I was out in time to catch the moon set this morning over Santa Barbara, tonight is the full moon
Full moon tides combined with swell for sea water puddles along the coast.
About 3 miles into the ride I crossed paths with a pod of dolphin surfing down the coast in the other direction, ended up chasing them a mile back to grab some pictures.
Lets see if the rest of the day is as good as this morning. Have fun, Play outside.
Watching the sun come up over the strawberry fields, the smell of fresh food all through your ride is fantastic.
And on the way home, the siren song to the north
Saturday
Saturday started off with a drive down to Santa Monica for a screening of
Ride the Divide put on by Erik Mathy of
1Gear1Cause fame. The movie was awesome, it really put the difficulty of the ride into perspective. For readers not familiar, the Divide race is an informal unsanctioned race along the continental divide that was pieced together from a collection of forest service, ranch, logging and other dirt roads and trails by the
Adventure Cycling Association. The route is over 2700 miles with 200,000 feet of vertical climbing, and the racers that do complete are averaging it in around 20 days, that is really hard to think about when you sit down and think about the sustained daily averages. Erik had organised the screening as part of his pursuit to raise funds and awareness in the battle against cancer and will be riding the race next year on a single speed
Salsa Fargo. Prior to the race Erik had ridden down the coast with Jason and Joe from
Salsa and Eric from
Adventure Monkey. It was great to meet these guys after reading on their blogs about their inspirational adventures and photography for so long. Salsa had helped to sponsor the event, and after the movie there were raffle prizes from Swerve, Ergon and 1Gear1Cause, as well as water bottles from Salsa. I won the first draw and took home a set of Ergon Grips, the only time I came in first all day. Thanks guys
After the movie everyone headed over to
Topanga reek Bicycles for a BBQ and ride. If you are in the area and have not been to their shop yet, you are really missing out. They are one of the few shops have been to in southern California that actually sell and STOCK touring bikes and gear, Arkel, Brooks, Berthoud, surly, salsa, tubus etc. Great shop and great people. The food and company were great. After the BBQ most of the group headed on a ride up Santa Maria Rd for a little dirt and single-track in the Mulholland area. Genius that I am, I had all my camera gear, tripod too, and even my 6lb Ulock. It is likely I was hauling more gear than the guys did on their tour. Needless to say I was running sweep the whole time and my legs were feeling dead, thanks to the whole crew for waiting for me to catch up more than once. Again though it was a great time. Here are a couple of pics from the trail:
I was pretty Lazy with the camera and hopefully some others will chime in with more pics from the ride.
Sunday
Sunday was back to normal 22 mile loop to the farmer's market at Chanel Islands Harbor. It was a beautiful day and a chance to run at my own pace, working out yesterday's sore legs. The haul was not as big this time, but respectible:
The Rawland performed well when front loaded.
I am working on a writeup for later this week on the Bruce Gordon rack and bag set up I have switched to with this bike. Even with 20-30 lb loade on the front the handling has been fine, but that is another post.
Fun weekent, lots of time in the saddle, and it feels good.
We tend to take the weather we have had for the last 8 months for granted.
I have been enjoying photography as a hobby for as long as I can remember, always using it as a component of other passions. To keep the camera with me on my rides is just natural, an extension to share my experiences with others. As the budget increased so did the quality and size of the gear. My Canon kit fit OK in a top loading zoom case, and I hauled it around despite the size and weight. Around the time I was shopping for a suitable chest harness rig for the trails the
Micro 4/3 format was gaining momentum and I gave way to the siren song. I started with the GF1 body and 14-45mm zoom kit and there was no turning back.
The new kit was less than half the physical size of my old kit while retaining most of the lens flexibility and capture quality of my older cameras. The Micro 4/3 format cuts the height and width ratio of the standard DSLR style sensor in half and gets rid of the prism. Thereby allowing the whole package, body and optics, to become smaller. This camera has every thing I like about my point and shoots with the power and flexibility of my prosumer DSLR and allows me to capture RAW files. With the addition of a 20mm prime lens and a couple of simple cases:
- Tamrac Aero Zoom 20
- Tamrac Lens Case Medium - MX5375
- LowePro 1M
I am able to easily carry part of or the entire kit in my
Acorn handlebar bag . Most of the time the top of both bags are open allowing quick access to the camera while in motion or stopped. When rain threatens, the security of the camera being double bagged has never let me down.
The proof is in the results when I get home from a back road ride in the country and have been able to capture images like this:
At least I finished off the fun parts, now to figure out when I am getting the groceries.
A little time on the road, a stop in La Conchita for some coconut water, and then some dirt on the coastal cliffs. Theis stretch between the cliffs and the railroad tracks makes the time on the 101 shoulder worth it. With the recent rains everything was still in great shape and the trails were hard packed. The trails are only a couple of miles along the railroad tracks with a good amount of single track woven into the route to keep it fun. It was Mike's first foray into skinny tires on dirt, and I think we may have a convert. A quick run through Rincon Cycles with some tandem questions as well as a look through a shop that actually sells touring gear, then lunch with the wives. Back on the bikes through the trails.
After the trails there is a stretch where you are squished in on beat up black top between the ocean and the freeway. I know the mountains cause most of it, but will never cease to be amazed how California manages to squeeze many of its highways and railroads right up against the ocean.
Back to a bit a sanity on the side roads home. Great day, great company and looking forward to the next ride
Full moon tides combined with swell for sea water puddles along the coast.
About 3 miles into the ride I crossed paths with a pod of dolphin surfing down the coast in the other direction, ended up chasing them a mile back to grab some pictures.
Lets see if the rest of the day is as good as this morning. Have fun, Play outside.
And on the way home, the siren song to the north
I was pretty Lazy with the camera and hopefully some others will chime in with more pics from the ride.
The Rawland performed well when front loaded.
I am working on a writeup for later this week on the Bruce Gordon rack and bag set up I have switched to with this bike. Even with 20-30 lb loade on the front the handling has been fine, but that is another post.
Fun weekent, lots of time in the saddle, and it feels good.
