Great casual ride in the San Gabriel Mountains to Crystal Lake via Rt 39 with 6 riders. Though a hot morning, 100 deg at the bottom — a cool 73 deg at 5,200′ with some fantastic hard turns and beautiful mountain vistas.
At Azusa, Route 39 begins as San Gabriel Canyon Road. Route 39 winds through the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles National Forest for 21.9 miles until it reaches a gate barring the road 1.8 miles north of Crystal Lake Road in the Crystal Lake Recreation Area. The last four and one-half miles of the route, including the connection to Route 2, are closed to public highway traffic, as the roadbed has been closed since 1978, due to major rockslides that year and again in 2005 which damaged more of the remaining roadbed. The segment connecting the Crystal Lake Recreation Area to Route 2 is not scheduled to reopen before 2015
