Crystal Lake Camp Grounds Bicycle Riding

Bicycle Riding -- Currently with the highway closed bicycle riding up and down the canyon is safe and fun. One can bicycle past the gate closure at around mile marker 32.12 all the way up to the gate at Crystal Lake. (NOTE: There is a sign which prohibits hikers, bicycle riders, and others from proceeding past the sign, located at the gate where the road is closed. Currently the U. S. Forest Service allow people to use the road any way -- Thank you, USFS!!! -- however that may change.)

Since the camp grounds are closed, entry in to the actual Crystal Lake Recreation Area is absolutely forbidden unless you're a construction crew or a volunteer so bicycle riders usually pause to rest outside the gate but don't go inside.

The trip up can be difficult or easy depending on your bicycle and how much weight you carry -- and, of course, your own physical condition. From down around the Rincon Fire Station at 1,000 feet altitude, the climb by bicycle up to 5,000 feet and a distance of some 13 miles can take you anywhere from one and a half hours, or there abouts, all the way up to three hours depending on how much effort you apply.

From the Crystal Lake gate, another two or three miles climbing further up the road will bring you to Angeles Crest Highway -- Highway 2. The road is closed with another series of locked gates, and the condition of the road from Crystal Lake further North to Angeles Crest is extremely poor.

The bicycle ride back down the canyons from the Crystal Lake gate is almost entirely down hill, with about 100 feet of it being up hill -- the hill overlooking Coldbrook Camp. Because of that one can come down the mountain with little effort, pausing only at the gate that closes the highway near mile marker 32.12 (if you don't pause you'll run right into it, probably at high speed!)

From the gate closure heading back down the route is all down hill until you get past West Fork Road and the bridge that spans Bear Creek which parallels West Fork. From that point on all the way back down in to Azusa and "civilization" again it's up hill and down hill -- with about 70% of the ride down being down hill.

When the highway opens again, Highway 39 leading up to the lake will once again be crowded and dangerous and it will no longer be the safe and enjoyable ride that it is today. Some of the hazards that I have encountered over many years of bicycling up and down which will be even more of a problem when the highway opens are:

• Drunk drivers -- unfortunately this is a serious problem every day and night of the week and the number of vehicle accidents and deaths attributed to alcohol in those canyons every year is staggering.

  The amount of police, medical, and Forest Service efforts and responses in the aftermath of alcohol related vehicle and bicycle incidents ranks higher in the canyons than it does in the city simply due to the fact that drinking in the mountains is common and a great many people seem to believe that the safety laws don't apply in the mountains.

• Drivers stoned on illegal narcotics -- The number of people parked on the side of the highway who are incapable of driving safely due to illegal narcotics during months with good weather is also a serious and growing problem.

  Because bicycle riders may at times have to walk their bicycles up steep sections of the highway, walking past dangerously violent dope addicts is a hazard.

• Gun nuts -- People will drive up in to the canyons and park along the highway or will park where the gate is closed at night and will spray gunfire down in to the river below and in to the canyons and hill sides around them, not caring that people camp, hike, and sleep in those canyons and hillsides.

  Some parts of the year the illegal gun nuts shooting indiscriminately at night from the highway is a nightly occurance. During the various hunting seasons, illegal gun nut "hunters" will shoot at rocks from the highway during daylight hours, often while drunk.

• Indiscriminate violent assaults -- Another safety hazard that bicycle riders going up and down the highway during daylight hours or while in the dark is pickup truck drivers who throw things from their vehicle window at bicycle riders.

  It's fairly common to have mentally dysfunctional people in "clown pickups" -- large pickup trucks with large tires driven by males with sexual problems -- throw burning objects, glass bottles, beer cans, or whatever garbage comes to hand when such drivers turn around a bend in the highway and spot a bicycle rider.

• Flat tires, broken bicycles -- Because coming down the mountain can be done at high speeds when the road is closed to public vehicle traffic, bicycles break apart and flat tires can cause a rider to have to walk down to the U. S. Forest Service station down at the Rincon Fire Station before they can make a telephone call -- or they have to walk an additional 12 miles down to the city to make a call.

  The U. S. Forest Service used to have a public telephone available for just such problems at the Off Road Vehicle Area about 500 feet North of East Fork Road. That telephone has been destroyed, and the USFS does not normally allow people to borrow their own telephone.

• Motorcycle lunatics -- During the daylight hours bicycle riders will have to contend with people who race their motorcycles up and down the highway at two or three times the posted speed limit, drifting across the middle lane and through opposing traffic.

  Often motorcycle riders come in groups of two or more and they're out trying to impress each other, constituting a fatal safety hazard not only to themselves but to people in other vehicles and to bicycle riders on the side of the road.

  Part of the problem is that motorcycle lunatics come around curves in the road without any hope of avoiding running right in to parked vehicles and bicycle riders. They come around curves leaned fully over on their side so when they strike bicycle and their riders, their clothing protects them from serious damage until they come to a stop however the people they strike are often seriously wounded or at times have been killed.

• Racing vehicles -- Nearly all of the highway heading up to Crystal Lake is curves with only two sections suitable for passing and during the day and also at night it's very common for young males to race their vehicles up and down the highway at high speed, often while in the opposing lane.

  The number of deaths -- not only of people racing but of innocent people driving on the highway or parked along the side -- every year is high. The author has walked past (while pushing his bicycle) so many dead people and their destroyed vehicles that it's impossible to count.

  A number of the people who race either their vehicles or their parent's vehicles wind up sinking into the catch basins of the Morris and San Gabriel Dams.

The author of this web site has literally spent years bicycle riding, hiking, and camping all over the San Gabriel Mountains West of Mt. Baldy and East of Pasadena. Most of that was done with a single speed bicycle not much older than I am however that bicycle was destroyed on a high-speed trip back down the mountain one night and I had to walk the 25 miles back down to the city.

A good number of people ride up and down the mountain every Saturday and a smaller number of people can be seen every Sunday. Most people ride up from down below all the way to the gate that closes the highway while others drive up to the gate and then bicycle up to the Crystal Lake gate or beyond to Angeles Crest Highway.

Once you get past the gate at mile marker 32.12 most of these hazards and dangers disappear.

There are a few emergency callbox stations located high up in the mountains along the highway, and each of them work despite the fact that the highway is closed. One such box is located at North 34 degrees, 18.009 by West 117 degrees, 50.616 at 4653 feet. I note the location of that callbox because it's near a good source of emergency water located within 100 feet at North 34 degrees, 18.029 by West 117 degrees, 50.633 at 4431 feet.

Water is an issue when bicycleing and hiking up and down the highway, more so when it's done in the Summer months. There are many high-volume streams that the USFS warns not to drink from however I have drunk from all of them over the past 20 years many times and I've not had any medical or health problems because of it.