Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Back in 2015, we took a bike ride to go see the 6th Street Bridge over the Los Angeles River. The old bridge had just been closed, and was going to be demolished and rebuilt. The demolition process led to a bike ride to see a closed-down section of the 101 freeway. Ever since then, every time we’d pass through the Arts District east of downtown, we would stop and see how the construction of the new bridge was coming along. And this weekend was the grand opening of the new bridge.

There was also a CicLAvia going on today on Western Ave in south L.A., so the plan was to go there first. Then we’d head back into downtown for the chance to ride over the new bridge, starting at 11:00.

We rode downtown by our usual basic route down Huntington Drive. Then out on Exposition to Western, where we picked up the CicLAvia route. We rode to the far end of that, and then headed back to downtown. We got to the bridge a few minutes before the 11:00AM opening. We rode across the bridge to Boyle Heights, and then back. All told, they did a pretty good job on it.

We stopped for drinks and snacks at Chimney Coffee outside downtown. Then we came home by way of the Arroyo Seco.

48 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

Today’s bike ride was a trip up and over Turnbull Canyon in Whittier. We haven’t done this one in a while, but today was supposed to be a nice day, and not hot. So it seemed like the thing to do.

For some reason, we had big group today, so we took the short side trip in Pico Rivera to go see Dork Street. And we were pleasantly surprised to see that the street sign that was stolen years ago has been replaced. So we were all set for the obligatory photo-ops with the street sign.

After that, we rode across Whittier and up and over the canyon. Our snack stop was at Merengue in Monrovia, and then we headed home.

43 miles.

Route map and elevation profile