Good 2-3 day routes for Southern and Central California

[ec_duz_it]

OK, so here is the info (or beta as you guys call it) on the Big Pine/ Buckhorn road route between Ventucopa and Santa Barbara.
I've done most of the fire road routes in Santa Barbara County and I must say that this is by far my favorite route I have taken thus far!  I highly rec comend.  You hardcore people could do it all in one day, but I rec comend at the bare minimum one night of camping.  We did 2 nights of camping and the last day was pretty easy.

Day 1, Friday we took a half day off work and did not get to our starting point until 6 pm.  Camped at Santa Barbara Potrero campground. There is a horse/ cow trough (marked as "oak spring" on the map) with running water in it.  Its not the best water, but its not the worst either.  Here is the route---

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=382168

Day 2, Ascend up towards Malduce Peak. Stop at "Chokecherry Spring" (marked on the map) for some very nice mountain water.  Then decend to Alamar Campground for lunch.  Ascend up to Big Pine mountain in the afternoon. There were snowmelt streams up here with more great water. I doubt they run year-around.  Big Pine Campground supposedly has a spring, but I did not confirm this, as we did not camp there. If you want to "bag" the summit of Big Pine mountain (highest point in SB County), you will need to walk the old fire road, which is on the map--It is littered with fallen trees. I wanted to camp at Big Pine campground, but my friend wanted to descend because he did not bring a warm jacket. We decided to camp at Bluff campground instead (there is a creek here which I bet has water year-around).  We had enough to swim this time of year.  Here is the route if you were going to camp at Big Pine. We instead descended 2000 feet in 4 miles and camped at Bluff campground instead of Big Pine. Both are nice campgrounds.

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=382172

Day 3, If you camp at Big Pine, you will have a decent to Bluff Campground then a slight ascent and then its all down from near the top of Little Pine mountain!  Its several miles of road biking to get to the paradise store, which has food and beer and phone service. Have a car waiting over here or call someone to pick you up. Route:

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=382175

Additional option if you want to ride straight into Santa Barbara-- instead of going to the Paradise store, ascend up Arroyo Burro road and take this route which will take you right into downtown Santa Barbara. Route--

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=384054

[ec_duz_it]

Pictures

[ec_duz_it]

more pictures

[ec_duz_it]

even more pictures

[LonestarJ]

Cross posting from "trip planning" section.

This is most of the route that Erin posted about above.

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Los Padres Corridor 5/18 - 5/20/2012

The ride this weekend was great. Weather was cooler than I expected but made for great riding.

We skipped Bates and started out of Aliso Canyon so we could do the singletrack out of Hog Pen camp up to Sierra Madre road. It meant we got 5 more miles in and my wife had less dirt road to shuttle us on.

Good water abounds on this route right now.

We camped at Big Pine on Saturday, it's quite the steep hike-a-bike down to the campsite off the road but beautiful, with a good nearby spring.

photos here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/107966834694404939614/albums/5745000959143914129

Jason.

[jp3d]

I did this route last year: http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,2201.msg22134.html

If someone can figure out an alternative to the private Avenales Canyon ranch road, that would be great!
It might be possible to contact the ranch owners ahead of time and ask nicely if you could ride through as well?

[ec_duz_it]

I just posted a new thread for this route:

http://www.bikepacking.net/forum/index.php/topic,4654.0.html

[ec_duz_it]

Keeping this thread alive with a new trip report from November 10-11th!  This is a loop ride we have been talking about doing for sometime, since it does not require any use of cars, since some of us live in Santa Barbara.  Here is a link to the route:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=478698

There are 2 sources of water as you go up Romero Canyon.  1 source of water at the bottom of Juncal Road at the Santa Ynez River.  There is water along the road near Big Caliente Hot Springs.  There is also water at Middle Camuesa campground in a horse trough/ wine barrel thing.  Our last source of water was a hose bib at a car campground at the bottom of Arroyo Burro road (it says no trespassing, as it is a private campground, but they seem to be cool).

This route is 100% rideable, with no walk-a-bike sections, but don't be fooled, if you are doing this as 2 day, 1 night trip, it is quite a challenge.  About 8000 feet of climbing.  I highly recommend doing the camuesa connector singletrack, which is in very good shape thanks to our local mountain bike trail volunteers.  

Camping at either Mono (which is near Little Caliente Hot Springs) or at Big Caliente Hot Springs is a must.  We went in the hot springs at Big Caliente twice. If you can make it to Mono/ little caliente you will be farther along the route for the next day. We saw another group of bikepackers at Big Caliente that were on a much longer trip than us. I think they came all the way from Thousand Oaks.  Also a car camper gave us a few cold beers, which were amazing!

I will post photos shortly.  

Have fun!

-Erin

[ec_duz_it]

Photos!

[ec_duz_it]

More photos!

[ec_duz_it]

the last of the photos.. sorry if i posted too many...

[Ogre]

There are lots of opportunities in the southern sierra's just east of Bakersfield. I live on the far east side of town and can jump on a road about a mile from my house that quickly turns to dirt and heads up to 7000+ feet. The first 4000' can be a little stiff, but after that you're in sequoia national forest and the network of fireroads and single track is pretty mind boggling. Water sources are available year round if you know where to look. I've ridden a lot of it on day rides and have just recently started exploring the multiday potential. I plan on doing a number of weekend trips this winter depending on snow level. When things heat up next summer, I plan on really exploring the high country that has previously been inaccessible for day rides. If anyone would be interested in checking out this area, let me know. I'd be happy to help plan a route or join in the ride. At some point, my gps skills will be up to posting routes, right now they're not. I have a good bit of the area mapped and can point you toward a number of water sources, all you have to do is ask.

[ec_duz_it]

Ogre, that is an area I definitely would like to explore more.  About twice a year I ride Mt. Pinos, which is pretty close to Bakersfield, but I have yet to ride much in the southern sierras, although I did do a little riding near Quaking Aspen campground outside of Springville awhile back.  We should meet up sometime for a day ride.  In the meantime, if you have any routes you are thinking about, I like to use bikeroutetoaster.com to save and share my routes.  I don't use GPS.  Topo maps never run out of batteries! 

[Ogre]

The riding up by Quaking Aspen is pretty cool, where else can you ride good single track through redwoods? I've also ridden Pinos a number of times, love that climb. PM me anytime you may be in the area and we'll do some riding. As far as 2-3 day loops go, I know of 3 or 4 I could just do from my house with terrain varying from 100% fire road to 60/40 fireroad/singletrack. There is also the potential to quickly expand these rides to 7+ days and still work in resupply points with proper planning (the best one being the Kern River Brewery for a few IPAs). The best thing about the area is the low usage level, it's nothing like Pinos. Not unusual to ride all day without seeing another person...unless it's hunting season.

[ec_duz_it]

Cool man, will do.  Ill message you when i have a free weekend in the new year.  In the meantime you can check out some of these routes I have planned out:

Los Padres 300 mile:

http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=455657

A two day ride in eastern sierras:
day1:
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=451176
day2:
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=451186

[Ty]

Just some quick beta about the route Trebor posted.  We do the ride from JPL to the Mount Wilson peak as a day ride.  Start at JPL and go up mostly on the double track fire road.  You'll hit the tunnel just before coming to the paved road if you keep following the fire road double track.  You can take the paved road to the Mount Wilson peak where you'll find a nice water spigot to fill up in the parking lot at the top.  The paved section to the top is short.  Looks like Trebor took a left on Mount Wilson Red Box Road.  Just take a right to the peak past the antenna towers.  You'll also find a little place at the observation station that makes sandwiches and sells snacks like candy during business hours.  We ride to the top on the double track, eat lunch at the top, chicken sandwich with pesto is great.  Then we head back down on singletrack which crosses back and forth over the fire road a few times.  Singletrack is super fun and techy but better going downhill.  I'm going to have to try the bikepacking version of this ride now that I know it, looks really fun!  Thanks!

[Ty]

Also, for water spots in SoCal I came across this radical and public google map created by people on another forum,

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=215699388746030865009.000468b4b8756a1725718&msa=0&ll=36.914764,-104.589844&spn=34.636016,67.631836

Anybody can add water spots to this public map and the ones I have used from it are spot on accurate, see screen shot below for the idea.  We showed up dirty from 30 odd miles of single track on Backbone trail in the Santa Monicas and stocked up at the public lunch window within the Malibu Country Club on Encinal road at about Decker intersection.  Too funny, posh country club and bikepackers eating fresh gourmet burgers on the way to Malibu Creek State Park for the night.  It was one of my first trips and we looked like a rag tag bunch.  Also to note is the number of spigots right on the roads at driveway intersections.  I had no idea there was one right on the climb up Stunt road despite passing it several times.  Looked at the map and noticed it, sure enough it is right there in the open when we were looking for it.  Don't be shy about adding good lunch and water spots if you know them

[EricB]

So I decided to do trebor's ride this weekend, but I had to be home by 7pm so I cut out the Verdugo mountains portion and instead parked by JPL. It's a pretty spectacular ride with 7500 feet of pretty tough climbing (although with the Verdugo's it's probably twice that, oof). I've hiked portions but never ridden it, the paved part of the road up Mt. Lowe is BRUTAL but once you hit the end of the pavement, right around the Echo Mt. trailhead, it turns quite nice. Riding through trees and even patches of snow. Never done the Rincon Red Box trail before, it's pretty incredible, nice flowy fire road down along a stream bed passing a couple campgounds. I was totally unprepared for the climb out when you pass the West Fork campground. Seems to go on FOREVER and some pretty muddy sections due to snow melt. I was glad to be on the descent again and found the trail out of there, it says "Road closed, locked gate ahead". Ignore it, it's only locked for cars apparently. It drops you into Monrovia and then a steady uphill through the city to get back to the car. Then I ate a burger and a pizza.

Didn't take too many photos but here's a couple:

Really shocked to see snow considering how warm it's been.


One of the many rest stops on the climb out of West Fork. Granny gear in full effect.

[trebor]

Ha ha!

It's "climby" isn't it!! I'm trying to get a group together in a few weeks to do a similar route. I may leave Burbank and do Verdugo and then pick up some "virgins" in Pasadena/Altadena. The plan is to meet up with them early to mid-afternoon, ride up, and camp in Red Box Canyon at one of the primitive sites. Then loop out to a trail down Big Santa Anita Canyon the next morning. It's open to bikes!!!!! The trail is popular with hikers too, so getting down the trial early will be best.

Then ride back across the valley the next morning, getting breakfast and coffee on the way back to drop off the Pasadena/Altadena group. I'll continue on over the Verdugo's again to finish off my ride.

I think 80-ish miles for me and 40-ish (sub-24 hour) for the others.

Looking like 3/16 and again on 4/6 as the start dates.

[EricB]

Yeah that was my original bailout, to drop down the canyon to Chantry Flats. If you haven't ridden the Upper Winter Creek trail, it's pretty sweet. Sort of technical with steep drops on the side of the trail, would be interesting on a loaded bike!

If you're taking random riders I might be interested in joining.