Figueroa Mountain Loop Road ride, Santa Ynez, CA

Last Sunday I finally was able to sneak in a Figueroa Mountain ride. I try to do this one a few times a year, but it must be done when it's cool (relatively speaking) but not COLD. I tried this ride 2 years ago in September when the forecast was for low 90's, and when I turned around about 5 miles up the 10 mile climb it was 116F. The COOLEST it got on the descent (and 14 mile ride back into Los Olivos where I was parked) was 111. I was out of water by the bottom of the hill (felt like I was descending into a fire) and finally I stopped at a house on the road to beg for water (he probably saved my life...it was THAT hot). I've also been up it in March when it was so cold at the top and coming down that I was afraid I would crash due to my arms shaking.

But I digress. Fig is a GREAT ride, and it's listed in the website of US climbs as an HC climb. I'm quite weak as compared to years past, so this ride was purely about survival and getting some hard miles in my legs, trying to catch up some for being on travel so much this year. The forecast was pretty good (NOT in the low 90's) so I decided this was the time to give it a go (even though I did 60 pretty-hard miles on Saturday).

 Heading towards the mountain. That's it, dead center in the pic off in the distance. I'm rolling along at about 600' above sea level here, and the summit is right at 4500'. I'm doing the loop counter-clockwise.

 

 Getting closer...this picture is taken from Happy Canyon Rd which takes me right up the back side. It's 14 miles from Los Olivos to the base of the climb, which off under the clouds to the right. The peak is dead center in the pic, and the road comes across from the back side just to the left of the highest spot in the pic (a tiny little peak).

 And the climb begins, only 10 more miles to the summit. The climb averages between 6 and 12% grade, and gets your attention right quick as it starts out above 10% for most of the first mile. As the altitude started climbing, so did the temps. Here at the base it was only about 72F right around 9:30am.

There's a 1 mile dirt section about 2 miles up. Average grade is between 6 and 8%, so I'd rather climb than descend it (there's lots of sharp rocks and some pretty poor road in general). Trying to come down this section slow is not very fun. Does it appear that it gets rather HOT on this side of the Mt?

 About mile 5, half way up the climb. LOTS of debris in the road. It's paved but relegated to near jeep-trail status at times. The grade is holding at about 10% here. Also the temp is hovering around 93F, which is still quite do-able. This is just past where I turned around on that ill-fated STUPID-HOT day 2 years ago. I'm quite stubborn apparently (I kept thinking it would get cooler as I climbed, until I finally figured out that it wasn't). It was in the news 2 days later that a college kid had died of heat-stroke climbing up from the other direction (they didn't find him until Monday). I guess I made the right choice to turn around when I did!

 Now I'm past Cachuma Saddle (an intersection at mile 6) where I turn onto Figueroa Mt Rd and head for the summit. This shot is looking North at the jeep-road to Mckinley Peak. This is a great Mt bike ride, with a long and strenuous climb (ie, I LOVE IT!) It's about a 2 hour climb from the saddle, and about 20 minutes to descend. At the very top of the picture you can see the trail slanting across thru the trees onto the ridge. It gets hard from there.

 Having now crossed over to the south side of the Figueroa Mountain, you can see the what all intrepid riders do: switchbacks galore, laughing at you hysterically (you've been climbing around an hour at this point). Keep on grinding, only about 3 miles to go!

Looking back down at those switchbacks. What a GREAT climb this is! Many pro teams do a winter training camp based in Solvang, and the Figueroa Mt loop is a mainstay of their training for the big European climbs. Back in the Postal/Discovery days Lance and company were here most every January.

 Getting close now...though it's always nice to know for sure! Thank you whoever you are!

 That's Figueroa Peak the arrow is pointing towards. The road goes around the peak on the right, passing roughly 50 or so vertical feet below the actual summit.

 And here we are! Just ahead left of the dirt is the summit of the road. Altitude here is right around 4500'.

 Down just a mile or so from the summit you break out of the trees to this view. The road sweeps around to the right, and other than the raging cross-winds is a BLAST to descend!

More wicked-fun descending. I love it when you can see the road sweeping out in front of you and can just let go of the brakes and scream! And screaming is also what you do when you get hit by HIGH crosswind gusts at speed.

 Hard to see it thru the trees, but this is one of the many tight switchbacks going to the left. The pavement up here is still good, but it gets TERRIBLE for the last mile or so. But descending the other direction (on Happy Canyon, the way I climbed up) is MUCH worse.

Off the mountain, heading back towards Los Olivos on Figueroa Mt Rd takes you past the gates to Neverland (Michael Jackson's place). This is the front gates. There is a guardshack to the right and there's always somebody there. The family still owns the property, and you never know who might be there at any given moment.

From this point the road gently descends at about a 1 or 2% grade for the next 5 miles back into town. Oh, and did I mention that there's almost ALWAYS a tail-wind here? The road is running almost due-south, and with the exception of an incoming storm, our winds always come from the north. We've done pace-lines down this stretch holding speeds in the mid-twenties, which is pretty fast for a bunch of old-folk recreational riders. And it's an AWESOME way to end an epic road ride. 

Last year I got a bit stupid and did a double-Fig loop one day, giving me 80 miles and almost 10,000' of climbing. Won't be doing that again anytime soon I can tell you. Once is plenty for one day I've decided. On this day I only saw ONE other bike on the entire mountain, which is quite unusual. It was a GREAT day!

Get out there and find an epic ride of your own! And keep the rubber-side down! And HAPPY FRIDAY to you!

Note: I added a link to the 2012 Tour Divide race (it's under my 'Link List' on the right below the blogs I like). This link takes you to the tracking page of all the racers in this years race, which started on Friday. It's a self-supported Mt bike race that follows the continental divide from Banff Alberta to Antelope Wells New Mexico. That's over 2000 miles of bears, rain, mud and whatever else Mother Nature throws at you.

Oh for crying out loud!

Well. Those of you who have been Asylum inmates for any amount of time know about our babies (fur-babies I mean). To those who haven't been around very long, we have 3 (see pics at the VERY bottom of the site). All from the pound.. They are our kids in every way, except we don't have to put them thru college.

HOWEVER. Just because they're 4-legged kids doesn't mean they're any less expensive it turns out. Case(s) in point:

PG, the original (we got her as a puppy from the pound when we lived in Hawaii). Surgeries to this point:
-Rear kneecap popping out, grooved the knee joint and re-attached the lower end in the middle of the bone.
-Rear knee joint out of whack, TPLO surgery (cutting away the joint and changing it's angle w/ a fancy L-shaped piece of metal and screws).
-OTHER rear knee joint out of whack, TPLO surgery AGAIN.

Sweet Pea (number 2, got her from the pound when we moved here from Hawaii. She had been saved from the "Kill list" by veto's from the workers for FOUR MONTHS when we finally got her). Surgeries to this point:
-Mass Cell Tumor removal (which can come back anywhere/anytime, so far so good on that score)
-Dental work (twice) as she has HORRENDOUS teeth. This involves putting them under general anesthesia so is somewhat costly. Multiple teeth pulled during the last round.

Sydney (our last adoption, she was in the pound for SIX MONTHS awaiting us to find her). Surgeries to date:
-Complete digestive tract blockage-emergency surgery. Cause: 3 plastic squeakers (from squeaky toys), large piece of rubber (looked like a HUGE puzzle piece), half a tennis ball, and the blockage was the 4 month old remnant from a wholly swallowed corn cob which digested down to a nice little plug that finally was small enough to go into the intestines and BAM, total blockage). 

-Ruptured cervical vertebrae disc, total paralysis (in mid stride I might add...on a Friday evening). Cat-scans, etc etc and finally emergency surgery the next morning (at a Veterinary Surgical Center 90 miles away) to remove the debris and cut away some space for the disc remnants to remove the spinal cord pressure). 5 days in doggie-ICU. Months of physical therapy (here at home), as she completely learned to stand, walk, and finally run again (which she now does differently than before the damage).

-Complete digestive tract blockage (AGAIN), this time on a weekend so the only choice was the emergency vet (ie: TWICE as expensive as the regular vet). This time it was a large rubber band, the top of a plastic water bottle (looked like a shark attack ripped the threaded part off, no lid tho), and then a bunch of grass. The rubber band was twisted around the plastic bottle top, and then a pile of long grass was all twisted up in the other end of the rubber band. The bottle top was too big to go into the intestines, so just hung out in her stomach. Once the grass got twisted, it was small enough to slip into the "out-door" yet the rubber band kept it from passing. So she had a nice yo-yo-ing plug that was unable to get to the exit-hatch.

-And then on Thursday, the inspiration for the title of today's post "Oh for crying out loud!" Yes, It's ANOTHER FREAKING DIGESTIVE TRACT BLOCKAGE! Spent the day at the local vet figuring out what the prob was (ka-CHING!), and I finally ended up taking her to the surgeon a bit before 5pm (he was standing by for the EMERGENCY surgery). She was out of surgery a bit after 6. However, let me add THE REST OF THE STORY.

Tuesday was a travel day, as we returned from the farm (see previous post). We got home about midnight, and the  babies were estatic to see us (we have doggie-sitters come and feed them every day while we are gone, I have a 5 gallon water station for them, and they have doggie-doors allowing access to 3 sides of the house... so except for feeding and company they are pretty self reliant).

We get to sleep about 12:30am after feeding the herd (as I, an ONLY I have to work on Weds, Jeannie is the queen of vacation days on the books...she works four 10's, so gets 3 day weekends every week...thus doesn't need to take much vacation). At 2am I am awakened by the feel of vomit on my shoulder. Yes, she up-chuked on me (I only got winged thankfully). THAT was the first sign of bad financial news. After a quick sheet-change and a shower I'm back snoozing. Until 3am when she let-go the mother load. On the bedspread. Urgh...THAT is nasty!

So NOW I'm scooping up the entire bedspread full of foul 3 hour old stomach contents and running it into the shower where I proceed to do my best NOT to toss MY cookies while I scoop and shower away the icky vile goo from the bedspread so I could then toss it in the washer. THEN I get to scoop up all the kibble still left in the shower and get that into the toilet. After wiping down the floors of all my drippings, and yet another shower I'm back in bed. Syd obviously isn't a very happy camper at this point as she is starving and I'm guessing doesn't feel very well on top of that.

The next morning as I'm getting ready for work (only doing a half day I decided, low vacation be damned) the voimt-queen is drinking some water, and moments later chunks that on the floor. THAT is the for-sure sign of bad news if they can't keep water down. Time for a call and visit to the vet, which Jeannie took care of. By the time the radiologist had confirmed the worst it was quitting time (which was GOING to be ride time for me) so I got to zing home and pick up our sick baby and get her up to Arroyo Grande where the surgeon and his staff was waiting.

Anyway, the prognosis is "all is well" (the surgeon called about an hour after I got home, surgery was already done). Another list of various inedible stuff this time...some sort of plastic tubing all globbed together, MORE rubber bands, what appears to be parts from stuffed-doggie-toy squeakers, and some other unidentified 'stuff' (which I might peek at, if I get brave and can get past the smell....(might have to put the entire baggie of stomach contents into a bucket of water and dissolve all the icky stuff, and see what's REALLY in there). We joked (or not) about having a zipper put in. Sure wish there was such a thing. I'd pay extra for that. Again.

And so...she spent the night at the surgical clinic, and came home today (Friday) where she begins another few weeks of recovery. Her food will most likely be all-gruel (blended up dog food into a smooth easy to digest paste) for at least the next 2 weeks, not that she minds in any way. In case you haven't put 2 and 2 together, she's not very picky about what she eats. I'm not kidding when I tell you that she will eat pretty much ANYTHING (obviously).

 Here she is...Sydney the GREAT WHITE SHARK, in the cave of shame. Her belly is all shaved (not that she ever had much hair on it), and she has elastic bandages on her front paw (where the IV was) and rear paw (where her pain patch is...which lasts for 3 days). She's doing pretty good, but Jeannie says she's a bit whiny today (I figure even with the pain patch she's in some fair amount of pain, as she also gets pain pills for the next 7days).

Food-wise, I've not yet found a single thing she won't gobble down. Grapefruit...GONE. Broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, lettuce, carrots, GULP! In fact, we learned real quick NOT to hold ANYTHING she might even remotely identify as a food item up in the air, as she attacks it from below like a Great White Shark (and there is always collateral damage when this kind of attack happens, namely she will chomp your fingers WICKED-HARD leaving you in tears holding your hand inventing new to the English Language swear-words). She's part Pit Bull, so that gives you an idea of her jaws (the other part we believe is Basset Hound, making her a very interesting mix). However, she is the single-most loving dog I've ever seen, and even when she was totally paralyzed her attitude was amazing. Her tail goes like an airplane propeller, and even when she couldn't move a limb that tail was singing away anytime ANYBODY would come near her. She LOVES everybody (I secretly believe this is a ruse and she's just hoping they have food in their pockets for her).

And so. I purposely didn't tally up ALL the damages over these last 10 years, as you'd think we are insane (note: we believe they are all three around 10 years old, though PG is the only one we know for sure cuz we got her as a puppy). Maybe we are crazy. I just know there's a few REALLY NICE bikes in that amount, or a pretty nice car (maybe not quite brand-new). Not that we're into those things (well, I admit a few really nice bikes would be rather cool!) As for the new car, I'll keep my 03 VW Jetta TDI wagon until they pry it from my cold dead fingers....(it's a 5-spd diesel and gets FIFTY MPG on the highway if I keep my foot out of it! I routinely run 800+ mile tanks on it's 16.5 gal tank!) Jeannie drives a 21 year old Dodge (which she will until it no longer is able to pass Calif smog w/ out putting a ton of money into it). After that it will be another used car for her too (I bought my Jetta used, still it's the BEST car I've ever had!)

I just can't help but wonder what happened to having a dog that goes to the vet for Rabies shots and otherwise just lives it's life without all this drama and cash outlay.

Oh well...easy come (NOT!), easy go. Sei la vie, sayonara, bye bye, see ya later alligator to another chunk of our hard-earned-cash.

And life goes on. I will say the house sure seemed lonely without Syd around last night. Our babies are the glue that binds our family together.

Have a great weekend (and btw: get pet insurance before it's too late! Just tell-em Matt & Jeannie sent you, they might give you a volume discount!)

Cheers!