Earlier today, I pushed and carried my bike up the large firebreak on the southwest side of the Verdugos. That's the firebreak that's visible for miles and that goes up above the Brand Library. I made it up to about 50' below the fire road before I turned around. Close enough. The ride down was lots more fun than the trip up.

On the way back, I took the fireroad mentioned in this post. In that post, I approached that fire road from below, only to find out it was washed out, complete with a creepy little stream.

This time, there was a little more water there, and it was green, fast becoming a mini-swamp. I tried to avoid it as much as possible, and I think I'll make that a permanent decision. This was only about 1400' of gain, but that firebreak is maybe 1.5 miles and pretty stepped and loose, making bike pushing fairly difficult. The library is in the center of this topo map, and the destination is the radio facility up the firebreak.

Next time I'll just take the (un-washed-out) fireroad up and down.

That's about 3800' of gain this week, down from close to 5000' last week. But, I also took a short bike ride and went to the climbing gym one day.