Garfield Cat

I will be in Ojai this weekend and wondered if anyone has done rides there. Not interested in a century or even a metric centry. Maybe just 40 miles because of time constraints.

umd

From Ojai, you have 4 main choices, and from there many variations. You can either go east or west on the 150 or north or south on the 33. If you go north on the 33 it takes you up, and up, and up. A very nice but very long climb. And then you come back down. If you go south, its like 10 miles to Ventura. You can tool around and come back. East takes you out toward Santa Paula. Its a false flat for a while, then a bit of a climb, then a long false flat with not much interesting to look at. From Santa Paula you can loop back to Ventura then back up the 33. West takes you around Lake Casitas. A moderate to rolling climb for a while with a bit of a pitch up (but it never gets very steep) at the end, downhill a bit and then another little climb. You can drop down to Carpinteria, then ride back to Ventura along the 101 and back up the 33 to get back. Most of these rides are probably going to be 40-50 miles or so.

Garfield Cat

Looks like I'll try going west to the Lake and to Carpinteria. How's the bike lane this way?

Rick@OCRR

The Grand Tour Double is this weekend (6-28-2008), with a 4:30 AM start in Malibu (for me, anyway) and we'll have lunch in Ojai at about the 100 mile point.

So maybe I'll see you there!

Rick / OCRR

Garfield Cat

The West ride to Lake Casitas, Carpinteria, Ventura, Ojai was a ride with good variety. Riding on the 101 was like the Amtrak Century in San Diego along the freeway. The special bike asphalt path that takes you from Ventura to Ojai was a good and relaxing change of pace from the loud traffic along the 101.

On Suday, I took the East route by car to Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula. I passed a lot of riders on that route as well.

We drove to Solvang and I rode there too. We stayed at the Best Western. From Mission to Alamo Pintado Road to Santa Barbara to Steele to Foxen Canyon Road, past the Fess Parker Winery. This was a nice ride. Very few cars, great scenery, quiet.

umd

Glad you enjoyed it. Foxen is a nice road. How far did you go on Foxen, and where did you go from there?

Garfield Cat

I only went about 2 miles past the Fess Parker winery. I had to stop and pee. There was this gate to a private road but no sign as to ranch name, just a gate and the cattle grid on the ground. So I stopped for a few minutes, ate a banana and drank some fluids and headed back.

Going back was really fast, going downhill ever so slightly. Saw a few crushed squirrels and dead birds on the road. But I kind of wondered if there were any mountain lions nearby.