s24o Retro Log. Jan 31, 2009
I am moving some of our logs from the other site over to this tumblr based site. Here’s an account of Nick & Don’s Santa Barbara s24o on Jan 31, 2009.
So Long January from the top of the mountain!
From the Morning of January 31, 2009
Sweet escape. I ran the halls of the office getting things filed, gathered, ready for a quick escape for an s24o. The usual protocol is to cut work at lunch on a Friday in order to make it to some distant location, but with short days and busy jobs, 4PM was the only choice. Nick was doing his own breakaway from his law office downtown. We checked in via cell phone and I could hear him shuffling papers and logging out of his various work gadgets.
It was 5 when we met up. By chance, the beginning of this ride happened to be at Nick’s daughter’s pre-school. So we got the opportunity to visit with Nick’s daughter and wife before heading up the mountain.
Compared to the, say, the Rockies, the Santa Ynez range is nothing special. But for a couple of guys with loaded touring rigs trying to make it to a friend’s land at the top, it it plenty challenging.
Lucky for us, we have a friend who gives us access to a little piece of land up near the top.
As the light was starting to vanish and the moon and stars were getting brighter, we tossed our bags onto a bed of clover and surveyed the views that span from downtown Santa Barbara to the Gaviota Coast. The views are magnificent and, with a couple of big gulps from the water bottles and a sip or two of good whiskey, things got better and better.
Doing an s24o with a trusted friend is a wonderful thing. We’ve had conversations going on that we pick up and put down over the decades. A few words and a smile are all the leverage needed to trigger a memory of the great ocean adventure involving Stubby, Gary, and the shark. A few moments of silence and we’re both thinking about our families and our roles as fathers. Along with the conversations, we took turns plugging our iPods into some speakers and shared our current life playlists. Two songs for Nick, two songs for Don. This went on for longer than an hour until it became hard to keep the eyes open.
Nick teased me about having my tent and I ended up not using it. We woke up to a curiously warm morning (probably above 60 degrees) and no moisture on our bikes and bags. GREAT.
The following picture doesn’t capture it, but the morning marine layer looked like a giant wave crashing into Santa Barbara. It was stunning.
We stopped for a coffee at Pete’s and noticed a large group of lovely women who are part of a Mom’s triathlon training team. We were startled when one of them jumped up, recognized us and said, “Did you two just return from a bike tour?!” Embarrassed that they might of caught us, well, admiring them in their spandex workout wear, one of us said, “well, yes, we just rode up the pass and camped near the top and we’re having coffee before heading home.”
“You are total studs! You rode up the pass with those heavy bikes! Wow!” Our friend, Roberta, was probably teasing us as her group could run up the pass on foot and beat us to the summit. But we both felt a rush of short lived glory that lingered into the work week along with the great memories of another s24o.
