Catching up with Pete

We had Saturday off, so I made arrangements to catch up with college roommate Pete. He lives in Pasadena and thought we might get together.

Having ridden my bicycle down Sunset Boulevard from west Hollywood to Malibu, and nearly been killed half a dozen times, I thought it would be nice to go for a ride in a place that was a bit less hectic. For the record, spiritual bicycle leader Bryan Sweeney said I wasn't going to like riding in west Hollywood and damn he was right.

So on our day off, I made arrangements to ride up Mount Wilson with Pete. Wikipedia writes, "Mount Wilson is one of the more prominent peaks in the San Gabriel Mountains, part of the Angeles National Forest in Los Angeles County, California, USA. It is the location of the Mount Wilson Observatory and has become the astronomical center of Southern California with 60 inch (1524 mm) and 100 inch (2540 mm) telescopes, and 60 foot (18 m) and 150 foot (46 m) solar towers. It is located at 5,710 feet although surrounding peaks around the mountain can rise slightly above 6,000 feet. Due to this elevation, winter snow can sometimes interrupt astronomical activities on the mountain.

Mount Wilson is also referred to as a metro-media center for its relay broadcasting of radio and television frequencies for the Greater Los Angeles Area."

We met up with Pete's friend JR, a former Olympic swimmer with a brand new bike, and we set up the 20 mile climb. It's been two years since I've climbed anything significant and I must say Mount Wilson was an amazing ride. The temperature was cool, the company was good, the traffic was thin and the internal climbing mechanism which had been dormat for so long came back to life.

Along the way we stopped to fill our water bottles and then got back on the bikes to finish at the top. There we were treated to a spectacular view of Los Angeles. But you could't let your jaw hit the ground, or it would be filled with large numbers of flies that were swarming all over us.

After some experimentation, we decided the best way to enjoy it all was to get back on the bikes and spin around in little figure 8's so we could check out the view without the flies catching us.

Revived, it was time to go back down. While most people recognize that climbing on a bicycle is a skill, very few understand that descending can also be technical. Here's why will appear in the next post.