Bike-N-Hike

I've started this new thing where once a week, usually on Wednesdays, I'll bike down the lovely paved canal by our house to the Beverly Canyon Trailhead at SoMo.  After the Attack of the Shoe incident, I spent most of the next day at REI fretting over what new shoe to purchase. Did I want another set of Keens? Light hikers? Trail runners? I finally made a decision, but wanted to test them out first before hiking up up up the Mormon Trail again.  So that Wednesday I hopped on the bike to try them out, and if things went well I'd continue on for a hike.

In short the ride was great. I made it down the canal to the trailhead without even thinking about my foot.  I'd remembered there was actually a bike rack at this trailhead that the city had bothered to install, but when I pulled up it was a lot less secure looking than I initially thought.  I forgot to bring my cable for my wheels, so all I had was my U-lock.  There were some shady looking characters sitting in a car near the lot, but I wasn't ready to just ride back home either, so on went the lock and off I went to check out another new trail, Javelina. 

I'd read a lot about this trail, mostly on the mountain bike forums.  Its an easy but steady climb that eventually connects up with the National Trail, Ridgeline, and Mormon Loop so I was expecting it to be pretty busy even in the middle of the day.  The new kicks and I set off, and soon I was passed by a female mountain biker zipping up the trail.  After that I was alone for quite some time, and able to take in the solitude of this park in the middle of a huge city.

Just as I was thinking to myself this wouldn't be half bad to try the bike on, the trail got a little rough.  What I would consider rough for my inexperienced single-speed self!  I came upon a steep descent you can see a bit of here in this pic.  I have no idea what this platform is either.  Josh and I had seen it from above on our Beverly Canyon hike the week before, and had assumed it was some kind of training area.  From this angle you can now see that its actually raised up....secret underground government bunker?

On I meandered enjoying the solitude and my ipod.  There were a couple more rough sections of this trail but nothing too bad.  I did keep looking at these uphill rocky sections though, wondering how I would get up them on the bike.  Another biker came by and showed me: gears and shear force.  I have a lot of practice and strength building ahead of me!  I was alone on the trail the rest of the way; with a final steep and rocky descent I came to the intersection with Mormon Loop and was greeted by some hieroglyphs.  I took a quick break and took the trail back to the parking lot.  I ran into Josh running on the canal on the way home and really wished I had a bullhorn to chase him with, but instead I chose not to torture and let him finish his run.

Stats:

Bike - 7.91 miles

 Hike - 3.66 miles