Stan’s Obligatory Blog

Today’s bike club ride was a tour of filming locations from “Reservoir Dogs“.

Here is the site with screenshots showing the locations as seen in the film: https://www.itsfilmedthere.com/2010/02/reservoir-dogs.html

A lot of the locations were in Highland Park and Eagle Rock, so we started there. We visited the site of the warehouse, which is no longer there, but we got to see the alley where the characters parked their cars. From there, we went to see a few other sites nearby, including the coffee shop from the beginning of the movie, and the bowling alley where they filmed the sequence of the characters walking past a wall in the opening titles.

From there, we went down to the L.A. River, and rode the bike path north. Turning through Griffith Park, we made our way to Burbank to the building that was Karina’s Diamonds in the movie. And that was our movie location tour. Then we rode to Priscilla’s for snacks, and then home. And when we were riding through the equestrian neighborhood, we saw a miniature horse pulling a tiny cart.

42 miles.

Route map and elevation profile.

There is a small trailer park out in Covina where the streets are all named for astronauts from the original Mercury 7 group. Since I’ve been reading American Moonshot, I thought we should go and visit it again.

The ride is basically a straight shot to San Dimas, and then back by way of the Santa Fe Dam nature center. The bagel place we used to stop at out there apparently is no more, so we went to Merengue in Monrovia on the way back.

43 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was down to Vernon to see the Farmer John hog mural, and then on to Maywood to visit Cookies L.A. That’s the pot shop there. We’ve visited there before, and I was curious if the security guys there would remember us. And as it turned out, they did remember us. We also passed the Southland Box Company. I always think there should be thousands of cats meowing all around the box factory.

We tried a new coffee shop today. I got a flat right when we got there, so all I did there was sit on the patio and fix my tire. But after that, we saw that there is a new deli in the storefront that used to be Chango Coffee. We may try it the next time we’re over there.

46 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s ride was another urban ride through Los Angeles. The two sightseeing points were related to Nat King Cole. The first was his former house in Hancock Park. Apparently, he was the first black homeowner in that neighborhood. The second sight was the post office nearby in Koreatown that was named for Nat King Cole.

44 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Yesterday, I took Lucinda on the Dearly Departed Black Dahlia tour. When we were at their office before the tour, I saw a little display case with a small box in it. A sign said it was a portion of the remains of Ken Weatherwax, who played Pugsley Addams. It also said that the rest of his remains are at Pierce Brothers Valhalla in North Hollywood. And so that’s how I decided where we were going today.

It was kind of chilly this morning, but it was supposed to warm up, so I went with shorts, and just added one layer of bubble wrap as a blanket to stay warm. We rode out by the usual route to get to Burbank, where we stopped to see the F-104-on-a-stick in the park there. Then we continued on to NoHo and Valhalla. I’d used the Google Maps aerial photos to know where the small mausoleum was, so we were able to locate his space pretty quickly. Then we went and took a few minutes to see the Portal of the Folded Wings.

We stopped for snacks at Priscilla’s, and then headed home by way of Griffith Park and the L.A. River bike path. Along the way back, we lost track of one rider, so I rode back a couple miles to look for him. But he seemed to have disappeared. Maybe he took a different route home.

49 miles.

It finally didn’t rain today, so we went for a bike ride. The route was to Glendora and back. The plan was to bail out and take the train back if it did decide to rain. But as it turned out, it didn’t rain, and we were able to ride the whole route. And on the way back, we got to see the charred remains of a half-built house that we’ve been passing for several years, and that just burned a few days ago.

37 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today’s bike club ride was Laurel and Hardy theme. The plan was to ride to North Hollywood to visit Ollie’s grave, and then to Forest Lawn to see Stan.

Right at the start, we had a small problem. Turns out today was the Pasadena Half-Marathon, and the course was using the Colorado bridge that we were planning on crossing. So we had to take a detour around. Then we got back on track and rode to NoHo.

After visiting Ollie, we headed south to Priscilla’s for snacks and drinks. Then we continued on to Forest Lawn. Stan’s grave is in the Court of Liberty, which is all the way in the back, high up on the hill.

The route home went through Griffith Park, down the L.A. River a bit, and then home by way of Highland Park and South Pasadena.

47 miles.

Route map and elevation profile

Today was yet another furlough-cation hike for our little USGS and Forest Service group. This time, we did the Brown Mountain loop trail above JPL. It was cool, but still a nice day. The trail is very popular with mountain bike people, and we saw a lot of them along the way.

On the way up, Nicholas saw some old mylar balloons in the brush a bit off the trail. That got us started, and we were looking for more, and in the end he was able to find something like seven old balloons. When we got to the top, we sat down and had lunch. Then we continued on down the rest of the loop. We saw several deer crossing the trail ahead of us along the way. They ran away before I could get the camera out, but I did see some little hoof prints on the trail.

All told, this was a good way to spend yet another furlough day.

7.6 miles

Route map and elevation profile

It’s now the third week of the government shutdown, and Karina is back in L.A., so we’re going on the traditional furlough-cation hikes. We did this during the 2013 shutdown, and it was a good way to fill the time.

Today’s hike was Josephine Peak. I’ve doing this one once before, but that was back in 1995, so it’s been a while. The trail is a fire road, so it’s not terribly difficult. The road wraps around the mountain, so we got lots of good views in all directions. At the top, we sat down for some lunch. There used to be a fire lookout at the summit, so the foundations of it made a good place to sit.

8 miles.

I forgot my GPS, so I don’t have a map this time.

Since Lucinda and Melissa are both home from school right now, I suggested that we take a hike out to the famous “Bridge to Nowhere” at the Narrows on the east fork of the San Gabriel River. So today was the day. This was my third time doing this particular hike.

I had it lodged in my memory that we were supposed to have to cross the river four times, but in the end, it turned out to be six times. The river is higher than it was the other times I’ve been out there, which made the crossings a bit more difficult. In the end, I had to stop and take my shoes off to wade across about three of the crossings. Between that and losing the trail a few times along the way, the trip out there took longer than the other times. And when we got there, it was pretty cold and windy, so we didn’t spend much time at the Bridge. Coming back was a lot easier, though. We’d made all the mistakes on the way out, and so we were able to avoid them coming back.