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“The Alternate Route is Not Recommended in July or August, When Temperatures Soar Into the Hundreds” (or how I got my ass kicked)

Monday afternoon, Santa Barbara library. Can’t believe that it was exactly 5 weeks ago when I started this Pacific Coast Bicycle trip. I have been so lucky so far as far as equipment, weather, traffic, etc. I am nearing the end of my journey, but first I will take a few days to play tourist in Southern California. Here are the latest up to date stats:

Mileage Log

Day 23: 65 miles, overnight at some campground that spooked the bejeezus out of me. Long story short, think of the Blair Witch Project and you’ll know how much sleep I managed on this night.

Day 24: 60 miles, overnight at Sam Taylor State Park

Day 25: 35 miles with an ugly 5 miles along Lombard and Van Ness, San Francisco, when I took a wrong turn trying to find the BART station. Overnight in Piedmont with my buddy Dan and his girlfriend Kathleen.

Day 26: Rest Day. Was going to check out the coasters at Six Flags Marine World, but in the end just hung out and had my first experience of eating Ethiopian food when Dan, Ezra and I had dinner Friday night.

Day 27: Rest Day. All U Can Eat pancakes at Carl’s JR for only $1.19 with purchase of any drink!! We all had our fill after 5 pancakes. Later we did random acts of kindness by passing out free cookies to people on the street and getting reactions such as “You guys are great!” to “Okay, what are you selling? Are you with Scientology?” to “I don’t accept food from strangers.” It was a total kick. Later we watched our favorite model Derek Zoolander in his breakthrough hit, and finished the evening by crashing at Ezra’s and getting my fill of wrestling.

Day 28: Rest Day. Well, kind of. We went to the flea market to find me some basketball shoes. And then played basketball with Ezra’s crew from 4pm-7pm. Topped off by a great buffet at Sizzler Steakhouse, and finally getting to bed at 2:30am. Not exactly the best way to get a good night’s sleep when resuming a bike ride.

Day 29: 35 “easy miles”. I left a little late, at 2:15pm from Ezra’s. Rode with Dan to the Lake Merrit BART station. It was Clean Air Day so all transit was free. I rode the BART to Daly City, and then cycled back to Highway 1. And then WHOA!!! What is this??? Highway 1 is closed at Devil’s Slide? And there is a 40 mile detour?? With the greatest luck, a guy on a motorcycle warned me about the closure and gave me perfect directions for a mountain biking trail that allowed me to bypass the 40 mile detour. It was a beautiful trail, and even though I had to walk my bike in many places, I was able to get back onto highway 1 after 2 hours and barely made it to my campground at Half Moon Beach State Park before dark.

Day 30: 58 miles, overnight in Santa Cruz. I cycled as fast as I could so I could soak up some fun in Santa Cruz, and did I ever. Boardwalk and amusement rides, I rode the SeaDragon, Tilt ! Whirl, Haunted House and the Giant Dipper Rollarcoaster not once, but Two Times! Classic wooden coaster that I have to rank among my top 5 coasters I’ve ever ridden (X at Six Flags Magic Mountain is still tops!)

Day 31: 45 miles, overnight in Monterey.

Day 32: 62 miles, overnight at Kirk Creek Campground where all the crazy raccoons were.

Day 33: 40 miles, good day’s ride to San Simeon where I spent some time at the Hearst Castle and overnight at San Simeon State Park.

Day 34: 40 miles, San Simeon to San Luis Obispo (SLO). I managed to find George’s home and crashed there in his backyard.

Day 35: (yesterday). 60 miles. But I went ahead and volunteered at the SLO Triathlon and didn’t leave until 12:30. So it was a lot of hard riding until I got to my campground in Lompoc.

Day 36: Today—50 miles so far, and did I ever get my assed kicked. I decided to take the alternate route, up San Marcos pass mid day with temperatures well above 100. Running out of water, feeling dizzy and weak and scared of cramping up, I pulled over at a turnout and rested in the shade for 45 minutes. Had I not done that, I’m sure I would have passed out. That climb was just brutal and the Sun was just baking and burning me. Totally sucked, and I cursed the whole way up. So freaking HOT HOT HOT!

But now I’m back to better conditions, and my internet time is up, so until next time!

Tomorrow is another big day–95 miles to Redondo Beach, where I hope to catch the Metro Rail to Norwalk and stay with relatives for a few days to rest. Okay, now I’m leaving, so have a nice week everyone!



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-8 responses to ““The Alternate Route is Not Recommended in July or August, When Temperatures Soar Into the Hundreds” (or how I got my ass kicked)”

  1. Jonas says:

    Wow. All-you-can-eat pancakes for $1.19? Did you accidentally turn on the flux capacitor on your bike? It sounds like you inadvertently traveled back in time.

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