Honey, Get the Duct Tape!

A few weeks ago Jesse and I did a big clockwise loop from home over the back way to Ojai, exploring a long ridge and new trails, before descending to the bike path and home via Ventura. Honestly, we were pretty exhausted after that ride. Fast forward a couple of weeks and I said Hey!, why don’t we do that route in the opposite direction, in two days instead of three, and add in more single track? Jesse, who is proving to be a great adventure partner said Sure! I did sweeten the deal by promising lunch of burgers, fries, and a shake the first afternoon :). Big days meant an early start Saturday morning and we made better time than expected reaching The Summit Drive-In in the early afternoon. Nothing like a big afternoon meal on a warm sunny day to make the following climb feel like pure misery. We pushed through until the stream crossing and took a small siesta while our digestive systems got to work. After that we climbed a bit more in the cooling temps as the light lost its intensity.

Our goal was just to find a flat pullout on the side of the dirt road above (Sisar Canyon) and cowboy camp for the night — sleep out under the stars and the full moon.

The wind, which had been calm all day, continued to pick up steam and the temperatures dropped. This impromptu camp was very near the White Ledge camp with downed trees that I wrote about here. I’ve now decided that this entire area is always windy and plan to never camp there again! One way to push big days on the bike is to travel light, so I had packed my light sleeping bag which has seen me through hundreds of nights over the past six years, my lightest down jacket, no tent, etc… As the wind whipped and the temps dropped I froze my butt off all night — it was one of those long, long nights. Without fail, on a rough sleepless night you always get your deepest sleep just before dawn, and Jesse woke me asking when I wanted to get going. I believe my answer was never; I sleep with my hat pulled over my eyes and thought it was still dark out :). We did need to get going as we had a lot of ground to cover that day. I sat up and feathers started going everywhere in the still high winds. There was a moment of deep confusion. Where are they coming from? You? Me? Jackets? Sleeping bags? I quickly laid back down and they seemed to cease. I sat back up and had Jesse look at the back of my sleeping bag — yep, I big tear had appeared over night. I said, Quick, get the duct tape!!. Jesse slapped a piece of duct tape over the gaping wound and it staunched most of the flow.

Well, that woke me up. Everything was covered in feathers that seemed to be very sticky, or at least full of static cling! As part of our light and fast plan we had not brought a stove and downed some cold instant oatmeal and coffee and were on the road in no time. We finished a few more miles of climbing and then did the big traverse across Nordoff Ridge to this well known landmark at the high point.

From the lookout we descended Pratt Trail which had so. much. exposure. I can deal with some exposure when riding single track, but this was a super narrow ribbon of trail endlessly descending right on the edge of massive drops where you would fall for a longtime before stopping. Also, being on a fully loaded bike, not able to drop my seat much, and fatigue all figured in to this being a bit too intimidating and overwhelming. I ended up walking a fair bit which meant lost time compared to riding speed. After one more technical descent (Cozy Dell Trail) we were finally set to start climbing again.

Fortunately we made quicker work than I expected of the climb pictured above; however, the remaining hours of daylight were disappearing fast. Up and over, rolling descent, one last water fill up, eat a bunch of sour gummies and only one more multi-mile climb stood between us and the final single track, Romero Trail, that would return us to sea level and flat paved roads home. At the top of Romero a guy wanted to ask us a bunch of questions about where we had ridden — I didn’t stop and yelled that we were racing sunset, we had to go!! I hadn’t brought bright enough lights for navigating trail in the dark, only enough to make us visible to cars on the last leg of pavement, should we happen to finish after dark.

We enjoyed the final descent on empty trails into the waning light; stopping twice to grab irresistible pictures of the sunset – first the one at the top of this post, and finally the one below.

We reached pavement just as true darkness was taking over, pulled out our lights and enjoyed the rush that always comes as you ride through the sunset and are revitalized by the cool evening air. We had done it! We set a big challenging goal and pulled it off perfectly. It was a wonderful weekend.