After double checking our route last night, it turned out that our trip would be closer to 170km rather than the original 140km we originally anticipated. This is officially the longest day of our trip. Luckily, Santa Barbara to LA is practically flat, other than some quick steep climbs around Malibu and right as you leave the coastline in LA.
Our hosts, Marianne and Lewis, made us a substantial breakfast before sending us off in mthe morning, knowing we had a long day ahead of us. They were both extremely kind and it was such a pleasure learning some valuable life lessons during our one night stay. Thanks again for everything!
The side streets out of Santa Barbara were pretty spectacular to cycle on. Lewis made a good point about the cycle infrastructure in the area, so we made sure to stick tight with Google’s suggestions to stay off the highway, mainly rerouting us to adjacent roads with bike lanes or a separate bike path all together. We were both at ease with the smooth cycle infrastructure connections, tailwinds, and ~20 degrees to carry us through to LA.
Sammy and I had planned to meet up in Oxnard, approximately 65km into the ride, but at some point mixed up a few turns and ended up crossing the town at different times into the early afternoon. We both found a coffee shop with wifi to reconnect, but didn’t manage rconnecting with each other until end of day. We were now both on our own, but felt very confident we would meet up at the final destination and celebrate the day.
Riding solo, we headed southeast (with the wind) for the majority of the day, and eventually made it into Malibu. We then proceeded to both search for the first exit off Highway 1, since it was becoming increasingly filled with aggressive drivers who didn’t seem to have much patience for cyclists.
It wasn’t much longer until the stretch of beach pathways began, allowing both of us to hop off the highway and wind our way through each beach on route to our final stop, near Manhattan Beach. The pathways were flooded with cyclists, scooter riders, tourists, other pedestrians making their way to or from the shoreline, you name it, so it was quite difficult to weave around everyone with still another 30km or so to go. With no other reasonable option, we both took the time to appreciate the Pacific as we started to realize our ride was quickly coming to an end.
Through Santa Monica, I quickly ran by the local REI to lock up some bike boxes for our flight out on Thursday, so now we at least have a way to get all of our gear back home safely!
With one final stretch of pathway, we strolled along the completely flat shoreline before pushing over one last 7% grade climb. And just like that, we’ve made it to our final stop! It’s kind of a surreal feeling to be done cycling for this trip, and it still hasn’t completely sunk in yet. It will be a challenge to switch from shovelling in about 6000 calories a day to the average daily intake, but maybe a bit of a relief to take a few steps back on cycling and all sorts of saddle soreness that come along with long distance riding. We’ve both lost a few pounds, but don’t imagine it taking much time to gain it all back, hopefully with some added muscle.
We have a kind host tonight, Sancith, who has already given us a bit of a tour around the Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach areas. We have some loose plans for tomorrow and Thursday before we fly back to Canada Thursday night.
Tomorrow, our final host is the webmaster of Warmshowers, the man who sends a welcome message when you sign on to the site. It’s sort of nice way to wrap up the trip, and bring everything in full circle. We’re both pretty excited to celebrate a bit of the 4th of July with him before we part ways towards the airport, and maybe we’ll even see fireworks from the airplane liftoff.
For those who are looking to tour by bike, we would definitely recommend touring bikes and camping gear if you’re looking to go at your own pace, but as we’ve offically proven, it IS possible to shave a lot more weight (and test your luck) with road bikes and without camping gear, although it’s hard to say whether we would have as few mechanical issues if we did this all again with the same setup.
It’s pretty safe to say we both gained a bit of wisdom and have a few key takeaways from cycling the Pacific Coast, and we hope that these eyeopening experiences are just a small sign for other unique life opportunities and adventures.
This is us logging off for now, but maybe not forever.
Final Count:
Bars devoured – 48
Bananas chomped – 58
Peanut butter wraps – 32
Arizona iced tea drained – 14L
Gallons of Gaterade – 8.5
Warmshower hosts – 17
Total ascent – 24,435m
Calories burned – 93,000
Total distance – 2530km
Top speed – 82.6kpr (Jordan)
Punctured tubes – 1
Longest distance without punctured road tube – 2492km
Longest distance without punctured Marathon turn – 2530km and counting
Pacific Coast Trail 