Katie MacDonald - Bike the US for MS
Day 8 - March 20 - Woodland Hills to Long Beach - 54.2miLiterally could not have asked for a better morning of biking. We woke up to breakfast made by Greg, and slowly got ready for the day. After saying goodbye to everyone, we headed out for what we thought was going to be a tough climb. Turns out, Topanga State Park was a slow and steady 700ft climb, followed by an incredible 1500ft descent. I kept thinking that we would have to climb up the other side of the canyon, but we just kept going downhill! After Topanga, we went right into Santa Monica. We stopped at the pier to look around, got some pictures, and then Carissa found a balance beam on Muscle Beach and did some really cool tricks. We were on the beach bike path for a while, and ended up going through a movie set. Eventually, it was time for lunch, but we had passed all of the beach restaurants in the tourist area. We kept on going, stomachs growling, and eventually came across a beach cafe that said "Food" in bright red letters on the side of the building. We stopped here, took off our cleats, and ate delicious chicken tacos with our feet in the sand. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, but was mostly city riding and riding on a bike path along the LA river, which had really bad headwinds. Towards the end we switched to google maps, which had us take an elevator to get to a pedestrian overpass, and then led us to the Hertz car rental place so that we could drive out to Joshua Tree for the night. We stopped at In-n-Out for dinner, and then Carissa and I took turns driving, and we got to the park at around 10pm. We took the bikes out of the back, set up our sleeping bags in the trunk, and admired the stars before going to sleep. Rest day tomorrow, and a chance to explore the park! Day 9 - March 21 - Joshua Tree - Rest DayWhat a cool place. We woke up in the car to scenery that had been too dark to see the night before. The trees looked like something out of a Dr. Seuss book. We organized the car, headed to the visitor's center to buy some stickers, and then drove from our camp site to the official park entrance. We did a few small hikes - Hidden Valley, Barker Dam, Skull Rock, and Keys View - and climbed a bunch of the rocks while we were there. It is really impossible to describe how cool this place is. It's just so different from anywhere I've ever been before. After the park, we grabbed a quick lunch at Jack in the Box, and started the 3 hour drive back to Long Beach. The last hour of the drive was pretty stressful because traffic was awful and we weren't sure if we were going to get back before Hertz closed. Thankfully we made it in time, and then headed over to the hotel to meet up with Eddie. After taking half an hour to get unpacked and ready for dinner, Eddie took us to a place called Islands. We got delicious burgers, chatted about our current trip, and reminisced about the Northern Tier. It was so great to see him and catch up! Thanks so much for everything Eddie! Day 10 - March 22 - Long Beach to Oceanside - 69miWe discovered last night that today was actually a 70mi day, when we had thought that it would be less than 60. We woke up early, and had a goal of being on the road by 8:30. We would have made it out on time, but we ended up talking to someone outside of the Long Beach Cafe for close to 30 min. We ate our food on a bus stop bench, having to improvise due to the lack of utensils, and then hit the road. Today was one of the days I was most looking forward to, as we would be biking past a lot of places that I knew. We got to go along the Huntington Beach bike path for a while, which was nice and flat with a good view. Our first stop was at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Newport, where I got my favourite chocolate marshmallow cupcake, and Carissa tried their new cookie flavoured cupcake. A few miles down the road, we stopped to pick up lunch at Javier's, which we put in our backpacks and biked with for a while before stopping to eat at the beach in Dana Point. The route today had some beautiful views, but the roads were pretty busy. We were really cruising for a while, and then Carissa got her 4th flat of the trip just outside of the nuclear plant off the highway. Shortly after that we entered Camp Pendleton, a Marine base north of Oceanside. Once we got to Oceanside, we met up with Conrad and walked around a little bit before stopping at a pizza place for a drink. My parents and Ben met up with us here, and we all got to hang out for a bit before attempting to put our bikes in the rental SUV to head up to the hotel in Newport. Turns out there was no way they were going to fit, so my dad asked the Wyndham hotel in Oceanside if then could store them overnight, and they agreed. Such a huge help! We got to the hotel in Newport, and then the five of us went out for a great dinner, complete with my favourite pretzel bread rolls. Day 11 - March 23 - Oceanside to San Diego - 38.4miLast biking day! We got up at 7, and we're out of the hotel by around 8am. My dad drove us to the hotel where we left the bikes, so we were able to set them up fairly quickly, and then head out. Less than 40mi today, so we were in no rush, and wanted to enjoy the last day. We had eaten a quick bowl of cereal at the hotel, but were still hungry so we got a second breakfast at the Buccaneer Cafe in Oceanside. Shortly after the cafe, two cyclists started riding alongside us. They were really great guys who were also into touring, and we ended up talking and riding with them for 5mi. At 11:30, Carissa and I stopped for ice cream at a place called Handel's. They had more flavours than I had ever seen in once place, and all of them were really good. I settled on a Heath Hurricane (like a DQ blizzard) and Carissa got a single scoop that turned out to be 3.5 scoops. Further down the coast we stopped for a bathroom break, only to discover a bunch of baby seals lounging on the beach. Absolutely adorable! The ride down the bike path in Pacific Beach was a bit crowded, and resulted in us going about 2mph. Shortly after that we crossed an intersection and heard someone yell "Carissa!" from one of the cars. Turns out Carissa's friend Michael was on his way home from work and saw our jerseys. What are the odds? At this point we were about 5mi from our end point of Ocean Beach - the same place the Pac Coast officially ends on the supported trip. When we got there, my family was waiting with the camera, champagne, and sprinkles cupcakes. We ditched our bikes, and ran to the ocean for a quick dip. It feels so weird to be finally done! My parents drove us to Michael's house, where we will be crashing for the next two nights. He had a bottle of champagne waiting, and a sign that said "Welcome to San Diego" - so sweet! My parents headed back for the night, and the three of us went out to a celebratory dinner at Cannonball, the restaurant where Michael works. Everyone there was super friendly, and the food was delicious. They even brought us a complimentary cheesecake for dessert! Today was an amazing day, and I am looking forward to exploring San Diego some more tomorrow. Can't believe we head back in two days. Day 12 - March 24 - San Diego - Last Day
1 Comment
6/6/2017 03:54:13 am
This is a good post. I'm definitely going to look into it.Really very useful tips are provided here.thank you so much.Keep up the good works
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katie macdonald
Summer 2016, I biked 4,295 miles, coast to coast across the USA to raise money and awareness for MS. March 2017, I biked self-contained from San Francisco to San Diego with my friend Carissa. August 2017 I connected the dots and biked from Seattle to San Francisco. Summer 2018 I am heading to the UK! Follow my journey here! Miles biked for MS:
6,800.13
Updated August 27, 2018 Archives
January 2019
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