Another adventure ride with Kim. We left from the Castaic Starbucks and rode up the Ridge Route to Templin Highway, then cut across to Golden State Highway and took it to it's end. "Someone" took my GPS up from the end of the road to the top of the dam for Pyramid Lake... Saw the forestry route up to Whitaker Peak on the way back, but Kim was ahead after my detour up past Oak Flat Campground (to the hot shot's and boy scout's camps), so I had to catch up to her; the road up towards Whitaker Peak starts off paved. Exploring it will have to wait for another day! It was very windy; the wind advisory indicated winds up to 35 mph, and there were certainly gusts that high or higher, and that someone told me the wind up at the dam at the end of the lake was probably about 35 mph. The guy transferred some pics to me; hope I run into him again some day... The mapped route, with some extras not ridden here: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/6661657 Of interest, I mentioned it was very windy, and I suspect buffeting winds wreak havoc with the barometric altimeter of the Garmin Edge 800. The Garmin showed 750' more climbing for this ride, a total of 5187'/-5203' over 35.66 mi. This ride included 0.6 mi & 100' of bonus up past Oak Flat Campground. Deducting that from the total leaves 35.1 mi and, say, 4335'. That compares well with the mapped route (with deductions for detours) of 34.1 mi & 4067'. Is this an indication that the elevation gain shown by mapping is getting more accurate?