City on the Edge of Rural America or Accidental Skate to Rocklin 2: The Revengening

So I've decided that I am going to try to come up with titles for all of my days out and that Electric Boogaloo was both a bit too easy and a bit less apt.

I set out much later than I intended; it was 10:30. I didn't have a particular end in sight so I decided that I would just pick a direction and get lost for a bit. I decided on north.

I did not go directly anywhere. I meandered about neighborhoods without any end in sight. I went up streets I had always been curious where they ended up and then came back down them when I realized that there was good reason I had never been down them before.   

I don't mind skateboarding in Antelope or in Roseville, but I do mind skating between them because they both stop being suburban just long enough for it to be an issue. I had a nice picture to demonstrate this with a house from a new subdevelopment tract in the foreground and a tractor in a field behind it, but alas it did not come out.

Lame.

 A thing I've noticed while skateboarding in these new subdevelopments is that they oftentimes have some rather odd stuff going on in their roads. For instance today I came across this:

For some reason that I cannot determine at this time someone decided they needed to narrow this round by building two concrete islands in the middle of the street. As far as I can tell this serves no purpose other than to inconvenience drivers.

Skating in Northern Sacramento isn't without its pleasures though as I get to skate next to fields full of huge, old valley oaks.

Almost worth putting up with what comes next.

During my travels around these cul-de-sacs I came across this:

How can going on the other side of this possibly end poorly?

Since I was still fresh out the gate and still without a destination in sight I decided that I'd see what was on the other side.

I ended up on North Antelope Road. In a previous outing some months ago I foolishly decided to skate down this road, I have regretted this decision ever since. I am of course exaggerating here for comedic effect, but the advice is sound and so was my decision to heed it.

I went back into the neighborhood looking for a way north that didn't require skateboarding some shit road. I did find something but it did end at North Antelope Road so I was a bit bummed. It did however leave me where I had previously decided to turn back during that previous trip, the Placer County line. This time I decided to risk it and headed northerly cause the wind was blowing north.

 I ended up on PFE Road. Don't skate on PFE Road. The only thing on PFE Road is trains.

Pictured: Trains

Eventually I ended up at Denio's Farmers Market. I didn't go in as I had neither the money nor interest. As I was skating past I did see someone trying to sell a modified golf cart made to look like Fred Flintstones car as well as a garage sell sign that was made by taking a sharpie to the hood of a car. I took pictures but they came out piss poorly. Sorry.

I skated down by the train yard until a tunnel lead under it. This lead me to downtown Roseville. I had no interest sticking around so I continued on my trek north. I eventually came across the Galleria. I went into the REI to look at some camping stuff the likes of which I'll need shortly. The only thing of note was this surprise awaiting me in the bathroom.

I guess that's why people pay to be members

I kept on keeping on. I continued my way north until I hit Rocklin again. I really have no reason to be in Rocklin. It is over 12 miles from my house and there is nothing to do there except carve some hills but there was too much traffic to even do that. Knowing this and the fact that I had been out for about 3 hours by now I decided that it was time to turn around and head home.

My way home wasn't much of an issue. I ended up skating nearly an identical path back that I had taken some months before the last time I accidentally skated to Rocklin. I did however decided to take a more direct route home as I was pushing a 5 hour run and the only thing of note on the exact path I went last time is Billy Mitchell Blvd.

Although highly unlikely I really hope it's named after this Billy Mitchell

 I ended up getting home a couple past 4:00. I had been gone for 5.5 hours and had covered something close to 30 miles. Although slow, I can cover similar distances in about 4 hours, I was in no hurry and spent some time in some stores and ate lunch at a park. So while not record setting in any way it is probably a reasonable proximity of what kind of distance I can easily cover in a day and how long it takes me to cover it. It is also worth noting that I am not tired in the least from todays adventure nor do I expect to feel sore tomorrow. Both bodies of information bode well for my goal of skating to Orange County starting next month.

On a final note I wanted to show a picture of the camera that I use to take the pictures I post on this blog (minus the Billy Mitchell one I pulled off internet directly above).

That's right, I have been taking pictures with a camera that looks like it is a lighter. What people who have been looking at me taking pictures think I'm doing I couldn't tell you.

Preliminary Run in San Diego Saturday April 16th and Sunday April 17th ~20 Miles and ~9 Miles

I left the motel at 06:22 headed west. I figured that if I got lucky I'd be able to find a small series of streets that would take me down to the beach without too much of a headache. I instead found a mellow bike trail that ran parallel to a freeway straight to Ocean Beach.

A Welcoming Start

A Nice View at the End

After I reached the beach I walked and cruised around a bit taking it in.

Gnarly Waves

Gnarly Hill

After I saw that hill in the above photo I was pretty sure I wanted to change my course as that picture doesn't do it any kind of justice; it was steep. I consulted the map I had taken from the yellow pages in my motel room. I was pretty sure that I could make it to the conference at UCSD from where I was without too much issue and keep near the beach while doing so. I set off north.

After crossing a bridge I ended up near SeaWorld and a bit unsure as to where to go next. I found a bus stop and looked at the map on it. Unlike Sacramento the maps posted on bus stops in San Diego have these nifty "You Are Here" stickers affixed to them making my job much easier. I found the next bridge I was to cross and set out. It was a bit more steep than I had thought it was going to be on the way down but, fuck it, I bombed it.

Bomb - a term skateboarders use for that means going down a hill for some reason.

At the bottom a guy on a recumbent bike passed me and said, "You sure handled that well". I gave him a smile and nod and kept going. Then I skated passed a roller coaster; you know, the usual.

The Usual

I soon found myself in a little town full of small shops on a peninsula. It was a bit surreal to be skating down the street and see the ocean on either side of me when I got to intersections, which more often than not were also roundabouts, but I rolled with it.

I was starting to get hungry. I was thinking to myself that it would be really rad if I came across a grocery store soon as I didn't feel like spending $10 at some diner. Less than a minute later I was passing a Ralph's. I was able to get a couple of bananas and some doughnuts for the low low price of $1.44. It was awesome.

A little while later I came to a touristy section of road full of people parking on the side headed to the beach. It was a bit congested with people, but the cars were moving slow and it was full of sections of mild downhill and had a nice view.

I spent a bit of time inland skating down some streets full of blind intersects and some pretty intense downhill which forced me off my board and into walking. It was killing the stoke. After a while I came upon a sign labeled UCSD and was sure I was getting close. I cruised passed a large hotel to a section of beach I had seen from the picture above. I could tell it was the same section as it was unnaturally full of palm trees; there were literally dozens of them in close proximity.

This section of beach was straight out of a movie. It went beach, small sea wall, wide sidewalk, then huge park. It was full of people kayaking and surfing, but it was only about 08:30 at the time so it was still quite empty.

For comparisons sake I came back a bit later at about 17:00 and it looked like this.

I had never seen a beach this full outside of a movie before.

I skated down the beach and soon came upon part of UCSD.

I figured where I was headed on the main campus was near by and boy was I wrong. I ended up walking up a large hill into another section of the school that was under construction to consult another bus map. I learned that I was indeed in UCSD and that I was also going the right way but that the main campus was at the top of the hill and that I was only about a third of the way up it. It was a major bummer. Ultimately the only positive thing to come out of my approximately 20 minute walk up this hill was that this tree looked pretty neat.

Neat Looking Tree

There was also a half marathon going on at the same time that involved the hill I was walking up, but they were headed down it; lucky bastards.

I ended up on the campus and at the conference about 10 minutes before it started. I had wanted to get onto the campus earlier to skate around, but I hadn't factored in all the huge hills I'd be forced to walk up and down. It had taken me about three hours to get there and it was worth it. I wish I had new beautiful areas like this to skate all the time instead of the same lame ones that I have available to me in Sacramento.

The next mourning the weather was lame. It was overcast and hazy. I also didn't know when everyone else was going to get up or when we were going to leave to I decided on a short trip to the beach and back. When I got to the beach it was closed on account of a beach volleyball tournament happening later in the day; no big deal I should probably get back to the motel in case they want to leave early. They didn't. I ended up walking and skating around the motel area for the next few hours. The most interesting things that happened in this time was when I was walking on the dirt trail near the bike trail and saw a rabbit and a field of flowers.

Rabbit

Field of Flowers

Ultimately I am not sure if the format I chose to write this post in is either interesting or compelling. I didn't really know what to write about or how to write it. I figured that filling the post with pictures, albeit shitty ones, would help break up the monotony of sentences like "then I skated" and "then I skated some more". If anyone reads this and has any suggestions as to what they'd rather see or hear on this blog feel free to leave a comment as I'd welcome it.