Tour De Los Padres

[phil_rad]

I was in the Ventura/Santa Barbara area recently; I kept looking towards the coastal range, wondering what kind of wonders await me on this route.
Good find Erin!

[MattL]

I have the TdLP on my calendar for 2015.  I did a great backpacking trip on Hurricane Deck a few years ago and loved the terrain out there.

I'll go back through and read all the trip reports and be sure to set a waypoint for the Miranda Pine spring.  In the meantime, if anyone has any other beta, I am all ears.

[ec_duz_it]

Matt, Glad you can make it.  Just finished the revised GPX and waypoints for 2015.  They can be viewed/ downloaded here: www.tourdelospadres.com

We had a sub 50% finish rate last year, so I streamlined things a bit and made the route a bit easier than the 2014 route.  Hopefully I did not dumb it down too much!  I might still change the Carizzo Plain area- just depends on if I can get out there to scout a little more.

Lessons learned from 2014:

-The free Pabst Blue Ribbon   at Miranda Pines Camp was a hit.  I will do my best to make that happen again.  

-The resupply boxes at Miranda Pines were not necessary. As a matter of fact I still have Rick Hunters resupply box.  The first rider who makes it to Miranda Pines will get his box (still unopened!).  It will be an unsupported ride for 2015.  

-The jungle section of Gibraltar trail sucked ass.  We won't ever do that again!  

-I have no idea why I was the only person to do the short hike to bag the summit of Big Pine Mountain.  It was the highlight of the trip.  

-The cue sheets were off by 20 miles!  The ride was more like 290 miles versus 270.  Waypoints are better than cue sheets!  

-No female has yet to complete the route.  Where are the ladies?  

-I can get a group shuttle to the starting point but we need at least 8 riders on the shuttle to make it cost effective, and I need to reserve the shuttle 2 months ahead of time.  We will see if we can get that many riders to commit that far in advance.  

PS- I have been meaning to drive up north and do your Big Mendo Loop sometime.  Looks like a pretty nice loop you have put together.  

[Jilleo]

Thanks for the update! I'm hoping to join the fun in April. Looks like a great route. I've been wanting to tour through the Carizzo in spring for three years now (missed an opportunity in April 2012), so I'm looking forward to your scouting assessment.

[phil_rad]

I know its a long way out but I'm planning on 2016. I can kill two birds w/one stone, visiting family and doing a backpacking race ;-)

[hellvetica]

Hi Erin,

I would be interested in doing a shuttle to the start. Coming up from Los Angeles.

- Max

[ec_duz_it]

The Crazy Bear shuttle holds a maximum of 11 persons, bikes and gear.  Xavier quoted me $500 for the shuttle.  I think we would need at least 6 to make it worth it (about $80 each).  If we fill up the shuttle at 11 people, it would be about $45 each. We need to let Xavier know by early February if we want this shuttle or not, so please let it be known here if you want in on the shuttle.

http://www.crazybearbikes.com/

[ec_duz_it]

A modification to my response a few days ago.  See above.  The Crazy Bear 14 seater is now sadly retired. Xavier only has an 11 seater now.

[ec_duz_it]

A pretty significant change to the route for 2015- In the Carrizo Plain, we will take Elkhorn Road instead of the main road (Soda Lake Road).  No cars, more interesting and a little longer You can see my brief write up here:  http://www.tourdelospadres.com/blog.html    Revise GPX is up as well. 

[hellvetica]

That looks awesome! Looking forward to this.

[ec_duz_it]

I would like get input on this- the Stagecoach 400 date has now been moved to March 27th.  Last year about 50% of the TDLP riders also rode Stagecoach and we had a nice month in between the two events.   If there are quite a few of you that are riding Stagecoach and would also like to ride TDLP, we could potentially move the TDLP start date to April 17th, to give another week of recovery time.  If there are not a lot of riders who would like to do both events, the TDLP start date of April 10th will remain as is. 

[ec_duz_it]

No response on this forum, but from those who responded to me via FB and email, the April 17th date is better. Tour de los Padres will now be April 17th.  Stagecoach 400 changed to March 27th, so just trying to give riders that are doing both events more than a week to recover

[ec_duz_it]

Unfortunately the Crazy Bear 11 person bike shuttle van is booked with another engagement for April 17th, but I have a back up plan with my local cab driver (he has a suburban with racks and other vehicles with racks).  This is actually a good thing from a $ perspective, because we just need to fill up the suburban with 6 people and bikes then we can just add more vehicles on an as needed basis. 

If you want to ensure you have a spot on the shuttle please private message me and I will let you know how to send me deposit $.  Price per person will be $45 to $50.  Deposit $ required will be $30. 

Also, my wife and I are able to house two riders the night of April 16th.  My condo does not hold more people than that.  I offer this to the first two people who said they were in.  This year that would be Matt and Jilleo if they are interested.  If others are interested in a free place to stay let me know and, I will ask local friends who will also be riding if they can offer housing. 

[Jilleo]

I am still planning to embark on this year's Tour De Los Padres, and I'm glad that you bumped the date back, as I might end up running a 100-mile race in Alaska at the end of March and the extra recovery and re-acclimation time will be welcome. I would be interested in a place to stay on April 16. I'm driving down from the Bay Area and was hoping to find a good place to leave my car for the weekend. Is there any place nearby that fits this description?

Also ... the shuttle is from Santa Barbara to the start, I presume? I can send the deposit for that as well.

[ec_duz_it]

I will pencil you in for my place. Yes, there is limited free street parking (as long as you finish by Wed.!)  I will post the streets that are ok to park on this thread as we get closer (all are close to the finish point, which is the SB train station).  Yes, the shuttle is from SB to the start.  We will leave at 6:30 or so from SB for an 8:15 or so arrival to Frazier Park.

I swear in 2016 we should do this in late January.  I did a mini trip last weekend and it was perfect!

[Jilleo]

Thanks! Looks like you had beautiful conditions over the weekend. I'm in agreement that now that winter is no longer a season in California, November-February is a perfect time of year for a long weekend bike tour. Less fog on the coast, less heat, fewer people, long starry nights. Even many Tahoe area trails were more or less rideable for much of the winter. Maybe you hit an atmospheric river and 10 inches of rain, but the odds are still better than not that you'll have great weather.

[robotfury]

I was studying the route last night. Just a few questions. How does this route compare to SC400? Looks pretty remote, so I will be packing in some food. What are the food resupply points? I think there are two, one at a General Store (mile 30 something?) and then a restaurant? Might as well add water resupply points to that question. I remember that there are a number of spots where we can use a filter and then a long stretch without any water. And finally could you comment on route finding. I think Roland mentions in his blog a few hard to find spots.

Thanks.

 

[ec_duz_it]

I only have completed the first half of Stagecoach, but unless the 2nd half of Stagecoach is vastly different than the first half, TDLP is quite a different route in many ways.  Resupply support is one.  First support is mile 36 or so at the town of Pine Mountain Club where there is a store, Mexican restaurant and two other restaurants.  There is a even a hotel here for those doing the easier "tour" route.  Next support is Ventucopa where there is a restaurant (burgers and beer) and a general store at the Santa Barbara Pistachio Farm (gas station and snacks).  There is also a winery in Ventucopa called Sagebrush Annies.  This is where I plan to stop- but they require 24 hours advance reservation minimum.  But if you plan ahead you can have a home cooked meal with the best award winning wine in California.  I am pretty sure we will have the trail magic stop at Miranda Pines Camp like last year on Saturday night.  We had a nice little gathering of riders there on night #2 and it was a great time.  For those going for an ITT, I guess they will have to rough it out a little more and carry more food.  All that said, you should not need to carry much more than 2 nights, 3 days food if you play your cards right.

As far as water is concerned, there is no reliable water between Ventucopa and Selby Camp (78 miles). I did a 64 mile loop in the Carizzo Plain last December of most of this section, and had water to spare at the end of the ride though, so I would only be concerned about this section if it is really hot.  140 oz of water from Ventucopa should get you through this section, since the riding is pretty flat for the most part.   Since last year, I found the spring near Miranda Pines Camp and there is also apparently a more reliable spring near Painted Rock Camp. So the dry section of the Sierra Madre Ridge should not be as much of a concern as last year. After that, water sources are plentiful.

The confusing sections are Selby Camp to highway 166, and the Santa Barbara front country at the end.  The section Roland is referring to in his blog is last years route.  You would only be going that way this year if you take the "Hot Springs Option".  If you ride with a gps mounted to your handlebars (and not in your pocket) you should be fine.  

[robotfury]

Great details. thanks.

[ayayron]

Are spots still available on the shuttle? When do we need to commit to the shuttle by?