The basic ride is a 27-mile loop starting and ending at the convenience store at Lake Arrowhead Road and Danbury Avenue in Hesperia. It includes three fairly stout climbs — one on Arrowhead Lake Road, one on Summit Valley Road, and one on Danbury Avenue. There are around 1,600 feet of elevation gain, and it should take less than two hours to complete. You can ride it either clockwise or counter-clockwise.
If you run low on fuel or drink, you pass a couple of convenience stores, notably Silverwood Bait-Beer, and Country Store (on Highway 138 at Summit Valley Road), which also features porta-potties. You can also use this market as your starting point instead of the market on Lake Arrowhead Road.
Road conditions
There are bike lanes on many roads in Hesperia, but the roads through Summit Valley are the typical, narrow two-lanes we have in this area. However, traffic is often sparse, although vehicle sometimes speed by on Arrowhead Lake Road.
Maps
Variations
If you want a longer ride with a little more climbing, you can start the loop at (for example) the Home Depot at Apple Valley Road and Bear Valley Road. On the way out, turn left on Del Oro Road to get to Deep Creek Road, and then turn right on Rock Springs Road to Arrowhead Lake Road. On the way back, instead of turning off of Summit Valley Road onto Ranchero you continue straight on Santa Fe Avenue East, jog right over to E Avenue (which turns into Jacaranda Avenue), then return on Bear Valley Road to Reatta Road (left). This works out to around 39 miles.
If you want a longer ride with more climbing, you can turn up Highway 138 at the junction with Highway 173 and ride up and around Silverwood Lake up to Crestline and beyond.