Tour of Two Rivers – 117.5 miles

I joined team Different Spokes for the Tour of Two Rivers ride on Sunday, May 14th. It was so good to see familiar faces, such as Heather, Tye, Katie and Stephen. There were about 15 of us total. It was suppose to be 97.6 miles. We all met in Azusa and headed out in hopes of seeing Huntington Beach and having lunch at near the pier.

All was well until we got to Fullerton and realized that we could not find a street called Wilshire, so we ended up flagging down a Police Officer to get directions after cycling around for a while in search of the street. We found ourselves back on the correct route, but were realizing that the route map was wrong yet again, when the bike path we were suppose to take the rest of the way towards the ocean ended (I think we were in Anaheim). We flagged down yet another Police Officer where he was attending to a car accident, got directions and were back on the correct path again, until the bike path split into 2 directions. With several people on the phone and others scouting out the options, Timmy (a former Boys Scout) recommended that we following the current of the river which he believed would lead us to the ocean. Ahh, Timmy was correct and we reached PCH. But once on PCH, we did not know which way to turn to find Main Street. Luckily Tye had been in the area before and thought that we should turn right. He was correct and we headed on PCH towards Main Street.

During some indecisive route options we lost a few people from the group, but luckily our tummies think a like (we were starving & there were tons of resturants) and we ran into a few of them at the restaurant that we picked to eat at. We had not seen Katie or Stephen for the longest time and I began to worry. Funny thing as we were putting our bikes on PCH to head back (A different way from the way we came) up came riding Katie and Stephen. I was so happy to see them. We got them some water and we were together on our way back.

We were planning to ride PCH to the bike path and ride it all the way back. Simple right? Wrong! The bike path ended before we came anywhere near our ending point. Again a bunch of us got on the phones, while others scouted out the area. I called my dad (who was in Arizona with a friend who lived in a nearby city) to see if they could help us. They told us to head north and so we did. Just when we thought that we were home free, we had trouble finding the Arrow Hwy exit from the bike path (the bike path ran along a river). We were off by one street but were still able to find the main street that lead to the parking lot that we were all parked at.

When we rolled in, we heard the park ranger announcing that the park was closing in 2 minutes. Talk about cutting it close! We all rushed to get out bikes and gear packed up. What a day, I am calling this ride the Tale of Two Rivers. It was awesome to bond with my fellow cyclists. We had a blast, stuck together, and worked together as a team to get ourselves home, no arguing, no tempers, no drama. It was fun! I hope that I get to ride with these people in June.