Tour De Los Padres 2019

[Roland Sturm]

Kathy and I rode the Mt. Pinos loop yesterday, no snow on the road, but the first trail after the Nordic Base still plenty of old snow (first photo). McGill trail only  a few minor patches that might even be gone next week, plus maybe 5 fallen trees, but is otherwise its lovely self (last photo). Middle picture is the horse trails before the climb gets going.

[ec_duz_it]

Thanks for the scouting report Roland!

Here is the update on the shuttle. We have 7 total signed up for the shuttle so I am probably going to use the Crazy Bear Shuttle Van this year. The van holds up to 11 people and 11 bikes, and it costs a total of $600, so if we reach 9 people or more, the cost will be less than $75 each.  Just FYI, my wife is driving me, so I can carry one person in my car, but I can't carry any extra bikes. 

Here is the confirmed list for the shuttle.  If you are not on this list, that means you have not yet paid and your are not confirmed for the shuttle. The last 4 spots are still up for grabs.  The 3 people that I thought wanted a spot on the shuttle, but I have not yet heard from are: Bikebuckets, Blake Garnand, and Avocado Bikepacker. 

Confirmed Shuttle List:

Art D.
Mike G.
Roland S.
Blake B.
Greg D.
Jeff P.
Flemming B.

[Roland Sturm]

If Roland decides to camp at Chucupate this year he could wait for the group at the Mountain View minimart in Lake of the Woods.The climb up to Chucupate would make up for the climbing from Big Johns to the mini mart.  I would like to mark Roland as finisher this year

Erin, you began your list with only riders who EXACTLY followed the course. That is an unambiguous criterion and you'd be watering it down when allowing substitutions and alterations, especially among riders aiming for time and place. So keep the exact route criterion for a deservedly narrow finisher list.

You can add other finishers separately, there clearly is a difference between finishing in Santa Barbara with some modifications (the most common one seems to be skipping the trail next to the road at Pine Mountain Club) vs riders who never make it past Mt Pinos. But no point in looking for compensation to make up for a route deviation (hop up Big Pine on one leg, do it twice?) I always finished in Santa Barbara, but with route alterations. Art always finished, but stayed on the route. There is no extra credit for other complications (e.g. one year I was involuntarily riding single speed from about Miranda Pines to the end, made the decision what to do after Romero easy!). So keep the the "pure" finishers category, and if you wanted to make the history section more complete, add a "modified route" finishers category separately.  

This week: Camping doesn't make the route any shorter, only gets the first few annoying miles out of Frazier Park done earlier (my least favorite part of the ride, with 166). But because I won't go back to Frazier Park in the morning, it'll be a route deviation that morning. There is no compensation for that, it does not qualify for the pure route finish. 

[ec_duz_it]

Finishers are those who use a SPOT and stay on route. Those who don’t use a SPOT but appear to have finished are marked as “unofficial” finishers. Those who use a SPOT and clearly deviate from the route or don’t finish are not marked as finishers.

Adding Ian to the shuttle list, so there are now 3 seats left on the shuttle.

[ec_duz_it]

 Hi everyone just a reminder because this is a issue every year. If you have a Garmin Etrex 20 or similar please use the 2 split tracks instead of the full track for the proper route. For the tour route this should not be an issue because that track is under 10,000 points. Also don’t forget to load the waypoint .gpx file also which is a different file. The waypoints are for both routes,  so there will be a few extra waypoints that you might not need.  It is not a bad idea to load both routes, In the event you were planning on doing the long route and decide that you actually want to do the short route. 

[funkyhunky]

Did this route over the weekend: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/29783142

There is a fenced off area after the climb from selby we had to hoist our heavy bike rigs over

First water point after selby was dry where we looked

Trickling and pooled water by the Gillam intersection. Did not take the springs trail because it was rocky hike a bike for an unknown distance

River flowing at rock front ranch

Water at miranda pines but the tank's full of tadpoles and dead bugs. Also, morning at miranda pine CG sucked big time, heeeeella cold wet and windy, got up at 6 but had to wait until 10 for the wind to clear out the heavy fog layer so we could feel our fingers

Amazing ride though, might do the shortcut route with you guys next year

[ec_duz_it]

Thanks for the report!  How about the water spigots at Selby Campground? Are they flowing? Also when you went down Bates Canyon road did you notice a small spring flowing on your right about a half mile down from the top?
Miranda Pines is never the most tasty water, but with a water filter And some powdered Gatorade it gets the job done.

[funkyhunky]

Spigots at Selby are not operational. Ranger said KCL CG had water to filter

We actually didn't take Bates canyon road, we took the hog pen springs trail (which is 8 miles further on the ridge) down to aliso park campground

[greggd]

Any word on Gifford Spring "horse trough"?

[ec_duz_it]

I spoke with the lady that runs Kokos Motel yesterday.  She said the newer rooms are $80 per night and the older rooms are $70.  She said she would waive the taxes, but that is the only discount she would offer. 

She said credit cards will be accepted.  Not sure why it was cash only last year, maybe their credit card machine was broken.

[B_Bock]

I haven't been able to figure out how to download the way points from RWGPS. Please advise. Thanks

[greggd]

They’re on the website. https://tourdelospadres.weebly.com/ride--route-info.html

[ec_duz_it]

Downloading the waypoints is a little confusing. They are a google drive file. After you click on the waypoint link, it looks like a jumbled mess of computer code.  Click on the download icon at the upper right to download the .gpx file. See screenshot below.

This is hard to believe for April, but it looks like there is now a chance of thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon into Sunday evening.  If this weather report holds, I think I am going to add a waterproof jacket and a waterproof bivy to my gear list. I don't have much experience riding in thunderstorms, but when I rode the Colorado Trail I would just take cover in the trees when the thunderstorms hit.  Stay off of ridgelines, summits, and highpoints and take cover in lower areas.

[ec_duz_it]

A few people have asked me about parking, so here you go.  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

[ec_duz_it]

We had an issue with the rental SPOTs. They were supposed to arrive to me yesterday but the address was slightly incorrect so they have not arrived yet.  I am hanging out at my mailbox hoping that they arrive today. Gregg Will meet everyone at the Santa Barbara train station for the Shuttle at 2:45 as planned.   My wife is driving me up to Frazier Park so I will see you all there.  We can all meet at La Sierra Mexican restaurant in Frazier Park after you check into your hotel rooms For margaritas, food, and live music.

[greggd]

Finished at 11:15pm Saturday. Congrats everyone. Brian - you’re an incredibly strong rider.

[dima]

Dima and Kris finished the tour route at 17:40 on Saturday (1 day 9 hours 25 min after the start). We summitted Big Pine mtn at night, with the low moon and the oil fields to the East providing the only views. Brian passed us at the Gibraltar dam. Congrats to everyone, and thanks to Erin for organizing!

[Blake]

I finished the Tour Route Sunday 9:20pm in 61:07:43. Camped in Santa Barbara Canyon at Dry Creek Friday and camped again Saturday at Bluff Campground. Good times. Thanks Erin! Blake Garnand

[Roland Sturm]

The weather made a diverse route even more unusually diverse this time. 3 days of heat drying, 1 day of cold soaking. The average would have been great! I got to SB around 7 pm on Monday, very cold and wet, just a day after I had been wishing for cold and wetness while counting miles for shade and water at Chokecherry. It is a cure to boredom from daily routine.

Eventually I'll post a full description on my blogpost, maybe even this week http://rolandsturm.blogspot.com/ But it'll be a few days. This ride gave me new ideas. I wrote up the first 2 editions of the TDLP in 2014 and 2015, not the later ones. The dry stretches help to appreciate the challenges travelers in the Southwest had to overcome in the past - without GPS, waypoints to water, and slower on foot or wagon than we are on bicycles. In my blog posts so far this year, I collected quotes from the 1850 (also a wet winter) travelers across the Mojave desert (Manly and Rogers party, the Jayhawkers) , who suffered much worse and some didn't make it. TDLP will be the first blogpost with bicycle content this year (the last trips were motorcycle), but comparing our outdoor experience with that from 150 years ago helps to appreciate how easy life is these days even when it feels hard. Other highlights will include: Fuel like a top racer - Gregg's secret food strategy or Did mice stop Lynne?, and, of course Did Roland deviate from the route this year again?

I saw 9 tracks yesterday on the way to Chokecherry, the rain probably cleared them and I only saw 1 track today after Gibralter, so somebody else without a spot was ahead of me and probably finished this afternoon (Flemming?).

After TDLP (or Stagecoach), we can better relate to desert travel in the past:

"Our thirst began to be something terrible to endure. We were so nearly worn out that we tried to eat a little meat, but the mouth would not moisten it enough so we could swallow and we had to reject it. It seemed as if we were going to die with food in our hand because we could not eat it. We talked a little and the burden of it was a fear that we could not endure the terrible thirst a while longer." William Lewis Manly (1894), Death Valley in '49, Ch. 10

"There was now before us a particularly bad stretch of the country as it would probably take us four or five days to get over it, and there was only one water hole in the entire distance. This one was quite salty, so much so that on our return trip the horses refused to drink it, and the little white one died the next day." William Lewis Manly (1894), Death Valley in '49, Ch. 11

[greggd]

Roland, after doing the Stagecoach and the TDLP at “full effort” this year, which was a “wet year” I completely appreciate the early travelers/explorers in the area. Unbelievable, I can totally identify with that first quote. This happened to me on both routes this year. Water is life, even if you have candy bars and Cheetos, that doesn’t do you any good if you can’t swallow the darn food.

Speaking of water. Seems that Brian found a cow trough on the Carrizo. I doesn’t anoint 3min trying to figure out that new green water tank in the hill section after the Caliente Ridge but didn’t want to follow the new pipes down hill. Anyone follow it? Also, does anyone know if the Carrizo visitor center has any water?