u/blainestratford

A couple weeks ago I knocked out the Los Padres Traverse. It’s a long point-to-point gravel route through the Sierra Madre and San Rafael mountains of the Los Padres National Forest, made popular by Christopher Blevins’ successful FKT attempt/film from a few years back. The route was long, rugged, and isolated with the only water available along the route coming from a spring 50 miles in. 10/10 recommend.

This past weekend was the Stagecoach 400 bikepacking event in my neck of the woods. I had a couple friends in town competing in it, so I decided to check out the first part of the route. I rolled out just before they started and followed their course from the San Jacinto mountains down to the coast. Somehow, this ‘downhill’ portion of the route managed to serve up 10k’ of climbing over 130 miles. I’m still astonished by the crazies who continued on for another 250 miles without really sleeping.