Now that my bike trip is over and I am rejoining the world where I have responsibilities, bills, and other pesky grown-up people things to do, I find that I am going through withdrawal. Normally, when I return from a trip the first thing I do is unpack. I hate leaving a suitcase or gear lying around. I want things back in their place. After this trip, however, I have had a difficult time unpacking. In fact, I really haven't. Partially because I was home just over 24 hours before leaving on another trip (for a wedding and then a work trip). Unpacking the trailer would signify that the trip is over, and I am not ready to accept this. In fact if I left today, I could possibly bike from San Diego to Florida in time for my January start date on the Southern Tier route. Of course, I am currently on an airplane flying across the country, which makes it difficult to start that ride today. But, if I was at home at least my gear is packed and I'd be ready to go!
I have run some numbers from the trip, that I thought might be fun for folks to see, and if not I enjoy seeing them.
Average Daily Mileage: 61 miles
Median Daily Mileage: 66 miles
Total Mileage: 1097.1 miles
Number of Days on the bike: 18
Number of Rest Days: 1
Total Number of Days: 19
Campsites: 11
Hotel Rooms: 3
Friends Couches, Beds, Floors: 4
Flat Tires: 2 (1 on the bike, 1 on the trailer) In fact I am going to endorse Michelin Krylion Carbon Road tires. The only flat I got was during my little crash at Venice Beach. These tires are great, and I am confident had I not crashed I would have made it flat free all the way down the coast.
Although, I miss the bike touring life, there are a few perks in this so-called "real" world that I do enjoy. One of my favorite parts of this world are pillows! In fact as I stayed at friends houses a few nights, I didn't really care what surface I slept on, but was always excited to lay my head on a real pillow. I don't want my down jacket and spare clothes all crammed into a stuff sack to be sad, you really do a great job on the road. But there is something to be said for a nice fluffy pillow without lumps or stinky clothes inside.
I have also posted more photos from the trip on my flickr account. You can see them by clicking here.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Day Nineteen
Total: 1097.1 miles
I was tempted to put this post off until tomorrow, but figured I better stick with my evening regimen. For nineteen days life was simple, eat, pedal, eat, pedal, type a blog post, sleep. Repeat. Reaching the end of my tour involves mixed emotions. I am thrilled to have finished this trip, but at the same time sad that it is over. However, enough with this and on to the details of my last day of touring the California coast.
This morning after a tasty camp breakfast we hit the road. No sooner had we turned out of the campground onto the coast highway than George (the Bob trailer) got a flat. Apparently, he wanted to be just like Oscar Rrramon. I do have to admit it makes sense that George would make such a copycat move, he has been following Oscar Rrramon around for the past 19 days. Also, the flat was good because it helped me justify carrying the beefy spare tube the trailer requires for all those miles.
With a fresh tube in the bob named George, we began our journey to the border. I thought of today's ride as being similar to the last day of the Tour de France, a day of celebration and perhaps more leisurely riding. Even though my ride was far less challenging, and involved far fewer classified climbs and fewer miles than Le Tour, I am okay with this analogy, and I feel I earned my celebratory last stage to the border. The morning started with the last significant climb of the ride as we pedaled up the hill at Torrey Pines, we even opted for the steeper grade through the state park. When we pedaled past UCSD a couple of my labmates came out to say hello. Fortunately, Michelle is recovering from a cold and was too plugged up to smell us. I don't think Chia-chen was so lucky.
Our celebration day continued as we pedaled down to Point Loma and enjoyed snack time and cokes courtesy fo Barlo and Jeff. We then pushed on along the harbor and took the ferry with our bikes to Coronado Island. On Coronado we headed straight to Moo time Creamery, where we enjoyed massive sundaes, narrowly avoiding food comas. Energized with sugar we pedaled down the silver strand and through Imperial Beach to the border. I opted for Border Field right on the water as opposed to the actual border crossing. Soon after reaching the border a familiar white station wagon appeared for the ride home. Thanks Jeanni for allowing the trip to come full circle, by driving me on my first leg headed north, and back home at the end.
Now it's time for me to sleep in my own bed. I will have a few sporadic summary and afterthought posts eventually so stay tuned.
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Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Day Eighteen
Total: 1053 miles
Phew! It felt great to get through Orange County and back on bike paths and familiar roads through Camp Pendleton and on down to San Elijo State Beach. It's a strange feeling to currently be lying in a tent within 20 miles of my own bed, and within 50 miles of the end of this tour. Of course, if you look at my anticipated mileage I have already reached it. Apparently side trips and detours, planned and unplanned, add up.
The riding today was quite pleasant, especially compared with yesterday's route through LA. However, I have to admit I finally got a flat tire. I was in denial about it. I tried to pretend it didn't happen. But it did. Yesterday, after my little sliding crash in Venice Beach I noticed my front tire pressure was low. I pumped it up and rode the rest of the day. However, when I went to leave the hotel room this morning it was very low again. I thought about just pumping it back up, since clearly its a slow leak. Then came acceptance. And I changed the tire. So there you have it. I finally got a flat.
This morning we enjoyed bike path riding along the beach all the way to Newport Beach, where we then took the ferry over to Balboa Island, which is home of the original frozen banana stand. For all you Arrested Development fans, remember "there's always money in the banana stand." What's even better is we saw Lucille swimming in the water during our ferry ride, she swam under before I was able to get a picture. Don't worry Adele and I still have our hands!
Fueled with frozen bananas we continued down the coast through Orange County and lunched at San Onofre State Beach. Another day, another peanut butter and jelly sandwich while staring at the pacific ocean. We then got back on our bikes and pedaled south through Camp Pendleton. It was definitely fun to bike through and see the various types of helicopters land and take off, or the marines playing on the ropes course. I have to admit, it did cross my mind to bike over and ask for a turn. As I've been biking the coast I keep singing the Beach Boys song "Surfin' USA" to myself, and now I think I have biked past nearly every beach mentioned in that song. Today definitely felt like southern california with all the beaches crowded with surfers.
Once we made it to camp this afternoon we enjoyed whipping up some tasty guacamole, thanks to Linda in Santa Barbara, who gave us several avocados from her tree. It's always fun at the hiker/biker site talking to other bike tourers and brainstorming future trips.
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Monday, October 11, 2010
Day Seventeen
Total: 980.1 miles
Los Angeles. Today was the day of biking around/through this massive sprawling city. Now that I have biked through LA I never have to again. In fact the following conversation occurred while navigating the city.
Me: Adele, are you hungry?
Adele: No, I don't know. I think I'm just terrified.
Me: Maybe that's what I'm feeling.
Adele: That burning sensation in the pit of your stomach.
Me: Yeah, I think that's it.
The morning started out pleasantly enough as we biked along the coast through Malibu. However, after 25 miles of navigating the Pacific Coast Highway we were thrilled to get onto a bike path. Although, a sand shark did jump out and get me causing my bike to slide out from under me, leading to me sliding for a few feet on the pavement. A guy behind us yelled at us for stopping where we did (since obviously most people stop by lying over on their side when riding). That guy then crashed five feet further ahead, we of course did not yell at him for stopping where he did. We then pedaled on to Redondo Beach, along bike paths, where we met Anneke and Anya for lunch. Anya (who is 10 months) provided some really interesting conversation, and played a game of fetch with me, where she enjoyed throwing her book on the floor just to watch me pick it up. Apparently, I am easily trained.
After leaving Anneke we had to leave the bike path and venture across Los Angeles. The bike route went east to catch the LA River bike trail. I can also tell you I have never been more happy to see the "scenic" LA River. Pavement and water never looked so pretty. Once to the river we were able to once again follow bike paths to Sunset Beach, where we got a hotel for the night, due to the lack of campgrounds in the LA area. Tomorrow, we push on to San Diego county. I find it hard to believe I have pedaled this far, and that I am only 2 days away from my end point, the Mexican border.
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Day Sixteen
Total: 904.1 miles
I am actually having a hard time remembering how many days I've been biking, which is making starting each blog post a bit challenging. I think losing track of time and days is one of the best parts of travelling, when your only concerns are getting from point A to point B (or at least that is the case with bike touring).
My half-rest day in Santa Barbara was fantastic. Kelly treated me to sushi at Arigato, which was a delicious way to end our week of touring. It was great to have another Santa Barbara people reunion, in SB as opposed to last weekends reunion in San Francisco. After dinner the SB crew headed down to Dargans to hang out. Thanks to everyone who came! Since I was pedaling today I headed back to Jayna's (where we were staying) reasonably early and went to bed, where perhaps not so surprisingly there was a small party going on. When I had almost fallen asleep there was a knock at the bedroom door, Kelly was telling me to wake up because a guy at the party had been biking with Hermann the last week. Turns out Jayna's house is the hiker/biker site of the Santa Barbara Mesa. I got up and talked for a bit with Chris who has been biking since Vancouver, BC. Its definitely a small world and we discussed all the people we had both met along the way. It was also nice to hear of Hermann's progress along the coast. We pacific coast bike tourers are a nomadic people that are slowly and somewhat in unison progressing down the coast.
Now to the riding today. This morning Kelly handed off the elephant handlebar mascot to Adele and we started pedaling south. Continuing our food tour we started with breakfast at East Beach Grill, followed by a lunch stop 25 miles later at Habit Burger in Ventura. The riding today was fast and pleasant, aided by a pretty major tailwind. Thanks wind! We did enjoy a nice stop at a Navy display in Port Hueneme, what do you think is faster: the missle or our bikes? We rolled into camp by 3:30 giving us plenty of time to relax. And plenty of time to deal with the first (or second depending on who's counting) explosion of the trip. Fortunately, the explosion consisted of chocolate. It turns out the rodents in Big Sur must have gnawed a hole in the food stuff sack and a chocolate bar, and today with the hot weather and a full resupplied food bag, the conditions were perfect for explosive chocolate. Although, the mess was quite significant, its hard to be upset when cleaning involves licking off chocolate.
The day ended on a high note as Jill brought us dinner of homemade lasagna with lots of fresh veggies. Followed by a visit with more snacks and treats from Dan and Julia. More southern california hospitality!
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Saturday, October 9, 2010
Day Fifteen
Total: 841.2 miles
Today we made it to Santa Barbara, which means the end of the line for Kelly. I was definitely happy to have a shorter day today, with plenty of time to rest, relax, and get a massage from Ericka Buckley, massage therapist extraordinaire! This morning Linda biked out to Gaviota and rode back to Goleta with us, where our food tour of Santa Barbara began with breakfast burritos at La Carreta! I was also greeted there with a surprise guest, my doggie Shasta. It was great to see her and get some woo time. After breakfast we followed the bike path through UCSB taking some photos in front of where we used to work.
Turns out Santa Barbara is as gorgeous as we remembered it!
Tomorrow as I pedal off to Malibu and southwards I gain a new travelling companion. It's going to be another great few days on the road as Adele and I pedal to Mexico.
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Day Fourteen
Total: 806.2 miles
Today was the longest day of the trip. It was the longest mileage day, and long in other ways as well. I experienced my first flat tires of the trip. Fortunately, Oscar rrramon is still flat free and Kelly was the (un)lucky winner of two flats.
The weather today was warm and sunny, which was a nice change from earlier in the week. We were looking forward to a 65 mile day to Gaviota State Beach. This was not going to be the case due to a few detours. One planned. One not. The first planned detour was to the best smoothie place ever, Blenders in the Grass. Their furthest north location is in the town of Orcutt and would only cost us an extra 4 to 5 miles. Deciding their smoothies were well worth it we pedaled over for our lunch stop. While picnicking in front of Blenders a local cyclist came by and tipped us to a nice frontage road we could ride for several miles to avoid the busier road. After rejoining the main route we saw a sign telling us Harris Grade was closed, which we needed to take and had to take a detour. This caused us to go the long way around and added a few extra climbs and a few extra miles.
However, after all this we still managed to roll into camp around sunset. After setting up camp and eating dinner my friend Linda aka the ironlady (she's done 9 ironman triathlons) dropped by the campground with homemade cookies and cold beer! It was an amazing way to end a long day and the 2 week mark of my trip.
Last week I mentioned that I would at some point talk about types of pavement. I then saw a lot of folks in San Francisco and told them the gist of the post, so I have been reluctant to write it, But after some of the roads we were on yesterday I feel its necessary to write about it. In fact yesterday I think we discovered a new pavement type, bone-jarring pavement. I am sure you can determine whether or not you think its pleasant or unpleasant to ride on. Now, the main pavement types are as follows:
Smooth pavement: Just what it sounds like. Picture nice smooth fresh blacktop, where the miles just fly by.
Rough pavement: Again, this is pretty much what you'd expect, bumpity bump bump.
Then, there is another type of pavement that I can only call energy sucking pavement. The worst part about it is it can look smooth, but there is something about it that sucks the energy from your tires and makes forward motion feel really painful. This pavement can come out of nowhere, at any time causing you to feel weak and slow.
The other thing about the ride today is it had the last big hills of the trip. But the urban jungle of Los Angeles still lies ahead.
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