The Victour

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

So far it’s been long days heading up the coast and of course the headwinds. Weather has been perfect and we’re now in the cute town of Cambria about to hit Big Sur and some of the nicest coastline anywhere. More to come, stay tuned!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

One of the reasons of going inland away from the coast, instead of hoping to avoid the unrelenting Western headwind along the coast, was to ride the wine valley and Foxen Canyon Road, an unforgettable riding route. It was easy to navigate out of Solvang. It was even easier to see why this area is prized for its cycling and compared to Tuscany. This could be the place to buy a vineyard one day. We pulled off at Fess Parker for an 11am wine tasting — it’s never too early or out of the way apparently. We exited this cycling utopia along warmly aromatic strawberry fields into Santa Maria and the most delicious, oversized, and sweet basket of strawberries on a stand in the middle of a parking lot. $2.25 later, we explored the town: very friendly bike shop and lunch at Jovi of baked spaghetti. We’re back on the road with more Western headwinds to Guadeloup along hwy 1. This was a bad road for riding. We veered off at a golf course and found better roads to Pismo. Aimed for Canyon Road to San Luis Obispo, but it was getting dark and we couldn’t explore this promising town — we had Morro Bay to hit for the night.

This is where it got interesting. The route to Morro Bay along O’Connor Road looked much more promising than the alternate highway. The signs indicated that the road closed at 6pm. It was just past 6. But it seemed worth the effort. Of course the road closed was justified by heavily fortressed military base. Well, after some painful re-navigations, we made it to Morro Shores Inn on Atascadero. Not much doing around here after dark: the Hungry Fisherman was closed, so dinner was chips and beer from the booze shop and veg+pep Dominos.

160km

Monday, May 12, 2008

On Monday we are riding up to Solvang, a hamlet in the California plains: at once a seemingly touristy but actually authentic Danish settlement, a hub for the surrounding Santa Ynez wine valley, and a biking mecca. They continually host a stage (recently a time trial) in the Tour of California.

Leaving Oxnard and Ventura, we were forced onto a chunk on the avoid-as-much-as-you-can 101 highway, then small roads from Baker, with directions from a very kitted local cyclist, small roads away from Casitas and along the beach to Santa Barbara. Lunch was bottomless warm taco chips and fajitas from Sharkeez. We road up through residential Santa Barbara and then began a long climb, probably about 10 kilometers, up highway 154. We were aiming for an alternate, quieter road back down into the Santa Ynez valley along Stagecoach road, but we just kept climbing, unknowingly, towards Lizard Mouth. It was stunning and a lovely winding climb, but about 5 kilometers out of the, um, way. We sorted ourselves out, hit a monstrous descent, then back on 154. Stayed at the Copenhagen, ate gnocchi and stuffed Angelica chicken at Cafe Angelica, drank a Mandolina Super Tuscan. We wanted cheesecake. Only option: the chinese restaurant. No thanks.

145km

Sunday, May 11, 2008

After Jeremiah’s phenomenal wedding over the weekend and some daytime activities with the old college roommates on Sunday, Steph and I hit the road by 3pm, leaving the glitz of West Hollywood for our northbound cycling expedition. We cruised the familar path to the ocean, as Jesse and I had done a few times over the weekend, rolling down Rodeo Drive and then Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and Pier. Then we turned north onto the boardwalk and into a raging headwind. Now we had been warned about that from Jeremiah (a local surf condition guru) and others, but we’re hoping that when we pass the E-W coastline to the N-S one past Santa Barbara, that’ll cool down. But it is tough pushing through that stuff… Barely breaking 30 km/h on downhills and spending lots of flats in the small chainring. But we’ve got manageable mileage over the next 2 days so no problems. Getting stuck on the Pacific Coast highway in Malibu and on unpaved grooved roads really sucked, but eventually we avoided as much as we could thanks to Natascha, our lended GPS friend (big thanks Danny). First night was in the Oxnard marina with dinner choices including Subway and Carl’s Jr. No thanks. Pizza delivery from Toppers arrived in 15 minutes to depleted and lethargic us. 105km this afternoon was very impressive considering, and we’re on track! Viva la victour (borrowed from Elzinga, the eternal and legendary victour partner)!

105km

Coming up: three days riding with Elzinga in LA then up to San Francisco over five or so days with Steph. Stay tuned. Updates will be right here at thevictour.

Sorry we haven't been posting. Phone is broken and no internet along the way. We'll add stories and photos after our arrival tomorrow in San Francisco.

Friday 7am – We've woken up this morning to our throttling 17 hog-riding buddies and don't know where we are. Or at least can't explain it. South Bend, Washington is the home of the fine Chen's motel/diner, Chesters burger joint, and a third restaurant that got shut down when the cook ended up sick.

Wednesday, we rolled off the ferry in Port Angeles, now in the US, and crossed Olympic National Park, lucid glacial mountains, rolling valleys, and scorching heat to the coast, when it all got socked in. We rode to the Kalaloch Lodge, right on the coast of the Park and pretty much the only accom around. Thankfully we booked that last room on Monday. Jesse cooked an inventive and filling spaghetti dinner, and we passed out.

Yesterday, we left the coast (still not many coastal roads in WA's mostly undeveloped coastline) to another big glacial Lake Quinault, then back to the coast on very quiet roads to very quiet beach towns. Our only choice for lunch was the locally recommended Teriyaki joint in the gas station. Not the best meal for the road. Pulled into South Bend after 198 kms, and took the last room in town at Chen's, to the 17 hog-riding, now Bud-drinking-in-the-parking-lot's pleas to 'just keep going, you don't want to stay here!' Of course we did. Real America.

Now on to Oregon. Viva Vic!

So its 174km from vancouver to victoria. Vancouver was nice and i wish we could have spent more time there. But i often feel that way on these trips:we race through lovely cities. We stayed with steph's friends who very kindly put us up: thanks sarah and phil! We were woken by seagulls and i made some scrabbled eggs that went down well.

Leaving vancouver we followed the long way that noah chose along the most unimpressive part of the industrial part of vancouver island. Avoiding seattle seems like a good idea as there would be too much traffic. But noah made us cycle north and take a random ferry west rather a ferry direct to victoria. Anyway, we made it eventually, after getting lost once, again thanks to noah. I twice convinced noah to avoid the route 1 freeway and stick to backroads, and this was a very good idea. Noah got his first flat; i will never undestand why he insists on riding on race tires while touring.

In the end i must say noah did a fine job navigating a difficult route. He is a great companion. And steph is a treasure. Very cool, very cute, clever, interesting, and, most importantl, fast on the bike.

Victoria was great. We had a popsicle on arriving and then explored hotels. After several failures i found the winner, a nice place that gave us a free upgrade. Room was on 15 floor with a great sea and mountain view. The shower was great after the hot cycling; turns out it was the hottest day on record in victoria. We met up with adam scheuer and caleb beyers for sushi. Adam v kindly bought us a big sushi dinner and caleb showed us some of his latest artwork, which was really cool. Then sleep. A very good day 1. Look forward to usa tomorrow. God bless.

Wednesday morning, leaving Victoria — Riding ferries makes for great mandatory time to relax and write. We're just pulling out of Victoria, BC now, heading by ferry to Port Angeles in Washington State. At that point we ride across the Olympic Peninsula to the coast and start on trek along Route 101 to California.

Our day 1 ride yesterday was gorgeous. We starting with a 25km hop from Vancouver to pick up the ferry, then a 150km meandering (read: couple wrong turns) pull from Nanaimo to Victoria. This drive is dominated by the Trans Canada Highway, a wide express to get to Victoria as quickly as possible. Thanks to some last minute route prepping online using Google, we (read: I) set up a route jumping back and forth across it and avoiding the freeway as much as possible. This including riding through Cedar, a town of pungent cedar smell of course, Chamainus on the sea for lunch, around Shawnigan Lake, climb to Malahat, and descent to Victoria. We met Adam and Caleb, Jesse's and my old college buddies, for Japanese dinner, listened to stories about their businesses, art installations, and Ironman triathlon training. We made a quick trip to see Caleb's fascinating GI Joe show at a local coffeehouse and restaurant. Yes GI Joe. It's amazing in that it has a great sense of humor yet it still is meaningful. Then to the hotel and asleep before we hit the pillow.

Now we're lying on the deck on the ferry, with Mt Rainier in the background, and enjoying the only cool breeze we will probably enjoy on this record-breaking, forecasted 37 degree Celsius day. Viva la VT!

Tuesday 8:30am: We are riding the ferry from West Vancouver / Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo after a 25km hop from Sarah and Phil's (big thanks for your hospitality) in English Bay. And so the trip begins. Again it's me and Jesse and newcomer, cycling superstar Steph from the great capitol region of Ottawa. The three of us, starting in Vancouver, will be cycling down to coast to San Francisco and Los Angeles, fast and light. We've got tiny bags, a vague idea of our route, and some nice hotels, local wines, and great coastal views awaiting us. We'll keep tabs on this blog and hope you check in. Viva la victour!