Pacific Coast Tour – Day 51 – 53 ; Carpinteria to Newport Beach – Los Angeles

Day: 51
September 6, 2021

Distance: 44 miles (2013 total)
Carpinteria to Sycamore Canyon Campground

Our ride today was pretty straight forward. In the morning we bounced back and forth between frontage road and bike path that was essentially a frontage road. One portion hugged the shore and we even got a glimpse at a dolphin or two!

As we continued southward we rolled past several very happening surfer beaches. Ventura in particular was overrun with wetsuit clad, board carrying folks. Seeing so many surfers is still a little mind boggling to my Midwestern brain. I did prefer watching the crowds as it meant there was more action for me to see.

The next portion of ride was through town-ish and off the coast. We went through crop lands, marshes, suburban houses and by strip malls- real exciting stuff. We eventually found a way-too-full park to stop for lunch at. Conveniently the crowds drew several ice cream trucks, so we didn’t have to go very far for our daily dose of dairy.

We were hoping our 2000 mile mark would be somewhere cool, like by the ocean. But no, it was out in not very scenic farmlands. Right past some turf grass fields (you know the iconic California crop of grass). Despite the surroundings we were very excited to reach such a big distance.

A few miles later we were back on the coast traveling through the gorgeous Santa Monica mountains. That’s where our campground tonight is located. Rather than another beach campground, the Sycamore Canyon campground, is tucked back in the mountains a little. Sadly, this campground has a serious mosquito problem right now as confirmed by the park ranger in her fancy mosquito net hat. This was something we haven’t had to deal with like at all on this trip.

Andrew and I had gotten real lazy with our power conservation recently, knowing we had a place to charge up tomorrow night. Unfortunately we need my phone tomorrow during the day for contact/directions to our host, and for taking pictures! After searching all the bathrooms for an outlet to no avail, I decided to ask the park ranger if I could plug my phone in at his check-in station. Luckily he obliged my request, so we left it and our battery park there while we ate dinner.

Being tucked behind some mountains the campground also doesn’t have cell service. With my now charged phone, we were able to walk around the canyon walls toward the beach to get a signal and take care of some of our final stretch logistics and planning. It’s weird being almost done and essentially having the rest of our trip planned out. Thus far we’d only been planning a couple days at a time!

Day: 52
September 7, 2021

Distance: 56 miles (2069 total)
Sycamore Canyon Campground to Rolling Hills Estates

Wooh boy. Remember how I said that campground had a mosquito problem? This morning was our fastest tear down yet, clocking in at about an hour from wakeup to rolling out. They were mean and endless. It’s sad cause that would have been a really cool campground had those bugs not been there.

Once we hit Malibu area, Andrew deemed today’s portion of riding as the most frustrating. The problem being that there was a shoulder for us to ride in, but it was also used for parking and was regularly blocked with construction. For every 3 minutes of good momentous riding there was some sort of blockage in our shoulder. So we frequently had to go into one of the lanes to go around parked cars, which as you can image did not go over well with impatient drivers. We received several angry honks. Early on I made a mantra that “all honks were encouraging honks” but I guess it wasn’t working for Andrew today.

We eventually made it to Santa Monica which is where the boardwalk bike path started. Being a Tuesday it wasn’t too crowded, so our time on the bike path exceeded expectations. We enjoyed winding our way through the manicured beaches.

After an ice cream stop in Manhattan Beach, we met up with our WarmShowers host for the night. He lives in Rolling Hills, so he escorted us from “the Strand” to his place.

We’re camping in their backyard, but that’s not to say their hospitality hasn’t been excellent. Upon arrival we were invited to use their pool, and make ourselves at home with their large assortment of patio furniture. They also treated us to a home cooked dinner and good conversation.

Day: 53
September 8, 2021

Distance: 37 miles (2106 total)
Rolling Hills Estates to Newport Beach

With a short day ahead of us, we weren’t in any real rush to leave. Our WarmShowers hosts gave us some fresh made focaccia bread, which was a nice addition to our oatmeal breakfast.

Our morning ride was through a very industrialized area of LA, the Port. The pollution was thick enough to taste and Andrew had to be more vigilant in glass dodging while riding through the bike lane. We had a “please don’t kill me” moment with a semi truck trying to enter the freeway while we went straight, but as he turned he shouted something encouraging and blew us a kiss of good luck.

We were happy to get onto a bike trail again when we hit Long Beach. We meandered our way around the touristy areas, and even rode past the grand prix route/course and bleachers.

We rode along the beach for a while, cutting up into town only when necessary. There was one particular glorious moment in Long Beach where we heard someone shout “complimentary kombucha”. Naturally we slammed on the brakes, “did you say free?!” We gleefully snagged some Synergy kombuchas from the reps which we were then able to enjoy later in the day.

Upon reaching Sunset Beach area we detoured out to Vegilicious, a vegan Japanese restaurant, where we met up with my cousin, Sara and her husband-to-be, Young who live in the greater LA area. It was so nice to get together and catch up.

After lunch (and coffee next door) we separated and went our different ways. Back to the beach for us. The stretch coming into Huntington beach was weirdly quiet and still compared to yesterday’s beaches. I’m guessing it was the wider beach, and lack of buildings on the inland side, but it was definitely weird. To go with the eerie stillness we could also see the ghostly silhouettes of huge container ships waiting in long lines to enter the ports.

We got a hotel for the night in Costa Mesa/ Newport Beach to simplify coordinating meetups. So we checked into our hotel around 4ish, cleaned up and hung out until it was time to grab dinner with Caitlin, one of Andrew’s LA work friends. Andrew was happy to hear that his work team is doing well without him, but also missing his presence (you know job security and stuff). It was overall a nice chill day.

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