Practice Weekend to Figueroa Mountain

My good friend Mike and I decided it was a good idea to head off for the weekend with full packs and do some climbing in preparation for our Colorado Divide trip. We left early on Saturday morning and drove to the town of Los Olivos in the Santa Ynez Valley, our starting point. Loaded up with all our stuff, we headed off on our ride to our destination of Figueroa Mountain Campground where we planned to camp out.

The route would take us along Happy Canyon Road before joining Figueroa Mountain Road and the climb up. Todays ride was a little over 27 miles with 4400 feet of climbing.

We got to the campground and got the last available site to pitch our tents. We met Phil and Bridgette who asked if they could park their VW Camper on our site as the campground was full. They gave us water which was much needed as there campground has no running water and we were running low.

After a short rest, Mike suggested we take a short ride to Figueroa Mountain Lookout, only about 200ft of climbing. 3 miles and 1000ft of climbing later we made it. Mike was right, it was well worth the effort.

Back to the campground for some fine cuisine, freeze dried Beef Pasta Marinara. Not bad actually. To make it more palatable, Mike had hauled a couple of cans of Hoppy Poppy up the mountain. Cheers Mike.