Bike Ride to Ojai

Hi Blog.  On Saturday, November 16th, we took a bike ride to Ojai.  The town is known mostly for its hotels and services catering to tourism, recreation, and spiritual retreats. It also has an abundance of small businesses specializing in local and ecologically friendly art, design, and home improvement—such as galleries and a solar power company.  Chain stores are forbidden by Ojai City Law to encourage local small business development and keep the town unique.  But we all know the real reason that Ojai is famous - it is the home of Jaime Sommers - The Bionic Woman!

But first we had to get there.  The Ventura River Trail and Ojai Valley Trail provide a continuous multi-use paved path along the Ventura River corridor from the beach all the way to Ojai (about 15 miles).  The trail follows the route of the old Southern Pacific Railroad that once transported Ojai Valley produce to Ventura.  In 1969, floods washed out much of the tracks, which were later converted from "Rails to Trails."  The first 6.3 miles features the area's natural and industrial heritage, including abandoned industrial sites and operating oil derricks.  It wasn't long into our ride that we got to experience the "abandoned" part of the industrial complex.  However, we found the old oil storage tanks had been converted in an urban art gallery.  Here is an example.

On the other side of the trail, between the trail and the river, runs the Ventura River Greenway.  This network of parks, open space and trails runs the length of the Ventura River.

We stopped to admire the San Antonio Creek Bridge.  Here the San Antonio Creek joins the Ventura River.  The bridge was designed to span the floodplain, which is very wide in this location.  The bridge replaces a concrete culvert that passed low river flows, but was inundated during storms, preventing bicycle and pedestrian traffic, and also hindering steelhead passage into San Antonio Creek. 

After a few miles, we realized that the trip into Ojai was going to be all uphill.  This meant two things:  one, we would get some great views of the valley; and, two, it would be all downhill on the way home!

Unfortunately, some clouds were beginning to roll in, so we didn't get all the views we had hoped for.  However, it didn't rain, so that was a good thing.

It wasn't long before we reached our destination - Ojai Beverage Company.  Before leaving Ventura, we checked with our favorite website - Beer Advocate looking for recommendations for lunch.  This restaurant, beer bar and beer and wine store, got a 98 out of 100.  This place does it all.  Not only does it have a bar with 20 craft brews on tap, it contains fridge after fridge of the best beers in the world.  It also has a very comprehensive wine selection, as well.  The restaurant in the back serves local and organic fare.  Since we were on our bikes, we limited ourselves to buying two big bottles each.  As for lunch, we each had a great salad.  David decided on a Delerium Noel to go with his lunch (yes, Risa, one of your favorites!), and Kathy chose a sample of five of the bar's best beers on tap.  Here's Kathy in a sort of beer coma induced by seeing all these great beers in one location:

After lunch, we started our trek back to Ventura only to realize that Kathy had a flat tire.  We've changed tires a couple times, but it has always been at home.  This was our first attempt to replace a tire tube while on the sidewalk and fill it with our hand pump.  It went surprisingly well, and we were soon back on the road again.  However, we had to stop and admire this old Ford.

We also couldn't help but stop and admire the mural by local grade school kids.

Many homeowners along the trail have privacy fences, but you've got to love the ones covered in colorful flowers.

The ride back was much faster than the ride up.  Downhill is a wonderful thing.

Back at the RV park, we thought a dunk in the hot tub was called for.  It felt wonderful to warm our cold skin and soak and rest our pedaled peds.