Comments on: Santa Barbara – Old San Marcos & Painted Cave Climb – Brutally Steep!

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 02:24:05 +0000

Just did this today along with CC and down Gibraltar. Kicked my a** a lot more than I thought it would. Nice ride. Will try the other way around tomorrow if I can get away. Coming down pavement on Gibraltar is sucky.

By: Santa Barbara StainingVsit

Santa Barbara StainingVsit — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:35:14 +0000

Santa Barbara StainingVsit…

[...]Santa Barbara – Old San Marcos & Painted Cave Climb – Brutally Steep![...]…

By: Santa Barbara – Gibraltar Road Climb

Santa Barbara – Gibraltar Road Climb — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 09:18:27 +0000

[...] Map « Santa Barbara – Old San Marcos & Painted Cave Climb – Brutally Steep! Santa Monica Mountains Leg Burner – Tuna Canyon, Fernwood & Corral Canyon [...]

By: rallison

rallison — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:10:03 +0000

OSM is one of the best downhill sections of road that I have ever ridden. That relatively fresh pavement, those curves, that grade…amazing.

By: superduper

superduper — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:02:54 +0000

Yeah, as rallison said, climbing gets addicting. i do it about three times a week, and average about 29-34 minutes to get to 154 Riding a 2009 Trek 2.1 w/out clips, I do ok. It’s all worth it for the downhill, and the prospect of reaching the top. the switchbacks are ridiculous though.

By: rallison

rallison — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 21:53:25 +0000

Don’t know if you’ve already done your trip. If not, here is some timing info..

If you are reasonably fit, the section from the bottom of Old San Marcos to 154 takes between 20-30 minutes. The time from there to Painted Cave is similar. So, plan on 40 minutes to an hour to get to Painted Cave. Subtract 5-10 minutes if you are especially fast.

If I understand you correctly, you are cycling from Carpinteria to Buellton. If so, this climb doesn’t add much in the way of time since you would be climbing up and over 154 anyway.

Enjoy!

By: chrisp

chrisp — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 18:16:19 +0000

greetings and thank you for the post.
Can you please estimate the total time to reach town of Painted Cave ? Some friends and I are planning to make Buellton from Carp by late afternoon leaving around 10am. We’ve been climbing Mt. Baldy and love the idea of adding a car-less killer climb to the trip but want to make the Hitching Post for a cocktail and steak at a reasonable hour. Thanks much.

By: rallison

rallison — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:48:45 +0000

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for checking back in after doing the ride! Glad to hear you made it up and over the pass. The views are pretty incredible along there, aren’t they? Hope you enjoyed your time at Cachuma!

-Ryan

By: Andreas

Andreas — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:40:33 +0000

Just thought i would drop an update on how my ride went since i was asking about it. Suffice to say, it kicked my ass!! But in a good way. Keep in mind i was packed with about 30 pounds of gear and i was on a early 80s ten speed, a schwinn le tour tourist. Good for light weight touring but not good for climbing that pass. It took me a while, lots of starting and stopping. I didn’t the old road, just the main 154 road from Santa Barbara and up and over to Lake Cachuma. My low gear was dropping out every time i stood up to peddle too so i had to stay seated. The joy of reaching the top was amazing though. I highly suggest the challenge but if you’re looking for something more mellow this might not be the ride especially if you don’t have a decent amount of riding experience. If you’re not touring and packing gear and/or on a newer bike i’m sure it’s quite the nice ride. Thanks again for the info guys.

By: rallison

rallison — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 03:34:07 +0000

154 is not really the most fun road to ride. I don’t mind it for connecting to Old San Marcos when descending from Camino Cielo (only a couple of miles), but I would skip it for most everything else. Too bad you didn’t descend Old San Marcos as that is one of the best descents around – perfect road surface (although a slight bit of rock debris on occasion), fun curves and relatively steep. It is a fast, fun and somewhat technical descent. Despite the tight switchbacks at the top and a few tighter curves, it is definitely possible to average over 30 mph over the whole descent and top out at above 40 mph. So yeah, if you do this again, skip 154 and stick to Gibraltar/PC/OSM.