40 miles, 5 bridges, and 0 cars! That’s what the 5 Boro Bike Ride, held on Glen’s 50th birthday, promised. Since we’d spent the past couple of months riding in the rain, we figured we knew the drill and set out in the drizzle, along with 20,000+ other cyclists.
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What’s Next?
Alissa: What’s the next entry in this sequence? 306, Hideaway Suite, 2, 222, 230, Fishman’s Cabin, 6, 17, D33, 50, 2, 2, 306, 540, 512, 7, 688, 23, 53, 1, 12, 303, 107, 349, 18102, 4207, 513, 6331E, 316, 4046,… Oh you thought this post was going to be about our next adventure? 😉 These …
Day #27: La Jolla to US-Mexico Border (46 mi)
Alissa: After 1,000 miles, 14 counties, roughly 45,000 feet of elevation gained and lost, a min elevation of -7 feet, max elevation of 1930 feet, and one flat tire, we MADE IT! =) =) [Note: these numbers include our extra help from Day #5.] Our final day began with a giant wide road just for …
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Day #26: San Clemente to La Jolla (57 mi)
Alissa: Our day began with delightful signage in the breakfast room! Hmph. We were NOT planning to ride 57 miles today. But thanks to the few, the proud at Camp Pendleton who decided to close the bike path for their training exercises, we got to ride on “the 5” for thirteen miles instead of six …
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Day #25: Newport Beach to San Clemente (27 mi)
Alissa: It was a strange feeling yesterday being in civilization the entire day and knowing that this would be the case for the remainder of the trip. Even the ride along PCH in Malibu had unpopulated spots, so yesterday was really the first time the whole trip. Our ride today took us through all the …
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Day #24: Venice to Newport Beach (51 mi)
Alissa: And we’re back! I finished up my civic service for the good folk of Los Angeles County at the Pomona Superior Courthouse, so we loaded up our packs and set off for the border. The day started like many bike rides Glen and I have taken: southbound along the beach path going through Marina …
Day #23: Oxnard to Venice (53 mi)
Alissa: My good friend Robert texted me a couple of days ago about the “millions” of butterflies in Los Angeles. Today we woke up to be greeted by all of them! It really was delightful to see so many of them at once, and fairly consistently down to Malibu. I’ve ridden this exact route a …
Day #22: Goleta to Oxnard (50 mi)
Alissa: It was only a matter of time… We’ve been lucky and this is our first flat. (And in a super convenient place–the hotel!) I have absolutely no clue how Glen’s tire and tube came to be in the state shown above, so perhaps he can explain what happened. Fortunately, he’s very good at fixing …
Day #21: Lompoc to Goleta (43 mi)
Alissa: Leaving Lompoc was awesome for a few reasons: it was a gorgeous day, we were heading back toward the coast, we left behind an incredible windy city, we rode through lush green hills, we had an enormous shoulder (basically as wide as an entire lane), and perhaps the awesome-est reason was the gleaming, shiny, …
Day #20: Santa Maria to Lompoc (26 mi)
Alissa: Getting to Goleta (the home of UCSB) from Santa Maria involves gaining well over 3,000 feet in elevation. So, we decided to polish off a third of that and stop in the city of art and flowers, Lompoc, CA. Our day started and ended with a long, continuous series of strip malls. CVS, Walgreens, …
Day #19: Morro Bay to Santa Maria (50 mi)
Alissa: We woke up to a great view of the Morro rock. We stopped in SLO for lunch and a quick visit to the local bike shop. It was a great day for a ride! We had to say goodbye to the coast today for a couple of days as Hwy 1 (now called Pacific …
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Day #18: Ragged Point to Morro Bay (45 mi)
Alissa: Very quickly into our ride we turned inland away from the coast for a bit. After a few miles we stopped to see the elephant seals then made an early pit stop for lunch of burgers made from Hearst cattle and some wine tasting for Glen. Then we went on a tour of the …
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Alissa’s unexpected gift!
Alissa: Glen surprised me with a fun gift: which I gleefully started unwinding wondering what on Earth could be wrapped up inside. I didn’t have to wait long until I found a plastic frog, a glamorous new ring, and a roll of Smarties. Fun times!
Day #17: Lucia to Ragged Point (25 mi)
Alissa: Today we rode through both of the road closure areas, which, thankfully, had opened! We had more lovely views along the coast, and the views to our left looked mostly like this: During our lunch stop at the Whale Watchers Cafe, I, suitably, saw the spout of a whale! And, we encountered fellow cyclists …
Day #16: Big Sur to Lucia (26 mi)
Alissa: Hooray! Not only did Caltrans open the second mudslide area, but we had a glorious, gorgeous, spectacular sunny day to experience the Big Sur that Google had teased me with. The water was a brilliant turquoise that I’ve only seen in, like, Hawaii . Due to all the recent rain, we passed many waterfalls. …
Stuck in Big Sur! (Day Four)
Alissa: Good news! Caltrans opened one of the two road closures and anticipates opening the other one tomorrow! The road looks like it took a beating. I’m going to have to ask my brother, who knows everything there is to know about concrete and asphalt, how this could happen. (Funny story, which I bet he …
Stuck in Big Sur! (Day Three)
Alissa: It POURED today. During the downpour, I decided to check out what my weather sites had to say about the situation. We both were fairly productive work-wise and Glen enjoyed the Medocino County themed wine and cheese hour.
Stuck in Big Sur! (Day Two)
Alissa: I joined the daily yoga class, which I described to Glen as a “guided nap,” and after which we learned the following: Caltrans *did* wind up closing the highway in two locations, which would have stranded us at the place with no availability for Wed and Thurs. So, score one for us for making …
Stuck in Big Sur! (Day One)
Alissa: The next few legs of our journey present a logistic challenge in that the options for lodging along this section of the coast are extremely limited. Consider the following scenario: It is Monday and the weather is perfect for cycling! You can get to your desired location, but (1) The weather forecast says 100% …
Day #15: Monterey to Big Sur (42 mi)
Alissa: Sigh… Mother Nature: 2; Glen and Alissa: 0 I really need to (1) find another weather website and/or (2) let Glen make the decision about whether we should cycle given the forecast. Weather.gov said that there was a “30% chance of rain prior to 10 am” and “new precipitation amounts of less than a …
Pinnacles National Park
Alissa: Neither of us had been to this park before, so we rented a car and drove about an hour east. We stopped at Flapjack’s Breakfast for brunch, which had the best gender neutral restroom sign I’ve ever seen! We kicked off our visit with spelunking in Bear Gulch Cave! It was incredible that this cave …
Day #14: Santa Cruz to Monterey (46 mi)
Alissa: Today was spent mostly off of “the one” since it was highway (hence, no bicycles) and not a state road. We saw very little of the coast, but instead passed miles and miles of crops, mainly strawberries and artichokes! And we saw the first sign indicating our distance from home! Toward the end of …
Day #13: Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz (48 mi)
Alissa: All the wind and rain yesterday was so totally worth it to have the gorgeous perfect day today. It was my favorite leg of our ride thus far, possibly because the entire distance was protected land. Long, flat stretches along the coast in warm sunshine, dotted with state parks and beaches (each with public restrooms, yay!). I’ll let …
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Day #12: Colma BART stop to Half Moon Bay (26 mi)
Alissa: Our weekend break in Berkeley turned into four days as we found the forecast for very high winds (40+ mph!) and downpour from another atmospheric river slightly terrifying. We had a great time visiting with Glen’s brother and sister-in-law, having lots of tasty food, visiting some sort of Earth tuning fork and meeting our …
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Day #11: Lagunitas to Tony’s Pizza in North Beach, SF! (27 mi)
Alissa: It was a bit crazy to go from the middle of nowhere to being across the Golden Gate Bridge in about 20 miles! All the small towns in Marin County between Fairfax and Sausalito were super cute and reminded me of the Village area in Claremont. Since we had plans to meet our friend Matt …
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Day #10: Bodega to Lagunitas (41 mi)
Shoreline Hwy turned inland, so today’s ride was mostly through farmland. In contrast to the giant trees from a week ago and the gorgeous coastline from the past few days, we rode through lots of green pastures. We saw many cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens and geese. Then we rode along an ENORMOUS bay for …
Day #9: Timber Cove to Bodega (32 mi)
Alissa: Today was a day of firsts–the first time we saw other cyclists (one of whom was in a recumbent with a sign proclaiming “New York to Seattle!”) and the first time we each got hit by ocean spray. While waiting around for the light mist to stop this morning before starting our journey, Glen …
Day #8: Gualala to Timber Cove (23 mi)
Alissa: An intentionally nice, easy very-little-elevation-gain ride so we could hang out and do some work in the afternoon. Remember that ad that told us that “great cheese comes from happy cows”? and that “happy cows come from California”? Well, I think these were the ones they were talking about. I mean, look at their view! …
Day #7: Albion to Gualala (43 mi)
Alissa: Today was perfect! Not a cloud in the sky and long stretches along the coast. It was glorious! I kept hoping to see whales migrating south, but no luck (yet!). Today there were only two towns with any services: Elk and Point Arena. The highlight of today’s ride was the amazing hardware store where we …
Day #6: Westport to Albion (34 mi)
Alissa: Today was glorious! No rain and a ride along the coast. We passed through the lovely little towns of Fort Bragg, including a stop at Glass Beach and Medocino, among many others. My favorite parts of these towns are their general stores and post offices, which have so much more character than the ones …
Day #5: Leggett to Westport (33 mi with cheating)
Alissa: After waiting an hour in the morning for the rain to stop, we headed out to tackle the longest climb of the trip. It rained off and on during the climb, but we made it to the top, passing lots of snow on the sides of the road and slush on the ground. It was …
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Day #4: Benbow to Leggett (15 mi)
Alissa: Another day of riding in off and on rain to get to our cabin in Leggett, which had a wood-burning stove! (Glen: And a good thing, too, since we were the wettest/freeziest here of any place except for Redcrest.) On the way we passed many oddities, the first being this giant guy: Then we …
Day #3.5: Garberville to Benbow (3 mi)
Alissa: We headed down to the Historic Benbow Inn, when Glen caught a photo of a rainbow during a brief period we weren’t getting dumped on with rain. We arrived just in time for delicious orange scones during afternoon tea time. Glen: Kudos also to the Benbow Inn for being the only hotel (at least in …
Day #3: Redcrest to Garberville (33 mi)
Alissa: I rode the remaining distance along Avenue of the Giants while Glen took the Humboldt InnerCity Transit Bus to the Garberville Community Hospital, where he was told he would live to die another day. The Best Western was our home for two nights while Glen recovered from his adventure (and supported the Garberville economy by …
Day #2: Ferndale to Redcrest (31 mi)
Alissa: Leaving Ferndale in the rain, we rode though off and on showers all day. The best part of the day was starting down the Avenue of the Giants, with more super tall trees! Our Redcrest cabin was freezing so we heated it quickly by turning on the oven and all gas burners. Glen: Critical for …
Day #1: Arcata to Ferndale (31 mi)
Alissa: We stopped for lunch in Eureka where there were beautiful Victorian homes and an adorable historic downtown. We continued to Ferndale to the Gingerbread Mansion Inn. The main street here resembled that of Disneyland with a General Store and Meat Company, where the host of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” used to work! We arrived to …
Redwood National Park
Alissa: After a super delayed flight to Arcata, we woke up to pouring rain so decided to rent a car and head up to the see the giant trees after picking up our bikes! We were the only ones in the park on the rainy afternoon. Arcata is a super cute little town near Humboldt …