West Fork San Gabriel River Bike Ride

In May 2020, two months into the pandemic, we ventured out with our bikes into the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa to ride along the West Fork of the San Gabriel River. At that time, things were pretty green.

We repeated the ride last Saturday and enjoyed what passes for fall here in So. Cal. This time we did not need to buy the one-day Adventure Pass. We are now old enough (ahem) to buy the Senior Lifetime American the Beautiful Pass. Not only do we now have free entry to the National Parks, but also to the National Forests, BLM, and other national areas. Bingo!

We like this out-and-back ride because the out part is the uphill part. There was only one tiny section where I got off to walk the bike. The rest is rather gradual.

Most of the way offers views of the river.

At the 6-mile marker, I stopped to take photos of the unnamed waterfall. Google maps suggests that it is in Butterfield Canyon.

More photos at claremontography’s Instagram.

Biking Whittier Narrows to Irwindale

We are fortunate to live where we enjoy outdoor activities pretty much year-round. This has been especially true during the most severe lock-down part of this pandemic, as well as today. Saturday’s bike ride came suggested, once again, by our Cycling Orange County book. This is yet another path from the book that is completely in LA County.

Anyway, the weather was quite foggy when we started out on our drive, and it stayed pretty gray throughout the morning. No worries, we didn’t have to lather up with sunblock, and we didn’t get too hot.

We could have ridden this trail from Irwindale to Whittier and back, but we figured that riding towards the mountains would slope uphill. My preferred way of riding (or hiking) is to go uphill first.

The bike path itself is nicely paved with mile markers every .25 mile. We saw many bikers, and I learned the meaning of the word peloton. Here is one such group that we saw.

The path goes along the San Gabriel River which is mostly dry. There are a few areas of water above small dams.

Is this a white pelican? I’m not sure.

We also saw a heron in a tree.

I wouldn’t describe the path as particularly scenic. It runs along the 605 for aways, and there is also a lot of trash and some homeless camps. For exercise, I would recommend it. For photos, not as much.

Biking Irwindale to Azusa

The weather being lovely a few weekends ago, I pulled out the Cycling Orange County book that we used in May and found bike path that is actually in LA County. The trail starts at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area (with a free parking lot next to a sports facility just outside the park) and goes along the top of the dam and by the San Gabriel River.

You can barely see the water, but this is the recreation area

This part of the trail goes about 7.5 miles to the Azusa city limits, passing a number of bridges over the dry riverbed.

I found a little bit of water here.

Our bike ride in June 2020 along the San Gabriel River in the mountains was much greener and wetter. See here.

After 15 miles of mostly flat riding out-and-back, we loaded up the bikes and drove to Mantra Coffee in Azusa for some great cappuccinos.

San Gabriel River Biking

We actually left Claremont and drove on the 210 for a bit on Friday, the farthest we have been out of town since at least March 12. Friends had told us about their Memorial Day bike ride in the Angeles National Forest north of Azusa in the San Gabriel Mountains. This is the only way I will probably ever “mountain bike”. The path along the West Fork of the San Gabriel River is only a slight uphill for 6.5 miles, paved and fairly wide. (That means the trip back was easy coasting.) The few other people we saw were biking, hiking, backpacking or fishing and enjoying the beauty.

These photos were taken with my iPhone 7, but someday it would be fun to go back with my DSLR.