Epic Ride Saturdays - Laguna Canyon

Laguna Canyon

About 1.22 million years ago, Laguna Canyon began to form when the San Diego Creek started cutting through the rising San Joaquin Hills.  The Canyon runs roughly north/south for 8 miles, is a wide and shallow valley on the north end, and a deep and narrow gorge on the south end.  CA Route 133 runs straight through, and is a really popular road for cyclists.  You'll also see a lot of mountain bikes - access to the Laguna Coast Wilderness (and thus a large trail system), is found about half way through the canyon.

As usual, OC Velo met at Worthy Park in Huntington Beach and then headed south on Pacific Coast Highway picking up a bunch of additional riders.  We took PCH all the way down to Laguna, which is about a 17 mile trip through Newport Beach, Corona Del Mar and Newport Coast/Crystal Cove State Park.

The ride through Newport Coast is always great.  It's about a 4 mile stretch were the Pacific is directly  to the right and the coastal mountains are directly to the left.  The road undulates through this stretch.  But none of the climbs are particularly steep, so with a good group you can fly through this section.

The Cottages @ Crystal Cove

One of the cool points of interest along this stretch of PCH are the Crystal Cove Cottages.  Originally built in the 1920's, the 48 cottages where initially private residences.  At some point, they where all abandoned and fell into disrepair.  But eventually, they were restored and in 2006 opened up as rentals to overnight guests.  I've been down on the beach, but have never stayed in the cottages.  Apparently, a rental is pretty tricky to get - they are all booked at least a year in advance and reservations only open up once a month.  Typically, each month's allotment can sell out within hours.  One of these days Mary, Ian and I will spend a few nights there.  In the meantime, I recommend them to anyone who is looking for a slightly left-of-center California beach vacation with access to great riding, open water swimming and trail running literally just off the porch.

OC Velo

We regrouped in Laguna Beach and then turned left into the Canyon.  From the south, the first 5 miles are either false flats or gentle climbs.  But at mile 6, you are faced with a more significant climb.  It's nothing crazy, but there is no doubt in your legs that you are climbing.  The climb is about 2 miles long.  For about a mile and a half, I had been leading the group and feeling pretty good about it.  But once we hit the climb, a couple of guys pulled out of the line and shot by me.  One of them turned to me as he passed and said "Nice pull" without a hint of irony in his voice.  No good deed goes unpunished.

I took off after them, but I was never able to bridge the gap.  Instead, I hooked up with a solo rider about halfway up the climb and we traded pulls to the top.  The top is where the wind hit.

We are having pretty strong Santa Ana winds this weekend.  Santa Ana's blow from the north-east, and since they come in off the desert, they are hot.  Today they where strong.  Once I hit height of land, the wind hit me like a blast furnace from out of nowhere from about my 2 o'clock.  And they where so strong that I nearly went down.  It was probably more of a case of not expecting them, but even after I recovered and adjusted they still made for an interesting descent out of the canyon.  I met the guys who passed me at the bottom of the hill, and then we all waited for everyone else.  To a rider, everyone had a hairy "oh-my-gosh-the-wind-nearly-knocked-me-on-my-ass" story.

The rest of the ride was pretty routine, save for when the two guys who punched my ticket on the climb took off down the multi-use path in the Back Bay.  But this time I didn't let them go - I jumped on the wheel of the second guy and we tore along at about 26 MPH.  Then it was coffee at the HB Pier and the last 8 miles home.

Final Ride Stats

Distance:  55 Miles
Moving Time:  2:56
Average Speed: 18.8 MPH
Top Speed: 43.0 MPH
Climbing:  1,130 Feet

I'm Back

Wow, I just realized I have not blogged since last Wednesday.  That's probably some sort of record.  True, I have been busy with my other site, which I promise to only mention by name every other post.  But mostly, it's because I read something last week on the blogs that didn't sit well with me.  This guy made a comment on a blog which in 3 short sentences pretty much encapsulated an attitude that I hope only a very small minority of endurance sport participants possess.  It's not what this person said, it's how they said it - arrogant, rude and demeaning.  If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you've probably surmised that I'm not a huge fan of arrogance.  It's one of the reasons I'm losing more and more interest in the big pro sports leagues, for example.  But at least pro athletes are paid to be arrogant.  This guy is spending to be arrogant.  Think about it.

Anyway, I took a little bit of a blogging break.  But I'm over it now and I shouldn't have let one comment piss me off anyway.  My bad - onwards and upwards...

The weather was beautiful in Southern California this weekend, so I took advantage of it for some good training.  Friday was a 5 mile run at lunchtime.  And since you all know how much I like to party,  I went nuts Friday night with a...wait for it...2000 yard pool workout - outside, no less.

Saturday was a 65 mile ride through Irvine, Laguna Beach and Newport with OC Velo.  I flatted at about mile 15.  The tube change, which is usually a five to seven minute operation, took fifteen minutes because I had an audience of about 20 people.  I half-heartedly tried to convince everyone that the beads on Continental tires never do stretch enough to make things easy, but that excuse didn't work, especially after one of the guys came over and pushed the tire back on the rim in 15 seconds.  Talk about stage fright.

Today I ran 8 miles along Huntington Beach.  It was pretty much the perfect run.  I was planning on 12 miles, but between a 45 minute drive to the Orange County's "it" destination for bike geek heaven (a/k/a Laguna Beach Cyclery), getting a Christmas tree and putting up the outdoor lights, I ran a little short of time. 

My neighbor's house from space.

Incidentally, I almost blew off putting up the lights.  Because when I walked out of the garage this morning (with 4 strings of single strand lights and a power strip), my neighbor had 4 large crates of decorations and an entire crew of guys working in his front yard.  And we are not just talking about lights.  This guy has robotic reindeer, giant snow globes, accent lighting, a giant light up Santa, and a whole bunch of other stuff I have not even begun to comprehend yet.  The ambient light from this guy's set-up is going to pretty much negate everyone else's lights in the entire neighborhood.  It's like the midnight sun of northern Scandinavia around here now - as I write my living room is lit up like it's mid afternoon.

I hope everyone has a good start to the week.