Biking Sulphur Mountain Road

July 20, 2003

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My co-worker and cubicle neighbor Eric had decided to leave sunny California and pursue his MBA back at Purdue. So I decided to organize one last mountain bike ride for him, to give him a reminder of what he would be missing in Indiana. Another co-worker Dan was the only other taker.

The three of us met near Foster Park, which is at the end of the 33 freeway 6 miles north of Ventura. From there we rode a mile or so up highway 33 through Casitas Springs to the Sulphur Mountain Road turnoff. The sign outside Casitas Springs gives the elevation as 285 feet. Eric, always one for gadgets, wore a watch that has a barometric gauge to track elevation.

From the turnoff it is about 1/2 mile to the gate and the 0 mile marker. From there, the road is graded dirt/gravel with larger loose rocks in places. There are several cattle grates along the way, but on this day we saw no cattle and fortunately, very few cow patties, on the road. The first mile is somewhat steep but after that it is just a steady uphill for the next 8 miles. The road shifts back and forth several times from the north side of the ridgeline, giving views of Lake Casitas and the Ojai Valley, to the south side where on clearer days you can see out to the ocean and the Channel Islands.

It got pretty hot on this day, and you can see a couple of turkey vultures riding the rising thermals in one of the pictures. The whole 10 or 15 minutes they were in sight I never saw them flap their wings once. I wonder if those vultures sensed my propensity for wiping out and were waiting for me to turn into a nice big piece of trail kill.

At the 9 mile marker the road turns to potholed pavement and it is one more steep mile up to the summit. Eric's watch gave the elevation at the top as 2610. A book that I have says the summit is 2720. Average it out, and we did around 2400 feet of climbing over a 10 mile stretch, an average of a 4.5% grade.

About a half mile after the summit you come to the other gate, and then for a couple of more miles you have ups and downs as you ride just below the crest of the ridge and overlook the Upper Ojai Valley. From the valley floor below Sulphur Mountain does not look that high up, probably because it is so wooded, but from the top you can appreciate the drop (around 1600 feet). Just past the 13 mile mark is where the descent begins, as you lose that 1600 feet in about 4 miles (a 7.5% grade). It is tempting to let loose after doing all of that work on the way up, and with the smooth pavement you can easily do 30-40 MPH I'm sure, even on a mountain bike, but the road is barely over one lane wide in places, and I have encountered a car coming the other direction almost every time. This day turned out to be the worst, as we came across a half dozen cars, included a road hogging pickup with a camper on it.

Sulphur Mountain Road comes out at highway 150, about 10 miles west of Santa Paula and 5 miles east of Ojai. We turned towards Ojai to take the shortest way back. There are two or three miles where it is flat along the 150 as it goes through the beautiful orchards and horse country at that end of the Upper Ojai Valley. Then there is one more short uphill stretch that puts you at the top of the Dennison grade, which drops 300 feet in the course of one mile, giving gorgeous views of the Lower Ojai Valley along the way. One more mile and it is into Ojai, where the signs give 750 feet for the elevation.

From Ojai it is another 9 miles, but easy downhill ones, back to Foster Park. That gives a total distance of about 32 miles for the loop. Eric survived, and said that he enjoyed the adventure. One thing is for sure; he probably is not going to do anything like this again for a while.

Thanks to Dan and Eric for joining me, and for taking my picture a couple of places. I am only sorry that in the one really good shot of the two of them I seem to have gotten my finger in the way. In the picture of all three of us, Dan is on the left, I am in the center, and Eric is on the right. These were taken with one of those little single-use cameras. I figured that my digital camera was just too bulky to carry on the ride, and with my previously mentioned propensity for wiping out, I feared for its safety. That fear turned out to be well justified, as the fresh wound on my left elbow in the last shot of me attests.