Tour de los Padres 2017

[ec_duz_it]

Yes 7:30 am start.  Big John's does not open until 7 am, so hopefully 30 mins is enough time for everyone to grab a hot coffee and a bite to eat.  

I sent an email to everyone I thought might need a shuttle ride. Most of you have got back to me.  If you did not receive an email for some reason and you want in on the shuttle, please private message me your email so I can forward the email to you.  

If you are not taking the shuttle, but are coming up on Thursday evening and want to join in on the happy hour it is at Jeremy and Michelle's House (starting at approximately 5:30 pm) - 1174 Dusty Road, Frazier Park CA, 93225.   It is BYOB and we can order pizza delivery to their house from the local pizza place.

Looks like Megan had a bad knee and had to quit at Toad Springs.  But the 4-some ITT on the tour route just finished now, good work guys!

[ec_duz_it]

It is going to be a cold start on Friday. Please gear up accordingly! Also another small storm system predicted for Monday too. 

Frazier Park:
Thursday Night -A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Partly cloudy, with a low around 28. Wind chill values as low as zero. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.
Friday - A 20 percent chance of snow showers before 11am. Sunny, with a high near 43. North northwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.
Friday Night -Mostly clear, with a low around 32. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph.

Santa Barbara:
Saturday - Sunny, with a high near 66.
Saturday Night - Partly cloudy, with a low around 53.Sunday - Partly sunny, with a high near 65.
Partly sunny - with a high near 65.
Sunday Night - A slight chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 53.
Monday - A slight chance of rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 65.
Monday Night - A slight chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 53.
Tuesday - A slight chance of rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 65.

[Roland Sturm]

I planned to camp tomorrow (Thursday) night, getting second thoughts now. But in any event, will pack warmer than I have in years.

I also was in the Carrizo Plain last week, here is where the "proper route" goes through. That is on top of the Caliente Ridge, before the radio tower. In previous years, I would get there Saturday morning, camped about 1/3 up the climb out of the plain. Lots of nice turnouts that are normally empty, but last week there were quite a few people camping even during the middle of the week. Probably will be even fuller this weekend. Many more nice camp possibilities on the ridge, but I wouldn't make it there the first day.  

The Carrizo Plain (or rather the two ranges on either sides) is spectacular this year , I've never seen it like this, usually it is just the dready brown.

[ec_duz_it]

The Trackleaders Map is now updated. Fire up your SPOTs and check to make sure you are on the map. 

And I almost forgot- if you are parking a car in Santa Barbara here are streets that are free to park on (until Wednesday street sweeping):

200 and 300 block of West Cota Street

500 and 600 block of Bath Street

400 and 500 block of De La Vina Street

There are other streets too, just read all posted signs carefully.  Each block and each side of the street has different parking rules. 

If you want covered paid parking here is a list of parking structures downtown: http://www.santabarbaraca.gov/gov/depts/pw/dtp/

[ec_duz_it]

Very impressive ride by Jeff K.  He absolutely killed it out there!  Solid ride by Gregg D. as well.  Congrats to all the tour route finishers as well. A 3 day pace was really hard for me.  My ass hurts and my fingers are numb

Looks like Marin S. is backtracking and is going to bail. That is too bad. I know she has already ridden the Sierra Madre Ridge before, I wonder what happened, maybe she ran out of water.

The remaining 4 riders are looking strong

Conditions were tough this year.  As expected lots of wash outs, ruts, and sections of dirt roads that were destroyed by the big 7-inch storm back in February. That storm was a monster.  The wildflowers were amazing though and there was a good amount of water along the course.  You just have to take the good with the bad and keep moving forward. 

[Roland Sturm]

It is a tough route, even without the Caliente range. The touring route is perfect for 2 long days, making it a very efficient bikepacking trip because it feels like a much longer ride. Getting on and off the bike 100 times helps with that feeling. Actually, around Mono, I briefly had trepidation that this would become a death grind like 3 years ago. But it isn't, progress is slow and at times frustrating with all the washed out areas, but it is interesting. Managed to sink into the mud over my ankles. It looked so dry with big cracks, but actually was very soft.

Yeah, the first night up on Mt Pinos was cold, but I brought the right equipment to have a comfortable night. The nighttime climb was nice and it was very pretty in the morning with a tiny bit of fresh snow. Beats staying indoors even on a cold night. For staying high up on a mountain, Mt Pinos is nicer than Big Pine. I hiked up Big Pine around sunset, but it isn't very attractive; Bluff made for a much nicer campsite even if just for creek. After descending Mt Pinos, I backtracked to the turnoff at Darling to see the group, but the downed trees slowed me enough that most of you had just come through.

Past Ventucopa, there actually is a trail near the rock quarry that goes across the river bed, comes out at the sharp turn on the other side. I tried that, worked fine (a bit of sand pushing) and avoids pavement and traffic.

Looks like Marin S. is backtracking and is going to bail. That is too bad. I know she has already ridden the Sierra Madre Ridge before, I wonder what happened, maybe she ran out of water.

Running low on food would be my guess (or maybe she just had enough riding, 2 days were enough for me). Would have taken her until tomorrow afternoon and evening, so 4 full days after the last resupply, which is a lot to carry.

[greggd]

What a ride! Jeff K killed it out there. I couldn't keep up the pace through the Carrizo. I decided to give it my best effort this year and it was a tough one. So much different with all of the rain. Lot's snow (top of Mt. Pinos), water, tons of flowers and vegetation (sometimes a bit too much. I've never clogged a derailleur with flowers) and a lot of erosion. The dissent from Little Pine was relentless in the middle of the night, but also sad because I know it will be a long time until it's back to a rideable condition. My goal was to make the hike up Big Pine at sunset by the second day, which I did, and then push through to the finish, however the erosion made that impossible. The change in the terrain still amazes me.

Thanks for adding the bonus single track Erin. But...By the time I hit the middle of the second day my knee, ankle, and hands decided that I would not be doing the bonus.

I hope everyone that rode it enjoyed it. Always brutal but always beautiful. We get to see areas of the country people will never see!

[jeffkerkove]

Thanks Eric for putting this together!  Like others have said, great tough route! There is no way I would have came into these areas with a bike on my own.  The TDLP really gets you out there to experience this part of California.  We are all so fortunate to have got to seen the hills so alive with color! This by far was the highlight for me....the areas in/around Carrizo Plains.  

I honestly did not think it was going to be a 37 hour push for me.  I was planning closer to 2 days.  I felt pretty good and just kept moving along as I knew Gregg was likely not far behind after his charging start out of Frazier Park.  I tried to sleep right at Hwy 166, but was shocked how cold and windy it was.  I was wearing everything I had, but just laid there for 2 hours shivering and slowly eating some food.  I was up and moving again around 3 AM.  That next day was endless hills, ruts, and washed out hillsides.  I did cross paths with a bear after the Big Pine Mtn hike.  The bear was just chilling on the road.  We had a brief stare down before he/she bolted into the bushes.  That def got my adrenaline going!

Tough but rewarding riding for sure!  Thanks again!

Here is my Strava file from the ride - https://www.strava.com/activities/944215740

[Marin Sigurdson]

Hey all, congratulations to the finishers, blows my mind how fast you all are. A bear, Jeff, that's awesome!
 I did bail yesterday, just got too cold with the wind and rain on Sierra Madre ridge. And not good enough raincoat. Plenty of food and water, though.
I want to add my thanks to Erin for putting this together.
Back to my desk job...
Marin Sigurdson
PS- Nick bailed at Elkhorn with an injured knee. Nick, if you're out there, how'd that go? You make it out OK?

[ec_duz_it]

I have never seen a bear or a mountain lion on route in all my years out there. I once heard a bear in the bushes while on a backpacking trip near Ojai, and that is about as close as I have come to a bear in the Los Padres.  Consider yourself lucky if you see a bear! (from a good distance of course). 

Back in 2014, I wasn't entirely sure why I started this ride. I was inspired by my Coconino Loop tour in Arizona thought it was a beautiful route that represented bikepacking at its best and I wanted to share it with other people.  I don't have a career in the bike industry, and I don't have any $ to gain from this.  But now I know why I started it.  Because of all of the truly awesome people over the past 4 years who have shown up to ride this event, many of which I am friends with.  That is worth so much more to me than anything else I could gain from this experience.  Hanging out at the Brewhouse with Tommy and Lynne last night waiting for Shelly and Angela to finish was a great way to cap off the long weekend. Big congrats to everyone whether you finished or not

A few of my favorite pics:

[ec_duz_it]

Results are up in the usual location. Let me know of any errors. As usual, only the fastest male and female for each route are recorded.  All other finishers are listed in the order they finished.  Art had a pretty darn fast ride on the tour route!

Just out of my own curiosity, I tried to compare Jeff's time this year with Erik's time from 2014 and Blake's time from 2015: 

I calculated that the 2014 route (it was a hard one!) was about 11 to 13 hours slower than the 2017 route.  That would put Jeff's time from this year around 2 to 4 hours faster than Erik's 2014 time.  Yes this is debatable since the routes were quite different in difficulty. Erik's ride in 2014 is still one of the most impressive, that route was sooo hard (at least 7k more climbing), and Blake was ahead the entire time and he only passed him the last 30 miles.

I calculated that the 2015 route (harder than 2017, but way easier than 2014) was about 7 hours slower than the 2017 route. That puts Blake's time and Jeff's time within 1 hour of each other (too close to call for me)  

[Marin Sigurdson]

April 13 is good for me. Maybe the tour route this time, as I don't have a ton of vacation time.

[ec_duz_it]

It is probably time to start a fresh 2018 thread and retire this one.  Will do right now...