Monrovia to Rincon via the Red Box/Rincon Trail

I rode this in December 2001 and couldn't believe how fun this ride was. After a solid climb up, one is rewarded with miles and miles of gradual descent.

This ride starts like two of my other rides, and climbs up the road adjacent to Sawpit Dam. It is easiest to park around Myrtle and Foothill, then ride up Myrtle, unless you want a nasty little climb at the end of the ride. The first part of the climb is this ride. I rode this on a Tuesday morning, and there are notices everywhere saying it's closed on Tuesdays & Wednesdays due to a police firing range operating these days. I figured I'd hear it if it was in operation. Of couse it wasn't.

3.1 miles above White Saddle, you reach the junction with the relatively level Red Box-Rincon Trail. Once here, pretty much all the climbing is over. It is wonderfully quiet and peaceful up here, and all I've seen so far is a truck go by. No other cyclists, OHVs or hikers.

From here, you turn right (if you go left, you're doing this ride). You can't fail to see Mount Baldy in all its snowy loveliness in the distance. I'm embarrassed to say I've still not been up it, but I will, in 2002 for sure. The next 11.10 miles or so are just a blast - there's an occasional gentle uphill section, but mostly it's down, down down. You pass a spur to the left which would take you to Pine Mountain. The first section you're mostly looking out over the San Gabriel Valley southwards, then after a few miles it bends north and you're sinking into the San Gabriel River valley.

At the end of this fast and furious descent, you end up at a gate more or less opposite the Rincon Ranger station, on highway 39 high above Azusa. This is what it looks like. It's an approved OHV trail but I'm glad I didn't come across any.

From here, you have to ride down highway 39. I'd once before been up this road, when we hiked to the "Bridge to Nowhere". Although it's mostly downhill, there are a few gentle uphill sections as well. Most interesting along here to the east of the road, are a collection of dams, one of which was used for torpedo testing as recently as 1993.

Read about the torpedo testing at Morris Dam.

After passing the last of the dams, you soon start to get back into civilization. As the canyon widens, you pass some new tract homes being built in an area euphamistically called "Hidden Valley". They've not very hidden, and they could well be washed away by floods! You also pass a ranger station. At this point, there's a bike path on the right you can take which is much more pleasant than the roads, even though it takes you past the cement works of Duarte. This path takes farther south than you want to go, so you have to jump onto Huntingdon Drive (it's not an official way off the bike path, but has clearly been done by many before). From here, you just go west on Huntingdon, and you eventually meet up with Myrtle at which point you go right, and rejoin your car.

I think this was about 38 miles and something like 4000' elevation gain total.

Footnote: a few weeks later I decided to try the same loop, but starting up the Van Tassel Fire Road, which starts from Encanto Parkway just near Fish Canyon. This totally sucked! Very Steep. No wonder it's not mentioned in any bike-trail book! It joins the above loop at White Saddle.

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