So this weekend I went up to my buddy Bill’s house in the LA for a day of mountain biking, some Scotch sampling and some socializing at a block party. We will skip over the part the story where I get me and my stuff up to LA. We’ll start with me beating on Bill’s door at the 7AM. This is apparently O-Damn Early in the space-time warp continuum surrounding Casa Del LA Bill as I woke him up. There were promises made the day before about hot coffee and bagels upon my arrival. Bill had omitted the part that “my arrival” meant “my arrival at the bagel shop just down the street”. The comedic value of watching the sleep idled Bill try and get ready can not be adequately captured by words. After much snickers from me (and a trip to the bagel shop) we were on our way to Pt Mugu State Park. We parked on PCH right on the ocean and made our way through the campground and up Sycamore Canyon to the Overlook fire road. There was a pretty thick marine layer going on this morning so things were pretty challenging for taking pictures. From what I could tell there would have been some pretty views of the Pacific on other days.
We climbed up Overlook for a little over four miles to the top of the Wood Canyon Vista singletrack (aka Backbone). A wildfire in May of 2013 burned some 12,000 acres in this area. One of the optimistic points that Bill pointed out was that now there are great sight lines on the trail.
Those sight lines came in handy so we could wait for these chaps to get by before we rippppppppppped down that singletrack back into Sycamore Canyon. Oh what fun it was. From there we continued up Sycamore Canyon by way of the Two Foxes and Sin Nombre trails that took us to Ranch Center Road. Ranch Center Road is an old chunk of partially broken pavement that climbs to the west-southwest before dropping down to the top of the Wood Canyon Fireroad.
At this junction there were the ruins of a couple of ranch structures that we took a gander or two at before heading down Wood Canyon for a bit to catch the Guadalasca trail. This trail would be a fun descent as well but for us it was a climb of about 950 feet in a little under three miles.
The Guadalasca trail took us back up to the Overlook fireroad where we quickly hooked back up with the top of the Wood Canyon singletrack for a second run down this trail. Oh my was that some fun!
After that we took the Sycamore Canyon Fireroad back down to the park’s entrance on PCH and made our way back to my truck and the cooler with tasty beverages inside. All together we did a little over 22 miles and about 2,700 feet of climbing. We would finish the day off back at Bill’s casa where we enjoyed chatting up the neighbors over tasty snacks and beverages. Not a bad day at all!