Sixteen Years a Riding Them Hills

I passed the sixteen year mark. Sixteen years living in Claremont. It was in August actually, but I think it was hot then and I forgot. That also means sixteen years of riding the Wilderness Park or, as I called the area before it officially became a park, the "local canyons and hillsides." I don't have a photo from the first ride I did there, but my first recording of a ride up there came on Saturday 31 January 2004 and noted in the cycling log as: "A change of pace and change of place. With roads a bit damp from the rains last night I headed up to the Claremont Wilderness Park on the mtb. Did a lot of climbing by way of Burbank Canyon coming down out of the hills at the top of Mountain Ave [meaning I went through Johnson's Pasture]. Pretty stoked to do something different and enthused to do it again." For years after that, two laps around the loop would be a regular feature of my Wednesday evening.

I don't think the loop has gotten any easier over the passing years and, truth be known, I probably ride it slower now (though will have to check the stats to find out for sure), but one thing will never change - it sure is nice to have all that dirty riding so close to home.

"Leaflets three, let it be

Berries white, poisonous sight"

and with its distinctive red late summer / early fall foliage, the poison oak is easy to discern

gotta love those roadside pines and their welcoming shade, and do you see them...

for years I believed the local deer herd to have been driven from the Park by the the crowds; of course it was very quiet up there this afternoon, and perhaps that encouraged them to come out

the red dirt of Coyote Howl Point

this from my first published photo up there - at the old Claremont Cyclist blog