Category Archives: bikes

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 24: Doheny State Beach to San Elijo (Part 2)

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Anne | 4 comments

Previous post: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 24, Part 1

[continued, Part 2]

Our mood light, we left Carlsbad and started pedaling toward Whole Foods in Encinitas where we planned to buy dinner groceries. We spent most of the ride from Carlsbad to Encinitas talking about food and what we all wanted for dinner on our last night of camping. We settled on some kind of BBQ, thinking we’d cook on the fire. We pulled up to Whole Foods and leaned the heavy gear laden bikes just outside the store entrance. The boys went in the store to shop while the girls stayed outside with the bikes. Tim had been talking about Cocchi all day and was looking forward to some cocktails at the campground that evening. Unfortunately, unlike our local Whole Foods in Seattle, this one didn’t carry it. So he settled for a nice dry rose instead.

Tim sent a series of texts while he shopped. Carne Asada? I replied, Yes! Grilled peppers? Yum! Baguette and chevre? This is getting better. Cherry Pie? Why not? Even though Tim doesn’t eat pie or bread, he’s always thinking about the bread and sweet eaters in the family. He finally emerged from the store almost an hour later, carrying multiple bags for our celebratory feast. Continue reading →

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Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 24: Doheny State Beach to San Elijo (Part 1)

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Anne | 2 comments

previous post: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 23: Palos Verdes to Doheny State Beach

Day 24: Doheny State Park to San Elijo State Park

Since we had to vacate the hiker/biker site at Doheny State Beach by 9:00 AM, we didn’t have time for our usual leisurely in-camp breakfast and coffee routine. A park staff person came by with her clipboard at 8:30 and made sure we were checking out. Seriously? You’re still checking up on us? Thankfully we were ready to go and cheerfully answered her questions before we pedaled out of the campground at 9:00 AM on the dot. Even though we grumbled about the forced exit, I guess we could consider the 9:00 AM deadline a silver lining, we were on the road early! We even had time for a leisurely diner breakfast in nearby San Clemente. 9464284526_18c5b91dcb

Continue reading →

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Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, family bike touring, family biking, Family Cycling, kids, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, tandem, tandem bike tour, two tandem bike tour

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 23: Palos Verdes to Doheny State Beach

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Anne | 6 comments

previous post: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 22: Leo Carrillo State Park to Palos Verdes

Day 23: Palos Verdes to Doheny State Park

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The morning featured a gourmet breakfast and espresso. Nice! We’d gotten used to our lowbrow, dirt-bag bike touring coffee and home-espresso and delicious home cookin’ was a real treat.

Matt’s family had plans for the day and needed to be out the door by 10:00. That deadline gave us a purpose and great reason to get rolling, since our 57 mile ride would take at least 6 hours. We said our goodbyes, thank yous and promised to get in touch when we got back to Seattle. The kids were a little sad to leave their new friends, my stoker, especially. He kept asking when we’d see them again and looked forward to getting together when we got home.

Since we were officially off the Adventure Cycling route, Matt printed us a series of maps to get us back on track. He noted areas that might be tricky for us to navigate (like around the huge port). But he’d ridden and driven most of the roads on his suggested route and assured us that the route was safe and easy to follow. After leaving Palos Verdes, we’d skirt the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, the busiest container port in the United States. Once we got to Long Beach, we’d pick up the Adventure Cycling route again. Seemed straightforward enough. We’re seasoned urban riders and weren’t too worried about navigating the area around the port. Continue reading →

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Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, family bike touring, Family Cycling, kids, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, tandem, tandem bike tour, two tandem bike tour

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 22: Leo Carrillo State Beach to Palos Verdes

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Anne | 4 comments

previous post: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 21: Carpinteria to Leo Carillo State Beach

Day 22: Leo Carrillo State Beach to Palos Verdes

This was the final week of the tour: the home stretch, the final stage, the last 200 miles! We figured if nothing else went wrong, it would take us four more days of pedaling to reach San Diego.

We’d already ridden 650 miles this summer (and 900+ in the summer of 2012). Since we set out from our house in Seattle on June 10th, we’d endured so many setbacks: riding in torrential rain, days of pedaling with sore knees, and a heat wave. And even though we felt some apprehension about riding through LA, Orange County and San Diego, with its heavy traffic and drivers who have irreverence for bicyclists, we knew this section of the route was part of the coastal adventure. I fantasized about renting a car and driving the rest of the way, but we knew we couldn’t just skip this section. If you want to ride the Pacific Coast from Canada to the Mexican border, you must ride through LA and Orange County.

So let’s do it!

We woke under the trees in the Leo Carrillo campgroud, took care of our usual breakfast and camp dis-assembly routine and eventually set off toward Malibu. Once again, Danielle and Henry were on the road before we even started packing.

Our destination: our friend’s house in Palos Verdes. But this time, our tardiness had a purpose. We’d been warned about impatient and fast-driving Malibu commuters and planned to avoid riding Hwy 1 during commute hours. That knowledge gave us license to take the morning at a slower pace and roll out after traffic died down. Continue reading →

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Posted in bikes, Pacific Coast Bike Tour

Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, beach, beach riding, bike tour, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, family bike touring, Family Cycling, kids, LA, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, tandem, tandem bike tour, two tandem bike tour

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 21: Carpinteria to Leo Carrillo State Park

Posted on August 2, 2013 by Anne | 8 comments

previous post: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 20: El Capitan State Beach to Carpinteria

Day 21: Carpinteria to Leo Carrillo State Park

We woke in the gopher site at 6:00 AM to a blaring car alarm followed by the horns of a passing freight train. With tracks running less than 50 feet from the campsite, we were woken several times during the night by trains. The car alarm topped off a bad night’s sleep and we figured we might as well just get up and start the day.

As we ate breakfast and drank coffee in the shade at a picnic table next to the gopher site, I checked the maps again and determined our next campsite, Leo Carrillo State Beach, was a little over 47 miles away. With stops, we average about 10 miles and hour, so I figured 47 miles would take us about 5 hours. Since it was so early, we had the luxury of a slow roll out. We said goodbye to Henry and Danielle before they packed up and left, they were headed to town for breakfast. They planned to camp at Leo Carrillo too so we knew we’d see them again.

We eventually packed up and got on the road. And after a brief stop in town for second breakfast and coffee, we started pedaling toward our destination. The bike route meandered through town and eventually joined busy Hwy 1. It was Sunday, in the middle of a heat wave and by the time we got rolling, beach traffic was hopping: lots of cars and large trucks towing RVs and not a lot of space for bikes on the shoulder. Continue reading →

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Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, beach, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, family bike touring, Family Cycling, kids, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, Pacific Coast Hwy, RV, surfing, tandem, tandem bike tour, two tandem bike tour, Ventura

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 20: El Capitan State Beach to Carpinteria

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Anne | 1 comment

previous post: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 19: Lompoc to El Capitan State Beach

Day 20: El Capitan State Beach to Carpinteria

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We met another friendly bike tourist in the El Capitan State Beach hiker/biker site. The five of us shared the giant hiker/biker site with its beautiful ocean view. As we’ve noted in a previous post about last year’s Pacific Coast tour, bike tourists who meet on the road often have little pet names for their fellow two-wheeled travelers. We named the friendly guy we met in El Capitan, “Mr. California”. When we inquired about his hometown, he replied “California”. He went on to list the real estate he owned up and down the California coast including houses in Ventura, Del Mar, San Francisco, Sonoma County and a couple other places. Continue reading →

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Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, bike tour, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, Carpinteria State Beach, family bike touring, Family Cycling, kids, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, Santa Barbara, tandem, tandem bike tour, tandem tour, two tandem bike tour

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 19: Lompoc to El Capitan State Beach

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Anne | 7 comments

previous post: Pacific Coast Bike tour , Day 18: San Luis Obisbo to Lompoc

Day 19: Lompoc to El Capitan State Beach

We woke up in the Lompoc city park, took care of our usual morning routine of coffee and breakfast. As Tim made the coffee, I wandered over to the camp host’s site and asked if we could charge our electronics in the vacant RV site next to the hiker/biker. He said, no problem. So we plugged in all of the devices and continued breakfast and taking down our camp.

While we were packing up, the park ranger drove into the campground to collect the fee envelopes from the self pay box. To our surprise, he came over to the hiker/biker and gave Henry and Danielle a refund. They had been used to paying per person in CA State Parks. Naturally, they paid $10 for their site, $5 per person. But at the Lompoc city park, the camping fee was $5 per site, not per person! And he graciously explained they paid too much and gave them $5 back.

Continue reading →

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Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, El Capitan State Beach, family bike touring, Family Cycling, kids, Lompoc, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, tandem, tandem bike tour, two tandem bike tour

Pacific Coast Bike Tour, Day 18: San Luis Obisbo to Lompoc

Posted on July 30, 2013 by Anne | 3 comments

previous post: San Simeon to San Luis Obisbo

Day 18: San Luis Obisbo to Lompoc

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We woke the next morning rested, clean, smelling good and ready to tackle the day. A little rest, some pool time, leg massages and mega doses of ibuprofen had done Tim’s knees some good. He was still reluctant and a bit worried about his knees and wasn’t sure they were going to take him 400 more miles to the border but he was willing to keep plugging along.

A couple of months before we left on the trip Tim changed his saddle on the tandem. The more miles he pedaled, the more Tim deduced that the position change from his saddle swap might be contributing to his sore knees. He considered asking a friend to break into our garage, remove his Selle Atomica saddle from another bike and mail it to a future stop. He figured that would be too much hassle for all parties involved and decided to just manage the pain instead. Continue reading →

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Tagged 2013, acapaccoast, bike touring, bikes, CA, carfreedays, family bike touring, Family Cycling, kids, OR, Pacific Coast Bike Tour, tandem, tandem bike tour, two tandem bike tour

We Made it! Updates to Come

Posted on July 29, 2013 by Anne | 6 comments

We finished our Pacific Cost Bike Tour on Friday, July 5th, 2013 at Border Field State Park, the Southwesternmost part of the contiguous United States, or the DMZ as Tim likes to call it. More on that later. Continue reading →

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Tagged bike touring, family bike touring, Pacific Coast Bike Tour

Pacific Coast Bike Tour Days 15, 16 and 17 San Simeon to San Luis Obisbo

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Anne | 2 comments

Previous post: Big Sur to San Simeon

Day 15: San Simeon to San Luis Obisbo

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We woke up in the hiker/biker site and most of the riders who had arrived late the evening before had already left. Early risers get the worm and get to ride the Hwy in a dense fog. We learned that one of the riders in the late arriving group had to catch a train in San Luis Obisbo so they had a valid reason for getting up and out of camp so early.

We enjoyed our usual leisurely morning routine with coffee, hot chocolate and oatmeal for the kids while we waited for the fog to clear. We weren’t interested in riding the highway in dense fog. Good call! The fog cleared and we were on the road by mid-morning. Destination: a hotel in San Luis. I couldn’t wait for a real bed, a shower and some laundry! Continue reading →