A mini Bikepacking Adventure

lately I've been feeling incredibly busy with work training creative Endeavors and about a week ago I turned to Kyle and said hey want to go on a bike packing trip it had almost been a full year since our last trip and I was itching to forget all my responsibilities for a weekend go pedal up a trail and sleep on a mountain top for the night I just finished packing up the bikee making sure that we have all the stuff we need for a quick little one night Bike packing trip out in some mountains that we really love Kyle and I have just been really stressed from our respective jobs this week and I think it'll really benefit us to just get out there get some riding in see some beautiful views and just spend a night outside I meant to pack last night and get all this situated before today the day we're leaving but we had a friend that was passing through town and ended up staying with us so now I'm just frantically Gathering everything and making sure that we don't get to the top of the mountain and I'm missing a sleeping bag or something like that so I'm going to go through my checklist one more time to make sure I have everything that's necessary we hit the road and drove to a little town nestled along California Central Coast San L abiso after we found a place to park in town we prepped our gear grabbed some burritos and set off around 400 p.m. the first part of our route was on a highway but we soon jumped onto a gravel fire road heading up to the ridge where we plan to [Applause] Camp feel pretty good despite the heavy breathing Kyle's back there yeah feels good to be off the highway rather be in nature so we're on this road for the next hour and then we'll keep climbing on another road so lots of climbing [Music] our goals for the weekend were pretty simple enjoy the outdoors take in the views and unwind a bit so we tried to keep the pace relatively chill as we chatted back and forth and took in the environment around us one of the reasons I had been eager to get this trip in was because the hot and sunny months of Summer were fast approaching and everything here would soon Fade to shades of brown right now though the landscape was bursting with life and [Music] color we climbed parallel to the highway for a bit before leaving it behind [Music] [Applause] jum hell yeah I could if it wasn't th you could jump it want this it's probably too fast for human eyes but [Music] I do a lot of writing on my own but I always love when K and I can hit the trails together we're kept pretty busy with work and our own passion projects so it's important we get this kind of time together in my opinion there's nothing like some good views and good dirt to make for some high quality bonding time [Music] [Music] once we reached the top we started looking for a good area to set up camp we finally came upon a little spot with a beautiful view that we thought would be perfect it was a bit exposed but we hoped the thick shrub surrounding the area would help protect the campsite from wind during the night I think it's going to be a really nice [Music] Sunset hi I got to fix my hood that was riveting well they're kind of like rivets except oh my gosh snap this guy and his dad [Applause] jokes at this point we were starving from all that climbing so we found a little patch of grass with a clear Lookout onto the valley and watch the sun start its descent while we ate our dinner well not right now from this vantage point we could see the full chain of extinct volcanoes named the sisters I think moral is the furthest right I think so yeah is place the last one it is kind of cool the chain four more [Music] [Music] volcanoes all right I'm heading back to the camp site as it's getting a little cold and I want to put on my actual warm pants still wearing the shorts that I was biking in so time to change well look at that view though I know honestly the campsite is looking very picturesque we picked a good spot yeah it's not bad I hope this bush protects us it's slightly windy here gets like pretty windy we can move I mean not that far you know it wouldn't it wouldn't be too hard to just go to that next turnout but we saw yeah now we got options actually one time we had to bail um one time we actually rode up to the same Ridge and we had to bail because uh there was a fire so there was a ton of air pollution and then also it was like 90° at 10 p.m. we thought it would cool down it did not no oh my gosh I've never had that had it in so so hot at night where I felt like I was going to suffocate so we just rode down the mountain and drove home many bad choices were made yeah it was now fully golden hour and the whole landscape was bathed in warm Hues of orange yellow and red as the Sun started to dip below the horizon [Music] why are you weird I don't know this view is one of the reasons I keep returning again and again to camp on this Ridge when it's a clear sky and the clouds are sitting below the peak the sunsets here are some of the most stunning I've ever seen all right the last little bit of sunrise sunset the last little bit of sunset is try that again setting uh it's starting to get a little chilly now so we got the jackets on and just yeah watching it go it's almost there it's almost gone that was the slowest Sunset ever seriously we'll figure it out in the morning it was still rather bright out but the temperature continue to drop so I decided to boil some water to make some bangal spice tea before we called it a night the spark is working [Music] huh there you go [Applause] what I'm very happy I brought the the stove top worth it for the weight instant coffee you brought instant coffee apparently for tomorrow yeah it was just in my bag apparently I knew what we needed tire lever also just in case really still nice night yeah it's still super bright this is like the nicest night it's ever been on this Ridge you're saying it was dissipating but yeah I think you're right I think it's going to be I think it's going to roll in and then in the morning we're going to wake up and either be in the fog or we'll be right above it and it'll just be incredible I'm really fingers crossed for a beautiful sunrise I feel like a sunrise I like more I get more stoked on a really beautiful sunrise than a nice Sunset cuz I feel like it's easy to see a sunset it's a lot harder to see a sunrise M yeah just saying hello hey nice spot thank you we're stoked on it to be honest part of the reason I felt the urge to film this bike packing trip was to capture a moment in time Kyle and I are in this sweet spot of life where we have a bit more resources and are starting to get more established in our careers but we also still have the freedom to do last minute Adventures like this weekend trip the reality is this might not be the case in a couple more years so I wanted to capture this weekend just like an ant and Amber a little snapshot of this moment in time [Music] [Music] good windy morning the tent had been cozy but once we got up the icy wind that i' had picked up during the night pushed us to hurly pack up Camp as quickly as possible I know we forgot Glo Kyle forgot gloves and then we forgot your plugs and those like two big camping Necessities we were eager to get down the mountain and get some hot breakfast as we started our descent I couldn't help but pause to watch the fog crusting over the ridge as the sun r r [Music] [Music] see the fog it is cold look at that though it's like the wall of fog coming through yeah instead of riding the Fire Road we had climbed up yesterday back down we decided to take a more technical single track that went down the other side of the ridge this Trail gave us beautiful views of the Green Hills as we quickly descended into the valley below [Applause] as we got lower into the little Hills the wind started to relent as the sun also started to Crest the rideline we had just left behind warming up our cold hands and noses [Music] go gobble gobble all right so the wind has died down a lot um much nicer I mean theoo it's warm now hard to believe that just like 30 minutes ago we were freezing our butts off yeah pretty nice H I'm excited for some coffee and a breakfast burrito or a croissant [Music] yeah I'm glad I'm glad we did this last minute trip a little overnight not sure if you're going to be able to hear Kyle on this mic but a little overnight oh my gosh look at the quails theil oh well n [Music] [Applause] I can't un cook it my hands are so cold there we go it'll still work as a hat here we [Applause] go keeping an eye on the bikes mhm and I get to eat a chocolate for so we just rode down this morning it was crazy windy at the top of the mountain um but now we stopped at this little coffee shop that we've gone to many times before um when we're here and getting some much needed coffee and some food before meeting up with some friends good morning how are you they do such funny voices my hands are on fire it's good though bring them back to life kids wear gloves I guess everybody not just the kids wow I'm jealous of all that BAC you can have some we quickly ate our breakfast before getting another coffee with some friends who stopped by the conversation turned to how we want to buy a large piece of property in the middle of the forest and get all of our friends to come build tiny A-frame homes on it it's an ongoing I'm joking but not really thing in our friend Circle traveling ready to go home yes I am full of croissants ready to drive now I just got to unpack got back from the camping trip yesterday and honestly we were feeling pretty tired so we just kind of threw everything in the garage and I'm dealing with it today after work it was a really nice weekend I realized that Kyle and I haven't gone on a camping trip just us in a really long time we're really spoiled in that a lot of our friends are super outdoorsy and into mountain biking and camping but every now and then it is nice to just get away the two of us and spend some quality time together we've actually camped on that Ridge quite a few times before we've known about this spot for years and years but this was one of the clearest stillest evenings I've ever had up there until the wind picked up in the middle of the night but it was really gorgeous I'm so happy we did it the hills were all green and Lush and that was kind of the reason we decided to do this L last minute is I knew just a couple more weeks of hot weather and all those Hills are going to turn brown so I really wanted to get out there and be in that beautiful landscape before all the green faded away anyways hope you enjoyed riding along for this adventure and hopefully I'll see you in the next one [Music]

Channel: Elena Makes

Views: 95,078

Keywords: camping, mountain bike, gravel biking, hiking, outdoor explore, trail, San Luis obispo, california outdoors, nature

Id: KFBCaXS4O1E

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Sat May 25 2024