October 17, 2022
Day 38 - Malibu to Seal Beach
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Greeted by a bright blue sky and sunshine in the morning, I felt like I was finally in Southern California and looked forward to a pleasant day of riding. I had leftover Chicken Marsala for breakfast, which was surprisingly good, and was on my way by 8:00 AM, braking carefully down the steep driveway so as not to emerge onto the street in front of a car. That would not be a good way to start!
The hill out of town wasn't particularly steep, but steep enough for my unwarmed-up legs. Partway up, I stopped for a final view Malibu Beach.
The route followed Hwy 1 for a little over 16 miles — and I would say this was some the most stressful mileage of the entire trip so far, traffic wise. Traffic was thick with cars and trucks and RVs, and all along the four-lane highway (two lanes each way), parked cars and RVs blocked the bike lane, particularly along the beaches. The vehicles were parked at all angles, with surfers moving in and out among them. I was riding defensively, constantly on high alert, my eyes shifting from the parked cars to my rearview mirror and the road. I never knew when a car door would open, or someone would pull out of a driveway or parking spot, or a surfboard would suddenly poke out between two cars, or a pedestrian would run across the highway to the beach. If I tried to stay on or close to the bike lane, cars passed too close, forcing me toward the parked cars and those dangerous doors. My safest course of action — which I adopted fairly quickly — was to claim the right lane and let the traffic shift around me into the left lane.
I expected to hear from some unhappy drivers (horns or getting yelled at), but people seemed to understand and just went around. And I felt much safer. (Of course I did move back into the bike lane when it was clear.)
Still, it was a huge relief when I reached the Palisades, and the route shifted off the Highway and onto a bicycle path that would take me along the famous beaches of Santa Monica and Venice.
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A couple of miles later, I was at the Santa Monica pier. Though a California native and having been in Southern California many times in my life, I had never actually been on the pier before, so of course I had to check it out.
At 10 AM on a Monday, the only people milling about were vendors setting up their carts and store and restaurant owners preparing for their day. Most of the shops were closed, but I did find an ice cream shop. And why not?
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After enjoying my ice cream and the sun for a bit, I continued on my way through Venice Beach, which was pretty much empty except for a few homeless people here and there, a few tourists, cyclists and people out for their morning run.
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The path jogged to the left and around Marina del Rey, which was really quite pretty, before going back to the beach again.
By this time, the paths were much busier. Lots of tourists and locals were out enjoying the great weather. And I was getting hungry. The night before, I'd done a little research and decided to check out Good Stuff, one of the many restaurants that line the trail at Hermosa Beach and which serves breakfast all day (I had been missing a cooked breakfast). I ordered a breakfast burrito with fruit on the side and, though I intended to eat only half and save the rest for later, it tasted so good I ate the entire thing.
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At around mile 38, the path ended and the route turned inland, taking me into and through the west side of Los Angeles. This, again, was a very stressful part of the route — navigating city streets with lots of traffic and bike lanes that came and went without any apparent logic. I'd be riding along in a bike path when it would just randomly disappear, sometimes in the middle of a block, and there would be a "Share the Road" sign, which drivers tend to ignore.
Again, in these situations, I took the middle of the right lane and let traffic shift around me to the other lane, rather than get too close to the parked cars or weave in and out of traffic. Every once in a while a bike lane would merge onto a sidewalk for a while and then later dump me back out onto the street again, which was confusing. Thank goodness for my GPS!
Finally, the route turned on the bike path that followed the edge of the Los Angeles River — though I didn't know that's what it was at the time. It just looked like a wide, nearly dry concrete channel.
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Sadly, the path was lined for miles with homeless camps — tents and tarps and garbage and homeless people just everywhere. In fact, at one point, I had to stop because police cars and county dump trucks were blocking the way; they were clearing out one of the encampments. Two of the trucks were completely full, piled high with trash, and they'd hardly made a dent in the mountain of refuse left behind by the homeless group they'd cleared from the area. Police directed the trucks to move so that I and a couple of other cyclists could continue on our way. (I didn't take pictures of any of this because it all just felt so awful.)
The path led to Rainbow Harber, where the Aquarium and the Long Beach Convention Center are located. This is also where you can catch a boat to Catalina Island.
From here, I could see the RMS Queen Mary, stationed on the other side of the river.
From here, it was less than 10 miles to my destination at — you guessed it — another Motel 6. But hey, the price was right, and it was fairly close to where the tour group at the Seal Beach Campground.
All in all, except for the sadness of seeing so many homeless encampments, a lovely day and ride.
Today's ride: 64 miles (103 km)
Total: 1,606 miles (2,585 km)
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