Altitude Training Road Trip

If I haven’t mentioned it before, where we are located during the winter is actually below sea level.  With my altimeter app providing a reading of -72 feet at our house, we decided we needed to spend some time on our bikes at a bit higher altitude. Sandy booked us a couple of nights in a hotel, I booked Rockie into the Grand Paw Pet Resort, and off we went. En route to our destination, of course, we got hungry so we stopped off at Chipotle’s and enjoyed excellent build-your-own bowl lunches. These came, not only with napkins, but advice offering toothpicks.

We arrived too early for check-in so we went for a short walk about and found these pretty flowers which are in the African Daisy family.

Osteospermum:  aka Freeway Daisy or Blue-Eyed Beauty

Whenever I am on an adventure, I like to look for something interesting that I can take home. That usually means I pick up stones here and there that have interesting shapes, colours, or markings. Interestingly enough, my nephew Evan and his son Brenden have inherited this same trait. We make quite the trio and drive my poor sister-in-law, Lynn, nuts as she is often the recipient of the various collected items!  Here I am, taking a photo of my interesting collection of the day.

Kate collecting                                    Collection of the day

So, by now, you are probably wondering just where this altitude training camp was located. Well, we went all the way over to the coast, about two hours west of here, to a little place called Sunset Beach, right adjacent to Huntington Beach.  

 Arriving at our hotel, we had already gained 77 feet of altitude.😉

After we finally checked in at the hotel, we headed out on a short bike ride, mostly along the paved beach “boardwalk.”  The beach here is part of a continuous stretch of 11 miles of sandy beach with many beachside communities, including Newport Beach, Sunset Beach, Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, and Long Beach and probably more but I didn’t look them all up.  Part of the boardwalk we were on rose up to a bluff about 30 feet above the beach. In this section, there were lots of trees and grassy areas that were home to a zillion California ground squirrels. Compared to the Richardson’s ground squirrels (aka gophers) we have at home, these things are monsters! They are huge, weighing up to 3 pounds with bodies about 1 foot long and tails an additional 6 to 8 inches in length. They have extensive burrows, much evidenced but the ground being riddled with entrance holes.  They seem rather bold and this one just watched as I got closer and closer to take his picture. I love the trompe l’oeil this photo creates as one cannot appreciate the drop off from the bluff to the beach below making it appear as though the tent in the image belongs to the squirrel.  

California Ground Squirrel on a camping trip to the beach?

I am always on the look out for interesting signs and made Sandy pose by this one for obvious reasons.

We started out on this ride shortly after 4PM with Sandy thinking that if we timed our return just right, we would be able to watch the sun go down as we rode back along the beach to our hotel. Well, she called this one perfectly, and towards the end of our 40km ride, we stopped to take in the sunset.

 Sunset at Sunset Beach

Sandy watches as the sun sets right into the ocean

The next day, we headed out on our main ride of the trip.  From our hotel, we rode about 5km along the Pacific Cost Highway to Seal Beach where we got onto the San Gabriel River Bikeway. This is a paved two lane bike road, just bikes, no vehicles, which follows along the San Gabriel River as it flows between the base of the San Gabriel mountains and the ocean.

San Gabriel River channel to the left, huge greenhouse operation on the right

The river has been “channelized” for most of the portion that we rode, so  it was like riding along a cement canal. 

 A cyclist and his bike in the channel ... 🎵rollin' in the river🎵 

Pelicans on a pond to the side of the bikeway

We did eventually get to the natural portion of the river, however, that part of the river was dry at this time.  With the run-off from the spring melt in the San Gabriels expected in the next couple of weeks, the river should be flowing here soon.

A cowboy and his dogs in the river bed

The full length of the bikeway, as it connects the mountains to the ocean, is 38 miles.  Mile zero is posted at Seal Beach and that is where we got onto the bikeway.  We rode to mile 27 then turned back to Seal Beach.  We know exactly how far we rode along the bikeway as most of it is marked off at quarter mile increments with markings such as “mile 7.25 of the San Gabriel River Bikeway” stenciled on the pavement. We also encountered another marking on the pavement as noted in the photo.

We wondered what this "greeting" meant, or referred to.  A little further on, we think we found out.  A number of homeless people had established encampments at various locations along the middle section of the bikeway.  Many of these were set up under the shelter and in the shade of underpasses where the bikeway dips beneath major streets. Some camps, as the one in the photo, below, were quite large with a few people setting up together. Others were on their own and very rustic. All were surrounded by all sorts of items of importance or street value. We would say “hi" and acknowledge those who made eye contact with us, but respected their autonomy and turf and passed through as quickly as we could. Some of the people looked very rough and as though they were living through considerable difficulties. Out of respect, we did not take any photos of the more desperate appearing people or their homes.

Part of the largest homeless camp; it will have to relocate during the spring melt

At the mile 27 mark we decided to turned around so we could get back before the sun started to go down. The elevation at our turnaround point was 338 feet, a total of 410 feet above our house. So that was our “high altitude” training ride. The climb was so gradual, we hardly notice the gradient. 

Heading west, back to Seal Beach, towards the end of the afternoon

This was an out and back route, so the return trip was the reverse of the outgoing. By the time we got back to our hotel, the total distance for this ride was exactly 100 kilometers, or 62 miles.

Even Scotty, the Highlander, had a nice view of the beach

So, there you have it.  Probably only Kate and Sandy could turn a trip to the coast into an "altitude" camp. But what the heck, we all need to exercise our senses of humour once in a while. 

Heading back to our La Quinta home

We hope you enjoyed this little journey; we certainly did!  We'll sign off this blog update with another flower from our trip to the coast. Don't forget to comment and leave your name so we know who you are, or send us an email. Thanks!

The ever so showy Bird of Paradise