Last Day! 50 miler to Costa Mesa

The 2015 Ride the West is now in the history books!.  Last day was a fast 50 miles from Marina Del Ray.   A bunch of riders left last night so we are down to about 5 people that have done the entire ride. Today I rode with Sarah (skier from Copper Mountain).  We had to go through some sketchy neighborhoods (the kind where the doors and windows have bars on them) so I told her I would ride with her as she was concerned about being by herself.  Ended up being a nice comfortable pace day.

I didn't take any photos - just couldn't do another day of stopping every 10 minutes.  Mike Monk,  the ride leader, is providing us with all the photos he took of the tour - so worst case I will have his shots for the last ride day.

It was a great tour.  The ride was harder that I had expected - but in the end - the United States still amazes.  The Pacific Coast is just stunning and I hope my photography has captured at least some of its beauty.

It was advertised as a 1400 miles ride and according to my bike computer - it was just as advertised. My computer does not track altitude but I am pretty sure we got close to 76000 feet of climbing.

Here are my statistics....

Distance: 1,387.06 mi

Time: 107:53:00 h:m:s

Avg Speed: 12.8 mph

Calories: 75,212 C

My average speed was almost 1 mile an hour slower that when I went across the USA.    Again the hills just took my average speed down (or old age is creeping in).

Heading home to the Cape tomorrow for some R&R.  Might not get on my bike for at least a week.  

Ellen and David are getting married next year so no big ride in 2016.  But after having ridden with John, Sarah, Jim and Rodger - it's clear I have some more years of quality riding ahead of me!!!

Thanks for following my ride.  Hope you enjoyed following my adventure.

Oxnard to Marina Del Ray, 54 miles

Today's ride was a lot of fun.  We got a little concerned that about 30 minutes before we were scheduled to leave - we got a downpour that lasted about 15 minutes.   Must have dumped 1/2 inch of water.  But we are in Southern California so by the time we were 1 mile out of town, the roads were dry.  Everybody had taken put on their rain gear and we all had to stop and remove our gear as the temperature quickly went back into the 70's and 80's.

 At nine miles out of town we passed a Navy airbase and got to see some "previously used" weapons.

 The fun part is that everybody got to have their picture taken as if the missile was on your back.

Right after the Navy base we had to get on Route 1 - which is generally loaded with cars.  They are either whipping by you or parked on the shoulder of the road, so it normally can be a pretty scary ride.  But because of the rain - the roads were empty and there were only a few people heading to the beach.  It was if we had the road mostly to ourselves for the first 30 miles.

We had a couple of hills but most were either pretty mild or my legs are getting stronger and the hills did not seem to bother me.  At about 35 miles we rode into Malibu and started to see all the "movie star" houses hugging the coast.  I wonder what happens to these houses when there is a strong tide or storm.  I doubt seriously that they are able to get home insurance on these houses - but perhaps they don't care.

After passing Malibu we got on a bike path that took us directly to and through Venice Beach.  I have been there in the past and it seems to have changed - from a really hip place to a tourist trap that has three kinds of stores - henna tattoos, bad street art, and pizza by the slice.   Lots of people living on the strip and the strong smell of dope in the air.    Just not a cool place any more and decided that it was not worth stopping so I jumped back on my bike and headed to our hotel in Marina Del Ray.

We have one more day of riding (shortest day on the tour) and when we get to the hotel we will break down our bikes and get the ready to ship them back home.  Most people will leave tomorrow and only a couple of us (who have to get a plane back to the East Coast) will stay the night.

We had a "farewell party" this evening and got to thank the staff for an excellent tour - and  we got to say goodbye to new friends.

One funny story.  We had two couple from Europe join us about 10 days into the tour and before they joined the tour in Crescent City, they were reading Mike's blog where he was highlighting the Oregon portion of the tour.  They got concerned when they looked at the rider photos and they thought they were joining a senior citizen tour and had figured they had signed up for the wrong tour (all of us at the beginning were over the age of 60 with at least three riders in the 70's).  But as they said during their farewell remarks - they were super impressed on how well us seniors ride and it gave them inspiration and motivation to keep riding until they reach our age - in 25 years!!!!

I must admit even I am impressed that John (76), Rodger(72), Jim (74) and Sarah (69 with a birthday next month) blasted though this ride.  Give me hope that I myself will be riding (and skiing) for at least another 10 years. Quite remarkable when I think back to what our parents did when they were in the mid 60's.  And hopefully our kids will even be better as they age.

So tomorrow we head to Costa Mesa on our last ride.  I think it is about a 40 mile ride - so we should get to the hotel fairly early.   Hopefully I can get in one more blog entry.

Slovang to Oxnard - 80 miles

Our last "hard" day of riding started off with heavy fog and 20 miles of climbing.  We were on Route 154 and there was literally no shoulder.  Cars were zooming by at 60-65 and I was pretty freaked out.  Last night at our daily briefing they said they were going to try to find a way around 154 - but were unsuccessful in re-routing us.

Had they told us that the the road was as dangerous as it was - I would have asked to ride in the van.  I kept looking for the support van but it did not pass me until mile 15 (and by that time I was off Route 154).  Just was not safe.

When we exited Route 154 we got on Stagecoach Rd.  This originally was the main road between Solvang and Santa Barbara.  Not really sure how the heck horses ever pulled a stagecoach up this hill.  About 1/2 way up I was able to take a photo of the bridge on the road they built to "replace" the stagecoach trail.

As we climbed I was able to get under the bridge and take a shot directly underneath.  Should give you a feel for how high it was above me.  Just after the bridge there are a bunch of white crosses.  I asked the tour director what they were for and he said "jumpers".  It appears the bridge is a popular place to kill yourself.  I think the Golden Gate is a better place to do it - much softer landing.

We kept climbing until we were just above the bridge.  If you look in the second photo you can see the road we climbed up (just below the left side of the bridge) to get to this point.   Thank god this is supposedly our last big hill of the ride!

The downhill was pretty cool. When we started down we got our first view of Santa Barbara and the Pacific Ocean.  It was pretty hazy so my pictures are not very clear..  

We passed through Santa Barbara and then got onto a bike path that took us parallel to Route 101 heading to Ventura.  All along the road there are RV's.  Must have been at least two miles maybe three miles of RV's jammed together on the road.  And these were not your "cheap" RV's.  Big bucks.    

We rode right next to the ocean and saw surfers and bathers.  Hard to believe it is October.

The ride ended in Oxnard.  We did not get to ride next to the Ocean in Oxnard as it appears to have a lot of oil facilities along the water.  The town itself is pretty rough as well.  The hotel is fine but I doubt I would say to Cathryn.  "Hey, I have an idea - let's go to Oxnard for the weekend".

Two more days of riding.  Tomorrow we pass Venice Beach and end up in Marina Del Ray.  Weather forecaster is calling for rain which will be a bummer as there is nothing like people watching  in Venice.

Santa Maria to Solvang - 40 miles flew by

Today was the perfect day.

 A 40 mile ride with a couple of hills but mostly through the flat agricultural regions dotted with hills loaded with vineyards and wineries.   We had a 15 mph tail wind which really helped on the ride.

Again the valley is brown, brown brown.  Jim who lives in the area said he has never seen this valley so brown.  While we started out at 9 am, midway through the ride the temps started hitting the mid 80's.  Close to 90 by end of the day.

We needed water - thank god for the sag stop in front of one of the local wineries!!

We have probably rode past a zillion wineries and as I mentioned before,  I have never every seen one of these wines in our local stores.  But we took a left onto Chalk Hill Road and I am a super fan of the Chalk Hill Chardonnay.   So was stoked to see the winery - but never found it.

Also on Chalk Hill Rd was a nursery that also created a bunch of animal scrubs.  Someone must have to come out and water them - else they would perish in this heat.

Had a couple of great downhills and arrived in Solvang which appears to be a Danish town in the middle of nowhere.  Some Danes founded the town in the early 1900's and tried to recreate their home land.  They must have quickly imposed a strict building code - as ever building looks like it could be in the middle of Denmark.  Lots of fake windmills.  Even our Holiday Inn looks like its from Europe.

It's Friday (I think) so there is a lot of traffic and the streets are filled with tourists (I guess I am one).  There are a bunch of wine tasting rooms and a brewery.

Decided I would start at the Brewery and then branch out to the Wineries.  All about the replenishment of your body fluids!  Pretty good beer - except they got a little cute calling them by Danish names (Danes Indian Pale Ale).  But pretty good beer in any case.

Rodger from Pittsburgh, found a two for one coupon for one of the wine tasting rooms in the hotel lobby and went there by himself.  He handed them the coupon and told them to pour two tastings of each wine for himself.  Ended up getting 10 tastings of the 5 wines.  Pretty smart - will need to think of this next time in Napa.

Made a mistake of eating at the place the tour provided.  It was supposed to be a Danish smorgasbord so I was curious to go check it out.  Ended up being really bad.  Not even the jello tasted any good.  The joke of the night was that even Ikea makes better Swedish Meatballs and the Danes should stick to cheese.  

Mark (retired baby doctor from England) and I decided to head back to the brewery as it was only 6:30 after dinner.  We grabbed a table outdoors and enjoyed the night (temperature drops immediately as soon as the sun goes down) with a pre-bed brew.

Tomorrow we have out last long ride with hills (84 miles).  I hope we head out before the heat hits as this will make the day a challenge.  The the last couple of weeks we have had a rest day every Saturday - but we are pressing on to the finish.  Nine days of heavy riding without a break is pretty hard.

Got to grind it out tomorrow!!  On to Oxnard wherever this is.

Paso Robles to Santa Maria - 82 miles

Today was advertised as a light climbing day and everybody agreed (accept me).  With 5 days of long rides and heavy duty climbing my legs are shot.  So even though we only did about 3200 feet of climbing - it was a tough day.  Thankfully all the climbs came during the first third of the ride.

The day started off raining and cold (was supposed to be warm and dry at the start).  I must have changed my clothes about 5 times before the start of the ride trying to figure out what to wear.  Should I dress for the later part of the day when it was expected to be 85?  Or should I wear my rain gear and suffer later in the day?

In the end I picked a middle ground and decided on vest and arm warmers which I could dump at the first sag stop. Proved to be the right decision as it stopped raining about 20 minutes into the ride with the sun coming out and the temperature quickly rising.

The first part of the ride we went parallel to Route 101 which by now has been transformed from a two lane road that we rode in Oregon to a super highway in California (which I pray we don't have to get on again). When I passed the sign heading into San Francisco we were able to ride on the road - now? not sure if this is even possible.

On the top of the first hill we climbed, we passed another reservoir with its water level again down dramatically.   Check out the distance from the top of the dam to the water level in the second and third shots.  Egad.

Good thing about climbing the hill above the reservoir is that we got a fantastic downhill.  I hit 40 mph on a couple of sections of the road with a bunch of the ride trucking down over 35 mph.    It was scary on a couple of the turns but I was determined to coast as far as I could and actually made it over a couple of uphills without pedaling.  But damn 40 is pretty fast!!!

We finally got out of the hills and back to the ocean in a little town called Marrow Bay.  There is this huge rock sitting just off the coast.  

We did have another smaller climb after Marrow Bay but we had at least a 15 mph tailwind so it made the rest of the ride easier for sure.  Passed lots of strawberry plants and some wineries.  Mostly strawberries.

There was a lot of glass on the road so a bunch of people got flats today.  Couple of riders had 2 flats.

I was pretty lucky until I pulled into the hotel in Santa Maria when my rear tire blew.   If there is ever a time to get a flat - it's in front of the hotel versus in the middle of a really dirty road next to a strawberry field with 80 plus temperatures and no shade.

There are 4 days left of riding with one more 80 mile plus day.  Tomorrow we are heading to Solvang CA and the ride is only 40 miles long.  Given the short distance, lots of us believe that there must be some monster climb that they are not telling us about.

In any case we should be there by lunch - which should be fun as there are supposedly a bunch of wineries that we can visit in the town once we dump our bikes at the hotel (and after we take a shower).

King City to Paso Robles Ca 62 miles

Last two days since leaving Carmel we have been in the mountains.  Lots of climbing and lots of heat.  Not sure why we came this way as we are missing some of the best California coast line leaving Carmel on Route 1.

Best I can figure it is the people who designed the ride want to have you do at least 4000 feet of climbing each day.    This was probably a good idea when the demographic of the average rider was 40-50.  But most people are on this ride are retired and well past this targeted age (who else can take off 30 days to do a ride like this when you count travel to and from the ride).

Given the fact that ridership is down for the last couple of days it would probably make sense for the owner to re-evaluate his route.  I have been told he is not involved in the riding aspect of the company so it is doubtful this will happen.  Sure sign of a failing company.  Sent him an email once asking if he was interested in selling the company - and didn't even have the courtesy of sending me a reply.

I am one of the slowest riders here.  I do finish before most people but that is because I don't spend much time at the rest stops or stop for lunch.  To be honest with you, if i did make stops, I would probably not be able to start pedaling again.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the ride - just wish we had better views along the coast.  And the ride focused on the views and not the hills.

Today we stated out at about 64 degrees (first time in the 60's at ride start since we started).  Bytoday  the end of the ride we were in the high 80's.  They say we lucked out as generally tops 100 degrees on this portion of the ride.

The climbs were generally 1-3 miles in length (linked together so it was really a 6-8 mile climb).  In many cases the slope was above 10 degrees (above 10 is when you get out of the saddle and push as hard as you can on your pedals).

this is me in pain....

Not a lot of of photo opportunities today.  It was all hills and valleys of brown, dead grass.  I took the following photo from the top of one of the climbs.  Not sure the photo does the length and steepness of the hill justice..

The climb was to a man-made lake called Nacimiento Lake.  Before the drought it was a popular place for camping and boating.  The lake has to be down at least 40 feet and it appears to be on it's last legs.   In the following photo you can see the boar docks in the middle of the water - and to the left on the hill you can see the regular parking lot and boat launch (the black part above all the dirt).    The owner of the boat docks keeps moving them more and more to stay in the water (they generally are up near the parking lot).

All the businesses in the area are closed.  No campers - nor revenue!  There was a place where we were supposed to stop and get refreshments - but it is out of business.  So luckily the support van stopped and refreshed our water bottles.  

By this time it was getting hot and it was time to bear down and focus on getting in for the day.  We had about 20 miles to go from the lake to the town and I surprised myself by getting there in fairly good shape.   I stopped and downed an energy gel shot and some water and this seem to give me the extra gas I needed to get into town.

Tried to check into my room but they told me it was going to be a couple of hours before my room was ready - and god did I need a shower!  Also needed to do some laundry - so I stripped down in the lobby men's room  into my bathing suit and headed to the washer/drier.  Didn't care what the other hotel guests thought - man I must have smelled!

Finally got in my hotel room and my laundry is done.  Should have enough clean riding gear to finish the ride (5 more days).  The hotel (Holiday Inn Express) is giving us a wine and cheese party tonight - first time on the trip.

Not sure were we are headed tomorrow (think we hare heading to the town where Charles Mason is being held in prison).   Maybe he will see me pass his suite/cell.

I have been told it is our longest day (85 plus miles).  Hope like hell it is flat but somehow I doubt it.

Check in with you tomorrow.

Carmel Valley to King City 56 miles of pain

Good news of the day is we had a great 20 mile downhill - screaming all the way down.  The bad news is to get there we had to climb up the first 20 miles.  Wow.  Probably one of the hardest climbs I have ever had to do (next to the climb up to Jackson Hole).

Not only was it steep, but there were zillions of gnats buzzing around your face.  They went away when you got over 9 miles an hour - unfortunately on the climb I was lucky if I could get up to 5 mph.   Must have eaten at least a dozen of these little buggers.

The hill went on and on...

At about the 12 mile mark (which was the steepest part of the climb) Jim from Santa Barbara passed me and asked me "mike, do you spend any time volunteering"?  I could barely breath never the mind talk.   Just gasped at him as he passed me.

Not sure I would call this luck but the week before this road had been shut down due to a California wild fire.  It torched a bunch of the hills and had we been there 2-3 days earlier we would have had to shuttle around the fire ( damn).  There were still fire trucks patrolling the area and the air smelled like an old fire.

The crew meet us at the top so we could top off our water bottles.  It was impossible to stay there with all the flies.  Barb who is in charge of these stops was even wearing a hat that had bug netting over her face.

Grabbed my water and proceeded to fly down the hill.  As noted before it was lots of fun.  20 miles of not pedaling.

when we reached the valley floor I thought we would be able to cruise the last 35 miles into town.  But as soon as we turned onto the next road we encountered a headwind that cut down our speed.  Had some more hills as we passed miles upon miles of grape vines and vineyards.

When we reached the next town (greenfield) it was pretty flat and the agriculture changed again - back to lettuce and other similar veggies.    Not sure where they are getting the water from to run their sprinklers - because every river we went by was bone dry.

We reached King City by 2 pm and we have been advised to be careful.  Leaving my wallet and phone in the room buy got to head over to the gas station to get a beer.    Deserve this one!!