Route Recon

Say you want to go up a steep climb tomorrow, but you've never done it, and you don't know how tough it's going to be. Also, there'll be someone else joining you, who also has never gone up that climb, but would benefit from some kind of foreknowledge of the route. What to do? Well, with cell phone cameras well-nigh omnipresent, just pop it open and record your short drive up that hill. Please, let passengers do this only, not the driver...

So, we start at the Rose Bowl and want to climb up to Sacred Heart Academy. As a sidenote, this all-girl Catholic school was the closest sister school to St. Francis High School, the alma mater of my friend Mike and mine as well. Ah, memories... Anyway, there are two routes up the hill, from the north and the south. St. Katherine starts in La Cañada from the north, and goes all the way up to the school. Inverness starts in Pasadena from the south, and joins up with St. Katherine right before it meets up with the school. Which one is better? Let's go to the tape! Commentary provided by Mike and Joe.

Notes for the St. Katherine Climb: We'll have to do a small bit of climbing with Linda Vista to get to La Cañada start location. Also, there are quite a few left turns, so we'll have to be alert for oncoming traffic. Road surface is atrocious. There are quite a few steep spots on long, straight climbs.

Notes for the St. Katherine Descent: This descent is technical and fast. Married with the awful road surface, several long declines into blind corners, and the steep slope at the bottom of the hill into a busy stop sign, make for a white knuckle, forearm cramping descent.

Notes for the Inverness Climb: This climb is much more relaxing than the St. Katherine one. The ride to the start is much shorter. The road surface is almost entirely well-paved. The road is narrower and discouraging to car traffic. There is one bad uncontrolled intersection with a left turn, but it's not at the top of an incline, so safety won't be much of an issue.

Notes for the Inverness Descent: This descent is also fast and technical. However, the lack of traffic and smooth pavement are definite pluses. There are two extreme hairpin turns near the bottom of the descent, coming off of steep slants, so expect to leave several layers of rubber on your rims. Not as white knuckling as the St. Katherine descent, but the arm and hand cramping might be the same.

Which route do you like better? Personally, I prefer the Inverness climb and descent, and have to heavily recommend against the St. Katherine descent. A viable option would be a St. Katherine climb with an Inverness descent, but the road is just so much nicer on the Inverness side. Which one will we take? Tune into tomorrow, if we survive!