Live for the Path

Day 6 – Banning, CA to Rowland Heights, CA – 73 miles – 6.5 hours saddle time

I got up fairly early (especially considering that I was in a real bed) and got cranking towards my buddy in Rowland Heights. I went through a small town called Beaumont which I thought was cute and then (after taking a road closure detour…) up a great pass called San Timoteo Canyon Road. This is another bike ride I recommend if you have the opportunity.

I came out in Bryn Mawr and went through Loma Linda (nice) and then crossed the highways and started the long ride through the inland empire (not as nice). I got the pleasure of having someone sneak up right behind me in a lane that was literally wide enough for two cars, honk, and then squeel around me. Screw you Herbalife salesperson. First time that has happened, but I figure that since the people that honk encouragingly have outnumbered this ass at least 20-1, it is alright.

Anyway, I am having trouble getting in touch with my friend by the time I make it over to close to his place, so I chill at a McDonald’s and relax for a while. He eventually calls me and says that he is almost home and he wants to pick me up in his pick up truck. Okay, sure. I head a little down the road towards his place, he gets me, and we head back. I am treated to a great dinner and a relaxing night watching the Lakers-Nuggets game. Thanks to the entire Blessman family for their hospitality. Sorry for the reduced number of pictures… I assume you have all seen suburban sprawl before.

Day 7 – Zero Day – Rowland Heights, CA to Yorba Linda, CA

Great day. I sent probably 15 pounds of stuff home (including my cooking stuff which had not been used once). The rest of the day I relaxed, either on the couch, at Starbucks updating my site for a while, or again on a different friend’s house. Special thanks to Blessman for driving me from his place to my other buddy’s place, and thanks to Tim for the hospitality and driving me from Starbucks up his mammoth hill. Tim and I finished the day playing a game very like Acrophobia, which we played non stop probably 12 years ago. No pictures today.

PS – Route was rode in a car, not biked.

Day 8 – Yorba Linda to Pico-Robertson – 81 miles – 7.25 hours saddle time

Woke up in the morning, ate some breakfast at Tim’s house, and lazed around a little bit while I put off leaving. I eventually got going, and got on the Santa Ana River Bike Trail, which took me literally from right outside Tim’s door all the way down to Huntington Beach and the Pacific Ocean. This trail was convenient, but not all that nice, but there were a lot of bikers on it despite the nasty weather (it had been overcast and cold since Day 6 in LA).

I got down to Huntington Beach and took a nice bike path on the beach for a while.

I then hopped on the Pacific Coast Highway for quite a few miles, which was nice for a while with a wide bike lane, and it was horrible for a while, with no bike lane and the most narrow right lane I have ever seen. And of course this happens in the bad neighborhoods, but I had to get on the sidewalk for a while to not be run over. Once I got back down to the ocean again I got back on another bike path, and lo and behold – the sun was there!

I ride down this path for many miles and love it. If I were to ever move out here though, I would have to work on my beach volleyball skills. It seems that is what everyone 18-34 does on the LA shore. I guess I could handle that since my dad allegedly played volleyball for his college team. Anyway, I talk to some people for a while on the bike path about my Surly and touring, and then head inland.

I get to Pico-Robertson and go to Wendy’s to get a burger and then to Starbucks to update my site. At right around 7 I get a phone call from the friend I am staying with that night, and I head over at around 7:30. We go get ice cream that they make in front of you, and then we relax for the rest of the night over tea.

Day 9 – Zero Day

Another day where not much happened, much to my delight. My buddy and I went to Venice Beach for some tasty breakfast (Benice – recommended) and then he swung me by REI so I could get a few more tubes and patches. They didn’t have the normal tubes there though in my size (700×35 presta if you must know) so I had to get some of the slime tubes. I figured they are worth a shot anyway, and once I change one in I will let everyone know how they work. I have also had a slow leak in the back tire for a while, but it stays full for an entire day if I just fill it in the morning, so I haven’t done anything about it yet.

Anyway, after that we head to his work (a tea shop in Century City – nice place) and then I walk back to the Starbucks near his apartment and get a ton of work done on the website. I chill for 6 hours or so there and then go back to Ian’s apartment, play him in a game of Chinese Chess (kinda sorta like Shoji – but with some really strange pieces) and then go to bed. Thanks to Ian and his roomates for their hospitality. I also want to thank Facebook, because without it I would not have seen Tim for the first time in 12 years or Ian for the first time in 8. So thanks Facebook, and thanks to my old friends for being so inviting!

48 miles – 4.5 hours Saddle Time

I left Ian’s at around 8:15 and headed back down the bike path towards the ocean. I stayed on that around Marina del Ray and headed up another bike path on the beach through Venice and Santa Monica.

Eventually I was forced onto the Pacific Coast Highway (known forevermore in this blog as the PCH) and began the trek northward in earnest.

I was rewarded with some stunning views that cannot be captured in my pictures, and some ridiculous hills that cannot be described. None of the hills were very long, but their steepness was obscene. I both had to use the granny gear for the first time of the trip today, and also set a new speed record at 30mph, and I was holding back big time. But I will have to get used to these hills, as they are going to be with me for at least the next month.

Anyway I headed through Malibu, stopping at a McDonald’s (of course) and then at a Bank of America (I was very low on cash).

I got to a Starbucks and sat online for a little while, and then headed to my campground.

I got there at around 2:15, and set up my tent early. The best part about the campgrounds I will be staying at for the next month is that they all have hiker/biker spots specifically for people in transit by bike or on foot. They are between $3 and $5.

I walked to the ocean a few times before heading out to meet a friend from school for dinner at a place called Neptune’s Net at around 4:00. I hung out outside at the cliffs while I waited for him to arrive.

I ate a lot of fried seafood, had a 24 oz. Miller Lite, and then departed for the campground. I return to find nothing disturbed, and get into the tent and quickly fall asleep at around 6:30 (!!).

37 miles in 3.25 hours

I wake up rather early (not surprisingly) and lay in the tent for a long while doing nothing. This is because I know I have a short day ahead of me, and also because it is quite cold out. I eventually get up and pack up and head up the road. I quickly blow my back tire, which has had a slow leak for a while, so I throw a new tube in. However, as I am doing this, it begins to rain. Brilliant.

Anyway I trudge on past various Naval Bases (there are either several here or the one that is there is HUGE).

I stop for some T-Bell for an early lunch in a cute town called Port Hueneme, and talk to two people there – one who bought a Surly Long Haul Trucker frame (the bike I have) for his brother who turned it into a fixed-gear (!!), and another older couple whose daughter had done a bike tour around Europe with some friends when she was in high school.

I headed back out into the gloom and made it to Ventura pretty early. I called my Warmshowers host and then found a Starbucks. This always seems to be more of a hassle than it would seem because when I search for them half of the time they turn out to be the kind in grocery stores, which is not what I want. Eventually I found one, spent a few hours updating the website, and then headed over to my hosts’ house, not sure what I would find.

Anyway, I spotted the house pretty quickly because of the Race Across America painted van sitting in the driveway. This is a fairly large cross country bike race that occurs every year. It turns out that one of my hosts, Nicole, holds the record for fastest two woman team in this race (around 8 days… yikes). RAAM seems like a good time, and is something I would like to do recreationally one day, perhaps in a 8 man team (definitely not two… nothing recreational about that).

Turns out Jae and Nicole were great hosts, and I got a shower, to do laundry, and a fantastic dinner. Jae, a bike mechanic, even looked at my bike and made some tweaks for me. Thanks guys for being great hosts. Anyway, shortly after dinner everyone did some reading and then went to bed. I suggest that any tourers check out www.warmshowers.org.

64 miles in 6 hours

I got up in the morning and Nicole decided to ride with me for a while, which was quite useful because the path out of town was a little confusing. (They seemed rather stunned that I didn’t have any maps. I dared not tell them that I had recently sent home my cooking supplies as well. Everyone tours their own way.) Anyway she rode me all the way up to Carpinteria, which is the first suburb of Santa Barbara. I felt bad for being slow (since she is a world class athlete and all, and I am not to say the least – plus I was fully loaded and she was on a road bike). Thanks again to Jae and Nicole for being so inviting!

After that I headed through Santa Barbara, and rode along the beach. This was a nice because it was beautiful out and because Santa Barbara is a very attractive town. Wow. Anyway, I eventually got through the downtown beach section, sadly.

I took the ‘Coastal Route’ as opposed to the ‘Crosstown Route’ at Nicole’s urging, despite ‘a small hill’. It was the first small hill I have ever seen that required frequent switchbacks to climb! Despite that, it was a beautiful route, and I am glad I did it.

After I got through town and to the 101, I stupidly realized that I didn’t eat since a late breakfast, nor did I pick anything up for later. This was poor because the park I was going to for the night was in the middle of nowhere. So I turned around and went back to town and stopped in a 7-11 for trail mix (three kinds!) and at a Baja Fresh, which has somehow become very expensive in the last few years.

Having taken care of that, I hopped back on the road and went back to the 101 and got on it. I did around 10-15 freeway miles before hitting my exit, and the beautiful state beach that awaited. I paid the $5 for the hiker/biker site, wrote some for my blog, ate some trail mix, and turned in early, with the ocean in the background.

As I was laying in the tent I heard these people suddenly chatting next to me. How strange I thought, so I put my glasses on and took a look. Two more bike tourists had arrived! I excitedly donned my shirt and hopped outside. It turns out that the two of them, boy and girl, had just graduated from Berkeley and were doing San Francisco to Los Angeles. They were really going bare bones, with almost nothing, just a pretty sweet stereo strapped to the back of his bike. They just had a tarp to lay down and some sleeping bags. I was a little jealous of their set up. I chatted with them for a while, and then returned to my tent to go to bed.

35 miles in 3 hours

I woke up in the middle of the night, not suspecting that anything was wrong, but confused as to why I woke up. Suddenly I realized that my face was wet, and not only that but it was getting wetter. RAIN! I hustled up, threw my shoes on, hopped outside of my tent, and hastily threw up the rain fly (which I never put up, mostly due to laziness). With that emergency taken care of I went back inside and back to sleep.

When I actually awoke in the morning, I noticed that it was still raining, and because my I did not stake down my rainfly, it was only half effective. I was nice and dry though, so I sat inside and pondered what to do next.

I ran outside to brush my teeth and all that, and noticed that it really wasn’t too bad out. I also didn’t see my friends from the night before, and was sad that they probably got rained on in the middle of the night and had to move on. I then returned to my tent to again sit and plot.

I eventually packed everything up inside my tent, loaded my bike, and then quickly packed my soaking wet tent. Yuk. On my way out of the campground I saw my friends from Berkeley again, who had chilled under and around the canopied restrooms and showers when it started to rain. I said my goodbyes to them, and headed north, into the rain.

I got through the famous tunnel that terrifies bikers, and it was pretty terrifying. It wasn’t a long tunnel, but it was pretty narrow, and it was nearly impossible to stay to the right; you just kept getting sucked back to the middle.

Afterwards I started up by far the biggest hill of the trip thus far. This sucker was not only steep, but it was long.

I spent probably an hour going 4 mph up this hill. I was rewarded with an easy ride through the sun down into Lompoc. It was around 12:30 when I arrived and stopped for some fast food. With no campground within striking distance, a right knee that was having some issues, and a soaking wet tent that needed to dry, I decided to stop at a Motel 6 and make it a very short day.

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and sat at Starbucks for several hours working on the site. I also bought some supplies in Albertsons and ate a few more meals. All in all a relaxing and productive night.

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69 miles in 7 hours

I got up fairly early and headed out of Lompoc at around 7:45.

I took another ‘fun’ road with some switchbacks for a while, but was rewarded with a great ride down the hill (again thanks to Nicole the Ultra-Marathoner).

Once I got back to the PCH I talked to a family who was out taking a morning ride. The father said he had toured the Pacific Coast 20 years ago, but couldn’t imagine doing it now with all the traffic. I have heard similar things from other people throughout the trip, and am always a little amazed. I would imagine that it is probably safer now to do something like this than it was years ago, but I think people always think that things were better, safer, etc. back when they were young.

I also went under an overpass with the strangest bird nests I have ever seen.

I then rode through the towns of Orcutt, Guadalupe, and Oceano on my way towards Morro Bay.

I stopped at a Subway in Pismo Beach for lunch and relaxed for a while, and then ended up rolling out, knowing that I had a ways to go still. I started back northbound and then turned on Los Osos valley road. Of course, since I turned West, the headwinds started again. I grinded along slowly, was called a faggot by a group of guys (it goes without saying they were in a pickup truck… very brave of them to yell out the window while going past me), and eventually made it to my campground for the night, Morro Beach State Park.

I set up in the hiker/biker spot and then walked around for a while. This was a very pretty park, situated right on the bay and next to a marina and golf course.

Best of all, the showers there were free (but cold). I headed back to my tent after my first walk around and read for a while, before heading back out to take some pictures of the sunset a couple hours later.

With that taken care of, I went back to the tent and went to sleep early.

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29 miles in 3.5 hours

I started the day and rode up to the town of Morro Bay. I went to a little coffee house in Morro Bay for a few hours and updated the site. This was a pretty cool coffee shop, and I recommend it to anyone passing through.

I then left there around noon, and grabbed some lunch at a nearby McDonald’s. I then headed up towards my campground for the night at San Simeon. The day started out very well, and I passed through some nice towns.

Of course, as the day wore on these horrible headwinds started, and just continuously got worse. Eventually, I was going 6mph on flat ground, and 4mph up small hills. This really takes a lot of the fun out of bike touring – at least when you are going up a hill you are gaining potential energy which you will convert… pedalling into the wind doesn’t get you anything. I pedaled on though, and stopped for an early dinner in the town of Cambria because I knew that the campground was pretty isolated.

I finally rode by the campground at around 4:30, and saw that there were already a bunch of other bike tourers set up in the spot. My first thought was ‘shit’ because I didn’t want the hiker/biker spots to be full. Luckily when I reached the gate the woman said that they don’t have a set number of sites that they give out, as many hiker/bikers can cram into the spot as can fit. Not only that, but it was only $2, the cheapest spot to date.

I paid the money and rolled down to meet four people already there. Jamie and Adrian were a couple from San Diego who flew to Portland and were riding back down the coast towards home, and Deena and Juli (I think?) had just graduated from Cal-Berkeley and were riding from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. They were all really friendly, and I was happy that I met them all. We sat around and laughed and Adrian rode up to the town of San Simeon (a couple miles away) to buy everyone beer. At sunset, I walked to the beach and took yet another video of a sunset over the pacific.

I walked back to find two more people there, Tim and Melissa, who were also going north. They also had a third person in their group, another Tim, who was out getting them food and beer.

It was a late night of good times, and was the only night there were a significant number of people at any hiker/biker spots on the California coast. We had a nice night despite being yelled at by the ranger, and I met some new northbound friends.

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42 miles in 5.25 hours

I was the first one awake from our campsite the night before, and quickly got packed and ready before the wind started. By the time I was ready to go most of the other people were up, so I talked with them a little bit. It was hard to leave everyone, but I wanted to cover the over 60 miles to Pfiffer Big Sur, and get all the way through the mountains that day. Eventually, I managed to say goodbye, and rolled out at around 8:30.

For once the winds were pretty calm in the flatlands for my first few hours of riding. Then I reached the mountains and started the first of four large climbs through the range.

At what I thought was the top of the first climb I stopped at a place called Rugged Point and grabbed lunch. I had literally the most buttery grilled cheese I have ever had there, and under any other circumstances I probably would have thought it was pretty gross. But when you are biking, any calories taste delicious, so I thought it was pretty damn good.

I left, only to discover that I was not at the top of the first climb, actually not even close. So I continued to slowly slog along, and eventually made it to the top.

I was told last night and this morning by my southbound friends in the campsite that there would be no wind today in the mountains. Well, they were wrong. I had a pretty hairy decent down the first hill, and then started to climb the second hill in a vicious headwind. Once I got to the top, I started another decent. On this decent I was getting blown around like I weighed nothing, even though I am probably 275 pounds with gear and bike. I got blown so hard that I thought my front tires were going to go out from under me, and almost got blown into a car on a flat.

This rattled me pretty badly, and I was making pretty bad time, so when I got to Kirk Creek Campground, which had been recommended, I decided to call it a day. I paid my $5 hiker/biker fee and set up.

As I was laying around listening to some podcasts I had on my computer, I hear someone shout my name from outside my tent. I go out, and I see Tim, Tim, and Melissa from the night before. It turns out one of the Tim’s has a racing bike, so the back wheel isn’t really made for touring, and he has three broken spokes. This is not good, and the bike is almost unridable. I tell them just to hitchhike to Monterey if he breaks one more spoke the next day. After that we end up hanging out and talking for a few hours, I take some pictures of another sunset, and they give me two hotdogs (thanks guys!) and then I go back and call it a night.

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62 miles in 6.83 hours

I roll out before the other group again, ready to tackle the last two peaks in Big Sur. I quickly get to the town of Lucia and nab a couple of cookies, and then continue on my merry way.

I huff and puff through the mountains, but finally, at noon, I have gotten through the last thirty miles, and to the town of Big Sur, which is at the summit of the last peak. I stop for a sandwich, and then fly down the mountain, and into some pretty rolling countryside.

The wind isn’t as atrocious as it has been the last few days so I am making pretty good time, but there are these damn gulches, which are a huge pain in the ass. Basically they are breaks in the land right against the ocean, and instead of building a bridge over the gap, the road just follows them all the way down and around and then back up a big ass hill. Unfortunately I don’t have a good picture of one, but trust me, they are annoying.

I finally get to the town of Carmel and get some cell reception for the first time in a few days.

I then need to climb up a mammoth hill, at rush hour, on a four lane highway with absolutely no shoulder. This is pretty terrifying and exhausting, but eventually I get up the hill, and then glide down the other side into Monterey. I then check my cell phone to see where my campground for the night is. Turns out it is at the top of the hill. Nice.

I cry a little and then get back on the bike and go back up the hill the other way, and eventually get to Veteran’s Memorial Park. I check in and set up my tent. I quickly notice that they other people at the hiker/biker spot seem to be long term residents there, and a little crazy. I then notice that there appears to be some sort of drug deal going down between two of the residents. You can imagine that this makes me a little uneasy. I get into my tent, but am then overwhelmed by the smell of marijuana, which actually made me feel much better. Homeless people on pot are a lot less frightening than homeless people on meth or crack or whatever else it could have been. Suffice it to say that I stay in my tent and get to sleep pretty early.

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