Segment # 60 San Gabriel River Trail Duarte-Whittier Jct. 5_4_15

Start	Duarte, CA	N  34.14138  W 117.93481	S-N mi 9.4
End	Whittier Jct,CA	N 34.00696  W 118.06916	TrlLgth 15.4 mi Ride 18.4 mi

Ride hr   1:54    AVS 9.9 mph      MXS 19 mph     DST  18.4 mi    SW 4-5 mph   TMP 64      KCal 1309

The grand girls with parents and grandpa in tow, heading to

Tincher ( I liked to tease that it was Tingcher or Pincher) to 

learn all kinds of stuff to keep grandpa on his toes. 

After hoofing to school with the Long Beach gang. I loaded up to drive to Duarte for a solo ride on the San Gabriel Bikeway. Geoff and Kayoko were back to work so it was time for me to ride on my own again. Reviewing Trail-Link description of the trail alerted me to two issues; that turned-out to be non-issues; reported by other riders of the trail. One was a dark tunnel and the other was unseemly contact with transients living under the bridge on the 10 Freeway. The tunnel I rode through on this trail was not like other long tunnels, for example the Elroy to Sparta Trail in Wisconsin where you must dismount and have a decent flashlight to safely pass the through over a mile long pitch dark tunnel. I didn't need a light for the San Gabriel Bikeway. The transient encampment was of no concern to me either since most of the inhabitants were on the streets of Los Angeles working on handouts.. I was surprised to see a large flat screen television blurring away in what I now call Transient City. Where did the power come from? In addition, there were some other unique oddities like an organized person that had their clothes neatly organized and hanging from what appeared to be racks from a clothing store. 

I'm ready to ride across a bridge the connects the east with
the west side of a waterless San Gabriel River. Just behind
me is where I parked ( Ecanto Park Duarte, CA ) to begin. 

I was particularly fascinated with what was in place for water preservation and control on this river. At the northern end of the trail, near Irwindale, the Santa Fe Dam serves as a major holding area for excess water. There should be a time when flood control will be needed but with multiple years of drought and with one of the driest years on record in 2014-2015, It appears the Santa Fe Dam will just be sitting there for another year or two. I hope so, because Geoff only lives a block from the lower end of the San Gabriel River. 

I exited the bikeway at Beverly Blvd. and called a cab to get me but to my car at Ecanto Park. As I sat at the Pico Rivera Recreation Center, I realized I was only a mile or two from Montebello where I practiced periodontics in the offices of my fellow periodontal resident, Bill Matoska and his partners Joan Otomo and Mike Neuman. I had already called a taxi so I needed to stay put but I thought I would ask the driver to take me by the office. Unfortunately the cab driver could only speak a few words of English so I decided not to try getting him to take me two places.    

The San Gabriel River Valley has been the heart of gravel mining for nearly a century, especially when the automobile became king of transportation in southern California. 

There are not as many mines today as there were in the fifties and sixties but this operation near North El Monte was abuzz with activity. I was struck by the azure color of the water---pretty!