Capinteria to Leo Carillo

A whole really long section of highway lined by RVs and campers

Dani wore through a her tire. That is the inner layer of the tire peaking through

Our campsite at Leo Carillo

Welcome to the Jungle!

Lots of birds along this ocean

View to the South along the Pacific Coast Highway

11/27/2009
Carpinteria to Leo Carillo State Park (just crossed in Los Angeles County)
53 miles
Day 42

We flew out of camp this morning, leaving Carpinteria State Park an hour before their checkout time (8:00 AM). We rode straight to the International House of Pancakes and ordered up a good breakfast of garden omelet, eggs, hash browns and pancakes. After getting our fill of food we were looking at the map and realized that we would be in L.A. in two days time. We studied the map further and realized there is a stretch along our route for about 80 miles with no campgrounds.

We jumped on the warmshowers website hoping that we could find someone to take us in for a night in L.A. After we emailed four or five different people asking if they could host us, we headed down the road not much later than we usually get out of camp 10:30. We both were feeling pretty strong and with few hills and at times a nice tailwind, we made great time. We came into Ventura, CA on what the surfers told us was the best surfing day of the year. The waves were huge and the shore was completely lined with people watchers, wave watchers, and surfers. We stopped and watched for awhile, and a surfer came over to chat with us about his recent tour from New York to L.A.

We left Ventura and headed South to the next town called Oxnard. We made a short grocery stop here but then continued south. We couldn't believe how fast we were going. On the flats we were going between 17 and 20 mph! It is nice to actually have a strong tailwind and very few hills for once. We flew past our campgrounds we were using for a contingency plan. (We usually plan two campgrounds for the day, one if we don't get as far as we wanted, and one that is our goal). We arrived at Leo Carillo State Park campground at 3:30!! We didn't know what to do with ourselves so we went and actually took showers, and then made supper before it got dark. Amazing,. We even have time to catch up on the blog in the tent. We know more hills are coming, but we will take the flat lands while we have them,.

Greg