Tour de SoCal 2016 and Into Fall

In early August I spent a few days riding from Santa Barbara, CA to San Diego, CA and enjoyed the ride immensely. It was my first attempt at a 'solo' ride while carrying my stuff for longer than two days and it was my next step in working towards being a 'Touring Cyclist'. 

In order to make this trip 'easy' I decided to rent a bike in San Diego rather than ship mine there. I found a guy that rents nice bikes with racks and bags (aka: panniers) for a really reasonable price and he did a great job in setting me up with a bike and the other 'stuff' I would need to ride. (Peter at 'Stay Classy Bikes' in case you're ever in San Diego and want a great bike!). Once he delivered the bike on Sunday afternoon I added my handlebar bag and my iPhone holder and was ready to go. I spent the rest of the afternoon packing the panniers with my clothes and test riding the whole assembly around the neighborhood. 

Bright and early Monday morning I rode to the Amtrak terminal and caught the train to Santa Barbara. It's a great ride along the coast and you get great views of the beaches and many small towns along the way. You also get great views of the West Coast Marine training base (Camp Pendleton) and the San Onfre Nuclear Generating Station for those of you so inclined. Once I got to Santa Barbara I hopped on my bike and toured around the cool town for a few hours before beginning my trek southward towards my first overnight town of Ventura. The ride was about 33 miles and most of it was along or fairly close to the beach but there was a portion of the route where I had to ride on US 101 for a mile or two. That ride along the shoulder of a four lane divided highway was just a little more unnerving than I cared for! Once I got to Ventura I made my way to the lovely Vagabond Inn and checked in. Ventura is a cool town and I found a nice place for dinner and a couple of beers before hitting the bed early to rest up for my long day tomorrow.

Leaning Against a SeaBee bulldozer

I headed out bright and early Tuesday morning and started making my way along the beach towards Santa Monica. This day was planned to be a long one in order to make up for the short mileage the day before and keep me on schedule. I rode thru quite a few cool towns and stopped in at the "Seabees Museum in Port Hueneme to take a look at some of the history and accomplishments of the Navy's Construction Battalions. After that stop I found a place to eat some breakfast and then headed on down the beach. I rode along the Pacific Coast Highway ("PCH") for several miles including thru the beach houses of Malibu. Once I go through Malibu I stopped at a grocery store to find some lunch and ended up in a great conversation with a young dude who gave me some tips on the route and traffic. A little while later I veered off of the beach walk in Santa Monica and rode up the Santa Monica Boulevard to my hotel.

The requisite photo of the Santa Monica pier.

I found a nice Japanese place for dinner and then crashed into my bed, very tired after the 70 mile and 8 hour ride.
Wednesday was supposed to be a relatively short ride down to Long Beach but instead it turned into a long, long day....the ride thru Venice, Hermosa, Redondo beaches was really cool. I found a great little breakfast spot to fill up before my 'off route' ride thru Rancho Palos Verdes. The Adventure Cycling route that I used prefers to ride inland and thru Los Angeles but I really didn't want that kind of hassle so I found a guy who had a route thru the Palos Verdes area and chose to ride it. Riding up hill from Redondo Beach was quite a challenge and then as I went thru Palos Verdes there were more and more hills although they were quite short. In the middle of Palos Verdes I found a neat museum called the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. It was a cool display of some of the artifacts found in the area and some exhibits about the whales that are often seen right off the point.

The view from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center

 After leaving the center I continued on thru Palos Verdes and then down the hill into San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles. As I rode past the Battleship Iowa I noticed that bumps felt a little rougher in the rear and that the bike squirmed a little more than usual under braking as I came down any hill. Yep, the rear tire was just about flat. Being tired and lazy I quickly asked Siri where the nearest bike store was. (For those of you who don't know, Siri and I have a very contentious relationship and she rarely answers any question for me but I figured she'd be kind enough to sense the urgency and help out.) Much to my surprise the 'nearest bike store' was only 800 feet behind me so I made a quick u-turn and slowly pedaled back to (wait for it) Captain Kirk's KiteBoard store. Luckily Captain Kirk is a cyclist and he let me use his pump to reinflate my tire and then he gave me directions to the true nearest bike store. They changed my tube quickly and I was again on my way. I finished the last many miles of the day riding in rush hour traffic along a six lane road just south of Long Beach and into the Long Beach community to find my hosts for the evening. When I started planning this trip I was hoping to make use of a web community called "Warm Showers" that puts touring cyclists together with hosts that are also cyclists. Unfortunately I only found one for the five days that I would be traveling as many that I contacted did not reply and almost all the others seemed to be busy. But Tracey and Amy were great hosts in Long Beach and shared their place and dinner with me along with stories of touring around South America!
I got up really early the next morning and quickly rode to the Catalina Island ferry terminal. I had not originally planned to go out to Catalina but when I realized that the terminal was close and that there was another terminal several miles to the south I figured I could put in a side trip without adding lots of miles to my trip. Catalina is a really cool little island and has some of the most interesting plant life in the southwest with much of it only found on the island. It's fun to tour around but as it is an island there are quite a few hills. I made my way up to the Wrigley Botanical Garden and enjoyed the time off the bike to see some of the interesting plants and buildings there.

The view from the "Wrigley Memorial"

 I rode around a few more of the roads, had yet another extra large breakfast burrito and then caught the ferry back to Dana Point beach for some more coastal riding. Leaving Dana Pt and heading south is perhaps my favorite segment of the ride. Directly south is San Clemente and it is a pretty cool little town. I stopped in a bike store to ask advice about the route and as I walked in the owner looked at me and said "Stay on the route, you don't want to try and short cut over towards the highway." He said that many people stop in and ask about the route that appears to be lots of stop and go compared to what appears to be an easier route a little further inland. I chatted with him and his wife for a few minutes and found out that they met on a 'cross country' touring ride when she was in high school and he was in college. They had lots of good stories from the years riding together and were eager to share them all it seems. After a while I thanked them for their help and stories and headed south. Once I got out of San Clemente the scenery was good as it turned from urban to dessert and then passed by the San Onefre Nuclear Generating Station ("SONGS"), many campgrounds on the beach and then onto Camp Pendleton Marine Base for a short period of time.

Campground on a short cliff right above the  ocean just south of San Clemente.

My Father was stationed at Camp Pendleton way back on 1967 or so right before he took his 'beautiful and fun tour of scenic southeast asia' with a bunch of Marines but I doubt there's much left at Camp Pendleton that was the same ~50 years ago. Once I got off of the base (before they shaved my head) I headed into Oceanside to find the home of my old friend Julianna.
It was a rough ride up lots of hills to get to Julianna's house and at one point I even heard myself 'wheezing', after which I pulled over for a few minutes of rest. After dinner and a few beers with friends I hit the bed for a much needed rest. Early the next morning I was up and heading back to the beach route for a short ride down to San Diego. I had hoped to ride all the way to the Mexican border but I was running short on time and couldn't seem to figure out the logistics of getting a place to stay down there and then a ride back up to SD.
The segment between Oceanside and San Diego was varied and very nice. The route passed thru quite a few towns - Carlsbad, Encinitas, DelMar and LaJolla. All are 'famous' for their own reasons and each present a different challenge to a bike rider. There is one spot just north of LaJolla where the road drops out of the hills and all the way down to the beach. The view of that drop from above was pretty cool but it served as a harbinger for the hills to come as LaJolla sits up high on a cliff. The grind up the hill seemed relentless as it was almost straight and you could barely see the end. It turns out that 'the end' was merely a turn and there were several more feet to climb as I passed by the famous Torrey Pines golf course and various Scripps research facilities. LaJolla is a very pretty area with lots of cool shops and lots of small coves along the beach.

 

People hassling seals at "Seal Cove" in LaJolla. Come on, it's "Seal Cove" not "People Cove", leave 'em alone!

It's a quick trip downhill from LaJolla into the San Diego beach community of Pacific Beach where my friends and I vacation together every August. I rode to the hotel we always stay at, had a quick visit with a few friends from the area, checked into alternate hotel prices and then decided to settle in for the night the Beach Cottages for the night. After I picked up my bag from a local friend (thanks Rachel!!) I could finally change into some clean clothes, get dinner and then hit the bed for the evening. I fell asleep agonizing over not riding all the way down to Mexico but when I woke in the morning I was happy to know I had just ridden the distance I had, seen the towns and views I had seen and met the people I met. 

California is a cool place and I have always enjoyed my visits there but seeing the 400+ miles I saw from my bike gave me a new perspective on the place. It's even more scenic than I thought, still cool with a 'hippie vibe' that seems to be natural to many of the residents and a culture that really supports the cycling community. Almost every town had nice painted lanes for cyclists and some of them even had dedicated and separated cycling lanes, very few drivers seemed to resent having cyclists around and the local cycling community is enthusiastic in their activities and support of cycling as a daily activity. All in all it was a great ride ! ! !

Into Fall

After returning from California I have basically just been riding in our weekly club rides and a few one day rides into the Fall. Our club (ECVelo) has also sponsored a couple of really fun rides including their "Cotton Country Century" ride in September and more recently their "Toys for Tots" ride in late November. The century ride went really well and we had a great turn-out for a nice ride thru the cotton fields and other fields of Eastern North Carolina. On the other hand the Toys for Tots ride was one of the most brutally cold and windy rides I have ever been on, but at least we did some good by collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program so that warmed us up some once we finished the ride.
I also rode in the annual "Hincapie Gran Fondo" that is put on my Hincapie Sportswear and benefits the "Meals on Wheels" program in Greenville, SC. It is a great ride with lots of people participating and wonderful views of where the Blue Ridge Yawns It's Greatness along the NC/SC border. The day before the big ride it was good to meet some of the other Hincapie Ambassadors and ride with them for a few miles and then to ride along several miles of scenic roads and steep hills as the leaves started to turn during the 50 mile ride.

So, that's about it for now except for my recent fall. On Wednesday before Thanksgiving I was riding with a few friends when another rider and I collided. Unfortunately I couldn't get my foot out of my pedal before I fell over and I landed square on my left hip. It seems that I have issues with falling to my left as that is the same side I fell on in Mississippi back in April. My hip is still pretty sore and I am still using crutches to get around about a week later but I can tell it is getting better so I'm hoping to be back on my bike sometime next week!  I'm sorry this edition has taken so long to publish but I just got lazy and quit writing it right after California. Hopefully my spring update won't be this behind schedule and I'll have a lot of good rides to report on! Until then - stay safe, happy holidays and Go Tigers ! ! !