Tour of California, Stage 5

So I took today (Thursday) off work, a vacation day from the last 2 months of pre-mission-madness. It was a pretty fun way to spend a day: chasing the stage! It was a game of "Catch" and I caught the stage FIVE TIMES!

First I drove up (about 20 miles) to the start at Pismo Beach. Had the gravel (road) bike in the car so I could park near the 101 freeway on-ramp (for quick egress) and ride my bike thru the throngs of pedestrians and vehicles to the pier, where the start was at.

 So here is the start. The riders were all lined up with the jerseys at the front as usual, and now they are just rolling out. Sagan is in green and you can barely see him, he dropped back into the 2nd row just about in the middle of the picture.

 The front of the peleton.

After the start and all the team cars, official cars, TV and photo motos, ambulances and whatnot had FINALLY passed I was able to zip back to my car and hit the 101 headed for home.

 Here I am in Old Orcutt, about 4 miles from my house. This is the sprint-point, and there wasn't a lot of players today. These are the only 2 riders interested. And this is my 2nd catch of the race so far.

 And here is the peleton coming thru the sprint point.

After the enormous caravan again passed I jumped back in my car and followed the race up Clark Ave where I jumped back on the 101 South (the race continued on Clark Ave out of town). They passed within 2 miles of my house as they passed Bradley Ave. I then went south to Los Alamos and a bit beyond where I turned onto Aliso Cyn rd that takes me over to Foxen Canyon (where the race is coming thru).

 Here I"m on Foxen Canyon, just a bit past Aliso Cyn where I am parked. I WAS going to ride my bike up this little cat 3 climb, but the Hwy Patrol officer yelled at me not to go. So I waited the 20 minutes or more for the race to come by (it would have taken me about 5 minutes to climb it). What really ticked me off is that a guy on a bike came thru about TWO minutes before the racers and kept going, and Mr. CHP didn't say a WORD to him! I don't get it...maybe he didn't like my bike? Anyway, this picture is the breakaway cruising along.

 The back of the break-away. That's Sagan 2nd from the back.

 And here is the main peleton blazing by. So this is my THIRD catch of the race so far. I then again got in my car and blazed back over Aliso to the 101 South, where I headed to Santa Barbara. The race was going up and over Hwy 154, and I really wanted to go up that (have never ridden it before) but it's been raining, AND instead of closing the road for several hours like they have done in years past, they are just doing rolling road-blocks (according to the AMGEN site). Ugh...no way I'm riding that with the traffic...it's a dangerous road for CARS! So I had to go with plan B: Play catch with the race.

 Here I am at the intersection fo Hwy 154 and Foothill Road in Santa Barbara. This is the PA announcer-guy vehicle. He comes up in front of the race to any group of people and stops and gives a nice race report, then moves to the next group. LOVED THAT! I don't remember them doing that before...good idea!

 

 And just a few minutes later here comes the breakaway...being led by, you guessed it: Peter Sagan!

 Here you can see the peleton coming down the off-ramp from Hwy 154, about to make the left turn onto Foothill Rd.

And the peleton is making the corner onto Foothill.

 Looking at the back of the peleton, now on Foothill. The first 2 of the team cars are in this picture. After this I jumped BACK in my car and zoomed down past Santa Barbara, hoping to turn onto Hwy 150 towards Lake Casitas, and catch the race for a FIFTH time as they turned left onto 150...but the 101 off-ramp was already closed...missed it by THAT much! So I continued on to Ventura for the finish and expo.

 There were 3 biplanes flying around, doing some simple sky-writing (big "V"s for Ventura I guess).

 And this is the winner of the women's stage (1) van der Breggen...she is the reigning world champ wearing the Rainbow jersey. She finished well ahead of the rest of the strung-out field.

 Here she's about to cross the finish line. I'm standing about 15 meters from the line...not a bad spot!

 And here comes the men (about a half-hour later). I had no idea who was leading, other than that Peter Sagan had dropped out of the lead group as they ramped up the speed for the sprint.

 Here's one of the leaders (in white) just leaving my frame...the co-leader sprinter was to his left and I didn't catch him in this shot (you can see them side by side in the previous shot). That is the rest of the chase-group coming up behind.

And looking at the breakaway and the finish line.

And that was that. I waited a bit for the main peleton to start coming in, but they were quite spread out. I finally made my way back to my car and headed for home. Total mileage for the day: 265 in the car, about 20 (maybe) on the bike. But today wasn't for bike riding anyway...it was for catching the race as many times as I could, and I think FIVE is a pretty good number. I missed six by just a bit (guessing)...but that one was an outside shot anyway...I didn't originally plan for it, just added it into my itinerary this morning wondering if it would be possible. It wasn't. 

AND SO. That is the extent of my 2019 Tour of California-watching.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading out bike-packing again (another 1 nighter, returning Saturday afternoon), further refining my gear. I've added some stuff, meaning I have even more weight than my maiden voyage 2 weeks ago (when it weighed 15lbs). But I should be that much more comfortable. We shall soon see. I just need to NOT sleep near a Coyote Super-highway this time.

Later gaters...game ON!

Bikepacking 101, the REST of the story

I survived!

It was a great overnight trip, and I learned a LOT! But I"ll start with some pictures and go into the story from there. Hang on, cuz AWAY WE GO!

 So here is my gear (most of it, there were a few items I thought of after this shot, such as camp clothes to get out of cycling gear. My gear and the bags weighed right at 15lbs.

 Parked at my jump off point, with an 8 mile climb, then 15 miles on the Sierra Madre Ridge to get to the Painted Rock, my camping point.

 Getting close, this view is the first time you see the white rock. There is an entire valley of it, and THE Painted Rock is a lone bit just up from the valley.

 Painted Rock. There is a black hole (the cave with the ancient Chumash Indian paintings in it) about dead center of the picture and just down from teh top of the rock formation. You access the cave from the backside and on top. The Forest Service has put bars in place now to TRY to keep people out of the cave (destroying it)...but people still get inside. I take my pics from the ground or outside the cave.

 So I didn't want to camp AT Painted Rock (for one thing it's right off the dirt road, so anybody else who might pass thru would see me, and I like to be unseen in my camping). I continued past a bit and followed a game trail off the road, across the meadow around the back of Painted Rock, and slightly downhill, pretty much just above the valley of the rock. This smaller formation was my spot. I leaned my bike against the rock for the night, and there were several small puka's (caves) where I put some of my stuff, keeping it off the ground and away from most things that might want to mess with it.

 This is the view looking east, OVER the top of the valley of the Rock. You can see the road slanting across the hillside on the right of the shot. Then there is another large meadow in that valley in the distance with more smaller rock formations, and the road goes right thru it. A beautiful view for sure!

 This is the spring at Painted Rock. There is a large metal cylinder that the pipe (cut/broken, and now pouring spring-water right onto the ground) used to feed for the cattle that had been here years prior. I haven't seen cows here for 2 years now...HOORAY! (Cows really ruin it I can attest...cow pies EVERYWHERE, flies, stinky, stomping the trail into a bumpy mess that is hard to even ride a mt bike on, AND they can be dangerous...and I would know!)

Looking from the east at my campsite. I laid my bivy bag/sleeping bag in the grass in what LOOKED like a flat spot. I was wrong. I no sooner crawled in and I immediately slid to the bottom of the bivy bag...the sleeping bag and inflatable pad are SLICK! So I hauled the combo up to the rock where my bike was leaning, and plopped it down on the hard/flat dirt just in front of my bike. It was fine. Oh, also I should mention...you can see the game trail I rode here on just above the low rock in the upper middle of the picture. It continues around the back side of the big rock my bike is leaning on (and I was lying on the ground sleeping at) and continues I don't know where. So I'm sound asleep around 11pm, when suddenly it sounds like I"m being attacked by a band of Indians who are making coyote noises! I don't know how many there were, but it SOUNDED like a LOT! I grabbed my red pepper spray and my flashlight (inside my sleeping bag) and quickly turned on the light, and the coyotes on the warpath noises immediately STOPPED! That's how close they were! Holy smokes I was terrified! And now there wasn't a SOUND! Where did they go? Were they just on the other side of the rock, plotting their attack? (has anybody ever been attacked by coyotes?) All I know is that I didn't get back to sleep very quick, clutching my flashlight and pepper spray tightly!  But I did eventually fall asleep. I was quite warm until the wee hours of  the morning (the coldest part of the night) and it turns out all my breathing has made quite a bit of condensation on the inside of my bivy bag, and it's all going right into the top of my down sleeping bag, so it's losing it's insulation properties and I"m starting to get cold. Thankfully the sun started to come up not too much longer, and I immediately got up, made HOT COFFEE, and watched the sun come up! Ahhhh....coffee camping, SWEET!

 This is a panarmaa I made of the Painted Rock area as I descend into the valley. It's really different than the typical California Central Coast terrain.

  Another pan of the area looking east.

 A Pan of some of the white rocks that I explored after making my camp.

 This is a pan of 2 vertical shots of the white rocks in the valley, looking south-east. That's the road in the top going across. My camp is back to the left of the picture (a ways).

 More of the white rock...there is a LOT of it, HUGE formations too! Most of it I can't get to due to the thickness of the brush, and how DEEP the valley is with no way to get to the bottom. I only ended up exploring a small portion of what I hoped to...looking for more Chumash rock paintings.

A final shot in the rocks. In this shot I'm near the edge of the formation, with a LONG DROP just ahead and to the right. I'm mostly afraid of heights these days, so I stay well away from the edge.

 Breaking camp Saturday morning. I choose campsites well...this one had a large flat rock for me to lay-out my gear to dry before I packed it.

 Everything is packed and I"m ready to ride. I'm heading east another 10 miles to Santa Barbara Cyn, which will be my turn-around point today. Then I'll head back to the car.

 In the meadow on the other side of the valley. This formation has an arch to it, just about int he middle...see it? I'd never noticed it before, and I've ridden by it at least a half-dozen times now.

 Looking back across the valley I just rode across...my campsite is actually visible in this picture across the Valley of Rock, if you know where to look. Isn't that a beautiful valley?

 And here I'm at the junction of Sierra Madre Ridge (on the left). Santa Barbara Cyn (on the right), and the Forest Service Road (heads towards where I"m standing to take the picture). The Tour de Los Padres comes here on the Sierra Madre Ridge, and then turns right and takes the FS road to Big Pine (this weekends destination from the other direction) and eventually on to Santa Barbara for the finish.

 So I turned around at SB Cyn, and now I'm back at Painted Rock having  quick stop and snack before I head back towards the car (about 21 miles to go from here). So this is a picture from the ground of the Painted Cave...you can see the red'ish paintings on the roof.

Here I zoomed in (from the ground still) of the cave, and NOW you can see the paintings.

 So I'm about ready to ride, having my snack, enjoying the quiet and sun, and for some reason I look up at the little cusp of trees at the top of the little rise just ahead of me. Something was amiss, but I had no idea what...why did I suddenly look here? Wait, what is that in the trees? Do you see it?

 Here is a zoomed in picture. Yep...just what I suspected. A COW! (a bull or steer to be more precise, the thing is HUGE!) Where on earth did he come from? There has been ZERO sign of any cows here...no prints, cow pies, nothing! How long as he been here (in the area)? Did he get left behind 2 years ago somehow when the last herd was pulled out? I find that hard to believe...but here he is. There are cattle-guards on both sides of this valley...and the gates are closed. No cow will cross a cattle-guard. So just where did he come from? I was here yesterday, and I"m LOOKING for signs of cows (I"m afraid of cows). Even at the spring when I filtered water last night, there were no foot prints in the muddy water and the deep green grass around the spring outlet. This must be the smartest cow on the planet! A STEALTH COW! He knows if he leaves any signs that he's here he will be brought out and eaten (well, maybe he doesn't know THAT). He hadn't made a sound, in fact, when I THOUGHT I saw him in the shade I stood watching, and he didn't move a muscle until suddenly the ear on the left flicked like there were flies on it and he was shooing them away. Until that ear moved I wasn't sure it wasn't some trick of rock or something in the shade.

Anyway...thankfully he stayed right where he was at, and I got on my bike and rode away. Maybe he is "The Guardian Of The Painted Rock". You defile the site and you answer to him! I'd be ok with that. So my ride back to my car took abut 3 hours, and was competently uneventful. 

So...what did I learn from this trip? I learned that a "game trail" is made by wild animals, and it's probably NOT a good idea to lay down on the ground and sleep 25' away from one. I also learned I need a way to carry MORE water. My camelback was full, my 1 water bottle was full, but still I needed another 80 to 100 oz of water to complete my trip. I had to unpack my bike and ride BACK to the spring to filter and carry water in my now empty bags back to my camp site. I learned I need to do something different at night....the bivy bag might work but I can't have my face inside as the moisture will condense out onto the inside of the bag and then go right into my down sleeping bag. I think I need a small light 1 man tent. The bivy bag was a trial....likely not a great way to go. Maybe for a 1 or 2 nighter in decent weather...but it was down to around 40 during the night and that's pretty chilly in a 45 degree bag when it starts to get wet. I also learned my bike feels like the Queen Mary when I put 15lbs of stuff on it...but after a while you forget about it as it's still a bike and rides just fine, just a bit slower than usual. It's actually a GREAT way to go camping I discovered! You can cover a WHOLE LOT more ground than backpacking, that's for sure! Though I can carry more weight on my back. But the distance thing is pretty great. It would be 2 or 3 days each way to hike to where I was camping at with a backpack....I got there in a bit over 4 hours.

And so...that about wraps up my FIRST EVER Bike-packing trip! I hope to do another 1 nighter in 2 weeks (my last Friday off b efore the mission, and when I come back it will be getting pretty warm inland, likely NOT good camping weather.

OK. Gotta scoot...later gaters!

Cheers!

Bikepacking 101

Yes, as the title suggests, I'm about to embark on my VERY FIRST bikepacking trip!

It will only be a 1-nighter, so don't get too excited. It's more of a 'gear check-out' than anything else. Tomorrow (Friday, May 3rd) is my Friday off in our 9/80 work schedule...and I intend to leave the house around 8am and drive an hour to my ride-off-point, where I will ride my loaded mountain bike up Bates Canyon Rd to Sierra Madre Ridge, and then turn left onto the ridge road and go out to Painted Rock, where I will dump some gear and then continue on to Chokecherry spring where I will fill a bunch of water from the spring and head back and camp for the night at Painted Rock.

Painted Rock is called such as it's the site of ancient Chumash Indian cave paintings. There is a valley behind the Rock that is chock full of enormous rock formations, and I've been told there are more paintings in this area that nobody talks about. I intend to find some! I've been pretty keen on getting to this area and do some exploring ever since I first rode thru it many years ago...and NOW is the time!

I somehow got all my crap, er, I mean GEAR, packed into my seat "torpedo bag" and a day-pack that I am using as a handlebar bag. My mt bike won't fit my frame bag that I have for my gravel bike  (that's where I could likely carry a tent). I briefly considered riding that instead of the full suspension mt bike, but having rode about the first third of what I'm riding tomorrow last Saturday, I know it's pretty wicked rough and rocky....sure, I COULD do it on the gravel bike, but why? The mt bike will be WAY more comfy and fun.

I have to admit I've never spent the night 'out' alone before so far from any help....so it's going to be a teensy bit spooky, as there are certainly mt lions in the area (they are everywhere) and I saw bear tracks last Saturday about 25 miles from where I will be camping. And I'm NOT bringing a bear can for my food....just no way to carry it on the bike. And I don't recall any trees to hang my food, but I will bring a bag and some line as I hope to hang it somewhere AWAY from my camp for the night (so that any creatures that are intent on stealing it don't have to take it FROM me close to where I'm sleeping in my bivy bag).

Ahhh yes...the bivy bag...basically a nylon waterproof bag with a zipper and a face hole that my sleeping bag fits into along with a sleeping pad. I'm NOT bringing a tent (I have all my backpacking gear in the attic, aching to be used again). There's just no room. The bivy bag is new and also never used (Christmas present,) along with a new 45 degree down sleeping bag that I've also never used (also Christmas present). The bivy bag brings the temp rating of the sleeping bag down about 10 degrees....and then I'm bringing long underwear and wool socks to sleep in...so I HOPE that I don't freeze to death tomorrow night. It is a gamble I must admit. If worse comes to worst, I could just get up (if I AM freezing to death), pack my gear, and ride back to my car in the night. I do have lights (just in case).

Alas, I am looking at this as an adventure. Something TOTALLY NEW. In an awesome place.

So...I should (if I survive) have pictures here by Monday. Have a great weekend!

The wild-man-explorer, signing off.