I woke up in Santa Barbara around 10:00am on Tuesday. I had a pb&j for breakfast, an orange, an apple, and some nutella and pretzel sticks. This is what my spot looked like in the morning:
I wheeled my bike off the island, then watched the surfers for about forty minutes, and finally left UCSB campus around 12:00. Immediately, my directions led me to a bike only pathway. Those are always nice to bike on because you don’t have to worry about cars, stoplights, or people with strollers and dogs getting in the way.
However, usually those bike paths only last for a couple of miles at most. But, I was able to bike almost the ENTIRE way through Goleta and Santa Barbara, and Summerland, and Carpinteria on them. It was sooo nice! I would like to go back to Santa Barbara just to ride on those trails again.
I also stopped at the Santa Barbara Pier:
And I got Salt Water Taffy here:
And this is what the bike trails looked like:
And this was a failed photo I took somewhere near downtown Santa Barbara:
And I took this photo and drew this sketch a half mile from Summerland:
Then I stopped at the Summerland Cafe and had a burger around 4:00. Then I continued biking through Carpinteria and then I got stuck. My original map had me go inland up some random mountain fire roads but that just wasn’t going to be a good idea. So I sat at the freeway on ramp debating on whether to bike the freeway to Ventura or not because I didn’t think there was a bike lane. But then some random guy came out of nowhere and just charged down the on ramp so I decided to follow. It turns out that in that section between Carpinteria and Ventura, there is a bike lane and an emergency lane so I had plenty of room to bike. Plus, there were parts like at Seacliff and the campgrounds that I was able to bike through off of the freeway. Like here:
Then I finally made it to Ventura and I came across the bridge. Yes, the bridge that everyone goes under when they drive through Ventura and that bridge that everybody recognizes. And I wanted to go onto it really badly but alas, it was for trains only 🙁
Then I stopped at the pier and checked out my directions. It was 10-15 miles to Port Hueneme and there wasn’t a whole lot of sunlight left. But, I decided to go for it and continued on. I took this while on my there:
And this once I got into the Port and had to stop and look at my directions:
Then I continued on. I thought that Port Hueneme was going to be a really small fishing town like Morro bay or something. But it turns out its pretty big. And there is also a huge Military Base there and I’m not talking about Pt. Mugu either. (Because there is a big base there also). After the above photo, I got into town and ended up biking straight for almost five miles because I was going along the fence of the base! Then I finally made it to a residential neighborhood and I turned into there. And I biked through that for a couple of miles too until I finally made it to a public park. By that time the sun was just setting. So I sat around in the park and waited for everybody to leave, then I jumped in the iceplant behind a bush and set up camp. It wasn’t very secluded or hidden. I was only 5 feet from someones backyard fence, 10 feet from a park path, 20 feet from a baseball field, and 40 feet from the road. It was sketchy.
So I set my alarm for 6:00 because I wanted to get out of the park in the morning before people started showing up. And then I took this photo of my spot and went to sleep.
And here was the Route for the day but instead of going inland past Lake Casitas, I just went on the 1/101
I left the farm Monday morning around 10:30. I biked through Los Alamos, past a couple of wineries and eventually got on the 101 towards Buelton. I took this picture somewhere in between Los Alamos and Buelton:
But not without two wasted photos because of the self timer problems Hea!
By the time I made it to Buelton (Home of Anderson’s Split Pea Soup)(and nothing else), it was suuuuper hot out. I was dying. So I stopped and had a lunch of pb&j’s, a can of beans, and pretzl sticks and nutella. Here is where I stopped and a sketch.
Then I left Buelton around 12:30. Next rest stop was at Gaviota (the first place that the 101 gets back to the ocean since Pismo) However, it was SO HOT that it took like an hour and a half to get there and I was dyyyyiiinnngg. It was mostly just really hard because Dairy Fresh only has one speed and it was really hilly in that section. Also, at the very last hill (which was the highest one), I almost ran out of water and had to stop 3 times! sketchh. But then after that it was all downhill to the Gaviota rest stop. I then stopped there and had a gigantic spam sandwhich, mass water, a couple of apples, and more nutella+pretzls. And I also sketched this:
And in case you can’t read the writing, it says this: I was sitting there sketching and some guy about to get in his car says: “Where are you going?” I say: “San Diego” Him: “From the Midwest?” Me: “No, San Luis Obispo.” Him: “O really? I didn’t know anybody knew about cornhole out here” HEAAAAA! (i was wearing my I love corn hole shirt) Then before I could even respond, he got in his car and drove away hahaha!
After about an hour, I got back on the road and started towards Santa Barbara. I stopped at Refugio and took this picture:
Then I continued on and stopped at that one old 101 bridge. Theres actually a little rest stop there so I was able to easily get off the new 101 and explore the bridge. And I also got to see the train go past on the other bridge behind it! Can you see my bike on the bridge? (its right in the middle of the photo)
After exploring the bridge, I continued on the road to Santa Barbara. I was passing a lot of Call Boxes on the road and realized, I have never seen the inside of one HEA! And I swear nobody has! So I stopped to look into one. Its way gnarlier than I though too! I thought it was just going to be a payphone but in fact its a really high tech phone with a screen and a whole keyboard! And the sticker on the inside says that you will be connected to an operator and you must provide your license plate number, drivers license number and what kind of emergency there is. Here is the inside of one of the infamous call boxes. (Bad photo because of course right when I opened the box, I saw a highway patrol car off in the distance coming towards me)
After that and some more riding, I finally made it to Goleta (just north of Santa Barbara). And before I knew it, I was on UCSB campus! I had never been there before and didn’t even know that the campus was in Goleta and not in Santa Barbara. So I explored around the campus for a bit which is super cool because every pathway/roadway on campus is a bike path. And there are bike racks EVERYWHERE. It was legit. I took this photo while in what I thought was the middle of campus:
Then I eventually found my way to the UCSB lagoon and then walked along it until I got to the beach. Here is a view of the lagoon.
And then I made it to the beach where there were some people surfing. And I realized I would be able to walk over to what I thought was an island on the lagoon. But it turns out its all connected together so I started walking over. But first, I got shit on by a bird. And the shit smelled like fish. No mas.
These birds were the culprits:
After that fiasco, I watched the surfers until the sun started to go down. Then after all of the runners got off the island, I found a spot about 100 ft from the ocean, about 50 ft off the trail, behind a bush and set up camp. Here is the view from where I slept:
And that night was so awesome. It was really warm, I was laying on really comfortable bushes, I could hear the ocean waves crashing all night, and there weren’t any clouds in the sky so I could see all of the stars.
The plan was to start out on Sunday morning around 9 or 10. After eating up the rest of the corn, I left the house around 10:15. I had a camelback of water, two water bottles, two things of Nutella, two things of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, a loaf of bread, some trail mix, two cans of spam, a nature valley bar, a can of tuna, nutrigrain bars, a bunch of bananas, a bag of apples, two cans of beans, some oranges, and an avocado. I also had my sleeping bag, one extra shirt, a sweater, a beanie, a backpack, two disposable cameras, cellphone, toothbrush, directions, tools, portable pump, patch kit, extra tubes, and a sketch pad.
Here is my food and the first attempt at taking a picture of myself from a distance (which failed, the camera moved too much when I pulled the string so after that I started putting a jelly jar on it to hold it down)
Anyways, I went over the train station bridge and started out along the rail trail. Then I got out to Broad St. and started biking down towards the airport. I made to the airport and then disaster struck. My rear tire exploded! HEAAA! Only a couple miles out of town too!
Basically, because the tire was so old, the rubber just couldn’t hold the pressure anymore so it ripped apart and because of that, the tube exploded too. I was so close to home I just called Kendra and asked her to pick me up a new tire at the bike shop. She came and dropped it off but alas, it was the wrong size. I have “old” 26 inch wheels which are more like 27 inch wheels and so the “new” 26 inch tire was wayyy too small. Fail. So Then I called Lindsey and her and Brian came and picked me up and I just went to the bike shop and exchanged the tire for the right one. So dumb. Then I finally got on the road for reals at 2:00 and was out of slo around 2:30.
Here I am waiting for Kendra to bring me a new tire. sooo over it haha. Dairy Fresh’s rear wheel is off with the tire and tube removed. (The yellow string in the photo is from my homemade self timer for my disposable cameras. I guess its more like a remote shutter button but whatever. Ill post about that later when i get other film back)
And here is the same shot but with the self timer failing haha (Im stooped over the camera winding it up and I wound it too far and so it took the photo but you can see my hair ha!)
And the first sketch on my trip while I was waiting for Brian and Lindsey to pick me up:
I finally made it past the airport and then turned right out at Price Canyon Rd. And that road connected me right to Pismo. It was suuuper windy in the canyon though so that 5 or so miles took foreeeevveerrr. And it was really really hot too. And it was hot too. Then, once I made it over the hill to Pismo, it was all foggy and cold! No mas,
Anyways, I stopped in town at Old Juan’s Cantina’s parking lot to have lunch around 3:00. Ate my lunch and was just getting ready to leave when Old Juan himself came out and kicked me out of the lot before I could even leave HEAA!
Here I am preparing a pb&b&n&j sandwich in the lot:
Then I rode through the rest of Pismo and then through Oceano. I got lost in Oceano for about 15 minutes because my map told me to take a rode that had a huge locked gate on it. But I foound my way around it and eventually made it over to the PCH (pacific coast highway) (hwy 1).
Then there was a long section of nothing until I made it to Guadalupe which is directly West of Santa Maria.. Then I kept riding and then went through Orcutt. Nothing really there either.
But I did take these photos at a bridge which is 100 ft before Guadalupe and the county line for Santa Barbara County. The one of just the bridge was a mess up and was supposed to have me in it (again, you can see my hair) and then the blurry one does have me in it but a cop was coming and so I pulled the string really fast to get out of the road HEAA! which cause the camera to move and blur the photo.
Then I finally made it to just outside of Los Alamos. There was only about 20 minutes till the sun went down so I found a good hidden spot on somebody’s farm to sleep for the night. So I rolled out the sleeping bag, ate some food and passed out for the night. In the morning after I packed up my sleeping bag, this is what my 5 star hotel looked like:
And here is a sketch I made that morning and the first days’ route:
Jeremy and I ate all of the corn in the front before we left last week. OM NOM NOM. It was super sweet and good, just not fully grown. But we had 7 or 8 cobs so it was enough for us.
