San Gabriel River West Fork, Cogswell Dam & Red Box/Rincon Trail

I rode this on December 24th 2001 and was amazed that I had pretty much the whole place to myself.Think about it: 10 million people living in LA County and I can ride for 30 miles and see maybe 5 people, all clustered near the very start of the ride. In 25 miles I saw not a soul.

This ride has been written up in several books, although I'd already figured it was a possibility, it was nice to have validation that one could complete this loop. You start by driving up Highway 39 above Azusa, from the 210 freeway. You need the Forestry Pass or have to buy a $5 day use pass, but on December 24th, the ranger station at the base of 39 was closed. You drive up about 6 miles or so passing various reservoirs and dams on the right. At the top of the last reservoir (San Gabriel Reservoir) there's a turning to the right which goes to East Fork. You don't take it, but within 1/2 mile you'll see the start of the Red Box/Rincon trail on the left (top picture). Park here. The first stage of the ride is to ride up the road another 1/2 mile or so until you reach the start of the West Fork trail (bottom picture)

The first 7 miles or so are a relaxing warm up. This trail is used by fishing people a lot, although today there were just a few people here. It's a smooth paved road with no traffic and it follows along the west fork of the San Gabriel River very gently climbing. You pass Glenn Camp where there was actually someone camping. All of a sudden you come around a corner and there's a nastly little climb which soon levels off, and you reach a gate and it looks like you're stuck. It says Private Property all over the place, however there's a way around the side, and although there are residences on both sides, the main road continues through the middle, and you shortly arrive at Cogswell Dam. This is another huge flood prevention dam built in the 30s. Facts and figures about this dam here.

Two views of Cogswell Dam

You can ride across the top of the dam, but the fire road the other side doesn't appear to go anywhere useful and just dead ends. So once you've taken the picture, munched a power bar (the real climbing starts here), you return to the left side of the dam and continue on up. The paved road soon turns to dirt and you start climbing in ernest, although most is not that steep. You cross what appears to be an area which has all the signs of being an old landfill. The land looks too artificial to be real, and it seems to "plug" up a canyon. A remote spot indeed to haul trash. You're on 2N25 and it slowly climbs up until you eventually reach a gate where you join the Red Box/Rincon Trail. At the upper reaches of this section, I came across the first snow on the ground. At the gate, you turn left, and you're basically now heading east. There's still plenty more climbing, and this actually became the worst part for me - the snow and ice became more frequent, especially in the shady spots. You can ride on slushy snow, but don't try the ice. I came off twice! The exposed parts of this section were damp and muddy and it all made for hard going. You cross under some power lines and eventually end up at the junction of 2N30 - the fire road up from Monrovia.

From this point, it's just about downhill all the way, as described in my other ride. You just follow the Red Box/Rincon trail for 11 miles down down down, until you reach your car at the bottom.

This ride was about 30 miles and something like 4000' elevation gain total.