Just another day in Paradise!

We had a great ride up in the mountains yesterday.   I guess I should start out with an apology (always a bad idea), but the fact is the weather was so beautiful yesterday (and the riding was so awesome) that I didn’t grab too many photos.   I was just having too much fun.  It had been too long since I’d been on a good ride, and I was more focused on the riding than my Nikon was on the scenery!

Yours truly, Bruce, Arlene (the "Shark"), and Steve all the way at the top of Highway 39!

The anticipation started this week when we planned the ride.  The Donut Man.   The ride along Sierra Madre.   Highway 39 up into the San Gabriel Mountains.   East Fork.   Glendora Ridge Road.   Lunch at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.   Glorious riding.  Grand weather.  You get the idea.

Lupe had put new brake pads on my Baja Blaster the day before.   I spent a couple of hours detailing my bike up on my Harbor Freight motorcycle lift that night.   My red Classic glistened.  I was ready!

I was up at 0:Dark:30, I quickly dressed, I did my normal Windex faceshield wipe, I had a quick cup of coffee, I pulled on my CSC Tourmaster jacket, and I rolled my CSC out of the garage.   I made the usual obligatory pre-ride stop at the local larcenous petrol pusher (give it your best shot with your $4.40 per gallon thievery, you crooks…my ride gets 98 mpg!).  On to La Verne and the CSC plant!

I arrived way early (I was too excited about the ride not to), and Bruce and Gordon were right behind me.  We ducked over to Merendero’s for a cup of coffee and then we went back to the plant.  After picking up Steve and Arlene, the ride was on!

California Scooters lined up in the Donut Man parking lot!

Our first destination was the Donut Man.   It’s famous, both locally and beyond.  The LA Times even did a story on the place a few years ago (a brief departure from the usual silly stuff they repetitively regrind).   The Donut Man is an icon…a true So Cal original.  The line was long (it always is), but the wait was worth it…the donuts are works of art.  I ate my own little Picasso (it was so huge I could only eat half), and one of the customers waiting in line recognized Arlene from her appearance on Shark Tank.  Everybody joked about how TV puts 10 pounds on you (you could only have a conversation like that in southern California).   I think that must be my problem.  Yeah, that’s it…I must have been on TV too many times.

The weather yesterday was absolutely perfect.   70 degrees.  Sunny.   Not a cloud in the sky.   We wound through the surface streets into north Glendora.  Awesome riding, with the promise of even more just up ahead.

We turned right onto Highway 39 and headed north into the San Gabriels.  I should have hung back and grabbed more photos, but I was just having too much fun.  We were in the twisties.  The bikes were singing.   Lean to the right, lean to the left….lean to the right again.   The little CSC took it all in stride.   I chose a careful line and many of the corners effectively become straights bordered by undulating asphalt on either side.   Cutting corners to get through quickly…it’s where the expression “cutting corners” must have originated.  Man, this is fun!

The view from up front...

Bruce on one of the Turquoise Twins tooling up on Highway 39

Our next turn was way up ahead (the East Fork Road), but I smoked right past it.   Highway 39 dead ends high up in the San Gabriels.  Our plan was to run up to the end, and then turn around.  When they built Highway 39, the original concept back during the WPA days (the original economic stimulus package enacted during the Great Depression) was for Highway 39 to run all the way to Highway 2, the Angeles Crest Highway.   I guess their recovery occurred a bit too soon, though, because work stopped before the two roads intersected.   Parts of Highway 39’s northern end fell into disrepair (it was the classic highway to nowhere), and whoever it is that decides these things closed the northern part of the road.  You know you’ve reached the end because there are big orange gates spanning the road.

This morning, though, was different.  We came to the first Highway 39 gate (which is normally closed), and it was open.  Wow.  Onward and upward (literally).  We came to a second gate (which is the highest I’d ever been on this road before).  It, too, was open.  Wowsers!  We kept going.   Yet a third gate was open.   We were a good 20 miles further north on this road than I’d ever been before we finally hit a gate left unopened.   If they ever do open this road all the way to the Crest, it’s going to be beyond glorious.   Yesterday, it was absolutely glorious.    What a ride!

Gordon and Bruce at the northern terminus of Highway 39

Our good buddy Bruce Montgomery in the San Gabriel Mountains

Looking back down at the road we had just climbed on our California Scooters!

We stopped, grabbed a few photos, and headed back down.   When we arrived at the East Fork, we took it, skirting through the canyon carved by the San Gabriel River’s, um, East Fork.   Awesome twisties and more awesome riding.   I was out front.   I was living large.   My good buddies on their California Scooters were right behind me.   Great riding.  Great day.

Bruce at my 6:00!

A quick right turn, and we were climbing up into the hills again.  Like always, I was amazed that a little 150cc engine could haul my been-on-TV-too-many-times fat butt up these hills.   The bike was absolutely purring.  We hit the three-way intersection (East Fork, Glendora Mountain Road, and Glendora Ridge Road) and turned east again on Glendora Ridge Road.  There were a bunch of bikes parked at this intersection (it’s a popular spot for riders to stop and socialize), but we pushed on.  Lunch was waiting for us at the Mt. Baldy Lodge.

Glendora Ridge Road...right on the ridge!

And a grand lunch it was, too.   Great conversation.  Bikes.   Dealerships.  War stories about getting ripped off by car dealers’ service departments.   The merits of doing your own work.   Discussions about bikes, handling, seat heights, and riding (in other words, the usual motorcycle ride lunchtime conversation).  Just your typical day in paradise.  There’s nothing in the world that compares to it…especially on motorcycles, and especially with the exclusivity that comes with owning and riding a California Scooter!