Good 2-3 day routes for Southern and Central California

[ec_duz_it]

Good to see you LA peeps getting out there.  Go Clippers! 

Keeping this thread going with a trip report from a day ride that I did last weekend to the top of McKinley Mountain, which is above the town of Santa Ynez off of highway 154. Although this was only a day ride for me, there are some nice bikepacking opportunities on this route for a two day, one night affair.   Take hwy 154 to Happy Canyon Road and take it all the way to Cachuma saddle (the saddle between Figueroa and McKinley Mountains).  Take the fire road to the east, which leads you to McKinley Summit.  Its a 100% rideable (if you are a bad ass).  I encountered a few steep walk-a-bike sections and some snow.  The summit of McKinley must be hiked to reach the top (which is well worth it).  The nicest campsite I saw was McKinley spring. For a less hardcore overnighter, I would just camp at McKinley spring and come back the way you came.  For a more hard core adventure, you could park one car at upper oso campground before starting from Cachuma saddle and instead of going back the way you came from McKinley Spring, you would continue on the McKinley Fire Trail, which goes East to Santa Cruz campground and Happy Hollow Campground and you even take the Santa Cruz trail singletrack down from Happy Hollow Campground (or take the fire road down if you are feeling less hardcore).  Photos:

[EricB]

looks like a fun trip! do you have a gpx for it by chance?

[ec_duz_it]

I don't have a GPS (yes I use topo maps!), but I use Bikeroutetoaster to plan my rides.  Here is the link to the route. 

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=509204

Note that my post only covers the first 50% of this ride.  The middle part of this ride between Mckinley Mountain and Little Pine Mountain I have not yet done.  the Santa Cruz Trail down from the top of little pine mountain I have recently done and its a really fun singletrack (but pretty technical if you are bikepacking-- you will want to walk some sections). 

-Erin

[ec_duz_it]

Just got back from doing this route:

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=517020

I am glad we did this route early in the year.  No snow at all at the top of big pine mountain.  Very pleasant air temperature conditions right now on this route, and going back the santa cruz singletrack on day #2 is a big bonus, as it is in great condition thanks to the Santa Barbara Mountain Bike Volunteers.   Take at least 64 oz of water to start.  You will not find water until you get to Bluff Campground.  Day 1 is pretty hard if you want to make it to big pine campground- 6000' + of climbing.  Otherwise you can camp at bluff campground and summit big pine on day #2. We camped at Big Pine Campground, which is just off of big pine road.  Great sunset up there.  Take the time to hike to the summit of big pine, its an amazing view up there.  Water can be found in a small stream near big pine campground.  Get out and have fun, Bikepacking season is here!

[ec_duz_it]

I did a similar loop to this a few years ago, but I changed the routing drastically this time around to get in a lot more singletrack in (probably too much singletrack actually!)  Photos and GPX here:

http://www.tourdelospadres.com/blog.html