Summer '18 California Coast bike tour: Day Seven

Made it to LA! I’m sitting here on my brother’s deck watching the surf roll in on the beach here in the south bay, and sipping on a beer that tastes unbelievably good... of course, after almost 600 miles in 7 days, anything wet and cold tastes pretty good, but this is really good ;-). What a day it was to finish up! After a great evening out with Pam Galvin at Intermezzo in Santa Barbara, (a really nice place right downtown), I started relatively early on a Saturday morning with a latte and avocado toast at a very cool little coffee place about a block from my air-bnb, and set out at about 8:30 in light fog— the typical California coast “marine layer.” Within a mile or so, I met up with a another rider moving along at about my pace, a very friendly woman from Carpinteria. She helped guide me through all the neighborhoods in Montecito on streets that avoided the remnants of last fall’s flooding and mudslides, as well as pointing out how deep the water or mud as in various places. Then we rode on an oceanside frontage road along the 101 freeway which as she described as where “the rich and famous live.” So I’m thinking, sure, the local bigwigs... no. First, we passed Kevin Costner’s house, then George Lucas’s, then Ellen Degeneres', then Rob Lowe's... definitely “rich and famous!”

After she pealed off in Carpinteria, I kept on moving south down the coast. By 10am, the marine layer had pretty much burned off, and a nice northwest breeze was staring to come up as I approached Ventura. Through this section there is a very nice bike-path along the ocean-side of the 101 freeway as it runs along the base of a set of cliffs for about 5 miles until you get to Oxnard. Then there’s a long stretch of flat, inland highway skirting around the Port Hueneme Naval base and Air Station, and along more lettuce & strawberry fields. Finally, I reached the end of the Santa Monica mountain range where it hits the Pacific Ocean at Point Mugu. Here I joined back up with old CA Rt. 1, or as it’s known in SoCal - PCH- the Pacific Coast Highway. This is where the “Malibu Coast” begins and arcs toward the “South Bay,” and terminates in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. I had roughly 40 miles to go, and decided to stop for a nice lunch in Malibu. With a 15 mph tailwind out of the northwest, I practically flew the remainder of the way through Santa Monica, then Venice, around Marina del Rey, under the LAX glide path, and finally into Manhattan Beach. I actually skipped the bike path for much the Santa Monica and Venice sections, as there are such a zoo of people milling along on cruiser bikes, electric scooters, rollerblades, skateboards, or on foot- many with earbuds in, and completely oblivious to what’s happening around them! I’ll take my chances with the cars ;-) The one stretch I id ride along the strand bike path, I almost got hit be a flying beach umbrella being blown by the wind!

So... I rolled into my brother Clay’s place about 4:00 pm, capping almost 600 miles of riding, roughly 25K’ of climbing, zero flat tires :-)

All in all, a great trip!

Trans-America next?

First, the final day's pics! AND... here's today's Relive video from the Garmin file:

https://www.relive.cc/view/1720761288