This is a close finish between Art and Tony!

Recent water report near Painted Rock Campground.  Painted Rock is dry, but water at Montgomery Spring about 1/2 mile from Painted Rock Camp.  Not sure which Montgomery spring (there are 3 of them).  Here is topo map showing where the 3 Montgomery Springs are:

Did you try loading the split versions?  (download the GPX files I posted on this thread on April 6 above)

Aaron, this might sound obvious but did you load both the track and the waypoints? They are seperate gpx files.

Anyone else have this issue?

http://trackleaders.com/lospadres18f.php

Fire up your tracking device if you have it, and see if you show up on the map

I sent an email about the shuttle. I think the only 2 people missing from that email are Jeff Phillips and Tony B. 

Jeff I do not have your email, so please send me a private message with your email address.

If there is anyone else who wants a shuttle ride and you did not get an email from me, please let me know. 

Hi everyone, here are the split versions of the proper course. The tour route should load fine as one file, since it is less than 10,000 points.  Also, don't forget to load up the waypoints gpx file too.   

Please load these up sooner rather than later and let me know if they load up ok or if there are any problems.

Free parking in downtown Santa Barbara is as follows.  There is more than this, but these are the streets I park on regularly. Just do not leave any valuables in sight inside your car.  There is Wed. and Thurs. Street sweeping on these streets depending on which side of the street you park. Streets sweeping ends at noon on Thursday on these streets. Just make sure to read the parking signs carefully when you park.   

200 and 300 Block West Cota St.

500 and 600 Block of De La Vina St.

600 Block of Bradbury Ave.

700 Block Castillo st.

If you want paid covered parking there is a ton of lots downtown: https://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/dtp/default.asp

I do not simplify the track, so the track should be very spot on.   That reminds me - you have to split the track into several tracks to get it to load onto a Garmin (at least for an Etrex 20).   If anyone does not know how to split the tracks into several tracks I can do that and post it here.  Just let me know.   If you have a microchip inside your Garmin, you do not need to split the track. 

Marin and Aaron got you down for the shuttle. 

Proper route finishers last year were typically between 3 and 4 days.  Jeff K. completely destroyed the route in about 37 hours last year, but he forgot to (or didn't need to) sleep.  Would be interesting to see if anyone tries to beat that time this year.  The course will be riding faster this year, so it could be possible. 

Will send out an email to all registered riders about the shuttle.  If you are not planning to register, and you want a spot on the shuttle just let it be known here if you want a spot on the shuttle.  

Weather looks good for next weekend so far, but it looks like it will be a cold start in FP.  

Just a few notes regarding route options:

If you are doing the tour route and decide to add any portion of the proper route, that is fine. 

Tunnel Trail is an option for the proper route (trail starts at mile 241).  I don't recommend this trail (it is a super technical trail).  But if you have downhill technical riding skills and you want to stay on dirt versus pavement, then go for it.

For both routes there is an option to ride on the wet sand along the beach.  This is only recommended at mid to low tide: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27162219

Here are tide charts, looks like the beach option will be doable from about noon to 7 pm Saturday through Monday.  Will be a scenic way to finish.

A few photos of Carrizo from this weekend.

Nice work Joe!  I just got back from car camping at Carrizo Plain. It is nice and green out there but very few wildflowers. It is not going to be a superbloom year like last year. But the good news is that there will be way less tourists out there.  I confirmed this morning that the water spigots at Selby are flowing. Also I set up 2 water caches just to be safe. I will send out the details on these a day or two prior to the group start

There is also a small stream at mile 125.  I filtered water here last year and it was flowing well.  I have seen water here in previous years too. 

Sign up is up and running:
https://form.jotform.com/trackleaders/lospadres18

Art, in January there was a little flow in Gifford. I am surprised Gilliam has no flow and we just got a ton of rain last weekend. That spring has always had flow. I might be going out to Carrizzo Plain this weekend. I will see if I can drop some gallons at the visitor center.

This loop will be fine
If you do some wine tasting at Sagebrush Annies in Ventucopa, I am pretty sure Larry and Karina will let you park at their place.  Or you could park off one of the forest roads (Quatal Canyon, Apache Canyon or Santa Barbara Canyon).

Can't view the route for some reason...

Art, are the Gilliam Spring area trails trampled out by the cows?  I rode there in January and that one narrow section of trail looked like it had been trimmed a bit.  It seemed wider than last year.  But if the cows use the trails after it rains, they can really turn those trails into a bumpy ride. 

On another note, the finish line is looking good.  The Brewhouse burned down last summer, but they have since re-modeled and the beer is now flowing again . 

Replay of last year. Art, Wes and Drew all finished in two days. http://trackleaders.com/lospadres17f.php

Camuesa Connector photos from today. The recent storms have really started to green things up.  No dust   Looks like another storm hitting in a few days.  Still a pretty dry year though.  The Santa Ynez River crossing was a waist high swim last April, and as of today the crossing is still dry.