Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike club ride was a visit to the Whittier Greenway Trail. This is the former railroad through Whittier that has been converted to a bike and pedestrian trail. We’ve been there before, but it’s a nice place to visit.

We took the direct route south to get to Whittier Narrows to pick up the San Gabriel River bike path. Then we made our way around to Workman Mill Road. Along the way, we got a nice view of Rose Hills “That ain’t no hard hill to climb” Cemetery. And we even got to see a fast-moving freight train go by at the crossing there.

We got on the Greenway Trail and rode most, but not all of it this time. On the bridge that takes us over the big five-way intersection, we got a nice view of a classic Googie-tyle car wash. We took it as far as Greenleaf Ave, where we turned off to go to Mimo’s Cafe for snacks. After that, we got back on the Greenway Trail for a bit, after passing by the antique street lights with the swastikas on them. Then we picked up the San Gabriel River bike trail for the ride back up to Whittier Narrows.

At the top end of the Rio Hondo trail, our usual route was blocked because the basin was flooded. That was odd. There’s usually water there, but normally, it doesn’t rise up high enough to drown the bike trail unless it’s just rained. So I don’t know what happened there.

By the end, it was getting pretty hot, so the last few miles were a bit of a trial. Fortunately, we had a route home through Arcadia that had a lot of trees for shade. So it was still a nice ride.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

We’ve been to see the F-104-on-a-stick in the park in Burbank several times. So today’s ride was a visit to the California Science Center in Exposition Park to see the F-104 that they have mounted on the side of the Aerospace Hall. The F-104 is actual proof of the old engineer’s adage, “you can make a brick fly if you put a big enough engine on it.”

We rode our regular route into downtown L.A., pausing briefly at 2nd St to see if we could see how Metro is coming along with the construction of the Regional Connector. Then we continued south through downtown. I didn’t get to race the Expo Line train down Flower St today.

When we got to the museum, we stopped to have a look at the DC-8 they have on display out front. Then we took a look at the F-104, as well as the FA-18 and the Space Shuttle fuel tank.

Our snack stop was at a new place this time. We usually go to Noah’s Bagels in Larchmont, but the last time we were there, we noticed that a new bakery had opened up next door. So today we were going to try it. I got a donut, filled with chocolate that had a slight infusion of Earl Grey flavor. It sounds odd, but it was very good.

Nobody today was in the mood for our regular route home through Silver Lake, so we decided to go back by way of downtown again, and then up the Arroyo Seco. At the end of that, I bailed out and took the Metro the last few miles, since I needed to get back a little early, since we’re going to San Diego to see my father this afternoon.

39 miles, plus two more coming home from the Metro station.

Route map and elevation profile

Spoke Bicycle Cafe in Frogtown has been busy lately. They recently opened a new kitchen and expanded their menu. When we’ve been there before, it was a pretty minimalist operation. But now they have regular food, a wider selection of drinks, and even indoor bathrooms. So today’s ride was a visit to Spoke to see all the new parts that have recently opened.

We rode out our usual route across Eagle Rock and Glendale. When we got to Burbank, we saw a train nosing its way across Victory Blvd. The tracks only go a short distance beyond there, since that route has been converted into the Chandler Bikeway. But the fact that the crossing signals at Victory are still there I guess implied that trains still sometimes go there. And today was the first time we’ve ever seen one there. From the map, it looks like the little bit of track remaining there is part of a wye off the main line in Burbank.

After looking at the train, we continiuued on the Chandler Bikeway over to Pass Ave. Then south to Riverside to make a loop back to pick up the L.A. River bike path down to Frogtown. We stopped in at Spoke and had some snacks. I had some artisanal hipster-style bacon, just because it was there.

Coming home, we went up Figueroa St to Ave 43, and then the Arroyo Seco bike path to South Pasadena.

42 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Last week, I was watching the movie, “The Founder”, about Ray Kroc. So it seemed appropriate that this Sunday’s bike club ride should be a visit to the oldest operating McDonald’s in the U.S. It’s a nice, flat ride to Downey and, we’ve been there before.

When we got there, I’d been hoping to take a quick look at the Ray Kroc museum they have there. But it was closed for renovation. So we continued on to our snack stop at 3rd St Coffee.

We passed by the Rives Mansion on the way back. Apparently, it’s something of a landmark in Downey. Then we got on the Rio Hondo bike path for the ride home.

43 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

The May issue of the AAA “Westways” magazine had a short feature about things to do in Orange County, and one of them was to visit Limestone Canyon Nature Preserve, which is just off Santiago Canyon Road. I’ve been by there many times, and I never even knew there was something like that there.

They spoke in particular about The Sinks, which is a place that people say resembles a small Grand Canyon. So of course I wanted to go see it. I recruited Jen from the office to come along, and we were on our way.

We hiked out by way of the Limestone Ridge trail. In the end, this turned out to have been a good choice. We had a nice marine layer in the morning, so it was overcast and cool for the first part of the day. That was where we saw the small gopher snake sunning itself on the trail.

We finally made it out to the first overlook point, where there was a small viewing platform to look into the Sinks. We looked and took a few pictures before starting back. We stopped at the spot of shade under a tree for a bit before we turned off on the trail to get to the viewing platform on the other side of the Sinks. Going to the second overlook added about a mile to the hike, but it was entirely worth it. The view from the second platform was clearly better than from the first one.

We came back by the trail through the canyon. By this time, the sun was out, and it was pretty hot. So it was good that we were down in the canyon for the trip back. There were a fair number of trees there, so there was some shade. The only bad thing was that I’d forgotten a hat, and I actually got a little sunburned on my neck. That was kind of shocking, since it’s only the fourth time in my life that I’ve ever been sunburned. I know that sunburn is just a normal hazard for most people, but it’s pretty unusual for me, so whenever it does happen, it’s pretty disconcerting. Still, it was a pretty nice hike, and a chance to visit a place I’d never heard of before.

Route map and elevation profile