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.

On my next trip, I'll take pictures of the Amazing Azusa River. After that I'll head back to Long Beach. Sometimes, when I bike too long I get saddle sore. Hopefully, it won't have long-term physical effects. Ouch. 

El Monte Nature Preserve and Reservoir

If you keep biking north past the airport, you can get to the Nature Preserve and Reservoir in El Monte. It's a relatively secluded park. A lot of people come here to think. Some people fish. I like to mountain bike along the dirt trails and scare everyone. Actually, I don't intentionally do it. It's just that I'm so fast that people get scared. I used to bike everywhere when I lived in L.A. Now, I have to put my bike on the car rack to get to really nice trails. If you want to go biking, let me know. I'll take you to some cool trails.

Here's a picture of the bike path along the San Gabriel River next to the El Monte Airport. It's pretty cool. It's great for roadies. You can bike for many miles along this path. I biked down to Long Beach a few times. There's also another path that you can take to the Angeles Forest in Azusa. Watch out for bums under the bridges though. That's where some bums sleep. I like to call them "bridge trolls". 

Yee-haw! 

Here's a plane that's landing. "Highway to the danger zone."