biking on old highway 101

one of the most interesting things about riding the california coast from los angeles to san diego is the interesting routes that are carved out for cyclists.  the image above is of my friend andrew riding the bike path that has been built on old highway 101 - a road that used to be the main way to drive to san diego before the 5 freeway was constructed.  this road has been unused for so long (by cars that is) that trees and plants have grown up through the pavement.

i happened to snap this photo right as the amtrak train was passing through.

bike trip, 2011

i've taken a few great bike trips over the years, so when my friend andrew suggested that we spend our spring break riding our bikes, i was all ears.  you may remember andrew from my california league ballpark bicycle tour from a few years ago.  andrew suggested riding some california coast, and when we figured out how much time we had, we decided to head south, hit up some regional breweries, and ride the amtrak train back home.

we left on monday, and as you can see from the photo above, we ran in to some rainy weather.  i will post a few more photos from our journey over the next few days.

pasadena to long beach

yesterday i promised that i would fill you in on my other big weekend event. i joined two friends (tim and ryan in the top photo) on a bike ride that took us from pasadena to the san gabriel river bike trail over in duarte. from there we headed south to the end of the trail, located in seal beach. we biked over to long beach for lunch and a quick stop at a bike shop to fix a broken spoke. we turned around and headed back up the trail and back to pasadena.


the second photo today is looking back at the san gabriel mountains. about 105 miles total in our round trip ride. pretty fun and a great work out!

i just noticed that tim also blogged about this.