California Coasting Public Ride

On the 28th and 29th of April we ran the California Coasting 600 km and 400 km brevets. The turnout was about double what I expected with a total of 34 riders setting out from beautiful San Luis Obispo at 5:00am. The weather was perfect and we had predictions of a very strong tail wind.

Kerin Huber went on ahead to staff the secret control at mile 10 and the first receipt control at Santa Maria. Our Canadian friends showed up super fast and Pete, our nominal lantern rouge, came through surprisingly quickly. 

I waited at my hotel room for an hour for late comers, of which we had none, then headed over the the Cowgirl Cafe next door for my breakfast. Then I drove a little south and jumped on my bike to try out the Bob Jones bike trail that goes to Avila Beach.

Entrance to the Bob Jones bike trail

Avila Beach

Once I got back to my car the pack was spread out enough to warrant having two SAG vehicles and I drove on along the route towards the second receipt control at Los Olivos. I picked up the back of the pack as I approached Los Alamos and had a chat with Pete as he refueled there. I saw several more riders along the 135 and there was quite a large group already at Los Olivos when I got there. Everyone agreed the R Market was an ideal place for a control. I stayed there until Pete showed up.

From Los Olivos I headed down the course to Ballard Canyon and on to Buelton and Santa Rosa road. We had a head wind on Santa Rosa road during the staff ride but it was twice as strong during the public ride and riders were glad to finally get to Lompoc where they could turn around. I'm glad I was driving!

The bike path approach to the Lompoc control was a big hit - much better than riding on Ocean and 6th Street.

The hardest climb on this route is from Lompoc over the Gaviota Pass. Even with a strong tailwind it's a long climb. Fortunately it wasn't too hot. I drove back and forth along this section of highway 1 several times making sure all my riders were doing OK. The last rider (guess who - no actually it was Mel) came over the top around 4pm. This point is about 120 miles into the ride - slightly more than half way to the overnight control.

After the top of the Gaviota Pass there is a very fast descent to the 101 and then on down to the coast at Gaviota state beach. From here on to Goleta we ride on the shoulder of the 101 with a powerful tailwind all the way to Santa Barbara. From Santa Barbara I drove to the overnight at Moorpark and then back to Port Hueneme where I waited with food for riders that missed the Wendy's control. While I was there, Stacey called to say she was DNFing at Mussel Shoals. I picked her up and took her to Camarillo. By the time I got back to Port Hueneme most of the riders were through. I ended up giving a muffin to a homeless woman which seemed to confuse her.

Can you see me now?

I saw Mel and Pete through and headed up to the overnight at Moorpark again. I think we all appreciate what a wonderful job Lisa and Greg did of providing hospitality at their house. I hadn't eaten since Lompoc about six hours earlier and those roast potatoes and mac and cheese were awesome. I can only imagine how good they tasted to those who had cycled 225+ miles to get here.

After a few hours sleep in my car I drove along the course towards the end at San Juan Capistrano. Some of the super fast riders had arrived before the room was available so Tim sat with them in the lobby until a room became available. Definitely one of the disadvantages of a point-to-point.

Tim and I waited at the end for the riders to arrive. I fully expected to be called out to pick up more DNFs but everyone who started the second day finished it, even those who rode right through. Congratulations to all of you. We only had two DNFs out of the whole group.

Photographs courtesy of Terry Hutt and Lori Arita.

I'm thinking of taking the first day of this ride and creating a 400k from it for next year. I'll make a point of hitting the scenery harder and ending at Camarillo. I'll go to Morro Bay and Avila Beach, use Foxen Canyon instead of the 135, and route through Hope Ranch in Santa Barbara. Maybe something like this https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27375582. It'll still have the headwind into Lompoc and the climb out, but it should be a good PBP year ride with some logistical issues and about the right amount of climbing.

California Coasting Staff RIde

We had six riders on the California Coasting staff ride. Foster, Doug, Tim Sullivan, Kerin, Michelle Brougher who flew in from Michigan, and myself.

The Budget Inn is better than you might expect and there are four other hotels in the same block in case you want to upgrade. Michelle and I took the late train up together and arrived in SLO at 8:30. The motel is a straight shot about a mile down Santa Rosa St from the station. We rode our bikes there in less than 5 minutes.

Rolling towards Avila Beach in the pre-dawn

There were quite a few signs telling drivers to give us enough room

We headed out at 5am on quiet roads with temps as low as 42. As we got to the beaches and the sun started to come up some moderate, fog rolled in which was very cool and clammy so we stopped to turn all our flashy lights on. Traffic was light and courteous. My exposed cue sheet was soaked so it's a good thing I wasn't depending on it.

Time to turn all our flashers on

The first problem we had is that the bike path approaching Santa Maria is not paved. That's one of the risks of using bike paths you are not familiar with - Google does not always differentiate between paved and unpaved trails. I have rerouted onto Seaward Drive although there is still an unpaved section. It's perfectly rideable, but it's not fast. Just look for the street running parallel to the bike trail on your right and move over to it at the first opportunity.

Michelle and I caught up with the other riders at the first gas station in the control area and replenished. They took off five minutes before we did and the route through Santa Maria, avoiding the 135, was nice and quiet, After Orcutt it turned into a lovely scenic road and it was a shame to have to leave it and join the 135. Be careful on this left turn as cross traffic is fast.

Headed south out of Santa Maria

The 135 quickly becomes quiet and leads us into lovely Los Alamos. Some of you may remember the turn onto Drum Canyon from here :-)

Then we get onto the 101 for a few miles. This isn't my favorite part of the route but the shoulder is wide, clean, smooth and has a rumble strip so it's not too bad. It takes us to the 154 which is quieter and then onto Los Olivos where we had the most wonderful surprise. Although you can still use any business on Grand Avenue, we found the R country market at 2948 Grand Ave is a wonderful place for a control. We were too early for the BBQ (11am open) but they had a selection of superb sandwiches for us.

R Market in Los Olivos

As we headed West of of Los Olivos a line of about eight vintage cars (Model-A I think) came the other way. I think they had narrower tires that we did. We rode along Ballard Canyon which has a bit of a climb getting out of Los Olivos and that huge sandwich didn't help. We saw two deer as we descended but I was too slow to get a photo. Here's a photo of a deer sign, which is almost the same.

Ballard Canyon

After passing through Buelton we rode up Santa Rosa road which is lovely but has some climbs. There were many other cyclists on Ballard Canyon and Santa Rosa Road as it was a great day to be out on the bike.

One of Santa Rosa's climbs

Santa Rosa is the only section that had a headwind and it freshened as we approached Lompoc to about 15 mph. Santa Rosa road is hillier in this direction but still very scenic. The back way to the control at the Albertson's in Lompoc is far preferable to the usual traffic clogged main roads. The short bike path section has a traffic circle. I have never seen a bike path traffic circle before. It was silly, really.

After the world's messiest egg-salad sandwich, I steeled myself for the climb on Hwy 1 over the Gaviota pass. Even with a 10mph tailwind, it was a grind and the last two miles were hot (78F) and seemed to take forever. Michelle got her first of three flats and I had to stop to nurse a sore knee. The two mile descent to the 101 took seconds as we hit speeds over 40mph. Wheeeeeeee!

Then we turned south on 101 and hit the coast a few minutes later.

Shoulder of the 101 heading towards Goleta

We took a detour through the vista point

We got to the rest stop at the bottom of the 101 and picked up water and a strong tailwind. We were moving well along the 101 when Michelle had her third flat. I was off the front a little so I didn't know. Two drivers slowed down to tell me she was having problems. How nice! She rode up to me on the flat tire and I gave her my spare Gatorskin. I carry a multi-tool on longer rides so I was able to pull the wire out of her tire. That was her last flat - I love Gatorskins.

We made excellent time on Hollister and Modoc making most of the lights, and stopped at a Jack-in-the Box in Golleta where I had a rice bowl with some nasty teriyaki sauce. I'm pretty sure the dominant flavor isn't supposed to be lighter-fluid. We managed to get to Santa Barbara before the sun set, which was one of our targets.

We got to the Wendy's in Port Hueneme at 11:20, well after they closed so we went across the street to a liquor store. I had a Mexican jam and cream croissant which was jam packed (pun intended) with calories and tasted wonderful. My knee had been painful for 170 miles and I really didn't want to ride up to Greg's house so I split from Michelle on Lewis and went straight back to my car at the Amtrak station. That was the end of my ride.

Michelle and the other 600k riders continued up through Camarillo to Moorpark and the overnight at Greg's home. You will find there is some climbing on Santa Rosa road (not the same one you rode earlier) so be prepared for it. On the plus side, there's a long descent after you leave the overnight back to the coast.

Some of you are planning on renting rooms at the Day's Inn or Motel 6 in Camarillo which is what the staff riders did.

The 600k riders continued south the next day and although we have all ridden the route many times before, we have never seen traffic and crowds around Marina Del Rey and Redondo Beach like we had on Sunday. We never did figure out what the occasion was. Perhaps it was simply the first nice weather for a while. I hope you don't have to deal with crowds like that. It was very frustrating.

All the 600k staff riders finished with Doug rolling in first and Michelle showing up with 40 minutes to spare. I had a chance to eat at the Bad-to-the-Bone BBQ place around the corner. It really is very good.

SART open night too

Amber and rode the Back Bay 50 mile last night, following part of my Five Rivers 300k ride. I particularly wanted to ride this at night to see if the SART was being locked in the evenings. It is now - we were able to ride between Taft and the Anaheim Artic at 9:30pm. This means the Night Audax ride probably will not have to use the detour.

SART open again

Last Sunday, Amber and I rode my Anaheim to Oceanside permanent. We rode the SART from the ARTIC inland to Lakeview. The city has created a temporary diversion while they remediate the main path. Other riders I spoke to said the entire SART is open. Amber and I have planned a night ride next weekend to see if they are locking the gates at night.

The weather was perfect as we climbed over Santiago Canyon but unfortunately this meant that Cook's Corner was crowded so we continued riding to some grotty little gas station at mile 40. There's a pizza place just 1/4 mile down the road - we'll try that next time.

Alisal Creek bike trail is always a blast.

Out favorite coffee shop in San Clemente has gone out of business so we went to Ellie's Table and had iced coffee and macaroons. Very nice.

The soldier on guard at Camp Pendleton asked if my camera was recording. I told him "No Recording!". He didn't have a sense of humor.

Because we didn't stop at Cook's Corner we had plenty of time to chat at Angelo's. We split one of their huge Greek salads and still left most of it. Weird because we hadn't eaten much,

Around 4:30 we headed over to the Amtrak station and waited for the train.

When we got back to Anaheim we were hungry so we split clam chowder fries, blackened chicken poorboy, and bread pudding at the Cajun restaurant at the train station. Very good.

Borrego Springs 400k Brevet

Willie Hunt's Borrego Springs 400km and 600km brevets are always a challenge. A lot of the route is along remote, poor quality roads that really test the riders' self-sufficiency and equipment. This year was no exception.

Dark and raining

We started at Willie's house in Lake Forest at 5am in the cool, damp night and headed downhill to the beach. Last year I had not worn enough layers to handle a 25mph descent in 37F temps so this year I wore extra layers and silk glove liners. No complaints this year.

Descending Hwy 133 to the coast

The first info control caught some riders out as they missed the downhill turn and had turn around and climb back up the hill. My rwgps app gave me the cue just in time. We had to write down the number of the house on the corner.

I always hope the house owner isn't awake, paranoid, and armed

We headed north on a quiet PCH to the Shell gas station at Warner. Some of us wanted a hot breakfast so we ate across the road at the Jack-in-the-Box. It was good.

Jack-in-the-Box, best food for 200 miles

Then we headed back south on the beach path to the Santa Ana River Trail (SART) which was unusually quiet so we were able to maintain a good pace. Because it was so early in the day we still had a slight headwind which quickly gave up all sense of direction and just gusted randomly.

An unusually quiet beach path

Pacelineing behind The Brat.

Alongside the 91 freeway

We continued up the SART to the end, then I decided to stop to refuel at the 76 gas station on Green River Road and somehow lost the group I was with. No matter, we rode the usual route through Norco onto the upper SART, took the detour on Jurupa (the SART reopens this section in late April), and onto San Bernardino for the next control.

More gas station cuisine

At the G&M gas station I noticed a randonneur who I knew was not on the ride, arrive with a group of the 600k riders. He told me he had arranged to meet his friends and ride 30 or so miles with them. This is against the rules and can be grounds for a DQ.

Now we had a long climb up San Timeteo Canyon road to the top of the Banning Pass at 3000'. Last year it was pretty hot and I had to take a shade nap at the Shell gas at the top but this year was perfect so I just grabbed some food and kept going. We picked up a strong tail wind as we rode towards Cabazon. Unfortunately the road (Apache Trail) hasn't been maintained in 50 years and has massive wheel grabbing cracks that I had to bunny hop. It's downhill, and with the tailwind we were coasting at 30mph so I had to be very alert. I spoke to Shai (fixie) after the ride and he pointed out that he can't bunny hop on a fixie. Ow!

Somewhere on this stretch I lost a water bottle. I wish I could have got some video but I didn't want to take my hands off the handlebars even for a second.

Eventually we reached smooth(er) pavement and the wind picked up through the pass so that I was coasting at 35mph and could still feel a strong wind on the backs of my legs.

Coasting through Cabazon

The tailwind and downhill continued onto the shoulder of the 111 to Palm Springs. As the route turns around and heads back West after Salton City, I knew we would pay for all this. I think I made contact here with Wei for a while.

Shoulder of the 111 headed to Palm Springs

We meandered through Palm Springs for a while then ended up on Varner which I remembered from last year because it is possibly the worst stretch of maintained road I've seen for a while (Apache Trail isn't maintained). I was riding with Wei now - we joined up at the prior control, and even though I warned him, I think Varner caught him by surprise. I turn my video on before hitting Varner because only video does it justice.

We got to the info control in Indio in daylight so I knew I was on a better time that last year. All that tailwind had sped me up.

Info control in Indio with Wei

We still seemed to have a tailwind as we got the Arco before the final climb to Borrego Springs. Even though it's not a control, it's essential to stop here because there is nothing but pain and fear for the next 28 miles.

Last stop before the death march

As Wei and I left the Arco we started climbing into a 30-40 mph headwind on very rough road. Some stretches are as steep as 7% and I found myself riding at 3.2 mph so I walked them at 2.8 mph instead which gave my legs and backside some relief. I fact there were 3 sections I walked in the end, mainly because I felt they were too dangerous to ride. The sand was sheeting across the road. I really wish I could have got some video but there was no way I was taking my hands off the handlebars.

Wei went on ahead and as I stopped to eat a packet of GoCubes, I ended up with a group that included Terri and (I think) Charlie. The last 10 miles are slightly downhill and we got some relief from the wind so we rolled into Borrego Springs at 2am at 17 mph.

I got five hours sleep, then we waited nervously for Pete to show up at 26:40. Twenty minutes to spare - no problem. Then we climbed onto the minibus that Willie had rented for us (great idea) and were chauffeured back to the start. Brilliant!

As we were driven home in luxury we passed many of the 600k riders toiling up Montezuma Valley Road. I always wondered why anyone would take a nice flat 400k and ruin it with climbing. I guess it takes all sorts. I take my hat off to them - I couldn't do it.

I completed my Mondail award on this ride. Only took me 15 years!