Team Blog

The term epic gets thrown around so much these days that it’s lost much of its meaning. When you refer to an epic ride it should refer to that day that you rolled back home so exhausted that you have no idea how you made it. It should be the ride that you KNOW will be one that you remember for the rest of your life and will talk about with hushed reverence and a tear in the corner of your eye. Saturday was one of those rides.

With Everest training is going full steam we decided to head out for a little camping trip and riding up at California Hot Springs right on the border of Sequoia. John had heard of a few excellent rides in the area and we figured it would be great to try a few long climbs in a new, exciting and foreign local. The eight of us left late on Friday afternoon and pulled into the campground just after dark. By coming in that late we had no idea what the terrain would look like and that just added to the mystic.

California Hot Springs is located in the low foothills of the Sierras about 40 miles north and 25 miles east of Bakersfield. It’s tucked away in a deep valley of patchwork brown, yellow, and green. The town is only a small blip on the map without even a gas station to its name. Our campground was nestled down next to a small babbling stream sheltered by blackberry bushes and a canopy of green.




We awoke at dawn and were on the road shortly before 7am. The eight of us would start together, but our plan was to split up at the far point of the loop. John, Brent and I would add mileage on to our already lengthy ride for a total of 140 miles. The others would turn around at mile 50 for a long and hilly century. The climbing began as we turned out of the campground and would continue relentlessly for the next 25 miles. We quickly shot up off the valley floor and up the switchbacks of Parker Pass Road. We could very quickly see the valley we had just ascended out of as we climbed higher and higher. For the first 2 hours we saw a total of 3 cars. Our only companions were the numerous cows grazing on and alongside the road. At one point we startled a cow as we came around a corner. It tried to quickly escape to the roadside but slipped and fell before trotting off into the brush.









At around mile 15 we passed from the western face of the mountain to the eastern face. The terrain quickly changed from sycamore and grass to large pine trees, meadows, and exposed granite peaks. The further we climbed, the taller the trees became until we finally passed into a grove of gigantic Sequoia trees. The reddish brown trunks extended as high as the eye could see.





After a short break at the top of the 4500ft climb we began the long technical decent down to Springville. It took over an hour to descend 26 miles and 6000 ft down to the valley floor. The top 10 miles wound its way through pine trees, ferns, and past an occasional waterfall. The terrain made a quick transition and we soon found ourselves diving around hairpin corners through a hot, exposed and very dry canyon. The traffic had increased and we would occasionally find ourselves stuck behind a slow moving car.


When we arrived in Springville we took a quick water stop then split up. Alex, Jose, and Courtney turned around and went straight back up the way we came. Frost and Joe continued east to make a complete (100 mile) loop. John, Brent and I decided to add some more miles and a bit more climbing. John originally had the idea to add on a 40 mile out-and-back to the Yokohl Valley, but Brent convinced us to try a loop that he had done three years earlier. What he neglected to mention was the length and amount of climbing.





We turned off of the main road and started a gradual climb up a pleasant but extremely hot country road. Soon the road narrowed to one lane and steepened. The next 10 miles of switchbacked up the overgrown, deserted and oven hot grade. As we gained altitude the temperature slowly dropped and brush was replaced by pine trees. By mile 17 of the climb we were fully enclosed in a tunnel of pine, ferns, and Sequoia trees. By mile 20 we were all dying and in need of fresh water. We all had bottles of Prolong but it they had become so warm they were nearly impossible to drink. All I wanted was cold water. After 25 miles and 5500ft of climbing we reached the summit of the climb and a small campground.







We were beyond delighted to find a spring with ice cold running water. It was a major moral boost and we felt rejuvenated as we began our descent.

John, moments before teabagging the spring....

At that point were 70 miles from home and still had a 6500ft climb in our way. The descent down from Bear Creek was narrow, winding, and very poorly maintained. It took 45 miserable minutes to descend. When we arrived back in Springville we took a long break, at a Snickers bar, drank some Coke, and then settled in for the long haul.

The "secret" formula for Prolong...

The anxiety of knowing that you’re 100 miles and 7 hours into a ride and still have to tackle a 26 mile climb is really hard to describe. As we began climbing it was already late afternoon and we were beginning to worry that we wouldn’t get home before dark. We knew that we had approximately 4 hours until the sun went down, so we really had to focus and not waste any more time. Even in the late afternoon the heat on the climb was unbearable. We started out strong but quickly began to redline in the sweltering breezeless air. Brent was the first to crack and I soon followed. I had to pull off in the shade for a few minutes, pour some water over my head, then continued to trudge along at a snails pace. About every 5 minutes I’d look down at my mileage and calculate how much farther I had to go. About 1.5 hours up the climb I topped off my water supply at a coffee shop then began the hardest 10 miles of my life. As I passed the 5000ft sign at 9 miles to the top I tried to convince myself it wouldn’t be to bad. “2200ft in 9 miles, that’s not bad. It’s just like climbing Latigo. You do climbs like that all the time.” Despite my mental pep talk the last 9 miles took well over an hour to complete. By the time I reached the store at the top of the climb I was a total wreck.


We’d been on the road for 12 hours and we still had 26 miles to go with only an hour of daylight remaining. After Brent arrived and we had a small break we hit the road. At this point we were pushing less than 200 watts, and every small roller felt like a mountain. The last descent was long, rutted, and steep. Any time I would get in my drops my back would scream in agony from fatigue and tightness. By the time we rolled back into the campground the sun had just settled behind the mountains and we were navigating by the residual glow of the sunset. All told we had done 154 miles and 16500ft of climbing in 11:05 ride time… 13 hours total and a whopping 5954 calories burned.



The others though we looked like the living dead. We plopped down and ate as much as we could for the next hour or two until bedtime. When we woke up I made the decision to skip the century we had planned and head home. John, Brent, Alex and Courtney stayed for another epic ride. It's up to them to report on it.

Labels: camping, epic, Training

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