Strawberry Peak

June 27, 2004

Eight of us showed up this morning for the Angeles Forest ride around Strawberry Peak.  We met just north of the 210 freeway on Angeles Crest Highway at 7:45 a.m.  After a little regrouping, 3 vehicles headed up the highway to the junction with Angeles Forest Highway where we parked in an area just above the Switzer Picnic area.  By about 8:30 we were on our way and the bright sun was already trying to penetrate the sunscreen we had just slathered on.

Crossing Angeles Crest we traveled a few meters (just tuning up for the Tour de France) on Angeles Forest Hwy before turning right at a fire gate to start the climb up Josephine Peak Fireroad.

As you can see, we received a unique welcome

After about 3 miles of steady climbing we came to the Josephine Saddle which would take us on the trails that circumnavigate Strawberry Peak.

With Strawberry Peak in the upper left hand corner, the group poses at the entrance to the

trail that crosses the saddle (Yoni, Dean, Rod, DavidN, DavidR, Jamshyd)....

(and that's Reuben's backside as he pedals away)

After crossing the saddle, the trail got a little narrower and rocky.   Although mostly rideable, there were some sections that challenged the mind as well as the body.

A small rockslide in the center of the picture impeded our riding at this point on the narrow trail

A closeup shot of this section

What FUN!!

The trail continued on thru both forest and desert type areas providing wonderful singletrack riding.  I believe that this section of the trail is called the Colby Trail and it eventually came to a fork where the Strawberry Trail went to the right.  The start of the Strawberry Trail was steep and loose and had a couple of tight switchbacks that made for some walking.  But finally we arrived at a viewpoint on the south side of the mountain.

The trail then climbed for another couple of miles until we came to the crest where the junction for the steep hiking trail started that took hikers (but, alas, not us) the last 1 mile and 1,000 feet to the top of Strawberry Peak.

Some of our group meets with another group of riders at the crest

From here we started down Strawberry Trail for the 2 1/2 miles to Red Box Station.

A view down towards the switchbacks of Angeles Crest Highway

(You can also see sections of the Gabrielino Trail which we will soon tackle

on the other side of the highway)

Some handsome fellows (radio towers on Mt. Wilson are barely

visible in the distance on the left side of the picture)

Back down to the Angeles Crest Highway, we stop briefly at Red Box Ranger Station before heading down the Gabrielino Trail the 4 1/2 miles to the Switzer Picnic area.

This is a great singletrack section, yet it is not without its dangers:   I got a flat tire (not so bad) and DavidR endoed (much worse) trying to ride probably the most technical section of the day--a very rocky section filled with rock steps.  He was banged up a bit and yet was still able to have lunch with us using intravenous tubing.

At Switzer we had our final climb of the day--a mini "black bitch" up the pavement to where our cars were parked on the highway.

The final discussion on where to go to eat....

.....the old favorite Hill Street Cafe on Foothill Blvd. was selected and most of us enjoyed a fabulous meal along with enlightening talk to end a wonderful day mountain biking in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Have a great week.

Respectfully submitted,

Robco Baggins 

P.S. Rod said that he was going to post some more pictures he took on his website http://home.pacbell.net/rodb/ but as of this writing they were not up so check later!  Also he will hopefully post a GPS map of the ride.  (its later! SEE BELOW)

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Thank you Rob for a terrific Ride Report