Recap, Statistics, and Withdrawal

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.

Day Nineteen

Mileage: 44.1 miles
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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Eighteen

Mileage: 72.9 miles
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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Seventeen

Mileage: 76.0 miles
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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Sixteen

Mileage: 62.9 miles
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!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Fifteen

Mileage: 35.0 miles
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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Fourteen

Mileage: 76.8 miles
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.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Thirteen

Mileage: 56.8 miles
Total: 729.4 miles

Lucky day thirteen! This morning Kelly and I woke up to clear skies in San Simeon. After several days of wearing all of our layers it was nice to be warm. By our first stop (about 20 minutes into our ride) we were able to lose our leg warmers.

One thing I keep forgetting to do is thank all the people that we have met our who have helped us over the last couple of days. First, I want to thank the cyclist in Capitola who let us follow him to his house where he gave us some grease. This was after we asked if there was a bike shop around, which apparently there was not. He also gave us a restaurant recommendation for Big Sur, but unfortunately they weren't open when we passed by. The past two days we also ran into two groups of guys biking various distances from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara. One group of five guys has been doing the ride for years, or at least since one guy's daughter was an undergrad at Cal Poly, and now she is 57. According to him, yesterday's conditions were the worst of all his rides through Big Sur.

More current thanks need to be extended to my friend Tricia, who is currently putting us up in Arroyo Grande. We were greeted with a phenomenal dinner of veggie tacos, followed by a delicious homemade cake! Its great to be in the realm of southern (california) hospitality.

This mention of food will now be the focus of the next portion of this post. I know one reader was worried that we were only eating brocolli and salt. I assure you this is not the case. So let me walk you through an example eating. A typical day starts with breakfast in camp, which is usually two packets of oatmeal and a breakfast bar. After about 20 miles of pedaling its usually snack time. If there is a store I grab a snickers and maybe a coke (shocking!). If there isn't a store, I eat another bar. Then a bit later, between 12pm and 1pm I stop for lunch, which includes peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or bread and hummus. Again if there is a store I get snacks to go with it. Dinner at camp is either pasta, indian, or cous cous, followed by a desert of dark chocolate. Today was a phenomenal eating day, it started with eggs, hashbrowns, an english muffin, and two pieces of french toast. Morning snack was a snickers. Lunch was peanut butter and jelly. Afternoon snack was chocolate cake. Dinner was the lovely meal Tricia prepared, followed by more cake! In other words bike touring is awesome, you can eat as much cake as you want!

The riding today was nice and mellow after a couple of more challenging days. We had a great picnic in Morro Bay, followed by nice riding through San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach. I am looking forward to the next couple of days as we ride towards Santa Barbara! Also, before I forget I want to introduce our handlebar friends. I also have to give them credit for always smiling, even when the riding conditions have been tough!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.2

Day Twelve

Mileage: 66.3 miles
Total: 672.6 miles

Today I became a fan of the metric system. Why? Well, because today I broke the 1000 km mark, and 1082 sounds even more impressive than 672.6. While riding today I can definitely say as hilly as the Big Sur marathon is, we runners are lucky thats the route because boy does it get hillier further south!

Before continuing and going into the details of today's ride, I want to debunk a few myths. I spoke a bit about one of these myths earlier, but let's revisit this now.

Myth 1: If you go from north to south it will all be downhill. Although this may seem like a reasonable assumption, it is definitively not true.

However, this is not the most shocking myth.

Myth 2: If you bike from north to south along the coast the predominant winds will come from the north, blowing you to the south. This has simply not been the case for this ride. Aside from the day out of Half Moon Bay, the wind has been more often than not coming head on. Today was no exception as we battled headwinds yet again. In fact I started singing a song about wind today to the tune of Tambourine Man. It went something like this "Hey mister wind machine man, blow a breeze for me. . ."

I digress. Today brought the worst weather and riding conditions of the whole trip. We had a couple hours of partly cloudy riding this morning, followed by six hours of rainy, hiily, headwindy fun. And you know what else? It was actually fun. The riding through Big Sur was simply amazing, complete with seeing a waterfall that spills onto the beach. After fifty hilly miles we pushed on along the flatter section for the rest of the ride to San Simeon, where we decided to dry off and warm up with a hotel room. We also enjoyed a warm meal (not prepared on a camp stove). mmmmm salt + brocolli!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Day Eleven

Mileage: 73.0 miles
Total: 606.3 miles

If I didn't seem appreciative enough for yesterday's tailwind in my post, then I would like to apologize. Because today the wind was certainly not in our favor. At one point I was tempted to shift into my smallest chain ring so I could pedal downhill! I assure you, I am not exaggerating. Kelly certainly did not appreciate this turn of the winds after such good trail luck yesterday.

Today was also a day firsts. It was the first rain of the trip. Fortunately, it was just drizzling off and on as we pedaled along the Big Sur coast. It was also the first day along the Big Sur coast, but here I get ahead of myself.

While riding today I was once again wowed by how quickly the scenery along the coast changes. After leaving Brighton State Beach this morning Kelly and I biked through farms on our way Monterey. The riding was quite pleasant as it was mostly on back roads and bike paths. Since both Kelly and I have been to Monterey before we decided not to stop and pushed on out of town and south to Big Sur.

While biking the stretch of road from Carmel to Big Sur you can see the mile markers painted on the road for the Big Sur marathon. I kept asking Kelly what she thought of the course, and she pointed out that it must be all downhill since we had only been climbing. Again, thanks headwind for making the downhill not so easy. While biking the marathon course in reverse I had several realizations:
1. Marathons are friggin long.
2. The Big Sur course is hard, why would anyone want to run it.
3. I want to run the Big Sur Marathon again.

I apologize for the lack of photos today, but the phone was running low on batteries. Don't fret though, there will be plenty of camera photos to post later!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Day Ten

Mileage: 65.0 miles
Total: 533.3 miles

The ride today was a great one with a strong tailwind most of the day. This morning, after a good night of sleep, Kelly and I hit the road. After about ten miles of riding we made it to San Gregorio State Beach, which happens to be my Dad's favorite beach. We stopped took some photos and pedaled on. Today was a great day for riding, mostly due to the massive tailwind we had for most of the day.

Forty miles into our ride we stopped at a fruit stand advertising all sorts of tasty berry treats. They also offered a 10% discount to bike tourers. However, we realized that is probably because we don't want to carry change. We payed full price at least to avoid picking up any heavy change. I also have to point out that they had several games that visitors could play, including everyone's favorite French car racing card game, Milles Borne. Today we also biked past several pumpkin patches making it really feel like fall.

Interestingly, today was not the first time Kelly and I have biked the stretch of highway 1 north of Santa Cruz. We were revisiting part of the bike course of the Big Kahuna Half Ironman triathlon we did in 2007. I think we are both far more aware of the scenery now after riding it out of our aerobars and looking around. Perhaps removing a 13.1 mile run from the day makes one a bit more relaxed as well.

Tomorrow I will continue my highway 1 race tour as we pedal the Big Sur marathon course, which I also ran in 2007. For whatever reason highway 1 keeps luring me back for another endurance challenge.

Tonight we also reconnected with Lena and Kaitlin, who I rode with for a couple of days last week in a campground outside of Capitola.

Today also marks me passing the mileage halfway point!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Day Nine

Mileage: 30.6 miles
Total: 468.3 miles

Back in the saddle again! After a great rest day and party night for Kelly's birthday I was antsy to get back pedaling again. It was also nice to have company as I left the city. Kelly will now be accompanying me to Santa Barbara and Adele and Kendra joined us on our ride to Half Moon Bay. Thanks to John for being the support car so Adele and Kendra could join us. Camping at Half Moon bay has been something I have wanted to do for over 8 years. Many summers ago Meg and I drove over to check it out, back when she was still living in the bay area. We noticed that the hiker/biker sites were located practically on the beach. I am now happy to report that the campground is as awesome as I remembered it.

Thanks again to everyone who came out to San Francisco this weekend! Its always great to play with good friends.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Day Eight aka Rest Day

Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Day Seven

Mileage: 73.3 miles
Total: 437.7 miles

One week after driving through the bay area to the northern end of California, I have returned using my legs as power. Last night in the campground at Bodega Dunes I made a cheat sheet of directions to help me navigate the maze of streets and bike paths in Marin County as I headed south to the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. The campground I stayed in last night was really nice. There was one other cyclist in the hiker biker site, which was soft and sandy.  The hiker/biker site was also home to a few kittens, who informed me around 6:30am that they wanted some breakfast.  I made the mistake of opening the door to my tent to pet on who then crawled in and purred as I pet it.  I then realized I wasn't sure I wanted something with sharp claws inside my tent so I set it back outside, and tried to sleep for a few more minutes before the sun rose.  However, when I looked back outside I realized the kitten was trying to scale the mesh outside my tent.  So much for that idea!  I then decided the only option was to get up and start getting ready.

One interesting part of my morning and evening routine is electronics charging.  I brought a solar panel charger, but for some reason it hasn't been working very well.  I think I need to replace the rechargeable batteries in it, as it works by charging the rechargeable AAs, then using them to charge the device via a USB cable.  With the solar panel not working so well, I have been instead using the outlets in campground bathrooms.  This means that every bathroom routine starts by plugging in my charger, then proceeding to do my business.  However, after getting cleaned up I typically haven't added sufficient charge.  So then, I become that creepy person who just hangs out in a bathroom waiting for a phone to charge.  I usually do this until someone else comes in to use the bathroom, and I start to feel a little creepy, and that's my queue to unplug and go.

Back to the riding!  Yesterday morning as I pedaled the mile from the campground into town I ran into Hermann, who decided to cycle towards the campground in case he saw me.  I was happy to see him, to have someone else to navigate the city bike trails and streets with.  The pedaling was pleasant and actually had some lovely fresh pavement to ride along as well as some flat sections! Which after two days of the constant ups and downs of the coast, it was nice to fly along on smooth pavement.  

Riding across the Golden Gate Bridge was a great experience, and a moment of realizing how far I have come so far on this ride.  I still have over half way to go, but I think its going to be great.  However, the biggest calf burning moment of the trip so far, was pushing my bike and trailer up some of the steep hills in San Francisco to get to Kelly's house.  Then I was greeted with some surprise guests!!! Ali and Jeramy flew in from Michigan to hang out this weekend.  Ali, had been hoping to ride from SF to Santa Barbara with me, but is unable due to work, and I haven't seen her in over 2 years since grad school graduation.  It was a great surprise, and now I will rest Saturday, hanging out with good friends in the city before pedaling south again on Sunday. Including, those that drove up from Santa Barbara (Nalini, Jayna) and flew in from San Diego (Jeanni)!

Hermann biking with Mt. Tamalpais in the background

Golden Gate Bridge!!!

Oscar Rrramon and George (the trailer) on the Golden Gate Bridge