Riding the CA South Bay Bike Trail

The week between Christmas and New Year’s provided the perfect opportunity to explore Santa Monica and the South Bay Bike Trail (this link is the best description of this trail that I was able to find). The traffic between LV and LA is difficult to endure so we don’t go into CA very often and this was our first visit to Santa Monica. In the past we have concentrated on the great museums but from now on I think our excursions will definitely combine biking and museums. We absolutely loved our little visit. We enjoyed lovely warm weather for December (better than in LV) as you can see from my pictures and, even though it was during the Christmas holiday, we avoided the summer crowds. California has tons of inviting bike trails and we are anxious to explore further. Have you ever biked in CA? What trails do you recommend?

Riding in Death Valley

Seems like we’ve been almost too busy lately to bike and I have even less time to write about it. Still we do try to sneak in a few excursions here and there. One, last November, included our first time to bike Death Valley. We love that park and have visited several times, but this was our first time to take the bikes. There are plenty of long runs with more challenging grades than you would expect. Then factor in the strong, steady winds that occur many afternoons, probably because of the extreme temperature changes between night and day, and you’ll have a pretty good work out. Although there is but one short bike-only trail for roadies like us, usually the narrow roads are not crowded and most of the time cars can easily pull into the opposite lane to pass. We visited during the 49ers Encampment last November and even then the road traffic from our Furnace Creek tent site to Badwater and back (35 miles) was not unbearable. By the way, the annual November encampments are one of the best values around for your “nature entertainment adventure” dollar and I highly recommend joining them for a couple of days some year. This non-government commercial site for Death Valley has many additional links that help when planning your visit. Note: I do NOT recommend biking Death Valley during the summer months (usually May - Sept).