Written by: Ritte Van Vlaanderen

I’m not going to sound like myself in this post because I’m damned inspired right now. I’ve been riding my bicycle in the Malibu area for years now. Frankly, there’s nowhere in the country that can rival the variety of climbs combined with consistently good weather. Roads like Latigo Canyon, Decker, Piuma, Yerba Buena and others are iconic and beautiful. Hell, people come from all over to attended climbing camps here and PROs practically take over these roads every winter. Those of us who live here never forget how lucky we are to cruise them.

But today my buddy Stratton (yes that Stratton) and I headed up a road that’s rarely ridden called Corral Canyon. It was a little closer to home than some of the canyons further up PCH, so more out of laziness than a sense of adventure, we took a right turn next to a dilapidated 76 gas station and headed up.

There's almost no straight road up here.

I knew that Corral is a dead-end climb and also one of the steepest in Malibu, it’s a combination that keeps away just about everybody except the most curious. Sure enough, after about 100 meters, Stratton and I were slapped down by 10-15% grades as we quickly gained elevation and watched the ocean sink lower and lower beside us.

Lots of steep bits.

We made it through a series of early switchbacks surrounded by green grass and an amazing view and Stratton asked me how long the climb was. “2 or 3 miles” I guessed, and we both expected the road to end around the next few bends.

View after the first series of switchbacks looking north out past Latigo Canyon.

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