An overnighter for the books

 This past week, I took to the streets with a few close friends for an overnighter to Point Mugu, some 70 miles one way. We traversed the LA River, rode through the LA Zoo, and then into Hollywood, where we meandered the iconic Mulholland Drive. The route took us deep into the Hollywood Hills, high above the Pacific to the left and The Valley to our right.

At the end of Mulholland is the start of the Santa Monica Mountains and the beginning of Dirt Mulholland, which stretches the backbone of the mountain with various singletrack trails spider webbing off. We rode the length of Dirt Mulholland until we ended at Topanga Canyon Road. By this time, the sun had just set behind the western peaks as we started our ascent up the canyon road.

In the center of the canyon road is the small town of Topanga, which boasts a few small cafes and a pizza joint whose kitchen is open until 9 PM. We ate personal pizzas to gain strength for the remaining 2.5 hours of ride time to camp. We had a 30-minute descent down Topanga Canyon until we reached Pacific Coast Highway at the bottom. From there, we had a long stretch of the highway to travel north. After a few snack stops, we hustled into camp around 1:30 AM. The hiker/biker site at Point Mugu is a quant gem. We had the entire oak and magnolia canopy campsite to ourselves. As we found our way to the most appropriate bench, we unpacked our bounty of bags and assembled our hammocks and bivvys for a well-deserved rest.

Below is our route there and back. Additionally, I made an Instagram Reels from the ride.

A huge thanks to Kyle and Alex for being down for the ride and providing most of the photos. Here's to many more!