We said to goodbye to our gracious host and pedaled onward to Pt. Mugu. The first 1 1/2 days of riding were mostly inland. Today's ride would be primarily coastal and much of it on hwy 1. Not many hills in the forecast, but some slightly warm temperatures without much of a breeze.
We made a few stops along the way, including a bike shop in Carpenteria and lunch in Ventura at Duke's.
Before getting to Pt. Mugu, our destination for the night, we took in the outdoor missile museum and scenic coastline.
Our bodies seemed to be holding up well. The boys never complained about being fatigued or in pain. One or two of the adults were willing to admit having uncomfortable seats, but nothing too severe. On a personal note, I felt like my energy level was just a bit lower on the third day. At the time I thought it may have been from not sleeping soundly at night. In hindsight I think I just needed to drink a little bit more water. Days 2 and 3 were a little warmer and I might not have increased my water intake.
The state campground at Pt. Mugu has a nice place for bike packers. The hike and bike is $10 per person on a first come, first serve basis. We were the only ones there that day and had a nice spot to set up tents. The boys had fun riding their bikes around on trails and running around on the beach.
We enjoyed a dinner of pasta, chili, french bread, and raw carrots. The best part was having a fire (once we got it started). What made it even better was that Dal had picked up supplies for smores earlier in the day. It made for a tasty night!
As you might guess, there are many stories that cannot be told - either because there is not enough time/space to tell them or because some events on a trip like this are stricktly confidential. Some stories are only interesting if you were there at the time. "You had to be there" stories. I'm not sure if the following story will be funny to others, but I still get a chuckle out of it.
At some point during the night I was disturbed from my sleep by some strange noises. It sounded like a person or animal was walking through the leaves around our tents. I listened as the rustling moved from place to place and wondered to myself, "What is out there?" I started ruling things out - it didn't seem loud enough to be a person or bear, but it seemed like it was too loud to be anything very small like a bird, squirrel or rat. As the sound got much closer to our tent I started thinking I should either look outside to see what it was or wake up Rob (who was in the same tent) to see if he had a better plan.
I decided to wake Rob.
After waking him up the animal stopped moving around and we couldn't hear much more than the crickets. Rob suggested that some rats or mice might be the culprits. Since he had to go to the bathroom anyway, he figured he would scare them away by going in the bushes a couple yards from the tent. As he was doing so I heard the animal moving around again - thankfully not in the bush Rob was watering.
"Whoa, that doesn't sound like a rat!" Rob whispered, as he scrambled back into the tent. We never did figure out what type of animal it was. We figured it was probably a raccoon or skunk. At any rate, three days were done with one more day to get home. I was pretty sure sleeping in my own bed would be much more peaceful.
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