[Originally posted at project pedal...]

Amanda and I made it back in one piece from our two day adventure up and down the Pacific, we left out of Santa Monica and headed up to Leo Carrillo state park - for those of you who are familiar with the coast, yes, I know it's not the longest ride, but in our defense we had a late start on Saturday. Anyways, not considering the 'mad-house' traffic in-between Santa Monica and Malibu, the ride was great; a very relaxing get-away, I only wish it was longer.

I managed to squeeze the GL2 in my front bike pannier […I don't know why they don't just call them bags either], and Amanda packed up her camera, but for whatever reason neither one of us seemed to use them quite as much as we would have liked to. For me I think it was because I'm paranoid: I packed the Canon with giant bubble wrap and a fleece zip-up, so it wasn't the most convenient item to get to. Not to mention when I imported all the footage I found that my 'heads' desperately need to be cleaned, so the little footage I did take has digital 'junk' all over it.

Here’s a short list of things I didn't get on tape:

"No sleeping on the beach" – As the sun was setting Amanda and I went over to buy a pass for the Leo Carrillo campgrounds [this was after we snuck around and found a great place to lay down for the night], but the guy in the booth said all the empty spots were all reserved for the night. By this time, it was pitch black out; we hurried back into the campgrounds to buy a $3 can of spaghetti & meatballs and a $4 can of clam chowder… we still weren’t sure how we were going to heat it up.

We carried our bikes over our shoulders down the steps to the beach and decided to make a small fire under a small roof of rock - luckily we found a massive pile of deadwood, so I didn’t have to scrounge the beach for kindling. Long story short; we ate by the fire and then fell asleep on the beach by 8 pm.

Two hours later we are awoken by a flashlight in the face – a cop gave us two options: [one] you can leave the beach or [two], I can arrest you. So, it’s late, the wind coming off the beach is freezing, our bikes have no lights on them, the campground is booked for the night… and the only suggestion the cop has is to ride in the pitch black up the coast ten more miles to another campground that might/ might not also be booked for the night. Ten minutes later we are dressed again and all packed up, wondering what the hell to do, we decide to go use the campground bathrooms and then decide, on our way back we run into the cop again who this time is somewhat realistic to our situation, he gives us the go ahead to camp anywhere we like in the park. But a combination of the rocky ground and the fact that we only had one sleeping bag to share made for one of the most uncomfortable, sleepless nights of our lives…

"Taking a spill" – Due to some construction on the PCH, Amanda and I had two lanes of highway all to ourselves for a few miles, but I still managed to somehow find the only spot with a streak of mud and since my tires are on the bald side, my bike [loaded up with 60-some pounds of gear] slowly began to slip from beneath me. I managed to catch myself but only after two construction workers on their lunch break started to laugh at my clumsiness…

"Environment guy" – With less than two miles left of our ride back into Santa Monica; a guy pushing a baby-stroller enthusiastically asked where we were from, we laughed and said, “just North Hollywood, we’re just practicing…”. But then we got to talking about what we were practicing for, I gave him a ‘project pedal’ sticker, he told us how he worked for the Santa Monica environmental agency and about a friend of his that rode a beach-cruiser [if I remember correctly] coast to coast, unfortunately he blew his knee out in Tennessee, but rather than give up he took off that pedal and continued, all the way to D.C., with one leg… the whole event was made into a documentary.