Seal Beach to San Clemente, California

January 17, 2013

The lady running the motel insisted that the most wonderful diner was a block away on the other side of the highway. So instead of our usual instant oatmeal we sleazed on down to check it out. We thought about ordering one breakfast and splitting it, but went beserk and got one each. When the two plates were brought I thought that would be about right. But then the second two plates arrived!

Inside the diner, with one of the denizens.

Oh well, we ate them all up, telling ourselves we would now have lots of power for the trail. We used up some of that power before leaving the building to ramp up our patience as we overheard some of the conversation around us: " I failed the driver's test because of my vision", said one denizen. " Oh well", said his friend "just forget about the license, lots of drivers don't have one anyway".

Then in another corner: " It's stupid to ban multiple shot clips, we'll just make our own anyway. These liberals have no idea what they are talking about".

After a brief stint on the highway, we landed on the Huntington Beach beach trail. Here was the now familiar endless, currently empty, beach with lots of restrooms and fire pits. The beauty of the water colour, the gentle waves, the pelicans and other birds all had their traditional uplifting effect. I pedalled along thinking this will be a peaceful and reasonably short beachside run. I mentally settled in to enjoy it. Mistake.

The view on the other side of the road. Hmmm.

The path ended and we were back on #1. The first hints of what was to come arrived early. On the hillside across the road, hundreds (thousands?) of near identical pseudo Tuscan villas. The area was called Crystal Cove. I just Googled it. It seems a homesite starts at 2.8 million. But for that you don't get free rein. For example, the home size you can build is limited to about 8,000 square feet. Darn!

We absorbed Crystal Cove, thinking the villas were actually kind of attractive. But next up was Newport Beach. Traffic. Don't remember much more. Except Ferrari and Porsche dealers. New ones, used ones, they were everywhere.

But then the extended lesson about this region. After a brief look at a beach that was the actual " Crystal Cove" we began to enter Laguna Beach. Here the hillsides were thoroughly covered with villas. And in the town, the home furnishings, bath product, clothing, spa and nails, and related stores needed for your villa lifestyle.

We stopped at C'est La Vie bakery. A monitor on the wall displayed Rick Steeves explaining where Carcasonne is. A basket contained baguettes. We bought some pains aux raisins and croissants. Oh well, nice try. Anyway we got a photo to show Arthur we are not making this tour up!

A half block away, near the beach, we ate lunch. Little kids enjoyed a play gym on the sand.People asked about our trip. It was nice. But we went back on the road. There was heavy Porsche traffic on the two lanes each way, and parked cars along the side. No room for us! We tried cringing against the parked cars and we tried taking the lane. Either way the drivers tried to bully us off the road. When there was a gap in the parked cars we nipped in, stopped, and panted. Then out again, waving our arms to signal left turn type behaviour, or waving our fingers at drivers who almost hit us.

The squeeze. There is no room for bikes between the moving and parked cars. In this shot, the driver is providing some clearance. Most did not.

All along the road, though, was the most wonderful landscaping of tropical plantings. Flowering trees, palm trees, succulents, flowering shrubs, and so on. What a heavenly place to have your life threatened in!

Out on the hills, the clusters of villas expanded to square miles of villas, covering the hills to their tops. The landscape was actually blanketed in upscale villas and the road blanketed in upscale cars and shops. A pamphlet we picked up this evening (yes, we are still alive this evening) explained that we were experiencing the " great outdoors, and a one-of-a-kind dining, lodging, and shopping experience". We agree. It was one-of-a-kind!

Finally, mercifully, a bike lane appeared. We cruised in to Dana Point. Here our map and also book broke down into a lot of confusing directions. So we happily followed a "Bike Route" sign on the highway. This lead us to a dead end at a place called Heritage Park. No further signs, but a worker directed us to a path. We followed this steeply downward until it ended at a long set of stairs. Grrrr. But, Dodie found a way around the stairs and we descended, achieving the transition from lost up high to lost down low.

Here we pulled out the GPS, Google Maps, the Book, and so forth. and had it pretty well figured out. A final resource, a local cyclist named Joe also appeared. Joe confirmed mwhich way we had to go, supplied more detail about the route, and shared a half hour of general enjoyable conversation with us.

So we were off, but not for long. We ran in to Dave LaFlamme. We each recognized the signature profile of the long distance cyclist - low rider packs, little legs flailing up and down within a pile of luggage. Dave had started in Chicago and headed south, then west across the Southern Tier, and now towards Seattle. Naturally, we had a good chat.

Sorry, forgot to snap all of Dave, but here is his leg!

Dave's bike. Note he is using large Ortliebs back and front.

I thought Dave's fork looked bent back. He revealed he had dipped into Mexico at Tijuana, and there ran into an in- road grate that sent him over the handlebars. That would do it! Anyway the bike (Long Haul Trucker, of course) still worked, and he will surely make it. Good one!

Once in San Clemente we looked for a motel, because coming up is a stretch through Camp Pendleton that needs to be done in one lump. We passed a Best Western Plus, a chain we have found to be too costly, but Dodie decided to give it a try. She came out to report she had talked the manager downn into our range. So I am writing this in a room whose far walls are barely visible in the distance. Dodie is snoozing in one of our beds, with a duvet and some of the ten pillows we have here. At times like this it's hard to lament having mailed our camping gear home!

Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 2,296 km (1,426 miles)

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