The Never Ending Road

On Thursday afternoon I got a text from my friend Calder Wood about

joining him for a long ride on the following Saturday. He gave me the route and I decided it was a day I couldn’t pass up. The plan was to head out from San Luis Obispo early in the morning for the Carrizo Plains National Monument. Then we would take a loop around the monument. At this point I was under the impression that it would be a 220km road ride.

I drove out to Carrizo Plains on Friday afternoon to meet Calder for a car drop off. When he arrived we headed back to SLO. We started talking about the route and I realized I was mistaken in my assumption that it was a road ride. It turned out that it was actually around 70% gravel. My road bike was in for some punishment.

Fast forward to the 6:30am wake up on Saturday morning. We were up a bit later than anticipated on Friday night at a game night with some of Calder’s friends, so dragging myself out of bed was a bit tougher than usual. I ate a quick breakfast while Calder got his bike ready, less frantically than usual. We planned to leave at 7:30am but ended up leaving at 8:15am, right on time. We set off up Stagecoach Road, a gravel climb heading north out of SLO then along Highway 101 until we turned onto Highway 58. At this point spirits were high, we were chatting a lot and playing around on our bikes, not knowing what was to come later in the day.

We turned off of the Highway towards a gravel road going up and over Pozo Summit. This was definitely a bit chunky on the road bike, but that just made it more fun. We crested the climb and started descending on an equally rocky dirt road. Calder was on his old cross bike with wide tires and immediately gapped me. I was in survival mode, just trying to keep my bike in one piece. Once we got off of that road the gavel got a bit more tame which meant it was time to pick up the pace. We flew down back towards the highway.

With our first gravel sector done, we had about thirty minutes of pavement to cover before turning back onto some gravel. This next section was perfect, straight, pan flat gravel. We raced along, taking a break in the middle to snap a few photos. Once we popped back onto the pavement I started feeling the kilometers we had already covered in my legs, even though we weren’t even halfway through. I tried to stay composed but was getting a little worried about finishing the day. We eventually got to the midway point where we dropped off the car. This meant it was time to stop for some food, water, warmer clothes, and just to sit on something that wasn’t a bike. The time spent there was kept to a minimum and soon enough we were back on the road… or should I say gravel. From this point on we wouldn’t see any pavement for hours.

We started up a shallow climb into a ripping headwind. I was starting to get really tired and my legs weren’t stoked. Eventually we took a turn and were able to take advantage of the that same wind that was making us suffer before. We rolled down that gravel road until we eventually turned left, going even further from the final destination. Along this next section we were greeted with a lot of smaller punchy climbs along with some completely legal gate hopping (seriously it was okay). Then we got onto a 30km long, straight gravel road going directly into another headwind. We started drilling it, hoping we would get to turn back towards the car soon, constantly thinking it would be just over the next bump, but it wasn’t. We kept going, and going, until finally we got to the supposed turn, off of that agonizing stretch of road just as the sun set.

Unfortunately the road the gps was trying to take us down no longer existed, there wasn’t even a path in its place. We figured the road we were on would end up turning, and it luckily did. We thought this meant we would get to start pedaling back towards the car, and that the hard parts of our day were over. We. Were. Wrong. As we got closer to the next turn our gps’ were taking us to, we realized we didn’t see a road. Yet again, the turn we were supposed to take didn’t exist, and not only that, but we came to a dead end. At this point it was pitch black, we could vaguely make out a ridge line in front of us, and decided we would have to find a way to go up and over it. With almost 200km in our legs, neither of us were stoked. We were also starting to think about the fact that we might not make it out that night.

We flipped around and, instead of our initial right turn at the previous intersection, went straight. We started climbing up a steep, loose, deteriorating gravel “road”. It got so loose that we both had to get off and push. After remounting we came to another junction and decided to keep going up. After a bit more climbing, we finally made it to the main road. We were elated, neither of us had ever been that excited to see pavement. We even got down and kissed it.

Now that we were back on track, we started hammering along the road. Watching the kilometers tick up, and up over 220 kilometers which was the original planned route length. But we didn’t care, we were just happy to be making it out. As we got within the last 5 kilometers of the ride we decided to shut our lights off, and really take in the scenery. It was a full moon so it was bright enough to see the road. We looked up at the beautiful night sky, filled with stars. We were already joking about the mishaps of the evening, and spirits were high. We cruised up to the car with the final ride stats of 9 hours and 20 minutes moving, 234 kilometers, 2,544 meters of climbing.

This is the kind of ride that, in my mind, embodies the true spirit of suffering. The long hours, the suffering, and even some of the fear, are all of the things that will keep me coming back for more. I’m stoked to have a friend like Calder who is equally insane as I am. Hoping to get lost in the woods again sometime soon.