Glendora Mountain Road

When I first started riding, I told myself that I was going to stay away from doing many things. Well, that didn’t quite work out the way I thought it would. One of of them was riding GMR (for various reasons). First it was mostly because I had felt that I wasn’t ready for the technical aspects of GMR with it’s narrow hairpin turns. It also didn’t really help that I had heard many scary stories of people crashing and other crazy shenanigans happening up there. Yet at the end of the day I have this firm belief that there’s nothing wrong being afraid, but letting your fear run your life from doing the things you want to do is not really the way to live.

After a few months going up Azusa and a little bit of ACH later, I finally made my way to the backside of GMR via Azusa to East Fork Road, albeit it’ll take another few months or so before I tackled the front side. Let me just say, I completely fell in love with it, it’s much shorter than the front side, but there’s plenty of fast turns that will leave little else for your mind to focus on and that’s the best part. I particularly like GMR for that, it keeps my mind focused on just the road and nothing else. Sometimes when you have wide sweeper type canyons like Angeles Crest Highway, it’s not as difficult and you don’t have to be ready for the next turn in a snap of a finger like GMR. It’s especially nice when you find your rhythm with GMR, it’s a great run.

Once you reach the midpoint between the front and back side there’s a place called the “Lookout” that everyone (bikers, drivers, riders, etc.) all conglomerate for a pit stop rest. It’s really enjoyable when you can find a day that’s not too hot or cold and before the sun set (from what I have noticed during evening runs is that all the bugs come out) and you can gaze out into the valley of the mountains and vaguely catch the city skyline. The wind is always cool to the touch.

Definitely a very fun mountain road, albeit it can be dirty and very narrow at some points so be careful when you go up. Always ride at your own pace and discretion, you always want to make sure you get home in one piece. Have fun and check out the video below if you need some visual aid before you go up. 🙂