Leaving Tuscon behind to slowly drive back up through California. What better way to do this then to hit all the hardest climbs in the region? Pjamm Cycling keeps a list of the top climbs in the world. I used them to plan Canada rides this summer as well.

As you can see there’s quite a few in the area. Bad weather / mechanical issue / route mistakes prevented me from doing 3 of them, sadly, so I’ll have to be back some day. Still, it was a brutal 8 days:

From Tuscon to San Diego I of course stopped at a few big things along the way.

Gas station dinosaurs, Gila Bend, Arizona.

These are very dope. There's a definite trend of roadside dinosaurs in the world.

This one is covered in stickers from all over the world.

Quartzsite, Arizona. Largest Belt Buckle at some gift shops.

On the drive I passed through this huge actual desert complete with dunes and people riding around on them.

Looks like fun honestly.

Calipatria, California. Tallest flagpole. It's not that tall.

This could be two miles high, come on.

Arriving in San Diego: The largest lemon! I think.

This guy asked me for change while passing in front of my camera, smoke in hand. Here's a money-saving tip: Don't smoke. Also: Don't live.

Located north of San Diego.

Top of Palomar. Great weather, beautiful view. World class climbing for sure.

About 1 mile up here.

Rushed to make it to La Quinta in time before sunset, for this badass statue of a huge Road Runner. One of the best roadside statues for sure.

Then onward to the east to the famous (?) Cabazon Dinosaurs. I believe it used to be a restaurant.

Now shut down? Either way it was ludicrously windy so couldn't take a tripod pic of me with the dinosaurs : (

Also they dressed up the T-Rex for Christmas.

There's something weird and hollow about Christmas in the desert / California.

Most brutal day of the week here but beautiful road that runs along the “Rim of the World” connecting these two climbs.

Started the day ..bright..and early because the sun sets at 4:30pm or so at this point... Fog is foreshadowing for the rest of this week.

Top of the first climb, at over 7000 feet. It just goes on forever and ever.

There's this rock full of grafiti at the top. That's the only sign you get that you win.

You pass along a ski resort to get to the top. Seeing people snowboard wasn't something I was ready for.

The Rim of the World road kept me above the clouds for a bit, but it was still very damn cold.

View before descending the second climb.

The highway 18 climb is shorter, steeper and more scenic.

Ok I misunderstood this one, it actually keeps going for almost another 1000m of climbing after a somewhat flat section, up to “Snow Summit”. I was already above the snow line halfway up this climb and freezing. This climb peaks at 2500m above sea level, highest point of the weak if I had reached it, in the coldest damn place too. Some other day…

This is not anywhere close to the top... Fine going up. There was also no one there at all. Last thing I wanted was to change a flat up here and freeze to death.

Just 1500m up, surrounded by snowy mountains. Just like home!

Nice view going down though, with mountains peaking above the clouds, always.

Shout out to my movember attempt. I don't think it's for me.

After that I drove around a bit to visit big stuff, like the Largest Paper Cup, in some industrial park!

Then this giant cow, instead of the promised Cannibalistic Hot Dog that is on closed fairgrounds. Gotta watch RoadsideAmerica they keep sending people to inaccessible things.

The famous Randy's Big Donut in Costa Mesa.

World's largest surfboard, Huntington beach, CA. It's a good one.

Made it to Glendale that night to stay with my old time internet friend Rog. We went out to get a fancy donut.

From then on I spent a few nights at Rog’s Place ( worked on so many projects together since 2003 ).

Drove 35mins to do this loop. Mount Baldy is one of the toughest climbs but it has very meh views, however the road down, Glendora Mountain Road, is world class in epicness. Sadly I didn’t take any pictures because it was getting dark and I was, again, freezing. You spend about 20km of this ride at over 1km elevation on that road, so it’s COLD but you wind down the crest of a mountain with epicness on all sides. Definitely would like to do this again on a different weather kinda day…

That's the top. Just a ski resort.

View going right back down. Not much of a view because the sun was blasting my face already.

The final half of this climb is all very steep switchbacks with decent views of the mountain town below.

Just taking a day off the climbing by doing a little tour around town and getting an oil change for my poor car.

I didn't even realize I planned a route near the sign.

This is enough of my face.

Griffith Park observatory here. Once again a cloudy/wet day. #CaliforniaLies

It's a nice little 300m hill. Good cycling.

Along my route came across this street with dozens of disgusting camper vans parked there, despite all the "no parking 2 to 6am" signs. Grossness.

Just dipped into this comicbook store in Glendale. Why not?

Isn't it great that they hold onto this stuff for you and you don't need to buy any of it? Just look and leave!

"Statue of the Virgin King"

Love those goofy old comics. The bar used to be very low for what passed as entertainment.

Very badass laudromat here.

STARTS AT D.

America's Most American Store.

There's two of these goofy museums full of quirky stuff.

This is a pretty high ranked climb but it’s not that hard, just endless. Planned to do a double day, as Crystal Lake shares over 1000m of climbing on this same road… which feels a little dumb to have these be separate. However I really really froze my ass off on the saddle and got a flat on the way back out and took too long to fix it with my garbage-ass Continental ( brand ) tires. I made the right choice as my rear wheel deflated overnight because the tube got pinched by the trash tires, which I promptly threw in the garbage and changed for a different brand the next day. Never again with this company.

The bottom of the Saddle/ Crystal lake climbs. Notice the ominous clouds.

This is where the real shit begins. Beyond this point the road was full of debris/rocks and I was completely alone in the frigid fog.

Did not mess around at the top. The wind was howling and pushing more and more clouds and fog onto the closed road. Was one of those "Is this where I die?" days.

The other side of the pass was clear and sunny though. Thanks...? Amazing view I didn't stick around to enjoy.

This climb is ranked 98th/100, almost the bottom, but it’s endless and the top is brutal, with nonstop 10%+ pitches with 500m of climbing to go. Lost 90 minutes that day messing around with my tire before going to a shop to replace it. Very glad I finished this climb despite all this. Forecast was rain, once again, but I got lucky and it was just cold! The top of Pine was glacial and windy, couldn’t wait to get down.

The bottom 3rd of this climb is the nicest by far. Long winding road along the mountains.

I tried.

More views of the bottom. Imagine with a good camera. Imagine.

Near the top of Pine Mountain. One side is this vast desert-like sea of mountains. Beautiful, just too freezing and late to stop for more pics.

Got to do the descent of the bottom 3rd at sunset. Weather was decent and it was a great end to a challenging day.

First climb, Gibraltar, is located at the heart of Santa Barbara. I’m sure it has amazing views but it was raining the entire time I did it and all I could see was a white wall of clouds all around me the entire time. It was absolutely miserable. Only plus side was that the temperature was a little warmer and I could also change my clothes and warm up in the car afterwards before driving 25mins to do the next climb.
Refugio Road is a brutal one, just these endless walls one after another one this completely demolished road. The descent is as bad as the ascent. My hands hurt from holding the brakes the entire time, praying not to get a flat. It was too steep for my bike to stop, that’s how steep most of this one is. The weather was clear for this one and the views are well worth it on this climb.
Was great to finally have one climb of good weather besides Palomar on day1 of this adventure…

That's all you get for the top of Gibraltar...

Bottom of Refugio starts in this lime/lemon orchard. Smells like Mister Clean!

Super epic views nearing the top of Refugio.

You can see far off into the distance and all the way to the ocean.

Just endless rolling green hills.

The actual top of this climb has no road on it, it's just this gross rocks/dirt section. Pass. No need to flat on top of this thing this day.

In the end I didn’t achieve all that I had set out to do, mainly due to trying this in frickin December of all times. I got too optimistic about the weather after Tuscon. Still, biggest week of climbing of my entire year and that’s saying something.

Now onwards to San Francisco area before warping back north! Thanks for checking this out.

California Climbing Adventure