A Bad Day on a Bike?

Sometimes, you just need to roll with what you’ve been given.

We riders from the Northern climes might expect that Santa Barbara, even in the depths of winter, would be rideable.  By late March, how muddy and wet could the trails possibly be? Mother nature makes the call and it seems she was atoning for quite a few dry winters because she parked her atmospheric river right on top of California’s sunny southern coast for the better part of the winter.  Like taking a sip from a fire hose, that land had more than it needed at one time.

All the trails I had scoped out for a week of riding in the socal sunshine were closed.  There was actually one that was open that, according to the slightly salty guy at a local shop, was “hero dirt” and had lots of hike-a-bike because the creek crossings were “pretty rough”. My planned week of putting in early season dirt miles and working on technique was placed back in the someday drawer.

Pretty much all there was to ride was pavement.  And all I brought to pedal was an enduro bike.  I pumped up the tires, set the shock to firm, and headed up a long, steep climb by the name of Gibralter Road.  If you Google Gibralter road Santa Barbara, you’ll see a twisty ribbon of paved roadie goodness that winds its way up to a ridge that tops out around 3000’ feet, and yes, you can literally ride from 0’ to the top of that bad boy in just a few miles.  

Riding a longish travel mountain bike on the pavement is no picnic, but when you reset your point of view from “pissy” to “pleasant” it can be downright enjoyable.  The biggest positive was that I was riding my bike in shorts and a tee shirt after spending a fairly bleak 5+ months riding a stationary bike staring at a 13” computer screen playing reruns of Pinkbike Academy, and marveling at how Remy Metalier does what he does.  Because of the aforementioned atmospheric river, Gibraltar Road was closed to vehicle traffic due to erosion under the tarmac and a huge boulder blocking one lane – I’m not making that up, you can Google it – rendering it all but car free!  That was one huge thing not to worry about because rather than looking over my shoulder wondering when a minivan full of driver distracting pre-teens would send me to my doom, I was able to enjoy the spectacular views.  Yes, the climb was arduous, but I was in no hurry and felt no angst the few times folks on eBikes chattily blew by me. The ride down was quick and casual, and like most things described that way, entertaining but not earth shattering.

The bottom line was I had a choice.  I could mope around wishing for trails to be open (something that wasn’t going to happen), blaming myself for not going somewhere else, or, I could make the best of what was there, shift my perspective a bit, and enjoy the upsides of being on a bike and pedaling. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when everything goes south, but when you look at things in a positive light, those times are few and far between.