Angelus Oaks to Clarks Summit.

Another one of those long bike rides. I was always wondering if those fire roads over there could get me to Big Bear instead of riding all the way around the road up highway 38. Turns out the road is probably easier. But I did it anyway just because it was there. I don't know if I want to do it again. Maybe if I can get some poor fool to suffer with me. Near the top it is loose and rocky in places with some small ring climbing. For some reason (now I know why) there were no other bikes on this trail even on this perfect weather early June Saturday. 3 or 4 jeeps and a half dozen motorcycles. According to my GPS I burned 3566 calories. Not bad since I did it on 1 power bar and two Power Gels. It did make me really hungry and I enjoyed a couple of nice Arrogant Bastard drafts along and an awesome Rare AHI sandwich as a reward.

How to Create Google Earth Views with your Garmin Bike GPS

How did I make these cool bike ride pictures? Well here is how. You need a Garmin bike GPS. I have the Edge 205 (or newer and more expensive if you like). Garmin has two programs that you can use for mapping your tracks. One is Map Source, the other is Training Center. You can download both from the Garmin web site, and you need the more current versions. I have Map Source 6.13.7 and Training Center 2.4.3.

After plugging your GPS into your PC, installing all of the software and drivers etc.(I won't get into that here for obvious reasons) you can view the tracks in either program.

Training center allows you to graph speed and elevation, grade, pace, etc. Once the Training Center program has the graph I want, I use Alt-Print Screen to capture my desktop, the a graphics program (you could use paint if you have nothing else) to paste from the clipboard, then crop out the selected chart and save it as a .jpg.

Then download and install Google Earth. You should do this anyway. It is cool. Below I will refer to the Places navigation panel of Google Earth:

Map Source also has an option to download info from the GPS. After you do this, select the tracks tab so you will know what is going to be displayed in Google Earth, then select the View, View in Google Earth menu option. It takes a while and a fast PC that has decent memory. It loads a bunch of stuff into Google Earth in your Temporary Places folder, in a sub folder MapSource. You really don't want most of the stuff, it is confusing and excessive. Uncheck the Temporary Places folder so it all disappears, then expand the MapSource folder, then the Tracks folder (in the MapSource folder, then the Path folder (in the Tracks folder). Then click on the track number you want to map, and it will appear. You can then right click on it to change the properties of the line (which is a good idea to make it narrower and more precise). Also you can rename it and save to My Places (also right click).






UPDATE (Nov 2010). Google earth now has an option to show the elevation profile of a selected track:



Have Fun!

Laguna Beach MTB Bliss

Here is a great ride we have done in Laguna. It starts at El-Moro / Crystal Cove State Park parking lot on PCH. Then it goes up No Dogs by Ridge Park and eventually under the Toll Road 73 up the ridge to the left almost to the 405, down under the 133 briefly, back across the 133 and up a cool singletrack, up a brutal hill that includes a bit of walking, back through El Moro. Good workout.
(click on the images to see enlarged detail)

Another Day on The Trails

I ride on trails for fun and adventure. (Occasionally on the road, but in So Cal the cars rule and I don't really enjoy the thought of getting run over by 5000lb SUVs while riding an 18lb road bike.) At least on the dirt only my own mistakes can kill me. Some days I can hammer on the road when I go in a group and stick with early rides on way back roads.

Today I rode 36.5 (total out and back) miles on a trail near my mountain home. It took me about 5 hours. Killer workout with amazing scenery. Today I saw one nasty rattlesnake (unusual), a bobcat (very elusive), and various squirrels and birds. 5 other riders the whole time which is unusually a lot for a week day. Almost entirely the trail is wide enough for only one bike or hiker at a time. Some of it along cliffs where falling can kill you. Some parts (about 200 yards) I walk because falling is not an option you can live with. Of course the first time I did this ride it, it took all day and I thought I would die. And of course you don't start out doing 36 miles at a time, but just like 4 and then working up as you get stronger. It takes a couple of years to get in shape for doing this routinely. But I ride 3-4 times a week (usually more like 2 hours and 20 miles at a time) and have no fear of beer, steak, and pizza, as it all comes off. I am a skinny guy mostly from the rides.

I attached a couple of pics of today's ride made from my GPS tracks. I saved some sat photos from google earth and overlaid the GPS on them. You can't see the trail because its under the trees and narrow. Not for rookies. If you crash you could be bear food. Usually I prefer a partner, but I have enough (10+ years) experience to do it alone. (probably a bad idea anyway) Cell phones don't work everywhere and its usually about a 3 mile hike into parts of the trail from where any kind of rescue jeep can go. So its a cool adventure. I write songs in my head when I'm not totally wrapped up in navigating the scary parts. The nature is fabulous. I am happy to be able to do this at 53, but it is not luck it is hard work (and good fortune).

I have a Trek Top Fuel 9.9, Its about a $6k bike but its a tool not a toy and worth every penny at this level of usage. Made for constant use like this. Also an older Trek Fuel 98, and a couple of older spares. I can't not ride just because my bike is in the shop.

Aside from my family and my music, my bike riding is the next important thing.

You can click on each of the pictures to see the original, more detailed image.

So where did you ride your bike?

(click to see more detail)

People often ask me that question, when we go to the Singletrack Lodge. This is where we ride. It's a dirt trail and today (once I got off the short road portion) I was entirely alone except for the birds and squirrels. Needless to say, when alone I ride extra slowly and carefully, because cellphone coverage is limited, and its a LONG walk out. The weather today was great, scattered thunderstorms kept the temp down around 70, while down the hill in the desert it was well over 110, and in fact even 93 at the beach. Another day in paradise.

A Very Difficult Day on a Bicycle

Well I did it. The Breathless Agony. If you are looking for a physical challenge here it is. 7+ hours is a long time on a bike. And climbing mountains while you are doing it makes it even harder. This ride is like one of the difficult stages in the Tour de France. Which makes those pro racers seem even more amazing. I did this one day thing and it was really hard. These guys do similar stuff almost every day for a month. I had to work up to the task. Although I have been using bikes for fitness for the better part of 20 years, you need to notch it up to do this kind of a ride. I was up to five days a week between two and five hours per ride. Once you can do 70 or so miles on steep hills, you can probably do this 7 hour 114 miler. Actually this ride felt like three hard ordinary training rides back to back. After 80 miles or so the hard part is over and the last bit is almost all downhill. Not that you can ignore it because its on a winding road and you need to keep your wits. It was cold at the top at 8600 feet, but there are some refreshments and a bit of celebration. Then trying to keep warm in the wind chilled descent. Back under 6000 ft it was much more pleasant. Near the end there was a major headwind, but only a few miles to deal with it.

As much as I enjoyed earning the achivement, I can't say I'll ever do it again.

Click here to see the ride web site.