California - Angeles Forest & Baldy Mountain

I should have posted these pictures over a week ago, but...

My final "big" ride in California (about two weeks ago) was a 70-mile journey up to Baldy Mountain, a ski resort in the Angeles National Forest. Like before, my friend Eric Bruins dragged me up the mountain roads. We had a few of his USC and Big Orange cycling teammates for company, too.

We started a bit above see level, warmed up on a bike path, then stair-stepped our way up three major climbs to the base of the ski resort at 6500 feet. Off the path, the majority of the route we took was on roads closed for the holiday weekend (to prevent pyros from playing with fireworks in the dry forest), so we walked our bikes around/over some gates to have totally open roads.

Check out the views:










The ridge road we rode to Baldy Mountain, which in the background...





"We came from over there."










The reward - Eric had been promising to take me to In-n-Out for days.

I posted these pictures at the same time I posted my Giro di Coppi race report. Either scroll down, or If you got here via a direct link, you can check that out here.