Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Lucinda liked riding the horses at Lake Tahoe so much that we signed her up for horseback riding lessons here. It’s kind of amazing that there are places right here in the city where you can do such things.

Today was her first lesson. Cathy had jury duty, so I had to leave work early to take Lucinda over there. The directions were rather involved, but we made it all right. The place is down in the arroyo, right below JPL and just above the freeway. But despite being just steps from the city, it felt like we were out in the country.

There were three little girls in the class. They were all about the same age. For the first class, they started out brushing the horses and getting to know them. Then the instructor showed them how to tack them up and get ready to ride. They rode with just pads, rather than full saddles. Because they had no stirrups, they had to use a large log to get on the horses.

Once they were all on the horses, they rode over to the small ring to start out. They rode a few times around the small ring before going to the big ring. There, they got to trot and canter a bit. Lucinda got to canter a little, too. The instructor said that she was a fast learner, and that most kids don’t get to do that on their first day.

Overall, she said it was great fun, and she can’t wait for next week so she can do it again.

Route map and photo locations

Today’s lunchtime ride was something different. Vikki wanted to do a hill, but we didn’t have time to go out to Chantry Flat, so we decided to do Crown Ave in La Cañada.

We started out from the office and went straight up Wilson to Mountain. Then we turned left and rode out to the 210 freeway. Going up Forest Ave, I saw two abandoned couches, so I collected them for the Abandoned Couch Blog.

At Woodbury, we turned left and took Oak Grove across the arroyo into La Cañada, where we turned on Foothill. Then it was time for Crown Ave. This is a very nice and very steep hill. It was so steep that I actually had to say ‘uncle’ and shift to a lower gear. Then, when we got to the top we turned left on Starlight Crest. And yes, by then I was seeing stars.

There was a little flat spot at the top before we had to climb some more. One of the houses had a little patch of grass fenced off with ‘Private Property’ signs. It wasn’t clear just exactly what was so special about that patch of grass.

Finally, we came out on Angeles Crest and headed down the mountain. The view from up there was pretty commanding. It was just another reminder of why Los Angeles is special. The city comes right up to the mountains, and it’s still amazing that we can ride our bikes right to the edge of the wilderness and be back all on our lunch hour.

The ride down was predictably fast. When we got to the bottom, we rode down past the Rose Bowl on Linda Vista. Then we took Green St. back across Pasadena to the office.

18 miles at lunch, 27 for the day.
cycling