THE ROADS YOU WISH TO TAKE - 17 April 2016

Deertrail Drive and Gate - Arvin, California
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I like riding bikes. Over the years I've taken to getting out on the roads to explore and put in miles. But, when you're putting in miles and hang out in the same area, you tend to see the same roads. They all seem to have their own personalities. While I appreciate these old friends, I'm looking for new roads.

There's a plethora of mountains and dirt roads surrounding the town where I live. From a distance, you can see these roads winding their ways up the slopes to parts unknown. I've wondered "where do they go and what are the roads like?" Unfortunately, most of them are behind locked gates. Some are even behind gates only on one end of those roads. While I've heard of people jumping the gates and exploring them, I'm prone to be a bit more timid in that respect preferring to not flaunt a belief of "what harm can it be" to respecting the property owner that lies beyond the gates. Still, I wonder what are those roads like?

Further south of here near the San Gabriel Mountains there's a large national forest that's open to anyone. It's part of the legacy of public property that's open to all, mostly. For me, it's an hour drive down south which makes a large excursion to make a ride, so I mostly don't. Instead, I just put in my miles around the town here and wonder what's beyond those locked gates.

In town here, the large local concrete company--Lehigh Southwest Cement Company--opened a large portion of its property to the town for mountain bike riding. There are excellent trails meticulously maintained by a local group. Really, there's a tremendous relationship between the town and Lehigh that allows this access. I wonder as I see those locked gates whether the same can be done with other property owners in the area who own them.

In the mean time, I will continue to explore where I can and wonder what's beyond those gates.

Cheers

Tom