Goodbye Cacti Hello Smog

Fortified with a healthy dose of Vitamin D it was time to head out of Arizona. Besides which, 90 degree heat really isn't much fun to train in, so we packed up and headed West to LA on Tuesday. Still hot (80s), but more like sitting next to an oven rather than inside an oven. Way nicer for training. LA is a crazy place - the only thing higher than the speed of the drivers here is the cost of the gas! I think that blood pressure here must be directly proportionate to the speed of the drivers.

The mountains surrounding the city would look very pretty if you could see them through the smog/haze. The locals like to convince you it's merely haze that burns off during the day, but us clean air breathers know the real truth!

The mountains pretty much go straight up, so we are getting in some big climbs in preparation for the Sea Otter. Terrain is very different - greener, with bushes and trees in places - wow! Nothing too big, but at least some shade at last! The trade off is higher humidity - we are sticky stinky girls now.

We have also traded the spiky cactus thorns for innocuous looking green shiny leaves, lovingly called 'poison oak' - this is nasty stuff that if you are unfortunate enough to get the oils in contact with your skin you break out in an itchy oozing sores that can last for weeks and spreads to other areas of your body that you touch. Oh Joy. At this time of year the growth is fresh and just encroaching onto the trails. One singletrack trail was so lined with the stuff that we gingerly turned around and got the hell 0ut of there before we turned into one big puss oozing sore.

Riding in the San Gabriel Mountains

Sue Riding the Singletrack