July 24: The Angeles Mountains

As I’ve headed south on my journey, I’ve been criss-crossing the Cascades and the Sierras from west to east and back as I’ve headed south. After crossing the Mojave Desert, I am now crossing a transverse mountain range, the Angeles Mountains. Upon leaving the Palmdale area, I started a surprisingly steep and long climb up Fort Tejon Rd. and the Big Pines Highway. With over 5000′ of elevation gain, I reached Jackson Lake. I had been planning on camping here,thinking I had 6-7 miles of climbing still to go, but found out from a local that most of the climbing was behind me.
So I decided to continue on because it was only early afternoon. In Wrightwood I grabbed lunch and then made a short climb out of the valley and started a 10% downhill on a rough road through Lone Pine Canyon. To link up with the old Route 66 and descend into the valley below, I had to pedal a dirt road for about 6 miles, and crossed the Pacific Crest Trail one more time. Getting excited to be in familiar surroundings. The end of the tour is almost here!