Dana Point to Carlsbad, CA

Porpoises swimming in a little bay

Chompy checking out the sunrise at Doheny Beach

The Sunrise at Doheny State beach in Dana Point, CA

Dana Point to Carlsbad, CA
Day 45
44 miles
11/30/2009


We got up and out of camp early this morning and rode a short ways down the beach to have a relaxing breakfast while watching the rising sun. We ate our granola and Greek yogurt (thanks Staci!) and watched the waves. A nice man walking by stopped to inform us that not 100 yards away in the ocean were porpoises, surfacing and swimming by in their pod. It was good to round out our ocean mammal sightings. Later that morning, while washing dishes at the surfer shower on the beach, I pressed the wrong water spigot button and instead of getting a spray near my feet as I had planned, I got a nice spray from the top faucet and completely soaked myself. Thankfully it was cold that morning and I was wearing my full raingear. Greg laughed for a full two minutes :)

We rode back into the town of Dana Point to find a shop with internet and ended up 1.5 miles inland and up in the hills. We spent a long time here working on the blog and on the internet. At about noon we finished and found a conveniently located "all you can eat" pizza and salad buffet. YUM! We got started riding at about 1PM.

Today we rode through the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base north of San Diego. Much of the path was a wide deserted road that was the bike path. Later we got to the actual base where people work and live. One rule while riding through the base is that you must ride single file. Now when I see that the Marines are asking me to ride single file, I ride single file. I had been giving Greg a hard time about riding single file because we kept ending up next to each other talking. Then as he was riding behind me he yelled, "Hey Dani, look behind you!" I couldn't look back and safely steer so I waited for the vehicles we heard rumbling behind to pass. They were huge hum-V, tank like trucks with four wheels. They must have been fifteen feet tall and painted in camo. The exhaust emptied, unmuffled, at our ear height. They were very loud and when they all passed, there were maybe 15 vehicles total. But the best part about this encounter was that on the back of each and every one of these monster vehicles was a sign reading "STUDENT DRIVER."

We got through the base, which had been nice riding and shortly after entered Oceanside and then Carlsbad. We got to my Uncle Tom's house at about 4:30, just in time to see him get home from work. Tom works as a teacher in the mechanical engineering department at the University of California San Diego. That night Tom, his friend Barbara and Greg and I had a nice dinner of salmon. We have a nice cozy bed here and we plan on taking tomorrow as a rest day in Carlsbad.

Dani