A Great Trail, Shivering, and Joe with a Cup o' Joe

The morning started out uneventful enough.  Seven of us showed up for the ride at the JPL parking area in Pasadena.  George, Joe, Rod, Jamshyd, Mario and his friend Frank, and me.  The morning was cool and the weatherman was threatening us with rain but we were a determined and hopeful group.  We drove a few miles further east to the intersection of Lake Avenue and Loma Alta Street in Altadena where Mario and Frank led the way up a trail the rest of us had never done before--the Lower Sam Merrill Trail.  It was a wonderful singletrack, mostly smooth with a few rocky sections, some switchbacks, lots of hikers, and constant climbing. 

A View of the Lower Sam Merrill Trail

George,Mario,Frank,Jamshyd pause on the cool climb

Joe ahead of Rod and George on Lower Sam Merrill

Traffic Jam: the trail was crowded with hikers.

Mario said it would be a bad idea to do this part of the trail downhill because of the many hikers

Retaining walls on the Lower Sam Merrill Trail

After about a 2 1/2 mile climb we reached what I think is called Echo Mountain with the Mt. Lowe railway, cable car and hotel remnants--a historical site from the early part of the 20th century.  We stopped here briefly to rest, eat, and watch the ominous weather start to roll in.

Rod, Frank, and Mario enjoying a break

Ominous clouds start to envelop the mountain

At this point we traversed the mountain along a singletrack trail that followed the old railway line.  There were a few precipitous dropoffs but fortunately the fog was getting thick enough that we were happily almost blinded to the dangers.  Eventually we arrived at a paved road--the Mt. Lowe Road--that soon turned into a dirt road that we climbed for a couple more miles.  We could feel the temperature dropping.  At one point Jamshyd announced it was 39º F -- and that was at his lower relative elevation!

Finally we reached a crossroads which offered several options including the Idlehour Trail, Inspiration Point, or the Middle Sam Merrill Trail.   Following our leaders Mario and Frank, we opted for the latter (although I was hoping for the Middle Earth Trail).  And a good choice it was.  The Middle SM Trail is a wonderful downhill singletrack trail that meanders thru the beautiful forest with varying terrain--fast smooth sections, short rocky technical sections and a little hike-a-bike thrown in here and there.  But it was also here that the weather, already pretty cold, started to throw moisture at us.  The rain began.  It started as a slight drizzle but ended in a steady rain.

The last picture I took as the drizzle started turning to rain.

Notice Jamshyd's relatively dry appearance and lack of shivering.

It would not last.

Suffice it for me to say that from this point on in the ride, most of us wished we were somewhere else....warm and dry.  We continued on down the MSM Trail, gathering gobs of wet and cold as we descended, until we arrived back at the old hotel site.  We then traversed the same trail we had been on earlier back to the Mt. Lowe Road.  It was here that our younger leaders--either more hardy or more fool-hardy or both--decided to continue on with the original plan which was to ride down the Sunset Ridge Trail (and then perhaps on to El Prieto)--after all, they said, "we're already wet."  But for the rest of us old farts (at least I speak for this old fart), we had had enough cold and wet and so headed on down the paved road--a long downhill--back to our cars.  Trying to keep our bikes upright on the rainslicked road while our bodies shivered uncontrollably was a challenge indeed.  In fact, for good measure, I could swear that at one point we were pelted by small granules of hail.

Finally we got back to our cars.  It was about this time that the rain started to abate.  Such was our fate.

But now the 5 of us decided that what we needed was some hot food and drink, and so we headed on over to the Hill Street Cafe in La Canada.  It was crowded--it's a popular place with good food--and so we had to wait for a table.   Fortunately they had a pot of hot coffee, free for the taking, for the waiting customers.  And so we stood there, wet and shivering, sipping on our hot cups of joe, even Joe, who doesn't like coffee, but likes to be warm!  Finally we were seated (you could almost hear the squish of our wet cycling shammys as our soggy butts hit the naugahyde) and we were able to enjoy some good food, lively gab, and more HOT coffee.

Finally dried out,

Robco Baggins