first draft of SF-LA bike trip report

1 files changed, 325 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/posts/bike-sf-la.md b/posts/bike-sf-la.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1307c3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posts/bike-sf-la.md
@@ -0,0 +1,325 @@
+Title: Trip Report: Biking SF to LA
+Author: bnewbold
+Date: 2019-04-14
+Tags: trip-report, biking
+
+To celebrate Lucy's successful completion of her Phd, and to see her off before
+she heads back to Seattle, we biked from San Francisco (well, Salinas) to Los
+Angeles at the end of March, 2019. It was glorious!
+
+<center>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00489.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00489.JPG" alt="DSC00489.JPG" title="DSC00489.JPG">
+</a>
+</center>
+
+<div class="sidebar">
+<img src="/static/fig/2019/perfect-machine-book.jpg" width="180px" alt="palomar telescope book"><br>
+I grew an interest in the Palomar 200-inch telescope after Casey and Christine
+took me up to peek through the Mt. Wilson 100-inch telescope, and then reading
+"The Perfect Machine" about the construction of Palomar in the 1930s/1940s.
+Will ride up there someday!
+</div>
+
+We followed the classic Pacific Cost route, which follows Highway 1 along the
+coast most of the way from Canada to Mexico. We've made the trip down the Santa
+Cruz several times, and in 2017 did a credit-card tour down to Big Sur
+during a period when the highway was washed out ([photos][early-trip] from that
+earlier trip).  Originally we were hoping to bike the entire way from San
+Francisco to San Diego, with a ride up Palomar Mountain along the way. The
+logistics were a little too tight for a one-week trip though, so we cheated and
+took Amtrak down and started riding in Salinas (about 20 miles from Monterey,
+skipping 130 miles of riding), and terminated in Los Angeles. The entire trip
+was about 380 miles and 22,000ft elevation gain, and we took 6 days to ride. We
+rode fully-loaded touring bikes (we both have Surly Long-Haul Truckers), and
+mixed camping with a couple nights in motels. [Lucy's write-up][lucy-writeup]
+has GPS tracks and a day-by-day breakdown of the route, and I have [more photos
+from this trip][more-photos].
+
+[early-trip]: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lucylw/33594712431/
+[lucy-writeup]: http://www.llwang.net/rb/2019/04/01/cycling-the-california-coast/
+[more-photos]: https://bnewbold.net/photos/2019/sfla/
+
+The Amtrak route from Oakland to Salinas goes past Moss Landing and the Elkhorn
+Slough, where I lived and worked (at MLML) in the [summer of
+2007][summer-2007]. The dunes, strawberry fields, and power plant towers always
+bring back strong memories of that time, but I wasn't sad to miss the dangerous
+Highway 1 intersections in that area. Living in this area with no car meant I
+spent a lot of time biking and riding the bus through the fields to
+Castroville, Salinas, and Monterey to satisfy my boredom and catch longer
+distance transit routes to visit friends in the Bay Area.
+
+[summer-2007]: https://bnewbold.net/photos/2007/california/
+
+After disembarking at the familiar sun-baked Salinas Amtrak station, we rode a
+short 20-something miles through a former military base until we hit the big
+dune bike paths on Monterey Bay and rolled into Monterey itself. It was nice to
+have a short first day to shake out any equipment issues and warm our legs up:
+both of us had done work on our bikes just before this trip, and we had to get
+used to such heavy loads.
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00476.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00476.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00476.JPG" title="DSC00476.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00486.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00486.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00476.JPG" title="DSC00476.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00489.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00489.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00476.JPG" title="DSC00476.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+The next day, the first day of real riding, is one of the most scenic stretches
+of the entire coast. We started with a detour along 17-mile drive around Carmel
+point, which despite the plutocratic estates and luxary golf courses is one of
+my favorite stretches of riding anywhere. We split a burrito near Pfeiffer
+Big Sur park and packed a second for the road; we ate that one right around the
+54 mile mark, which speaks to the precision of my "53 Miles Per Burrito"
+t-shirt.
+
+The entire stretch around Big Sur (from Carmel down to Moro Bay or so) is
+relatively isolated with few or no overland routes over the Coastal Range. The
+coast is rugged and hilly; the road is either a feat of engineering or a total
+boondogle, depending on how you look at it. There were a number of construction
+projects along the way, and the road washes out frequently. We were riding on a
+Sunday and Monday, and traffic was mild and considerate both days, with
+construction trailers in particular giving us wide bearth on the road. I was
+worried about lack of supplies or water, but there were more little ice cream
+shops and restaurants along this strip than I expected (though it didn't feel
+over-developed at all).
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00494.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00494.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00494.JPG" title="DSC00494.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00497.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00497.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00497.JPG" title="DSC00497.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00501.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00501.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00501.JPG" title="DSC00501.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+We stayed at our first hiker-biker campsite of the trip, and finally got
+to experience the joys of sharing a campsite with other long-distance riders.
+I've always been guilty of being a campground introvert and wishing I had more
+privacy and solitude in that weird American outdoors kind of way, but it turns
+out bike tourists are wonderful people and we share an obvious obsession with
+biking, an antipathy for cars that drive too close, and curiosity for
+side-adventures and secret tricks. After bonding with our camp-mates by biking
+back a couple miles to fetch potable water from another campground (ours had
+none!), we got lunch tips from two young women who used to live in the area,
+and checked out the Brompton being ridden by a Swiss gentleman (one half of a
+daughter/father pair).
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00504.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00504.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00504.JPG" title="DSC00504.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00515.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00515.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00515.JPG" title="DSC00515.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00517.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00517.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00517.JPG" title="DSC00517.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+After passing Hearst Castle, we started slowly re-entering denser civilization,
+passing the beach town of Cayucos and finally Moro Bay. I drove to Hearst
+Castle one many years ago with friends, but neither Lucy nor I had ever been
+south of there through LA. Moro bay was an unexcpected delight: the huge rock
+is surreal, like a fantasy novel, and the hiker-biker campsite in town was a
+delight, with hot showers and a generous area to ourselves under giant
+Eucalyptus.
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00546.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00546.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00546.JPG" title="DSC00546.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00580.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00580.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00580.JPG" title="DSC00580.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00563.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00563.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00563.JPG" title="DSC00563.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+It was amazing to perceive the climate and ecosystem change as we traveled
+south under our own power and realize we were traversing an entire bioregion.
+After the cool fog and redwoods of the Big Sur coast (North California by
+climate if not geography), we were well into the Central region at this point,
+and started seeing signs of Southern California.  The first oil derek I noticed
+was around Guadalupe, the in-town roads got wider, the RV parks larger and more
+frequent, and the palm trees seemed more and more believable. We didn't catch
+sight of any zebras around Hearst Castle, but we did pass an Ostrich farm
+closer to Santa Barbara (exotic animals: check). And we knew we'd finally
+arrived when the density of giant concrete flood control structures reached a
+cresendo.
+
+<div class="sidebar">
+<!-- annoying that I can't use markdown for this link -->
+The <a href="https://www.adventurecycling.org/routes-and-maps/adventure-cycling-route-network/pacific-coast/">Adventure Cycling Association</a> maps we used on this trip are
+great!  They can be read at a glance, are well partitioned, and cover in-city
+routes well. I find phones very distracting, and love being able to navigate by
+map and bike odometer instead.
+</div>
+
+<center>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/aca_map_morobay.jpg.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/aca_map_morobay.jpg" alt="aca_map_morobay.jpg" title="aca_map_morobay.jpg">
+</a>
+</center>
+
+The stretch from Moro Bay through San Louis Osbismo was mostly in-land. Parts
+felt just like Marin County, with rolling bare green hills; the ~20 miles
+section off Highway 1 just south of Moro Bay was especially nice. We had a
+quick stop in SLO to get a beer at Libertine Brewing, which somewhat symbolized
+that we were hitting a rythm on the road and didn't need to rush through every
+town. It would have been nice to stop longer at a few places: we were riding
+relatively early in the season, which meant the days were still short. On the
+flip side, traffic was less and it didn't get *too* hot (it was sunny and warm
+enough already on most of the climbs).
+
+The stretch from Guadalupe to Lompoc was industrial agriculture. The road got
+quite narrow at some points, which made managing bi-directional traffic of
+large trucks nerve-wracking. We also had our biggest stretch of proper freeway
+riding along 101 here, with some exciting exit by-passing at highway speeds. I
+also took us on a bad shortcut up a very steep (but short) hill on the section;
+sorry Lucy! Made it through alright, and there was a nice gentle hill just
+before Lompoc with almost no traffic. We met two German hippies there picking a
+wild camping site. They were biking south-to-north all the way to Vancouver,
+which is generally not advisable (north-to-south has a lot of advantages), but
+they had a lot of time and didn't want to be biking in the north in early
+Spring. It was fun to meet someone going the opposite direction, because we had
+a lot more advice and tips to trade; it was also weird to be able to give
+detailed advice about the Pacific Northwest, which they were months away from.
+
+We took an alternate route from Lompoc to Santa Barbara, via Solvang, which
+added elevation but skipped a long freeway stretch, which was the right
+decision. We had been worried about the rain forcast the entire trip, and we
+did get rained on a bit camping just outside Lompoc, but it was not much more
+than a drizzle and we were well prepared for riding in the rain. Solvang is a
+Disneyland-like replica Danish town, which reminded us of "Bavarian"
+Leavenworth, WA.
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00555.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00555.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00555.JPG" title="DSC00555.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00600.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00600.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00600.JPG" title="DSC00600.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00597.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00597.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00597.JPG" title="DSC00597.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+We saw beautiful flowers almost the entire trip, but they really took off here.
+Beautiful orange poppies (the state flower), bright neon purple ground flowers
+of some type, and whole hillsides quilted in different shades of yellow. The
+climb before Santa Barbara wasn't big by our usual road biking standards, and
+had a totally reasonable grade the whole way, but with our loads and in the dry
+heat it "got our attention". Didn't quite turn in to a grind though, and the
+decent down the back into SoCal proper was fast and fun.
+
+Neither of us had been to Santa Barbara before. It's a bit sprawling, but
+overall smaller and more luxary/high-end than I expected. The backing
+mountains, channel islands, and white-washed downtown were beautiful. The
+offshore oil rigs made me feel like we were in a whole different state or
+country, which we sort of were.
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00594.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00594.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00594.JPG" title="DSC00594.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00587.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00587.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00587.JPG" title="DSC00587.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00605.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00605.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00605.JPG" title="DSC00605.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+In retrospect, it's amazing how much ground we covered in the last day of
+riding, from Santa Barbara through Malibu to Los Angeles (odometer read over 90
+miles at the end of the day). Most of the riding was on 1 along the coast, but
+we also went through Ventura and Port Hueneme (a huge sprawling military
+installation). I got the only flat either of us experienced on the whole trip
+on this stretch.
+
+The last stretch through Maliby (starting around Point Dume until the Santa
+Monica bike path) was some of the tightest and least pleasant riding of the
+trip: fast, multi-lane commuter traffic, with waste bins and parked cars in the
+shoulder. We had a wonderful surprise when the daughter/father pair we met
+earlier spotted us and pulled over in a car to say hello. They had ended their
+ride in SLO and were going to explore LA before driving back to SF to catch
+return flights home; a crazy coincidence that we crossed paths on the last ~10
+miles or so of our ride. A nice flat, fast, flowery day overall though. It
+would be reasonable to cut the ride off at Santa Barbara (where there is an
+Amtrak station), but i'm glad we did the final stretch at least once.
+
+<center>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00608.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00608.JPG" alt="DSC00608.JPG" title="DSC00608.JPG">
+</a>
+</center>
+
+We pulled in to the Santa Monica bike path and got to the boardwalk and Venice
+Beach well before the sun came down. Lucy described the beach as feeling like
+the whole thing was fake and concrete underneath, which I think is funny and
+reasonably accurate, but I didn't mind it. The slow curves with lots of other
+scooters and weird bikes was a nice wind-down for the day. We looped around the
+Venice scene for a bit, and considered riding more through the city to our
+downtown motel, but changed our mind after just a few blocks. There was
+probably a decent bike path to follow, but after a long ride we can hit a wall
+very fast, and it's no fun weaving in traffic and getting lost when you're
+tired and hungry. We caught the actual sunset back on the beach just in time,
+then took light rail (which was great) from Santa Monica to Union Station
+downtown, where we stayed in a motel.
+
+<div>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00610.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00610.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00594.JPG" title="DSC00594.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00612.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00612.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00587.JPG" title="DSC00587.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00618.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00618.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00618.JPG" title="DSC00618.JPG">
+</a>
+</div>
+
+In the morning we walked through Chinatown, then spent the day visiting friends
+and their baby Yoshi. I'm already looking forward to visiting again, and maybe
+taking additional rides to Palomar, hikes in the San Gabriels, and exploring
+routes east to the desert and Arizona.
+
+The next day we boarded the Coast Starlight Amtrak from Union Station, loading
+our bikes and panniers on just in time. In addition to being the Kingdom of the
+Car, California has some of the best rail routes in the country, and Union
+Station is a grand and well-maintained monument to rail travel. It is so
+pleasant to be able to roll our bikes literally right on to the platform and
+just pass them up into the baggage car without disassembly or boxing. The rail
+tracks back paralleled our bike route about half the time, which was fun for
+remembering specific spots and stretches. The stretch north of Santa Barbara
+continues along the coast (where highway 1 is inland), so we got to see that,
+and we got to see a bunch of the Vandenberg air force base that we wouldn't
+have otherwise. I had assumed that the tracks would head up through the Central
+Valley further north, but they continue to wiggle around through the Coastal
+Range until popping out at Salinas. A pretty ride in the viewout lounge the
+whole 11 hours to Oakland.
+
+<center>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00536.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00536.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00536.JPG" title="DSC00536.JPG">
+</a>
+<a href="/photos/2019/sfla/DSC00641.JPG.html">
+  <img src="/static/fig/2019/DSC00641.thumb.JPG" alt="DSC00641.JPG" title="DSC00641.JPG">
+</a>
+</center>
+<div class="content_caption">
+A flip/flop photo of the same location: of a passing Amtrak train while eating
+lunch near Guadalupe, then from the train at our lunch spot while riding north.
+</div>
+