Mose

So I finally got married to my girlfriend of about 5 1/2 years on July 16. The wedding was perfect, but I know you're not here to read about that.

We honeymooned in CA, spending our first week in Santa Barbara, then up the PCH to San Luis Obispo, and a final few days in Yosemite via the PCH up to Carmel. We rented a 2011convertilbe Camaro, incidentally, which was a lot of fun to drive. Not like any other GM product I'd driven before.

But, I digress. A confirmation I married the right girl- when I asked how she'd feel if I brought my pedals, shoes and helmet on the honeymoon (to be used sparingly of course) she was all for it. She had a day to read and relax on East Beach, a block from where we stayed and I had a good day in the mountains.

When we arrived in SB, I started calling the area shops that came up on Google Maps and finally hit upon one that would rent something higher end (at that point I was ready to settle for anything with drop bars). Props to Fast Track cycles, the mechanic (Luke I think?) was awesome. He set me up with a Scott CR1 with 105 for dirt cheap, even hooked me up with a saddle back, tube and inflator. I bought a bottle off him and some gels and HEED.

I rented the bike on the evening of the 19th and planned out my route for the 20th. I got a lot of beta on the good climbs and routes from Luke.

The morning of the 20th, and I decide to do the famous Gibraultar road (or "the Gib" as I guess it's known by locals). On Luke's adivce, I took the right hand Forest Serive road at the top. With fresh pavement and amazing views, I was glad I did. I headed back across the ridge due west and came across a bunch of tourists riding down the Gib on mountain bikes. The truck and trailer carrying the bikes had passed me on the way up. One of them shouts "you're going the wrong way." I smiled and waved to all of them.

Going down the Gib would have been cool, but the descent I had was about 1000x better. Heading west on E Camino Cielo towards San Marcos Pass, I went up and down and finally started going down for good. Twisty, tight roads, good pavement. Best descending ever. I wasn't ever going terribly fast because of how ridiculously tight the turns were but I could not stop grinning. I hit 154 and followed it back to State St and finally met my new wife at the East Beach Grill for lunch.

The route:



The profile:



Some pics:


Somewhere on the Gib, just above the foot hills.


Looking back at the part of the Gib from the Forest Service road.


My pretty face on that Forest Service road with the Santa Ynez range in the background (looking due north). Barney's is a cool shop in Worcester, MA if anyone is wondering what the cap is all about. I know the owner, great guy.


Fresh pavement... mmm...


Looking North with part of that FS road to the right.

Part II coming up- more pics and another climb.

Mose

Pretty looking thistle like flower


FS road again to the right, looking due west. That road was so awesome.

So after lunch, I change back into my lycra and head off to another popular climb- Old San Marcos road topped with Painted Caves Road. Ouch. OSM wasn't too bad, but the gradient on Painted Caves was higher, lots in the 10-14% range, and I still hadn't fully digested that massive burrito. Well, I wasn't doing any of the ride for speed anyway. Just to climb and take in the scenery. And for the ridiculous descent again. The afternoon's route:





More thanks due- this time to the guys at the USFS station near San Marcos Pass for letting me fill my bottles. Not only fill my bottles, but with ice cubs and filtered water. I declined the tangerine they offered

So, if my GPS is to be believed, I did 3,884 ft of vert/29.9 miles in the afternoon and 8,736 ft/49.1 miles in the morning ride for a grand total of 12,620 over 79 miles. The vert sounds a little high to me, but I was definitely tired. Painted Caves, with the miles already in my legs and that stupid burrito in my stomach, was a bit of a death march towards the top. But so worth it. Most of the scenic parts of the ride I kind of putted around taking pics with my Droid.

So, overall, awesome experience. SB is a really cool place. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Thanks for reading.

Mose

Almost forgot!

The Scott at the top of the ridge:

cyclezen

nice, glad you had fun out here.
Descending OSM (Old San Marcos) - good stuff, isn;t it. well worth the climbing.
we are spoiled out here...

FactVord

Thanks for sharing - love the pictures. Sounds like one hell of a joy ride.

Mose

Well, there are no arrows on my tracks I posted, but I never actually descended OSM. I climbed it in the afternoon, but both times I descended E Camino Cielo to Rte 154. E Camino Cielo is just an insanely fun descent. And yeah, you are spoiled. The sun was pretty intense for a pastey white Irish boy like me though. I had to carry around a little bottle of SPF 50 to keep from frying.

K&K_Dad

umd says "the morning ride should be closer to 5,000 and the afternoon about 3,000"

Mose

Ah, cool. Well, I had done a 10k ride before, and this felt similar. I was figuring it was more in that range.

According to RidewithGPS, mapped out manually, the morning ride was 7300 feet of climbing. Taking that FS road to where the pavement ended descended a fair amount and there was a lot of up and down across that ridge.

Mose

RwGPS says 3300 feet in the afternoon. So, revised total of about 11,000 ft. That felt about right. Lot of gain/mile. MyTracks seems to overestimate anytime you do a lot of rolling elevation gain, for whatever reason.

garciawork

Gibraltar was my favorite ride when I was in college. Well, not favorite... its hard to have a fave in Santa Barbara. If you go back, try taking 192 south towards Carpinteria, then 150 up to Ojai, and back to SB however you want. Man! Now I can't stop thinking about the roads down there!

eippo1

Nice report and pics. I hope to get out there sometime with my bike. Taking my bike down to the N.C. Smokies this week to test out my climbing legs.