cages, 4 cops in trucks
and two other bikers (zx-9, I think and a duc 900ss). 

all in all, a short day, only about 50 miles total on the bike, but
there are some interesting side roads I expect to explore next week.

Gayathri
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 gayathri@world.std.com   		Calamari Club #002, SquidWannaBe
					Triumph Sprint 900, Jezebel