We’ve been trying to slant towards highlighting shorter rides that still bring a robust experience and Pismo Preserve Gravel fills up those check boxes.
Last year I combined my family vacation with a SLO GRVL Send It up to TV Tower Rd, but while I like coming mid-week to make San Luis Obispo’s Higuera St. Farmers Market take over, we missed out on this club’s mid year ride.
With more sunlight, their Wednesday night ride has been a staple, but the last ride of the month is a special one riding up the Pismo Preserve.
Though missing the ride we were staying in Pismo Beach and I did wander over for an early morning foray not having a plan on which trails to ride.
Fortunately, it’s hard to get lost there with the coast providing constant context and while I didn’t ride the most eclectic route, my appetite was definitely whettened.
Knowing that a midweek ride is an obstacle to get to, Vic and I decided to take the Coast Starlight the day of and even though it takes about two hours longer than driving, the trip is extremely smooth and allowed me to edit video while traveling.
Once arriving in San Luis Obispo, Jason took it from there ready to ride after we quickly dropped our goods off as the town is easy to get around.
We were early for the group ride, so we headed out a little past the start to Johnson Ranch getting in a short 2.4 mile loop with efficient elevation gain giving a great flow on the return.
Meeting at Art’s Cyclery, we had a pretty good sized group for a midweek ride picking up more locals along the way paralleling south along the 101 freeway.
With the hills behind Avila Beach waning back we began rolling through Pismo Beach with low ocean views that opened up once we got onto the other side of the freeway.
Entering Pismo Preserve is greeted by a well maintained parking lot and information kiosks with a couple of bell borrow boxes by the trailheads.
We did a counter-clockwise loop starting with the Discovery Trail covering the bulk of our climbing for the Preserve with the grade staying largely in the mid single digits having a good pace occasionally interrupted by rock gardens.
This starts a larger trend of mostly looking down the coastline, but phase two around the Peekaboo Loop takes you more inland and is a sampling of the fun ahead.
After taking a break halfway on the picnic tables, while there are fire road options, sticking with the single track Discovery Trail is a better option with pitch less extreme and far more playful.
Before the final two mile descent to complete the loop, we turned for one last climb up the Panhandle Trail winding our way to the highest point of the ride and the best panorama over the Pacific.
This added elevation was put to good use on the return with ten minutes of dashing descending perfectly banked and laid out so rare to have this much continuous action.
While our loop was under ten miles, you definitely have a “run it back” mentality as there’s so much I’d love to repeat.
Even though Pismo Preserve is relatively new, a lot of great planning was put to keep it high integrity and is a can’t miss if you’re in the area.