Previously Unexplored Corners in Our Backyard

Last weekend was a long holiday weekend so Jesse and I wanted to get out of town for a small adventure. My irritated back from the previous week seemed to be under control and while my foot still didn’t seem ready for much hiking or rugged mountain biking, it DID seem ready for a dirt road based bikepacking adventure. The northeast portion of the Santa Barbara District of the Los Padres has some dirt roads to campgrounds and canyons that I have wanted to check out for quite sometime. We did a long drive to the red bubble below at Miranda Pines Campground, the last 10 miles on rugged dirt road where I appreciated having a Subaru! This was to be our base camp; it has three official sites and we had it all to ourselves. We did a quick hike to the nearby summit and then settled in for the light show. It was such a gorgeous sunset that I can’t help myself but to show you too many of the pictures below!

The evening was characterized by beautiful light, low winds, and views forever!

The planned ride in was only about 14 miles with one major climb, a reasonable ride for my first day back on a loaded bike and gravel roads. We first came to Horseshoe Springs Camp which, as expected, did not have water and after exploring a short side road, we headed to the next camp: Brookshire. Reports from a month ago were that the stream was running at Brookshire; indeed it was! However we decided that we preferred Horseshoe so we filled up our one empty 1.5 liter bottle and headed back the 1-2 miles to set up camp. We had carried enough water with us to squeak through the night, if needed, but were happy to score a little extra water. We set up our brand new ultralight “2-person” Big Agnes tent and went for a short hike on a nearby trail. We’ve been in the market for a new lighter tent for bikepacking for about a year, but supply chain issues and our resistance to paying full price for anything, had us constantly striking out. We finally found this tent on sale. It is a very tight fit for the two of us, but will also be light enough for Jesse to use on his own as a one-person tent (I already have my own one-person tent.) When weight is not a big issue we will likely continue to take our previous, slightly larger tent, but for big challenging rides where we want to travel as light as possible, this little tent will definitely do the trick! At dusk we went for a short hike on a nearby trail and heard the first vehicle of the day going down the road — of course we had not locked nor hidden our bikes because we had not seen a single other person all day, so we scurried back to camp to make sure everything was in place. All was well and the driver had either gone on to the other camp or out the spur road that lead to gated private property. After dinner we settled in for a long and cold night.

I knew the second day, making our way back to the car, would be more challenging than the first day. The first climb proved to be the longer and more challenging of the two, but at least it was early with reasonably fresh legs and cool temperatures. We pulled over at flat spot for a quick break and Jesse yelled Cat! and turned me in the right direction, but alas I was a bit too slow in orienting myself and missed the bobcat that he saw. Bummer! Fortunately, the second climb was shorter and not as steep because my out of practice legs were getting tired! Wildflowers were coming out nicely and we saw a lot of one of my favorites, the California Poppy, as well as lots of Shooting Stars.

Back at the car the beer was still cold, and especially yummy enjoyed with cheese and pickle sandwiches and potato chips. As the afternoon wore on the wind was picking up and the sky more overcast, so we decided to move on to another canyon I had wanted to explore. In the late afternoon we drove along Tepusquet Canyon and onto the dirt Colson Canyon Road and back into the forest. We arrived just before dusk so this was only an initial exploration of this canyon as we needed to head home in the morning. Some day we hope to return to further explore this area on bicycle. All and all it was a lovely get away and I always love exploring new places. By wearing my squishiest bottom sneakers the entire weekend my foot held up to the demands reasonably well. The photo below is one last sunset shot from our first night!