Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Route map and photo locations

Today’s ride was a new route. Some months ago, Gene and I had ridden down Western Canyon in Griffith Park. There is a little snack shop there, and we thought it looked interesting. Recently, Vikki was on a ride that stopped there, and she said it was quite good. So it was the destination for today’s ride. It was a perfect November day in Southern California. Blue skies, sunny, and warm.

We started out going directly west on Orange Grove, and then down into the arroyo to get to La Loma. Then we rode up and over the hills to get to Figueroa in Eagle Rock. We took Figueroa all the way down to the L.A. River and Riverside Drive.

We took a short side trip on Oros St to see if the tiniest house in L.A. had sold. The sign was gone, and it looked like someone was living there. We all marveled at how small the house was.

Continuing on, we rode into Griffith Park. We saw the beginnings of the Festival of Lights before turning and heading up the hill by the golf course. Then we got on Mt Hollywood Drive for the trip up and over the hill.

At the crest, we regrouped and then headed down the other side. A right turn on Western Canyon brought us down the hill into Fern Dell and The Trails. The menu is kind of limited, but everything was good.

After the stop, we split into two groups. Several people didn’t feel like climbing the hill back up to the observatory, so they continued down the hill to take a flatter route home. The rest of us headed back up Western Canyon. There’s not much traffic on that road, but right now, a good bit of it consists of the shuttle buses taking people up to the observatory. At the top, we rode through the tunnel and then down the hill, passing the Greek Theater.

We missed a turn and ended up on Hillhurst, but we took a left on Avocado to get back on the route. Then we took Griffith Park Blvd down into Silver Lake.

The streets in Silver Lake were most likely laid out on a map by people who had no idea of the actual terrain there. So when we got to Effie St, we turned and were suddenly faced with a hill that looked like a wall. I immediately said ‘uncle’ and shifted to my lowest gear. Newton said that the grade was around 20% according to his fancy bike computer. Gene was off with the other group, but if he’d been there, I’m sure he would have said, “but it looked flat on the map!”

We continued on, taking some more little streets though Silver Lake, finally coming out on the west side of the reservoir. Then we went left and that brought us back to Rowena and Glendale Blvd.

Taking Glendale north, it turned into Brand, and we rode into Glendale. Then we went right on Chevy Chase and right again on Adams, which brought us to another steep hill. At this point we were all wondering what posessed Gene to make up this route.

Coming down the other side, we found ourselves on York, which we took for a while before going left on Ellenwood. This brought us up through Eagle Rock to Yosemite. There we went right and rode back across Eagle Rock to get to La Loma and back into Pasadena. Along the way, I picked up a new couch for the Abandoned Couches Blog.

At La Loma, we rode back up and over the same hill we’d started out on, coming out down in the arroyo. Then we got on Orange Grove for the ride back to the park. Along the way, I saw the first bleachers for the Rose Parade, which means that the holidays are a-comin’.

It was a nice, ride, even if it turned out to be much harder than we’d expected.

50 miles
cycling