After pedaling around the streets of MDR and the boardwalk on Venice Beach for the past year, I needed to bike somewhere with a little more danger factor. Being so close to the Santa Monica Mountains, I looked up the easiest trail that I could find and came up with Westridge Fire Road up in Brentwood. Click on the link for details and logistics.
I spent two hours on the trail today, about an hour and fifteen minutes getting up and forty five getting down. The trail is an in-and-out ride, climb in, downhill out. Having not done anything strenuous in the past three months, I almost collapsed two minutes into the ride. I even had to push my bike up certain parts of the trail because it was too steep. Needless to say, I’m not in good shape. Anyways, here are a couple of other things I learned today:
- Be patient when starting out – I went balls out in the beginning, hence the near collapse in the beginning.
- Bring a pee cup, Clif Bars, and wipes.
- Wear gloves.
- I can’t jump a bike like I did when I was ten. I almost went over the front end, landed in the brush, had my gooch scrubbed by my rear tire, and hammered down my seat with my ass. I’m lucky to have made it back with just a scratch on my knee.
- The view from the SM Mtns is awesome. You can see all the way down to the South Bay, Catalina, Malibu, Downtown, and the Valley.
- Don’t confuse a Weimaraner for a mountain lion. It only looked like one because I was having trouble sucking down enough oxygen to feed the brain.
- I need knobbier tires, a proper multi-bike tool, a bike rack, and better brakes. Good thing I brought TL’s SA knife because I needed to re-link my chain when it popped off when I crashed.
- Need haircut, hair in ear is too distracting when I’m trying my hardest not to wreck.
- WTH, there are muscles on the side of our hips?
TL and TBone both expressed their concern after I told them about today’s ride, but I’ll probably head back up to WFR one day after my body has recovered. I’d prefer a flatter ride without all the incline/decline sections, but there doesn’t seem to be any places near me that are like that. I’ll probably skip out on the single track part of the trail until I get better at controlling the bike when I go downhill.