anonymous www shnarf

through my own lens

then, the other day, i was looking at my route on a map and noticed that i had unknowingly pedaled through a place called duncan’s cove in somona county, california. i remember thinking the area reminded me of a favourite spot in nova scotia, also named duncan’s cove. i looked it up online and found this photo:

as wikipedia sees it

then on my apple break

pretty neat, eh?

i have to say, i was a tiny bit disappointed i didn’t have the time to bike all the way through los angeles and then down to san diego. but i won’t lose any sleep over it. i really just wanted to see santa monica and some of the other areas where a lot of my skateboarding heros had their starts. los angeles wasn’t very interesting by the looks of it from my train window. we rode right by the big concrete water ditch that you see in all the hollywood car chases and that was cool.

work associates peter and rachel picked me up at the oceanside train stop and we went straight to a restaurant on the beach for a few drinks in the blazing sun. afterwards, we ended up at a new california-style sushi restaurant for a feast of fish. i couldn’t believe how good it all tasted – clams and mussels in a delicious broth to start, followed by a giant ono roll, some sea bass that tasted like candy and then a pile of other fish. i was very impressed.

the next two days i spent working and hanging out at peter and rachel’s house in the carlsbad hills. they have just under 1000 palm trees growing on their property, a small vineyard and a bunch of other stuff growing all over the place. it hadn’t rained for over 6 months. it rained on tuesday and the santa ana winds blew on wednesday so my hopes of lying on the beach and swimming in the ocean didn’t come to fruition. oh well, i was so keen to get back home to canada that i didn’t mind. we watched some incredible kite surfers carving fast and getting humongous air at one of the beaches but it wasn’t warm enough to get in the water without a wetsuit. we played that wii video game thing with peter’s son thomas. he and i had karate matches and played baseball in the backyard. thomas even brought me over to the neighbours’ mini skateboard ramp for a few turns.

and that’s it for the bike trip, folks. i’m excited to fly home on thursday to see my people and stay put for a while. no more pedaling and cursing uphill, no more navigating through anymore unknown towns or cities, or finding grocery stores or internet cafes or skateparks or motels or campsites before sundown, no more logging trucks and massive rv’s towing suv’s behind them, no more having to find a wall or pole to lean my bike up against or balance my bike and trailer on their own when i stop to grab a map or a snack out of my daypack, or pulling my laptop out of the bottom of my trailer bag, or hanging my tent up to dry the dew off, or wearing the same limited amount of clothes every day (especially bike shorts and stinky socks!), no more sleeping on a skimpy 3/4 length thermarest mat, no more awesome knee/thigh tan! no more any of that stuff!! i’m done with it. i got my fill of amazing coastline and countryside, sunsets, skateparks, cool and crazy people, fun cities. it’s all mapped out in this blog. and now no more blogging for me either!!!

before i go, i just want to add that this trip turned out to be such a success that i would recommend it to everyone. i really didn’t plan very much in advance, just had to get the gear together and make my way to vancouver and then i was off to the races. i don’t think i’ve ever experienced such freedom and constant spontaneity. it leaves me with a sense that anything is possible.  you just have to do it!

ok, later. see you when i see you.

the signs tell all

ready to ship

socal evening sky

west coast mussels and clams

thomas on the ramp

peter's backyard

innit this perdy?

windy

fly, fly away

it seems to be lighter earlier in the morning so i was able to get onto the road at 7. biking up to cambria, a car pulled up in front of me. it turned out to be kristen’s mom who was up for her morning beach walk and knew that i might be biking through that morning. it was really sweet to see her even just briefly on the road.

i enjoyed the lack of traffic and the mellow terrain, such a welcome change from all the hill climbing. it looked like the perfect place to go horseback riding. quite serene.

pedaled through cayucas, a cute little surf town and then into morro bay. i made it to the state park there which was right on the beach. i’m guessing a lot of the bikers i saw on the road yesterday pushed on to this spot to spend the night. if there were more hours in the day, i probably would have done the same. i laid out all my gear and clothes to dry in the hot sun while i went for a quick dip in the ocean. lots of folk surfing as per usual in these parts.

on the way to the neighbouring town of los osos, i detoured into baywood park to discover octoberfest in full swing in the town center. stopped for a sausage with kraut, a hefe and a little oom pah pah. lots of cool vintage cars on display as well.

los osos was close and the park was easy to find. i suited up (i’m mastering the art of changing clothes in public) and went to the park only to be denied at the gate by not one but two guards for not having knee and elbo pads. what blasphemy is this? i explained to the two that i had just biked all the way from canada and skated 25 parks, none of them had these pad rules and nearly all of them were 10 times gnarlier than this park. no dice though, they wouldn’t let me skate it. i didn’t argue with them. i looked at the park, it had no deep end, no fullpipe, no pool, no feature that looked particularly interesting so i gave up on it. didn’t even bother photographing it. lost osos doesn’t need to worry about me suing them if i hurt myself in their mediocre skatepark because it’s never going to happen!

i was able to shnarf free wifi from the library next door even though it was closed for sunday. i chose a route for the day that avoided the upcoming freeway section and hugged the ocean all the way to pismo beach.

do not trust google maps!! i biked up toward the montana de oro state park, more painful uphill, and i got denied once again by two park attendants. the route i chose on google is not a road but a foot path and no bikes are allowed. ugh!!! i had to bike back down to los osos for a total of 14 miles of misdirected pedaling! it was a beautiful area up there but man i was not overly ecstatic for going that far out of the way, especially with all the hills. it’s my last day so i chose to grin and bear it.

on the way out of los osos, i stopped at starbucks for some internet. they don’t give it out for free, not even for customers. you need to open an account with them. how many great little local cafes have i been to on this trip where wireless is readily available for free? another reason for me to avoid that dump.

the 1 was pretty tame until san luis obispo where it merged with the 101. i pulled over at a burger king to chow down and score free wifi. turns out, burger king is cooler than starbucks. luckily, i only had another 15 miles to travel to pismo beach on the freeway and it was an easy stretch. there was another skatepark in the area that i wanted to stop by but after checking online, i discovered that it has the full pads rule too. no skating today, folks.

when i arrived at the state park in pismo beach, the sun was shining bright and palm trees were everywhere in sight. no more hiker/biker campsite though. the attendant informed me that all the homeless people have been a problem at the park and they had to discontinue the hiker/biker site. way to treat your own, america!

these are all signs that it’s time to hang up the bike and get on a train. lame skatepark rules, freeways everywhere, no more hiker/bikers. i’m done, but i feel good about it.

i celebrated with a swim in the ocean just before the sun went down. it was nice to see people riding horses up and down the beach. rather than pay $25 for a campsite, i found a $45 motel. i came close to eating at what looked like a great bbq spot but they closed just as i walked in. i settled with a fish burrito and root beer at one of the only places still open.

fish burrito

i stopped at noon at this little spot on the road that had a grocery and a restaurant. was able to get online out in the driveway. as soon as i sat down, a bike tour group started arriving one by one on their tandems (they were with a van, they weren’t carrying any gear), and then a group of harley davidson riders showed up and the place turned into mayhem. a bunch of other bike tourers showed up as well. met a fellow canadian from montreal who was doing a similar trip to mine but was forced to train through most of oregon because of heavy rain. makes me feel lucky that i scored such stellar weather almost all the way down. saw some other bikers that i had run into throughout this trip at this little spot, including john the englishman i met up in bay center washington. he was bearded and sunburnt.

i set off with everyone but hung back to take photos and lost them all. generally, when there are a lot of uphill climbs, i have trouble keeping up with bikers with panniers. it doesn’t bother me though, when i’m biking through terrain like this, i like to absorb it as i go and take my time. an hour or two later, i found a cliff overhead a beach lagoon to sit and eat some lunch as well as dry my tent off. dew is a daily occurrence.

i didn’t find the roads to be too treacherous. at this point, i’m used to the tight curvy roads with no shoulder. the traffic was completely absent in the morning which was a real treat but into the afternoon, the saturday drivers were coming through. the groups of loud motorcycles flying by were annoying and so was the convoy of 20 mini coopers but other than that, traffic wasn’t bad at all.

toward mid to late afternoon, i was feeling pretty tired of all the hill climbing. if donny pardell had showed up in his triumph convertable, i would have gladly ditched my bike and trailer to go with him the rest of the way. i could feel my body getting worn out. with the help of the contour map i drew out in my little notebook, i could see that there was only one more big climb followed by a massive downhill. the downhills always make up for all the climbing. for this last descent, i tied my camera to the handlebars with a shoelace and filmed all the way down. i think i have at least 11 minutes of continuous curvy downhill riding recorded. not as crazy as the downhills up at the start of highway 1 but close, and definitely more spectacular because of the view.

after that last hill, the terrain really mellowed out and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. i got myself a second wind and picked up the pace quite a bit. passed a bunch of beaches that were packed with sea lions (* actually, they were elephant seals). they’re loud! the noise they make sounds like monsters from star wars. the males were duking it out, slapping their bodies into eachother, chin to chin. further down the way, i stopped to watch a crew of kite surfers tearing it up. they were flying across the bay back and forth at high speed. i would love to try this sport some day soon.

then i biked by the mountains where the massive hearst castle is located. william randolph wearst was a newspaper tycoon and was the inspiration for citizen kane. it was too far off the road for me to go up for a closer look. i wasn’t about to take on any other hills today.

i had a potential place to stay in cambria, the hometown of my dear californian friend kristen. i was exhausted at that point and when i came to the san simeon campsite, i opted to stay there instead. i would be crashing early and heading out early in the morning, so it just seemed easier to sleep in the tent. ate a well deserved burger and chocolate sunday for dinner at a nearby restaurant.

the henry miller library in big sur

the conditions are favourable

nonstop pretty

seriously

remember, stay in your lane

showdown

these guys are having fun guaranteed

my legs are ready to retire

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fri oct 23 – to avoid the freeway, i followed ruth and rodney on a series of side roads for a good 10 or 15 miles. we passed through endless farmland, immigrant farmers, pesticides pulsating. i stopped in moss landing for a bacon and egg sandwich and to log in. always appreciate the free internet. it’s a pain pulling the laptop out from under all the stuff in my bag but it certainly comes in handy on the road..

continued on highway 1 with all it’s traffic then turned off around marina to try to find their skatepark. there was a bike path that i had heard about that made it easy. the skatepark consisted of a pool and streetcourse. i wasn’t planning on spending too much time here so i skated the pool. the shallow end was a bit deeper then most i’ve skated so far, around 4 or 5 feet and i felt comfortable dropping in. i’m getting used to the vert and pools are starting to make more sense to me but i definitely need to spend more time skating them.

the bike path took me all the way to monterey which was nice. i climbed over some sand dunes to dip my feet in the ocean. it was surprisingly warm so i went for a swim. the waves were crashing pretty hard and there was a heavy undercurrent so i was careful not to be swept out to sea. i got sand/pebbles all up in my bike shorts but the salt water felt so good.

didn’t spend any time in monterey. had to climb a big hill to get back onto the freeway and the traffic was heinous. it put me in a bitter mood for a short while until the traffic waned off and the 1 shrank down to one lane again. i stopped at one more beach to jump into the ocean. it was too irresistible.

the road quieted down to hardly any traffic at all, back to the highway 1 i fell in love with north of san francisco. it’s amazing how much nicer the riding is when there are no cars and trucks constantly zooming by. goes without saying. from the looks of it, i was getting closer to big sur and the curvy cliffside road.

the days are getting shorter and that makes it hard to squeeze everything in and make camp before sunset. once again, that last hour of riding was trying on me, not knowing how close the campsite was. it always turns up and i’m always filled with relief.

the andrew molera state park did not have a hiker/biker site but i stayed anyway. it was a hike-in site and had the feel of a bigger, more spread out hiker/biker. i ate up my food and drank my chocolate milk, a little end of day treat taught to me by my bike tour guru brian. then straight to sleep in my tent.

been noticing this bike lane art ever since san francisco

marina skatepark, #25!!

you guys mind if i take a dip?

eyeing the transitions

harshing my vibe

time for another swim

that's more like it

ok

yes

and yes

and hurry up

thur oct 22 – in the morning i spoke with some of the other hiker bikers. an english couple who had biked the west side of the olympic peninsula like i did, and camped at mora. and there was a gentleman who was soon ending his trip, flying back to denver, he offered me all his little condiment packets. thanks!

the fog was thick lingering over the coastline all the way to santa cruz. i’ve driven this stretch a few times when my friend kyle lived in down there so i wasn’t too disappointed to be missing the view. the wind must have been at my back because i flew 50 miles in 3 and half hours. hoist the spinnaker!

the fog broke and the sun shined bright and hot. i stopped just outside santa cruz near what looked like a community garden to dry out my tent. biked in along the waterfront to see hordes of surfers surfing and folk moseying the boardwalk. i stopped at the first taqueria i saw and chowed on a massive burrito.

the skatepark was around the corner and across the river. i spotted the fullpipe that is shaped like a wave barrel. there was a pool, a street course, a mini bowl with a big slanted wall, and then the big bowl area with the concrete green room. the transitions were around 9 feet, pool coping is the norm down here. i eased into the big bowl and found lines pretty easily. the most fun part was squeezing in back to back kickturns going through the fullpipe. it felt like surfing. i met one of the locals, stephen, a painter, shot the breeze with him about my trip. skaters are generally stoked to hear about it. i try to impart with the message that it’s doable and highly worth it.

on the way out of town, i hit up the grocery store for grub. i’ll say it again: california is expensive. and the grocery stores haven’t been consistently making the fried chicken that i’ve become addicted to.

camped at new brighton, just below town. met the english couple again, ruth and rodney, both engineers, currently traveling for the last 2 years. rodney broke a spoke just outside gold beach too. those english campers always have tents with invisible cords stretched out around them and i trip on them every time. they were following the same bike tour book as everyone else, i borrowed it to take photos of the road profiles of the next few days worth of riding. big hills on the way.

the crescent moon turned bright red before dipping down into the fog. goodnight.

foggy fog

but not in santa cruz!

no kooks!

surfing to town

summer still going strong

getting my fill

santa cruz surf city skatepark, #24

city folk

hills to come

just after 11, the mcgrails drove me out to golden gate bridge and i said my goodbye, biking west toward the ocean. i wasn’t overly enthusiastic to be on the road again, much less to be lugging my heavy trailer. when i got to highway 1 just south of ocean beach, the signs said bicycles prohibited! what the?!! the 1 a freeway?? what did my fellow bikers tour books have to say about that? i was not happy about the traffic but i went for it anyway. luckily it returned to a normal highway just a few miles down the road but man that was a bit of a slap in the face.

i stopped in pacifica to grab some lunch and skate the park there. 3 various shaped and sized bowls to chose from. i mostly stuck to the big one on the side with the vert channel and big cradle. i still didn’t feel much like skating but toughed it out anyway because the park looked fun. i did end up having fun and that’s what it’s all about. i probably left before an hour passed.

tonight’s stop was half moon bay, around 30 miles south of san francisco, so not a big day. i can’t say that i was too pleased with the road conditions coming down. lots of traffic and no shoulder. i’m glad to be back on the ocean but feeling a bit tired of the bike tour. hanging at ryan’s apartment really made me start missing my own little spot, and of course all my family and friends. i’m starting to really look forward to flying back home. that happens next thursday. anyway, i’ll be happy to get into my tent again tonight. this is still going to be a fun week. everyone rants and raves about big sur.

the mcgrails! (sans jeremy)

ry, rob and elvis see me off at the park

pacifica skatepark, #23

on the way down to half moon bay

the road wants to dive into the ocean

i went over to the skatepark for one last session but didn’t end up staying too long. some days i don’t always feel like skating and noticed that a few of the other skaters weren’t feeling it either. one of my favourite locals to watch was there and he slammed rolling into the bowl. he quickly got up and took a rebate, tore it up as usual and then left the park. me too.

biked a bit around town, hit up a few bike stores and then got back to the pad as ryan was whipping up a serious shepherds pie. he went off to the airport in a rental truck and was back shortly after with rob and kim. they were still on atlantic time but stayed up til 10 chatting away. we feasted and drank a few beer and laughed. rob and kim had a ton of questions for me about my trip and told a ton of stories about their adventures up on the eastern shore of nova scotia this summer.

getting organized

ryan informs me this sign is not very effective

no need to go to tijuana when you have the mission

aw, katie and her cute sign language (censored for grandmothers)

ryan cooked up some great thai vegetables and rice and we hung out once again listening to music at his place. i have to say, it’s been a real treat hanging out with him. i haven’t lived in the same city as he or his brother jeremy since 1995.

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