Bike Winter: Metric century

63 miles by wheel, crank and pedal, we began our ride from the doors of the Bicycle Kitchen on the corner of Melrose and Heliotrope. I had awoken early on this morning, at 7am, much earlier than my usual rising of ~11pm, and biked from West LA to the intersection of Jefferson and National in Culver City and met up with fellow riders Jesse and Mark. From ther the three of us zigzagged through the deserted urban streetsand made our way to the start point. After a few hellos and an overview of the route from its designer, Molly, we headed out from the Kitchen at 9am 20 riders strong.The weather report called for rain in the afternoon, but our luck held out and the sky remained calm and blue. The first leg of the journey brought us north up Cahuenga along the 101 interstate. From Cahuenga we made our way to Mulholand. Mulholand would prove to be the biggest challenge of the day.
We made our slow climb up along the moutains westward on Mulholand for several miles. As Mulholand snaked back and forth and up and up, the riders began to separate. I managed to be the sixth to get to the top of the hill, just barely begining to sweat as the air was still cool. After waiting briefly for two othe riders who wer right behind me. The eight of us would be the fast group. Not waiting for the remaining riders still churning up Mulholand, we headed off to Laurel Canyon and down into the Valley.

The route then took us deep into the valley along Laurel Canyon underneath the 5 interstate. I somehow manged to hit every stupid red light possible and got left far behing the front group. I was not riding on my own for long when I was jouined by fellow westsider, Paul, and Michael.

At mile 16 of the metric we turned East and caught the valley bike path that runs alongside the valley gun range. What people need guns for in this city I will never understand, it is not like you can go duck, or deer hunting anywhere in LA. On the path, we passed a few families doing a little recreational biking of their own, but for the most part the path was clear and unused, it seems that most of the people were too busy driving everywhere to be converned with an outdoor activity, and god forbid if that involved biking on the congested LA streets. We followed that path a few miles then after a few turns made it our second climb of the day on Foothill blvd. Once the three of us managed to get to the top, it was already 11:30 and we still had 40 miles left of biking.

From the top of Foothill we headed out on a long 10 mile downhill along Honolulu, Verdugo and Chevy Chase. We passed quickly down along Chevy Chase and its suburban dwellings. This brief senction proved to be the highlight of the ride as it was unnocupied by autos, but both winding and narrow, and shaded by Japaneese Purple Orchids, evergreens, Coast Pines, Australian Willows, Carolina Laurel Cherrys, Fern Oaks and Southern Magnolias. A short foray for us urban riders to soak up a small parcel of organic nature, a scarcity for us urban pedalers.

Leaving the hinted tranquility of Chevy Chase we quickly found ourselves back in urban chaos and road construction along Glendale blvd, as “…yellow dinosaur steamshovels were grunting as they cropped up tons of mush…” ( from For the Union Dead by Robert Lowel). The street and melted tar smelled like burnt skin and singed pubic hair. Thankfully we were only on Glendale a short distance were were guided along by orange roadway cones on our left and cars on our right. From Glendale we made our way to the the LA River Path, and headed north toward Griffith Park. Before entering Griffith though, our route took us on a short 5 mile loop around Warner Bros. studios.

With 6 miles left we rested for 10 minutes in the park to eat snacks and rehydrate. Tow girs driving through the park stopped to ask us for directions to Echo Park blvd, and I think we just confused the hell out of them. Replenished and rejuvenated, we rode out of the park along Riverside Dr, to Fletcher then Glendale onto Silverlake, past the resevoir, to Parkmen and right on Sunset, going right past the old LA critical mass meeting spot at Silversun Liquor, (I am a bit nostalgic for that spot since it was from here where I would experience my first few Critical Mass rides in LA, and out of which arose my love of cycling through this city). From Sunset we tuned onto Santa Monica at the Junction, and quickly found ouselves back on Heliotrope and at the Kitchen. It was 2:30pm, it took 5 1/2 hours, and I had biked through Hollywood, the Valley, Glendale, Griffith Park, and along the LA River, and I still had 10 more miles to bike west, to pedal back home.