bikes, MTB, travel, USA

Riding at Big Laguna

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Returning to civilisation, I found a message waiting for me about a potential ride the next day. Mountain-biking is great – since posting on mtbr.com a couple of weeks ago I have had many tips & offers of rides around San Diego & further afield. I sorted out to go a fair way back to where we had been camping up the I-8 with a group on Sunday to ride at one of the most beautiful rides in the SD area. Unlike most of the local rides, it has trees. So after a nice sleep in & getting organised, the GT was loaded on the back of another pickup (they make some sense, not much, but at least a little bit) & we were off to meet the rest of the group – I was pleasantly surprised to hear a (slightly Americanised) Kiwi accent from one of the girls.

All up, there were seven of us – Roger (who originally contacted me) was riding his brand new Yeti XC carbon fibre bike. It was very light & very well specced, as one would expect. We started quite high (after about an hour’s drive) at 5500 feet & for the most part were riding around a basin that was meadow & pines. I was somewhat sceptical of the beauty of the sparse trees & general dryness of the place, but it grew on me & was quite pretty in places. We climbed a fair bit & got to here looking out to Mexico:

A nice sweet flowing descent that had tricky rocky switchbacks to start with & then flowing, but was very dusty & loose (almost caught me out a couple of times – also running a Maxxis High Roller upfront for the first time may have had something to do with it). In a new experience for me, I was complimented on my riding style – thanks Gabby . But I was also slightly embarrassed as Roger & I concurrently realise that my rear tyre was on the wrong way around – it must have been like that since the puncture-fest that was Karapoti ’09. Getting back out towards the meadow, we skirted around it & ended up going past the dry Small Laguna Lake & then up a quarter mile climb (the altitude really had my lungs heaving here – much worse than Nepal last year) to Big Laguna Lake, that actually still had some water in to it. There wasn’t really an inlet to the lake (it must come from snowmelt), & the outlet was pretty slow – so it was pretty stagnant. Still it added to the vista. A nice cruisy ride with some neat people & hopefully a few more rides to come in the next few weeks.

I should pick up my rental car tomorrow – will give me a bit of independence for sightseeing & more importantly riding.

friends, travel, USA, vehicles

A camping expedition with a boat

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The title should have been “A boating expedition with camping”, but due to the unfortunate circumstances of this week it is the opposite. Boat hitched up to the van, Chris & I left first for Squaw Lake on the Colorado River. It was east on Interstate 8, climbing over four thousand feet from San Diego & then down in to the desert. To say the hills were rocky was bit of an understatement:

Of course, at over ninety degrees (I’m slowly learning to think American) & with no AC & the sun it started to get reasonably warm in the van. The desert was as you would expect a desert to be, but still interesting so far. I was surprised to find the All-American Canal supplies irrigation & drinking water to much of the area we drove through (part of Imperial County) & it is the largest irrigation canal in the world – there was an awful lot of crops growing & some huge lines ups of various baled hay & grass. Also of note on the long straight drive was the intermittent sightings of the US/Mexican border & the Border Patrol vehicles careening around the desert. In to Yuma (only of note to me due to the film “3.10 to Yuma” that I think I saw on a plane somewhere) to gas up the van & boat. Through the back blocks to the Imperial Dam & the turn off to Squaw Lake (really a bit on the side of the Colorado River) & the campsite – the rest of the family arrived within half an hour of us. Funnily enough, camping in the desert is rather different to the camping I was used to – rocky, hot brown.

Putting the boat in we were frustrated to find that it didn’t go – after exhausting the jumpstart packs, Eliot moving batteries from car to boat, boat to car, van to boat & boat to van & pulling the battery shield off, we found that the workshop had not earthed the battery correctly – nuts. We would have to wait for a new battery from Yuma tomorrow to give it another go. Still there were tents to put up (we managed some sort of grass by a couple of palms) & dinner to have (poor Andrea still on the soup diet throughout the weekend due to the teeth situation). Eliot got a great fire going & then it was off to bed – I didn’t sleep well, probably due to the heat & small tent.

Chris & Beverley went in to town to get supplies & a new battery. The boat started first time after the new battery was installed, so we loaded up & prepared for a day on the river. Predictably, the boat didn’t start second, third, fourth or any time (we may have worn the starter out the day before) so we spent most of the morning anchored about fifty feet from our campsite lounging in the sun, playing on tubes & getting thrown in the water. With the boat u/s, Eliot & Andrea took off back to San Diego & the rest of us went on a bit of a drive to Arizona (just across the river). Passed the military’s rather large Yuma Proving Ground (a big testing range – one of the biggest in the world), stopped for ice cream at some swanky riverside village (a lot of RVs, condos all in the middle of nowhere), found another settlement & looked down on where we should have been playing on the water.

Upon our return we took a walk up one of the hills behind our campsite – it wasn’t too big & all the rocks reminded me a bit of the Tongariro Crossing. As it was dusk, the light was pretty cool:

Here is our campsite – our tent is below the right had tip of the small island.

Another scrumptious camp dinner & some strange story-telling rotation around the campfire (mine was at its usual woeful standard) & it was off to bed. With the whole tent to myself & it being a bit cooler I slept much better & did not wake to the brilliant sunshine until 6.30. With not much else to do we packed up early, loaded up the boat & paddled it back to the ramp – we must have looked quite strange amongst all the ski boats, party boats & jet skis going out. With out the thrust of the boat’s engine, we struggled to get it to sit on the front of the trailer (the full tank of gas didn’t really help much). After much adjustments we were on our way. Of course, with in five minute of leaving we were on the side of the road dealing to this a blow out on the boat trailer. That was dealt with without a problem & we were on the road yet again. Back through the same desert & the boat rocking around on the trailer soon had me dozing off. After lunch just past El Centro, I was awake again & looking forward to the change in scenery climbing the hills.

Unfortunately, in the heat the van didn’t much like towing a boat from sea level to over four thousand feet. As the engine climbed in temperature & started steaming we pulled over at one of the conveniently placed radiator water troughs on the side of the I-8 & topped up the radiator. The temperature dropped, but we didn’t quite make it to the top. Not surprising really after all that had happened in the previous few days. So Chris & I were stuck on the side of the interstate that a van that didn’t go without making some awful noises & a boat that didn’t start. But I did get a ride in a towtruck to Jacumba & we waited for Andrea to come out with the pickup to tow the boat home. The van is still up in the Sierras somewhere with a cracked radiator. I think we finally made it home at 6pm. An eventful, but enjoyable camping trip.

city, travel, USA

Sea World

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Mostly pictures today – Sea World was great; lots of cool mammals & fishes (it turns out that ‘fishes’ is a word in the States) & some great cheesy shows. A particular favourite seemed to be getting the killer whale/pilot whale/dolphin/sea lion/whatever to completely soak those brave/silly enough to sit in the first few rows. Photos (from my little camera that was bought to fulfil the desire to easily take photos while riding – hence, they are average) will tell most of the story. While locking my bike (still making my way around streets on the bike – get a car on Monday; 15 odd miles today) up at the gates at opening time, over the PA came “Good morning & welcome to Sea World; please stand for our national anthem”. At which point everyone stopped what they were doing, stood still, hands on heart & listened/sung along – it was weird, it was only the opening of another theme park for the day. Also at the Shamu (killer whale) show all the veterans & those currently serving & their families had to stand up & be applauded. Something else to get used to I suppose.

One Foot in the Grave

Moray eels – these were particularly ugly & this picture could well be a video – they didn’t move; did have a certain charm about them though

Beluga whale – they were cool

Fat walrus – they didn’t do much, but I do remember that they looked a whole lot cooler on a Weet-Bix card I had when I was about six or seven

We are off camping & boating (I can finally have a decent waterski – it’s been a few years) shortly – off to the Colorado River near the California-Arizona border – almost two hundred miles. Update on the mugging – spoke to the detective this morning & they recovered most of the cash I gave up; that’s a pleasant surprise & will save hassle making travel insurance claims. They must have found it on the freeway, which is quite impressive. I think all five are being charged with four counts of robbery & I would hope one of assault. I hope I don’t have to come back from Philly to appear in court.

bikes, city, friends, travel, USA

Already made the news

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Two very different parts to this blog: one, a nice tourist on a bike one – but a little boring; two, a much more exciting one – but pretty stink altogether.

With the bike together & hopefully enough sunscreen on, it was off to explore a small part of San Diego. Cruised down the hill to Pacific Beach & encountered my first four-way Stop. Not really having a clue, I soon worked out that whoever gets there first has right of way. Riding a bike around the suburban streets was pretty easy & unlike Switzerland last year, I had no problem staying on the right hand side of the road & was easily looking left first. Great walk/cycle/roller-blade way along the coast & it was getting plenty of use.

A nice sea breeze to cool the warm sun & there were plenty of people out enjoying it.

Great to see heaps of bikes out & about – cruisers now make so much more sense than they do in NZ; saw a few choppers, loaded up cycle tourists, pink titanium rims on a pink road bike, & only a few mountain bikes. Went over a couple of bridges & ended up riding around the coast a bit further to Sunshine Cliffs Natural Park, turned around & found my back home – having fun in more congested traffic. Nice to stretch the legs over twenty-four miles.

Looking where I got to on the map after my return made me realise it’s pretty easy to get a few places on bike – even if it is running knobblies. Maybe I’ll cruise down & spend the day at Sea World tomorrow.

So I wrote the first part of that yesterday afternoon – Sea World will have wait until Wednesday after last night’s events. Sometime after dinner & fruitless attempts to get a wireless router to go with Vonage (some phone system – I haven’t quite worked out what it does yet), Anna-Marie, Andrea & I headed out for a couple of beers at Andrea’s favourite bar down PB (Pacific Beach). I was pleasantly surprised by whatever beer I had – can’t remember what, but definitely not Bud – it wasn’t all bad. We strolled from the bar down to get tacos – I was thoroughly confused by Spanish menu, but whatever it was that the girls ordered turned out just fine. The complete opposite to the walk back to Andrea’s house.

After walking through an empty parking lot, some guy started walking towards us from the other side of the street – I didn’t pay much notice, as I just thought he was drunk. What transpired took a good few seconds for me to comprehend – Andrea (who was closest to Hoodlum #1) struggled with him as he tried to snatch her handbag. He wasn’t haven’t too much luck as Andrea had a fair hold of the bag, he only really had the handles. Once I had some measure of comprehension, wafer-thin (“just one more mint, Sir”) me rather ineffectually tried to break it up. Details are a bit vague at this time, but from somewhere another guy came at me with a small baton & chased me around the corner. I wasn’t too keen on this baton & crazy Hoodlum #2 breaking me in half, but thankfully disappeared in to thin air (I was to prove a pretty poor witness!) when a few green notes changed hands. By now the girls were on the other side of the intersection & Hoodlums took off in a black two-door coupe.

By now Anna-Marie was talking to 911 & Andrea had a fair amount of blood from two teeth that had moved south a couple of millimetres after a punch to the face & a nasty looking cut on one finger. Still somewhat staggered we milled around on the main road waiting for the cops to turn up – some half an hour later an ambulance turned up (the paramedic must have been to the Bernard Black School of Public Relations – she was a piece of work), Andrea pretty much had to clean herself up in the back of the ambulance & a fire-engine turned up as well (I love American fire engines – they have so much more presence than NZ ones & are a lot shinier). Eventually the cops turned up.

The two that turned up must have forgotten that good cop-bad cop is for suspects, not witnesses. The one that interviewed Andrea was quite pleasant – the tall one that interviewed Anna-Marie & I was a dickhead. It was about this time I realised how dark it had been & I was such a useless witness. Tall nasty cop pointed out that the guy with the baton never really asked me for money – but I didn’t care, that baton spoke loud enough & I am more than happy to be unharmed & slightly poorer. Sometime around this time (now probably 12.30 – 1.00 am) another unit pulled over a car fitting the rough description of ours some miles away on the freeway (we found out later that a tow-truck driver had seen these guys steal a GPS from his truck & followed them).

When more cops arrived, we each got driven some miles away to where the car & suspects were found for a curbside identity parade. I got my first ride in a police car, & it’s not so bad up front. Unfortunately Officer Sean wasn’t willing to put the flashing lights on for me. When we got there Officer Sean went to sort out the identity parade, I got left in the front of the car & it was all I could do not to turn the flashing lights, the sirens, the PA or the fog horn – not to mention pull the shotgun off the rack – but I could listen to the radio as they called in the helicopter to search for more of our friends. For the next couple of hours we pretty much stood & sat around & Andrea identified a few of her belongings in the car, each of us went through looking at five hoodlums (basically they were each in a car up front of another squad car that had its spotlight on & they would bring each one out to face the light while we wandered up in turn & look at them as they did a nice little spin). Once again, I was next to useless here – one of the five looked like he was one of them, but it was dark previously so I don’t think I was much help. After all that happened we had stick around until a detective turned up to catalogue, photograph & print the items in the car & give back what belonged to Andrea.

All that remained after the Mustang was towed was for the last remaining cop – we were down to one after previously occupying nine cars, a helicopter, a fire engine & a bitchy ambulance – to take us back to Andrea’s house. Cruising down the length of the street it all happened on I got to use the squad car’s spotlight (rather poorly) as we searched for the handbag that may have been thrown out the car. Finally home & in to bed at 4am – what a night!

Today has been comparatively quiet – sleep/lie in until 11am. Andrea has of course been to the doctor & dentist – two teeth that will die with in the week & need to be replaced with titanium, a fractured jaw & no broken fingers. Six thousand bucks apparently – I got off lightly. It’s all still a bit bewildering – did that really happen to us? Normally I have no problem being the skinny little weed that I am – but for once it would have been nice to be Jack Reacher & kick some butt.

I think tomorrow should be Sea World & I probably won’t go out tonight! We even managed to make the news. This one is a bit more accurate.

Biking to go places, going places to bike.