A slightly curtailed version of one of my favorites, the Figueroa Mountain loop. With a late start and rain in the forecast, Pete and I started from Los Olivos so we could finish there for a late lunch, one of our favorite deli sandwiches.* It was quite cool, which was good for me. Up on the mountain, we became immersed in the clouds and it was misty or drizzling the entire time. I stopped at the top to put on my arm warmers and envelope; Pete put on his usual cold-weather regalia and still his fingers went numb. We had to be a little more careful due to wet roads on the majority of the descent, but I still had fun, and the views were still reasonably good. Everything is much more green than I have ever seen it, reminding me of a travellog show about Ireland... The Garmin showed just over 5,000' of elevation gain, but RWGPS's algorithms and data smoothing reduced it by about 100'. This route can be started from anywhere along CA-154, or from San Ysidro, Solvang or Buellton. To include a nice deli sandwich and a beer for lunch after the ride, it makes sense, though, to start in Los Olivos if you want to keep the mileage closer to 40 miles instead of the 50 miles with Buellton. Metrics of the Figueroa Mtn climb: 3 parts to the climb: 2 parts of climbing and a respite of almost 1 mile. Both parts of the climbing have an average grade of 8.2%, with a maximum grade of 12.1% Climb #1: 3.07 mi, 1247' Climb #2: 5.80 mi, 2333' Respite: 0.96 mi, 11'/-327' (-5.8% avg) Complete climb: 9.89 mi 3602' 7.6% avg. (max. 12.1%) * Deli sandwiches from R-Country Market: http://www.yelp.com/biz/r-country-market-los-olivos