January 7th – 10th, 2008
Leaving Redondo Beach was very cold, and very windy – with gusts up to 25 mph, but we were setting out for Laguna Beach no matter what. Determination can do wonderful things to the spirit! Facing what was going to be one of our longer mileage days of the trip, and fortified by an Ultimate Meal smoothie from Steve, we headed out on the road about 9:45. We had a somewhat hilly section in getting through Palos Verdes, but we expected the rest of the day to be essentially flat. Ah well, ignorance is bliss sometimes.
Getting used to the bikes
One of the biggest things facing us is our inexperience in riding these bikes – and there are really significant differences. For starters, it’s a whole lot different in the number of pedal strokes required in getting a distance on 26” wheels than on 700c wheels. Another is the difference in the gearing. What used to be a short click from one level to the next now produces a whole new result. I no longer have an instinctive feel for what gear to be in as I head up a hill. In addition, we no longer have the reach forward to click the gears and hit the brakes with index and middle fingers, but rather we now sit up straighter and have a little wrist action thing going on as we twist a bar (grip shifters) to get to the gear we want.
This all leads to some pretty clunky riding – as I head into a hill and can’t remember which way to turn the knob, or I turn too far and end up spinning like mad and unable to make any progress. My favorite is heading up a hill and turning the shifter the wrong way so that I am suddenly finding it much harder to pedal, and now I’m really hitting the incline of the hill.
I started off that way first thing in the morning by suddenly jumping from my middle chain ring to my lowest (I admit I was intimidated by a steep little hill). Naturally I ended up losing my chain completely and having to walk the hill. Pushing a 32 lb bike and about 85 lbs of trailer and load is a veerrry slow process. I sure got warmed up fast! My lungs were burning, my calves were aching – even my bums were feeling the burn!
Urban cycling
Most of Monday was hard-core urban cycling. After Palos Verdes, we made a wrong turn and headed up our first long hill, only to find out after another mile or so that we were waaay off track. We headed downhill to the Port of Los Angeles where it didn’t take long to realize that we were quite lost. We flagged down a police car, and two Port of Los Angeles police officers were just awesome – they took time to make sure we knew exactly where to go. We want to say a big thanks to Officer Schunke and his partner (we didn’t read fast enough to get his partner’s name but she was extremely nice). They even took the time to congratulate us on our adventure and to shake our hands!
We cruised around the whole Port of Los Angeles and through Wilmington and Long Beach on Los Angeles city streets. It was not a treat. Things got quite nice, however, near the Long Beach Harbor – in fact, it was just beautiful. We stayed at Pier 17 for our first real break of the day, and loved it – we wanted to stay longer. We met Gus Castro there, and chatted with him awhile. He is Cuban, having escaped Cuba in 1967, and works now for the Conoco-Phillips at the Port of Los Angeles. Gus was very interested in our trip, and after giving us great information about the bike paths, returned a few minutes later to give us his cell phone number in case we had any problems in that area. Isn’t that wonderful?
Bike paths and courteous drivers
We’ve been struck by a couple of things out here in California. One we already mentioned – that the drivers are consistently nicer than most other places we’ve ridden. When we were lost around Port Los Angeles, we needed to cross a very busy 4-lane road. Traffic was heavy enough that we knew we wouldn’t make it across it one run, so we opted for going halfway when it was clear, and then the other half when it cleared. Much to our awestruck surprise, a huge semi and an SUV each stopped oncoming traffic immediately for us so we could cross in one go. That was a very notable event, but we’ve had many others very similar.
Another item of note is the really pervasive system of bike paths. We’ve ridden from Santa Ynez to Mission Viejo, and in every single area there have been extensive bike path systems, clearly marked. The beach bike paths are wonderful – very wide and clearly marked with great views. They would be slow going in high season, with all the traffic on them – slow riders, families, walkers and runners, people chatting on cell phones – but the scenery is amazing. We are riding in off-season and very cold weather, so it’s been like heaven. It’s also just incredible how many bike routes there are on city streets, too, and how many cyclists are out on the routes. Some of the routes share the city streets, but in many areas there are separate pathways just for the bikes. We SO wish Florida would take notice of this and implement it!
From Long Beach down to Alamitos Bay we had a bike path, then we joined Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) again – back to fast intense traffic. We stayed on PCH down to Huntington Beach, but then we opted to take the bike path again down to Newport Beach. It is just so awesome to be riding along looking at the ocean, watching the waves, and just breathing in the air and scenery! This is definitely one of most favorite sections of the trip so far with respect to the great riding.
Wonderful people on the west coast
You already know about the wonderful folks we’ve met to date – Paul, from Carpinteria who lives in Oceanside; Dave and Katy Roper from Mission Viejo (whom we met in Carpinteria as well); Gil and Warren from Leo Carrillo; Mark and Scott from the LAFD; Steve and Kathy from Redondo Beach… We met several others in Huntington Beach – as we stopped to figure out whether to stay on the bike path or head over to PCH, a bike rider pulled over to us and started chatting. His name is Paul, and he really wants to do longer touring like we are – well, maybe not this long, but certainly something memorable. We had great fun talking about things, but the temperature was dropping rapidly and we were freezing and needed a bathroom break rather badly. Paul then offered to put us up for the night! He lived only a few miles away and was headed back home right then. As we stood talking, a small group of older women riders pulled up, and so help me, one of them also offered to put us up for the night!
We had already made arrangements with Dave Roper to drive from Mission Viejo and pick us up in Newport – or as far as we could ride. We’d promised him we’d ride until about 5:30, which would be about the last light of the day. We did make it to Newport Beach and waited there (cold, tired and hungry) for two hours till he was able to get there. We waited inside Jack-In-The-Box, and got a kick out of watching people, though it was very quiet. Our favorite was the group of college age guys that came in and had a big discussion of some kind. My favorite line was when one said to another “Remember to tell your girlfriend that you want a Jack’s Cash Card for Valentine’s Day!”
Dave brought us to his house in Mission Viejo where we unloaded the bikes and trailers and then took off to the store. We were still cold and sweat soaked, and didn’t have time to change before going to the store, but we did put on our beloved fleece lined moccasins. When we realized we needed to go to the store, Dave told us just to wear our moccasins! We did, only because we were so tired, but no one noticed, and we felt great…we couldn’t help but laugh at ourselves, however – wearing slippers to Vons!
We had a delicious meal with Dave, laughing almost non-stop, and got to watch some TV movies and chat meanwhile. We finally went to bed well after midnight, feeling completely wonderful – tired, full, happy, and warm, with our own bedroom and bathroom, and knowing that we’d ridden 43 miles.
Signing off from Mission Viejo CA