Resting at the Bosque de Rio Hondo on my way back home.  

Crystal Lake. I wish you could have been there with me to experience this great bike trip. It was a fantastic ride with lots of great things to see.  

Water rushing out from the Miller Dam. At this point, I have major saddle sore. I thought I would be young and healthy forever. I just can't believe things go downhill so fast after you reach 30. At least I still look and act young. I wonder how long that will last. 

The Miller Dam. I finally reached my destination. At this point, I'm out of energy. It's a good thing learned my lesson from the last time I rode here last week. I brought snacks to eat and lots of water. The healthier the snack the better, but anything will do at this point. Now that I'm over 30, I'm not in as great shape as I was before. It's tougher now. In my 20's, I just rode up with no problem. I didn't need to bring any snacks. Now, I'll run out of gas and be in a lot of pain on the return trip home. The funny thing about biking is that you keep continuing forward because you're having so much fun. Once you turn around to go back home, you feel really exhausted. Now that I'm old, I get sore all over. Even my balls get numb after a long ride. It's much more difficult now that I'm older, which is why I need even more discipline to work even harder.

The winding river. This would be a great place to go white water rafting. I don't think they allow it though. I've always wanted to go rafting. I don't see anybody in the river. Anyone want to go white water rafting with me someday?

Overlooking the Azusa River on top of Chapman Canyon. The ride up is a great work out. Your reward will be a fast downhill ride. I go over 30 mph downhill here. It's pretty fun. The fastest I've gone was over 50 mph on a hill on Genessee in San Diego going north towards La Jolla. I haven't found to many side trails here like in Angeles Crest. I used to go mountain biking there all the time afterschool in La Canada. 

Here's a shot of the Amazing Azusa River. The color of the river is beautiful turquoise. Unfortunately, there's no bike path once you're in the Angeles National Forest. Watch out for cars. Hopefully, cars won't sideswipe you as you ride up. 

My bike taking a break along the river. 

Taking a break along the Azusa River.  

At the Santa Fe Nature Center. Instead of admiring and reading about the various plant life here, I just like to zoom through. It gives me a great sensation of speed. 

This is a picture taken atop the Santa Fe Dam. You can still see snow on top of the mountains in the background. The bike path is right on top of the dam and circles around for miles. It's road bike heaven up here. 

You can see a lot of horses along this bike path. There are also ponies, cows, goats, chickens, and roosters here. I saw some goats one time just freely grazing along the grass along the river. I didn't see anyone watching out for them. I could have gotten myself some goat milk. Watch out for horse crap along the bike path. You have to breathe through your mouth too, because it stinks around here. What sucks is that horse owners don't let bikers on hiking and horse trails, but they freely ride their horses along the bike paths and let them crap all over the place. Horses and cows seem to just stand there and do nothing for hours. They don't even acknowledge me as I wave to them or say hi to them. I guess they're depressed because they're locked up. 

This is along the Azusa River. If you keep going south along the river, you'll reach Long Beach. That's where I'll go for my next ride. Remember to bring plenty of sunblock. I went from medium rare to well done after my ride. These bike paths are great because there's hardly anyone on these paths and you don't have to worry about cars. This is great for road bikes. I love passing other bikes. I almost never get passed. I hate it when I do get passed though.  

There are little islands in the river sometimes. I saw a dog living on the island one time.  

This is the Rio Hondo trail. There's a lot of trails that seem to go on endlessly. You just have to keep pushing yourself to reach the end. 

This is a bike path called the Lario Trail. This is near the beginning of my epic bike ride adventure. This system of bike paths is one of the most scenic in L.A. 

May 19,2005. I went on a bike trip to the mountains in Azusa. I biked up to Crystal Lake in the Angeles National Forest. It was about a 60 mile round trip bike ride from where I live. It was a pretty hot day. I got really tan afterword. This picture is of a park above the 60 freeway north of Whittier Narrows. The reason for the caged fence is because this area is used to fly remote control airplanes. It's pretty cool to see all the little stunts that they do. 

From Dust to Dust

Why is there always so much dust? Where does all the dust come from? As soon as I dust my home, it appears again the next day. We can't escape from it. I think dust is a constant reminder of where we're from and where we are going.

Car Mechanics are Sleazier than Lawyers

I abhor car mechanics. Every 3,000 or so miles, I cringe at the thought of going to a car mechanic. They're always trying to make you pay for repairs that you don't really need. I come in bringing my $10 oil change coupon and I leave spending thousands of dollars on things that they say my car needed. Car mechanics are crooks. To me, they're worse than lawyers. I hate having to wait there too since I'm stuck there. They have my car hostage. Can anyone recommend a good honest mechanic?

Biking to Make a Better World

One day I'd like to tandem bike across America with Sarah. Right now, I'm content with local day adventures on my bike. When I retire, I'm going to dedicate my life to biking in order to make a better new world. You can change the world by encouraging everyone to bike. Once eveyone starts biking, the world will be a much better place. Just wait and see. That's how I'm going to change the world one person at a time. I'm not saying every single person has to bike. I'm positive, however, that if more people biked, the world would be better. I'm going to try and bring world peace through biking.