This was a very good, and challenging, day. Started off with a good night's sleep and a nice wake-up call (<>!). Then I made pancakes and coffee for breakfast, so Ann cleaned up the dishes. That enabled me to get ready earlier for a bike ride. I decided to head up Refugio Rd, which looked like a big climb. So I rode through the park and over to Calle Real, turning right because my Strava-mapped route told me to. It took me to a dead end as it's starting point, and I turned around and rode back to where I came from, then continued on Calle Real. It was a little wavy on the way over to Refugio Rd, kinda nice. When I turned, the road quality was sketchy for a time, and it started out as flat with a little uphill grade, maybe 1-2%. For a time, the road quality improved, and it got a little steeper. Then it got seriously steep, with long sections of 10+% grade, going up to 15+% at times. And the road quality was really bad, many patches on a crappy base. There wasn't any traffic on the way up, just a road crew clearing brush. I did see a deer in the brush beside the road. There was one point where I said to myself, "I have to stop now." But I kept on going and didn't stop during the steep climbing sections. It was shady for a fair portion of the time. There was a 3.5-mile stretch where the gradient averaged over 9%. About 7 miles from the turn, I came to the end of the road, but there was another non-maintained road, Camino Cielo, that I decided to try. Road quality was overall as bad as Refugio Rd, with some potholes and washout areas to contend with too. Importantly, it wasn't as steep, so I kept riding on it for about 2.5 more miles. At some point, I decided it was time to turn around, since I was already behind schedule for getting back. The ride back down was tortuous, just awful road conditions combined with steep gradients and very sharp turns. I don't see how anybody could go fast down that road, but I was really slow, not in the mood to try my luck. My hands and shoulders hurt from constantly riding the brakes. Even when the grade flattened out, the road conditions were so bad that I couldn't ride fast. There was one stretch of downhill good road that was moderately enjoyable, but it didn't last. Back to Calle Real, and there was really no place else to ride without getting on the 101. So I retraced my route back to the camp, arriving as Ann was making a sandwich for lunch.
Avg speed = 10.5 mph. Total mileage = 27.2 mi
Avg power = 127 W. Weighted avg power = 167 W
Total elevation gain = 3760'
Avg heartrate = 131 bpm (Coospo)
We ate, then we decided to go into Santa Barbara and look around. It was a low-key walk along State St. I brought my bike wheels and got a guy at a bike shop to fill them to pressure. We were going to go to Walmart, but it turned out there wasn't one in the area, so we postponed until Wednesday. Back to the camp, where I had a short nap, so did Ann, before dinner. Grilled vegetables and sausage, pretty tasty. Using the grill grate helped to avoid charring the food, may be a good trick for future grilling at home. We walked around the camp after sunset, then Ann made a fire and we sat around it. So, a good day.
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