Tragic Accident of a Friend

AZ Daily Star article on my friend and colleague.

John "Jay" Beatty was a friend, fellow mtn bike enthusiast, and Outback Steakhouse colleague. I talked to him last Tuesday about the Old Fashion Bike Race, his move to NAU to attend as a freshman, and how he wanted to buy a road bike to do more commuting around town.

I will be training and doing races with a ribbon in his honor.

Please remember his family and friends in your prayers.

Catalina State Park Morning Ride

Total Mileage: 22 miles

I had a quick road ride today before the Mt Lemon Time Trial that is on Sunday. I met some triathletes (Leo and Tony) on the ride. I met them before I did Mountain Man in Flagstaff, so we had a little post-race discussion. Both were on tri bikes, going at it with a descent, tamed pace. I turned into Catalina State Park to see all the new green from the rain.

I am excited about the TT. I am hoping to finish in 1.5 hours even though Mike seems to think that I am going to be ahead of him. Tobi, Mike, Max and I are all doing the race.

Flyod Landis in the NY Times

Here is a very balanced article on Floyd Landis that was in today's newspaper NY Times

Tucson named No. 2 place for triathlete training

My brother sent me this link today from the Arizona Daily Star


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Triathlete Magazine has named the Old Pueblo the second-best location in the world for triathlon training.

The first was Hawaii. Falling behind Tucson were San Diego, Aukland, New Zealand and Clermont, Fla.

Triathlons include swimming, cycling and running.

Gates Pass and Mount Lemmon were mentioned in the article as particularly good places to work out.

The magazine also offered praise to the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau for its efforts to attract amateur athletes to the city.

“Perhaps the best part about Tucson is that the locals want you to come,” the article said, mentioning that the visitors bureau could help plan for large group trips.



For the entire article, click here

Day 1: San Diego-Dana Point

The pacific coast highway (PCH), a combination of US1 and US101, would easily find a spot at the top of the list of scenic drives in the United States. Starting somewhere between the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego in the south, the highway runs all the way upto about 40 km into the state of Washington in the north, bordering the pacific ocean over majority of its length.

The scenic drive starts off with a series of wonderful beaches in Southern California. La Jolla, Malibu, Santa Monica, Pismo, Santa Barbara, Venice to name a few are very easily accessible if not present right at the edge of the scenic drive. My friend kacy and I decided to tour the PCH from San Diego to Santa Barbara, roughly a 300-mile trip. The goal of the trip was to bike hundreds of miles, camp under the stars, and see the California coast, one bike mile at a time. Our return ticket would also be along the same coast, but on an Amtrak.

Day 1: San Diego-Dana Point
Total Mileage: 80 miles




After battling to get to San Diego on Sunday in Kacy's Volvo (radiator problems) and a broken chain on Sunday, we started out in San Diego with the intent of making some ground. Starting from the Volvo dealership in National City, we managed to make it to Campland of the Bay campground as a prologue to the start of the first day.
A picture of me testing out the rig and the BOB trailer across from the Volvo dealership


The campground was a little disappointing. At one point, our neighbors and us were counting how many domino's pizza deliver drivers came into the campground. We counted 4 before we headed to bed at about 9pm after chatting with our San Fran neighbors.

On Monday, we got up at 5:30am to get an early start. The route took us near La Jolla Bay before climbing up the most difficult hill of the trip next to UC San Diego. The bike paths in San Diego were amazing, especially around Mission and Ocean Beach. A typical bike path in San Diego



Outside of San Diego, I saw another tourer with a BOB trailer. That brings me to the debate of why I chose the BOB trailer instead of panniers. I figured that the BOB would allow me to hold more items and would be easier to use after the trip. It has paid off, especially with short jaunts to the store or to do errands.

Leaving the beaches, we headed to the Coast 101 Highway that had a very nice, big bike lane that went Leucadia, where we stopped at Mozy Cafe for some coffee and carrot juice at about 1030am. It was a nice, little, quaint place off the side of the highway.

Camp Pendleton was our next big stop. The base requires all cyclists to bring an ID, something I had realized that I left in the volvo. It was going to be a challenge to try to fanaggle our way past the guards instead of having to take the bus across the base. Since Interstate 5 is the only road the shoulders the coast, Pendleton is the only option for bike touring on the PCH. So while we were at the gate, the private was asking me why I did not have my ID. Some where in the conversation, I mentioned how I was trying to save weight by not carrying my library card, bus pass, etc in my wallet. Turns out I just took everything out of the wallet while I was getting ready in the parking lot next to the Volvo dealership. Yes, it was a dumb move, but luckily he let me on the base.

The ride within the base went without incident. At the checkout on the other side of the base, I snapped a few shots of Kacy before entering into our own bike highway on the side of Interstate 5. This "bike highway" continues on for a few miles. We saw tons of triathletes on this segment of the trip. The "bike highway" eventually crosses back under Interstate 5 with a tunnel. We stopped for a quick break here before continuing on.

At 4:00 we stopped at Capistrano Beach for a quick swim. Kacy near Capistrano Beach


I am trying to get accustomed to swimming in the ocean for triathlons and the La Jolla Open Water Race, so I did a quick 800 meters. Surprisingly, we there were just a handful of people on the beach. After about an hour of swimming and enjoying the water, we headed up to Uncle Manuel's house (about 5 minutes off the PCH). Uncle Manuel showed us a few photo albums of his touring in Germany. I did not know this, but Germany is one of the best countries in Europe to tour since it has so many bike paths across the country.

Outside Manuel's house, me and Kacy before starting off on Day 2 of our adventure

Day 2: Dana Point-Marina del Rey

Day 2: Dana Point-Marina del Rey
Total Mileage: 74 miles




I slept in until about 7am and had a nice cup of coffee out on the patio with Kacy's family. Their patio looks over Dana Point. Manuel rides his bike 2-3 times a week around Dana Point and swims on Mon, Wed, Friday with his wife Carol. We chatted a little bit about touring and the route that lay ahead of us. Although I have been biking for a number of years, this is my first tour trip. It was great to talk to someone that has been doing this for over a decade.
Bike path outside of Newport Beach


We left a little later than I had hoped. Manuel and Carol were so hospitable. As a parting gift, they wrapped up two pieces of chocolate cake and two forks for the trip. Since L.A. has few campgrounds, we planned to stay in a hostel in Santa Monica. Huntington beach was few hours away from Dana Point. Huntington and Redondo Beach had two of the best bike paths during the entire trip. Before reaching Huntington, we stopped in Newport Beach at the Harbor House Cafe for a some lunch. The turkey sandwich with spinach was amazing. At about 1pm, we passed through Huntington and pressed on to Long Beach.
Huntingon Beach


The hardest part of the trip was going through the refineries of L.A. to get to Palos Verdes. The small bike lane coupled with the 18 wheelers made of a little of an unpleasant biking experience. In addition, the view was less than appealing. We took some back roads to get off of the highway in and around Wilmington. At 330, we stopped at a gas station to refill on water and Kacy bought a GU packet. The high in L.A. was 107 degrees. The attendant in the gas station asked us if we were doing a competition. I guess we must have looked pretty official. He was a little surprised to see us and even more surprised about the entire trip.

A few minutes down the road, we took the bend into Redondo Beach. Redondo, Hermosa, and Manhattan Beach have some of the nicest bike paths and beaches. We stopped in El Segundo to call the hostel to inquire about reservations. One of the biggest challenges I had with pre-planning the trip is knowing how many miles we would do each day. I had a tentative plan, but I was unsure if we could meet each tentative mileage. It turned out that I underestimated most of the trip. There were no empty dorm rooms, we we decided to just get a hotel when we got to Santa Monica.

We got to Playa Vista and Marina del Rey at 5:00 pm and decided to get a hotel at the Jolly Roger Hotel. We sat in the jacuzzi for 15 minutes, showered, and went to eat at C & O Cucina, a semi-upscale Italian restaurant next door to the hotel. I tried an Italian beer, Dreher (owned by Heineken). Dinner was great and the beer was even better. Immediately after dinner, we headed to bed.

Day 3: Marina del Rey to McGrath State Park

Day 3: Marina del Rey to McGrath State Park (Ventura)
Total Mileage: 72 miles



We woke up at 630 am and headed off to the continental breakfast that the hotel offered. It was another treat that we had not expected (since we were planning to stay in the hostel). Like most continental breakfasts, it was lacking in food, but it did have waffles and muffins.

The next section of the PCH into Malibu runs along the cliffs of the sea. The route here runs on the PCH, rarely veering off into smaller bike paths along the beach. After the mountain section, Oxnard came into view early afternoon. Rows and rows of fruits and vegetables line the highway here.



We stopped to eat at Jersey Mike's Subs, a small little deli. The entire staff wanted to help us and asked tons of questions. Besides the common "How far are you going?" they also moved to the more philosophical, "what made you want to bike the PCH?" We decided to buy a "gigantic" sub to go for dinner.

I got a little of course in the outskirts of Oxnard. We ran into the 101 that does not allow bikes on, so we headed west toward the beach and McGrath State Park. As we were going west, the wind picked up to at least 20 mph. After about 1 hour of riding into the wind, we decided that we were going to stop at McGrath and check out their hike-n-bike facility. When we got to McGrath, we decided to call it a day instead of riding into Ventura. Here is the picture of the hike-n-bike campsite for $5/person.



We headed out to the beach for a quick swim. It was the perfect temperature to a long, hot ride. The only problem was the waves and riptide were strong.