Jeff Bikes: Ventura to Santa Monica

Ventura to Santa Monica
58 Miles

What a mix of a day.

Started off at about my "usual time" (if you get my drift) (does anyone even understand what that phrase means anymore?), and the weather started off in "the usual way," cold, cloudy and foggy.

Leaving Ventura I headed towards Oxnard through an agricultural area that eventually included housing developments on the right (beach) side, many of which had "Mandalay" worked into their names in one way or another. Finally hit a huge marina and crossed a bridge into Oxnard. There are a lot of boats in Oxnard. The route follows two sides of the US Naval Base. As I was riding the south side of the base I noticed that the US Navy Seabee Museum is located here. I regretted my late start; I would have liked to go in and look around, but this was a big mileage day, so I chose to ride on.

Shortly after reaching the end of the second side of the base, the road turned and headed out of town back to Route 1. I rode past several fields of strawberries which smelled wonderful (and looked as if they needed to be picked last week). Then I rode past a field of cabbage that I smelled like cabbage. Too early for lunch.

As I approached Route 1 the wind started to pick up, and as I turned to follow Route 1 south I found myself fighting a mighty headwind. At one point off to the right I heard the sound of a plane landing and soon discovered there is an Air National Guard base here followed by another naval base. All very 'windswept' military installations. As I hit the end of the the navy base and rode back onto Route 1 the wind picked up even more, and soon Route 1 turned west and headed towards the ocean at which point the wind picked up even more. Once I finally hit the coast though and turned south, it was still windy but it was a crosswind and so much easier to deal with.

Fairly spectacular landscape here, almost primordial with lots of baren rock reaching down into the ocean. I immediately rolled up on Point Mugu beach and though "that was quick" but then as the morning went on I passed "Point Mugu this" and "Point Mugu that" and started suspecting that rather than some specific point on the map, "Point Mugu" was more of a geographic region of California. Much like "Malibu" which I rode into in the early afternoon. I saw a sign that indicated I was in Malibu, and then a few miles along saw another sign that said something like "Malibu, 27 miles of scenic beauty". Later in the day I rode into the city of Malibu (again?). So I'm not sure exactly what's up with Malibu.

When I hit Zuma Beach (I think it was around there) that the hills started. A mile up, a mile down, a mile up, a mile down. Fortunately as I started getting into it, the sun finally came out, and it seemed like within a few minutes it was nothing but blue sky in every direction. I'm not sure whether it cleared up suddenly, or whether I finally rode out from under the "marine layer". I was glad to have it.

After a few miles of up and down I passed the Pepperdine University Malibu campus int the route leveled out and it was miles of rocky coastline on the left and a seldom-interrupted series of homes right on the beach on the right, most with very expensive cars parked at all angles in and around them. Ah, the smell of money.

Malibu eventually gave way to Santa Monica where I was happy to leave the road for a little while and ride down on the concrete bike trail right down in the sand of the beach. The sight of the Santa Monica pier with it's ferris wheel came into view and before I knew it, the day was done. I rode a mile or so inland to the "cheap" motel I'd selected for the night.