The Piece of Bridge...

it's there, just below check dam #7, in the middle of the river channel

I am going to guess that most of the people who read this are not quite the map nut that I am. I use them to study up on routes that I have ridden, trails that I want to ride. I use them to locate unexplored treasures waiting to be discovered, and to make sure I don't get lost. As you might predict (and may be aware if you have seen any of my Velo course posts), Google Earth has become an important tool in my bag of research implements. Anyway, it was thanks to Google Earth that I noticed this bridge remnant in the middle of the San Gabriel River (Wash). I have known it was there for some time, but it wasn't until my most recent trip along the SGRT (one of those windy days I wrote about in the previous post when I knew my mileage would be limited) that I made any effort to locate it. 

It sits just below check dam #7, but the easiest way to it is to simple ride down into the river bed via the dirt road opposite the SGRT's Todd Avenue entry. I searched around the web for a little additional info on the what's and why's of the bridge remnant. The best seems to be this little amount at bridgehunter.com - some of the information there is accurate (by my estimation). The part about Follows Camp, however, is just not correct; Follows was located far up canyon, on the East Fork, no where near this bridge, and Highway 39 and Glendora Mountain Road would have served as the Camps access for years, if not more. A number of years ago trucks used to cross the river here going between the mining and quarry operation in Fish Canyon to the west, and processing operations to the east of the river. It seems more likely that the bridge linked the two before the conveyor was built across the river just a stones throw away.

Anyway, there are things to discover out there, and that is another reason I ride.