a cycling adventure

day thirty seven

July 16th

Doheny State Park to Vagabond Inn, San Diego

69 miles

Up at 5:45, hardly slept at all. Group camped next to biker/biker area up drinking and partying all night. Earplugs didn't help. Made coffee, oatmeal, broke camp. Ended up visiting with the others longer than I wanted, but its always nice to talk to people after being alone so much. Netherlands couple are headed south to Mexico, then back up to LA where they will fly home.

Hit the road around 8:30, stopped at same McDonalds for breakfast and to try out their free wifi. Really slow, couldn't decide on a hotel so decided to wait until I was closer to San Diego.

Hit the road again. Tired and sore from yesterday, despondent, lackadaisical. Just going through the motions. Feeling like a robot. Realized I haven't taken a day off since Gold Beach, OR. 18 days and many, many miles ago. Getting up at 6 and riding all day is really beginning to take its tole on me, both mentally and physically.

Rode into San Clemente, some kind of Beach Festival. Crowded, dickhead security guard, unfriendly people. People acted like they've never seen a bike before. Got the out of there ASAP, fuck that place. Kept riding, passed Netherlands couple just before Camp Pendleton, a Marine base.

As I approached the main gate into Camp Pendleton, I wasn't sure what to expect. The bike route goes through the base only because the only other option south is Interstate 5. Got to the gate, had my ID out and ready. Guard was friendly, didn't even ask to look at my ID, and gave me directions through base.

Rode through Camp Pendleton, not much too look at, lots of open desert. A lot of other people riding, all triathlon-type bikes, blowing by me like I was standing still. Still haven't seen one bike tourer all day, aside from the Netherlands couple.

Finally reached the other end of the base. Rode through Oceanside, cool town! Lots of people, seemed more friendly, having more fun. No mansions, just little cottages on the beach. Wanted to hang out here all day, weather still perfect.

Rode through Carlsbad, another cool town. Through Encinitas, okay town. Lots more bikers and more traffic, almost bumper to bumper. Passed "World Championship of Beach Bocce Ball" outside of Del Mar, tons of people.

Big 700-800 foot climb out of Del Mar, not expecting it. Very hot. Reached top and rode through La Jolla, extremely exhausted now. Found a Starbucks, got coffee, scone and used wifi. Weighed my options and decided a flight was the cheapest way to go. Booked the flight for Monday and decided to ship my bike home. Found a decent hotel and booked 2 nights. Feeling much better knowing I was headed to a hotel 10 miles from here.

Headed out, went through Mission Beach. Again, very cool and looks like a fun place to hang out. Tons of people, hard to make progress on bike path.

Made it to hotel, checked in, walked to a Subway and ate dinner. Came back, showered and relaxed for a bit. Big day tomorrow, where this whole trip comes to an end. Not really feeling anything special or excitement, which kind of bothers me. Just feels like another day. Although, I do feel excitement for the continental breakfast in the morning.

beach festival in San Clemente

nuclear power plant, forget the name

just outside Camp Pendleton Marine base

inside Camp Pendleton, some sort of military exercises going on over here

Oceanside

waterfront in Oceanside

getting closer!

riding through Del Mar

lots of traffic

wasn't aware they had a world championship for bocce ball

in La Jolla

tons of kayakers everywhere

outside Mission Beach

boardwalk through Mission Beach

day thirty six

July 15th

Leo Castillo State Park to Doheny State Park

95 miles

Up around 6:15, slept like shit again. Made oatmeal, broke camp. Noticed rear tire near flat!!! Not a good start to the day. Decided to pump it up and see how it did, must be a slow leak somewhere.

John up, talked my ear off again about the coming of Jesus. Said bye and thanks, hit the road later than I wanted to, around 8:45.

Back on busy HWY 1. Approached Malibu, more hills than I expected. Stopped at Starbucks to use wifi, need to start thinking about how I'm getting myself and bike home. Also wanted to research better campsites. Got a coffee, but didn't end up pulling my laptop out. Not feeling comfortable, seems like people are staring and smirking. Definitely starting to get into the more "affluent" areas of southern CA. Finished my coffee and asked around for a bike shop, none in Malibu I'm told. Rear tube low again, thinking about getting a new, better rear tire. Getting tired of putting new tubes in this tire, must be something up with it.

Hit the road again, next up, Santa Monica. Should be bike shop there. Ran into Canadian couple from last night. Rode with them for a bit, they changed their plan to go to Chica Blanca (?) State Park outside Huntington Beach. They didn't have hiker/biker sites there but they invited me to share a regular site with them if I wanted. Told them I'd get there and see how I felt about going further. Day was going slow and I still had all of LA to ride through. Still needed to find a bike shop, too.

Headed out again, reached Santa Monica. Nice bike path on the beach that went right through town into Venice. My old roommate Todd and I used to come here and hang out when I lived in LA, so it was cool to see this place again. Lots of good people watching in Venice. Kept running into Canadian couple, I asked them to keep a look out for a bike shop. Tire still partly holding air, figured its losing 5 PSI an hour.

Found a bike shop finally, but it was just a touristy place that rents bikes. No tires in stock. A good tire is around $50, so I'm starting to think I'll just keep putting air into this tube and just ride it til I have to change it.

Route took a turn inland, into the city, rode through Redondo Beach, Carson, Long Beach, Seal Beach. Very busy, lots of traffic. Turned out to be pretty bike-friendly and easy to navigate. Took forever though.

Route went back to the beach, rode through Sunset Beach, then Huntington Beach. Tons and tons of people, all having fun. Still plenty of energy left, and plenty of daylight. Decided to keep going to Doheny State Park, outside Dana Point, another 20-30 miles.

Back on Pacific Coast HWY now, rode through Newport Beach then Laguna Beach. Bumper to bumper traffic, nice to slip past stopped cars and through lights. So much money here. Passed Ferrari's, Lamborghinis, R8's, a few Corvette ZR1's... insane.

Kept on riding, eventually got to Dana Point. Found Doheny State Park, a few miles south. Very small hiker/biker area, but pretty nice campground. Old couple from Netherlands in camp and another guy from some town 50 miles away, just doing an overnight trip. Talked for a bit, then headed back into town to find some food. Found a Subway, perfect. Had a footlong and then stopped at McDonalds for a milkshake, dessert. Needed to refill on calories after today, proud of myself for going so far. 95 miles. Kinda wanted to ride the extra 5 to make it an even 100 but there's no campgrounds for about 40 miles.

Rode back, showered, went to bed early. Glad LA is behind me. 70 or so mile day tomorrow to San Diego, where I'll have to get a hotel. Really want to ride to the border and finish, but since its 20 miles south of San Diego, I'd have to ride about 110 miles. Better to take my time and do a nice easy day for the finish. Still need to reserve a hotel, figure out a flight/train ticket, etc. Allllllmost there!!!!!!

outside Malibu

nearing Santa Monica

bike path along the beach in Santa Monica

Santa Monica pier

Venice

Huntington Beach

day thirty five

July 14th

El Capitan State Park to Leo Castillo State Park

85 miles

Up at 6, made coffee and oatmeal. Broke camp, on the road around 8.

More freeway riding. Had to go further then planned on freeway because off ramp that followed route was closed. Rode it out for another few miles through construction. Ran into another biker couple and road behind them for a while. Safer riding in groups, at least that's how I feel anyway.

Couple is from Australia, woman has a huge sign on the back that says "smile a little!". Said they both drank too much vodka last night. They stayed at Refugio SP, a few miles north of El Capitan. I spotted their Rohloff hubs (an internally geared 'transmission' on the rear hub, instead of a gear cassette) on their bikes earlier, and asked them where they were headed. Chile, awesome! I've found you can tell a lot about how far someone is going by their bikes. Every biker that I've seen with a Rohloff is going to South America.

Entered Santa Barbara, and went our separate ways before going through the UCSB campus. Crazy bike 'path'! It was like a freeway system only for bikes, complete with round-a-bouts. Hundreds of bikers and college kids. Awesome campus, I seriously don't know how anyone would get any school work done here.

Kept on bike path into downtown Santa Barbara. Made my way through the city, walked along the waterfront and marina. Watched some kids learning to sail. Starting to see homeless people again, everywhere.

Made my way through the waterfront and noticed a flat tire! I barely had 200 miles on this one! When Alan was fixing my wheel in Cambria, I had him throw on a new tube since he had the tire off anyway. Stopped on a bench and started busting ass to change it real quick. Homeless guy a couple benches down. I definitely looked homeless with my gear scattered around my bike, dirty hands and swearing to myself. Changed it as fast as I could to get the hell out of there. Found a hole in the tube literally inches away from my last flat in Garberville. No more spare tubes now, must find a bike shop soon. These Forte tires suck.

Getting into my bad mood again, wanting to get out of California. Weather still dark and dreary, which didn't help. I've decided its much harder for me to get out of a bad mood when I'm by myself. I can always laugh at shitty situations when I'm with other people, but that's kinda hard now, unless I start talking to myself.

Found bike shop in Carpenteria, bought 2 tubes. Back on freeway for a while. Off again near Dulah, stopped for lunch. Arrived in Ventura, wanted to check out the Patagonia headquarters but running low on time. Kept going through Oxnard, then Port Hueneme. Sun coming out. Awesome marinas, saw some world-class sailboats. Amazing. Little channel runs through the town, with huge houses right on the water, with boats sitting out front. My new dream summer house if I ever won the lottery.

Found a Safeway and stopped for groceries, mood getting better. Headed out of town and passed an Air Force base, crazy looking planes flying all over.

Kept on riding, nothing too eventful the rest of the day. Arrived at Leo Castillo around 5PM. Dead tired. Checked in, rode to the hiker/biker section and started to eat some snacks. Heard some rustling in the bushes nearby and yelling. Out walks a guy with crazy eyes yelling to himself about who knows what. Walked right next to me and starts spouting off about something, he was literally talking gibberish. Acted like he was mad. He walked away to his 'campsite', didn't see a tent but his garbage everywhere. Another homeless person, I guessed. Walked over to another guy camping on the outskirts of the hiker/biker area. He asked me if I was going to leave because of the homeless guy. I definitely didn't want to sleep next to him, and he agreed. He said he was going to call the park officers and have him kicked out. Told me that another couple had arrived earlier and the homeless guy started a fight with the girl. They had left and upgraded to a regular campsite.

I decided I needed to eat dinner before I decided what to do. Rode to the camp store and bought a few deli sandwiches. Homeless guy came over and started talking to me again (I think) but I couldn't understand him. Seemed argumentative. Talked with some other regular campers and said they weren't comfortable with him being around their kids. I guess he has been yelling and arguing with himself all day. No other campsites anywhere near here, so no choice but to stay. Rode around looking for the other couple to see if they wanted to share the campsite with me but I couldn't find them. Another regular camper saw me and offered to share his site with me. I said sure, it was a huge campsite.

Guy's name was John, seemed like a nice older guy. I set up camp and he tossed me a few cold beers. Ate dinner and we started talking about bike stuff. Said he used to bike tour quite a bit when he was younger. He is a retired school teacher, and has spent almost every summer in Yosemite for the past 30 years. He says he's here because the water level is too high this year. I'm really interested in Yosemite so he told me everything he knew about it. Conversation turned to religion somehow and he started preaching 'the gospel' to me. Has a fierce opposition to Mormonism, and told me all about that. I humored him for a while, and let him talk my ear off. Noticed the park rangers near the hiker/biker area for a long time.

John went to bed early. I went to take a shower, ran into the couple who moved to the regular campsite. Told me about their run in with the crazy guy, and that they had complained enough to the ranger to get a free upgrade to a regular site. Told me the same thing happened to them at Refugio State Park. They are french speaking Canadians from Quebec, headed to Mexican border too. They knew the Australian couple I met earlier in the day. They're headed to Huntington Beach tomorrow and offered to split a hotel with them, since there is no camping. I said maybe, since I was planning on going further, past Dana Point.

Showered and hit the sack. Loud campground. Hoping for a 90-100 mile day tomorrow, want to get LA over with ASAP. Bought a Redbull so I don't have to make coffee.