LA River Ride!

Laura and I rode the Los Angeles River Ride today, which is put on by the Los Angeles Bike Coalition. It was only my second organized ride and our first ride together. The route starts at Griffith Park and goes to Long Beach. Some people opt to ride back to Griffith Park (70 miles round trip). We just wanted to do the half and rode the ride in reverse, starting from Long Beach and ending at Griffith Park.

When we got to the start, there was only one other "reverse rider," a man named Jerry on a recumbent. Luckily we rode about the same speed. So it was just the three of us riding from Long Beach to the end. At about mile 12 we crossed paths with the first set of riders going in the opposite direction. From then on, we would see other bunches of riders going in the opposite direction.

We made it to the finish, with no other riders passing us, so it really was a unique experience, as if we were riding our own personal ride with a marked course.

At the end, there was the long awaited catered gourmet BBQ (the real reason we wanted to do the ride:) There were some issues with the propane (not enough), so there was a bit of a hold up with the food. However, when the grills did get going the food was great.

Our total for the day was about 50 miles. After the BBQ we rode back to Union Station (10 miles), took the trains to Long Beach and rode home. It was a great ride and will definitely help us prepare for our tour this summer.