Our annual ride to Arrowhead is normally well attended, but this year was a
surprise with only one other rider showing up for the day. The
weather was mild (not blazing like last year) and traffic fairly light,
so those who couldn't make it missed a great opportunity.
After a brisk, solo ride through Little Tujunga Canyon Road, Kellie and I met up
with Mike Sleeman ('99 VFR) in Sunland for the rest of the ride. Leaving
Sunland we got our day's entertainment following some interesting
characters on sport bikes up Big Tujunga Canyon Road. As Mike put it, "I hate to see nice
sport bikes abused like that." What he meant was, they were riding
incredibly slowly while still trying to be "heros." A pack of
sport bikes going 35 mph in a 45 mph zone, "hanging off" in the turns
and "tucking in" through the straights, managed to annoy two Harley
riders ("ape hanger" bars and all) in addition to ourselves with their
slow-motion antics. Fortunately, we got around them pretty quickly
but were still sad to see a Ducati and an Aprilia among the bikes being
abused. It did make for some good laughs though.
At the top of
Big Tujunga Canyon Road we headed east briefly along Angeles Forest
Highway to Upper Big Tujunga Canyon Road. Blessed with little
traffic we made good time, though along Upper Big Tujunga Canyon we
spotted a CHP and his trusty radar as we skirted by -- apparently below
his threshold for attention. We got to Angeles Crest Highway and
headed east (away from the road closure) to Newcomb's Ranch where we
took a brief break, ogled a few of the bikes parked there, and mounted
up my video camera to capture a bit of the rest of the ride. Newcomb's
was lightly attended (not helped, I'm sure, by the road closure down the
mountain), but it was nice to see them getting some business.
Mounting up again we took Angeles Crest Highway the rest of the way
east to Big Pines Highway and Wrightwood. We were not bothered by
much traffic and Mike led for a while, setting a comfortable pace that
still entertained and demanded attention, but didn't attract the ire of
the Highway Patrol. Amazingly, there was still snow along the side
of the road in a couple places. July in Southern California...
After turning on Big Pines Highway and going through Wrightwood, we
diverted onto Lone Pine Canyon Road, eventually hitting Highway 138 near
Cajon Junction. Since we still had plenty of gas, we continued on
138 past Lake Sherwood and up the twisty part of 138 into Crestline.
Mike had suggested we find something besides fast food this time, so we
stopped in Twin Peaks for lunch at the Antler's Inn Restaurant (Cajun
chicken sandwich and Cajun crab cakes -- yum!). Hunger sated, we
finished the loop through Arrowhead Lake then headed down highway 18
into San Bernardino. Wishing to avoid much freeway travel we
threaded our way up north along side roads to get to the old Route 66
stretch of highway that terminates near Cajon Junction. After a
brief stop in Cajon Junction to top off Mike's VFR, we reversed our
route taking Long Pine Canyon and Angeles Crest back past Newcomb's
Ranch, down Upper Big Tujunga, across Angeles Forest, and finally, down
Big Tujunga Canyon Road into Sunland where we stopped briefly at
Starbucks before parting ways and heading home from there.
Thanks to Mike for coming out to play, we'll look forward to seeing
more (hopefully) on the next ride!
If you're interested in a couple videos, point your browser to
YouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFzEooOpTYs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yXYfRM4UfY
Brian (& Kellie)
Pictures along the ride can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/calif.msta/20100522MSTARideSoCalWandering
