Led by Mike Brostoff and Jeff Bates
Photo above: Preparing to head back up the beach bike path after a break
By Jeff Johnson, story and photos
I have heard for years about Mike’s annual summer bike ride down the beach on the Marvin Braude Coastal Bike Trail from Pacific Palisades to Torrance in the morning and back again in the afternoon but I had never done it. Plus, after decades in southern California, I’d never even seen the beach on that side of town at all. So this year I borrowed a bike and a helmet and showed up on July 8 to ride. So I hadn’t ridden a bike in decades but it’s just going along the beach paths and it’s all flat, nothing but scenery and rolling along for 40 miles, right?
After a first short mile, we stopped for breakfast at a Santa Monica restaurant on the beach. Then we rode south through Santa Monica, under the pier, and onto Venice Beach. At Marina Del Rey, we turned inland to make our way on the streets around the harbor, across Ballona Creek, then back out to Dockweiler State Beach. For a few miles then, we were separated from the city, first under the runways of LAX, then below the giant LA Hyperion water treatment plant, and then the giant Chevron refinery in El Segundo. And then we were back in the teeming beachside neighborhoods of Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach and, finally, Torrance.
We started early enough that the crowds weren’t difficult to dodge on the bike path but it wasn’t long before it was clear that spending a day on the hard and narrow bike seat wasn’t just coasting along. By the time we got to Torrance, some of us were glad to sit on something else for a while.
When we started heading back north, into the afternoon breeze and crowds, our first designated goal was the Old Town Music Hall, in El Segundo, to hear the pipe organ and see a movie there. But at the turn uphill onto Grand Ave. toward the theater, some of us decided to skip the climb and just continue up the beach. When we all met up again after the movie, we headed to an Italian restaurant on Washington Blvd. in Marina Del Rey for dinner. The day ended with the very sore-seated last miles back up to Pacific Palisades. Carlos and Mike and the regular bike riders were charging right along all the way to the end. I was not, but I made it.
What did I learn? It’s a great ride for a long summer day and there is a lot of LA to see on the beach, but I should have prepared by putting in some bike miles ahead of time and maybe even got a cushier bike seat.
Thanks to Mike for leading this outing yet again!
