Day 37

June 28, 2011

Today I rode from Malibu to Long Beach. I was somewhat dreading the experience of riding through the huge city. The ride started with a few small hills in Malibu while I gazed at the highest density of really cool houses that I've ever seen. The route went along the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) for a while and much of it didn't have a shoulder, especially in the town of Malibu. I've been desensitized to traffic and the lack of shoulders, so I was hardly phased by it. I got to a state beach just west of Santa Barbara and my route took me onto the beach bike trail. That trail is so amazing! It's so nice to have a bike trail to follow. About half of my 60 mile day was on a beach trail and it was a kind of cloudy day, so there weren't that many people on the trail, which made for perfect riding.

I apologize on behalf of Los Angeles because it doesn't have very nice scenery, so you'll notice the lack of pretty pictures. One interesting sight I saw was the Santa Monica Pier, an amusement park on a pier.

Part of what made the ride through LA fun was the places that I went that I had either been to before or had heard all about from others. I had heard all about the Santa Monica Pier from Rebecca E. and later the next day I would pass through Huntington Beach, which holds horrific memories of the worst sunburn I've ever had and delicious memories of fried clams at Joe's Crab Shack.

I got slightly lost while circumnavigating Marina Del Ray, but a homeless man put me back on track. I didn't spend any significant time on the road in LA till Redondo Beach where I cut inland to Torrance and Carson. The road I went on was pretty nice as it had a bike lane half the time and a very large lane, big enough for a car and a bike, for the rest of it. I found myself at the Los Angeles river, which was a sight to see for its world renown beauty.

I made it to Long Beach and saw a big boat.

 And a nice inlet

I stayed at a hotel in Long Beach that night, taking a good chunk out of my budget, but it was totally worth the extra 30 dollars to be in a hotel of the non-prostitute variety. That evening I went to Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery for dinner and met a cool guy named Jason who is a Colorado native. Woot