Santa Barbara County Bike Tour/Camp Trip Day 2 - November 29, 2010

Day 2 of the Trip - Bike ride from Buelton to Solvang, south on Refugio Road to the Santa Ynez Mountains, ride up and over Refugio Pass down to Refugio State Beach, then east to El Capitan State Beach to camp.
Link to Day 1
Link to Day 3

Trekkers Campground, Flying Flags RV Resort, Buelton

Frosty last night

Highway 246

Ben and the Santa Ynez River

Santa Ynez River at Refugio Rd.

Going north on Refugio Rd.

Donk-bra

Old sycamore tree with Spanish moss

Break on a bridge

The mountains we will ride over

Refugio Rd turns to dirt

A steep climb, though I think this is angle is a little exaggerated

A long steep climb

Lunch break

Spying donkeys

Pure donkeys (no zebra mix) walking on the hillside

Mike on the road again

The road keeps going up

And up

And up.  Nice grading.

And up

Not quite the top of Refugio Pass

It rained two days ago

Holy shit, we made it.  Top of Refugio Pass

All downhill to the beach from here

Refugio Beach in the distance

Santa Barbara Channel and Santa Cruz Island beyond that

Down the paved patchy Refugio Rd on the north side of the Santa Ynez Mountains

Looking back at the steepness

Wall caves - Mike saw a barn owl in there somewhere

Free range wild cow

Cows have stomachs with 4 different compartments

Refugio Beach

Cormorants

Orcas?..no.  Porpoises?  Common dolphins?

The Refugio to El Capitan Bike path is awesome

It is fenced closed in this section for our safety due to eroded cliffs, but there is a path around the fence

And the path in the closed section is in great shape, better than riding on the freeway

Wouldn't it be great to have this trail all along the coast?

Totally

Due to California state budget cuts, the park has less staff.  The campground was empty with only one other group of campers and the camp host.

Passing the 1000 mile mark since I installed this bike computer

El Capitan Beach sunset

Neighboring campers who kept trying to mooch off of us

Ring tailed bandit

The raccoons seemingly giving up on the camp raid

Intending to come back

Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3