Although I’ve done the loop multiple times, each ride always feels like I’m doing Old Ridge Route recon.
Even with the permanence of time, there is always something to discover.
The purpose of this trip was to shoot some B Roll to do a long and informative video about the Old Ridge Route after I realized that not all my footage from my last excursion looked usable.
One the biggest problems with this route is planning around the weather.
Road conditions used to be the biggest x-factor, but since some recent resurfacing helped mitigate those problems, water rationing is by far the most important part of preparations.
In this covid world, even with me bringing along gloves, hand sanitizer and a mask, I wanted to restrict the number of stops, but this route lays out the rules for you as there’s only one water stop in Lake Hughes at mile 46.
I’ve been doing all my rides alone, but I knew on a route like this I needed to have someone along in case something went wrong and my friend Babak obliged along with some of the distancing rules I’ve had in place.
We come across another pair of cyclists who were doing the Ridge Route for the first time.
They were planning on doing the same loop as us, but subbing the dirt from Liebre Mountain to Lake Hughes instead of rolling on pavement through Three Points like us.
Seeing how one guy only had two water bottles, I thought that would be a tough go for the day (and checking Strava, they wisely turned back after Swede’s Cut).
Babak brought three, but thanks to my new Stashers bag, I was carrying five which I thought would be overkill, but actually was the right amount.
In fact, I was on my last bottle when Babak was out with eight miles making me think only of the Three Amigos.
After getting water, the thirteen mile descent seems like a reward, there are big pockets of headwinds making this stretch even more unpleasant in this covid world staying way behind to eliminate drafting.
While the purpose of the ride was to get certain shots, I ended up looking back thinking, huh….this would be a fun little side project to throw in.
In this case, some Old Ridge Route recon paid off!