We rode with the LA County Bike Coalition and other LA bike clubs on a Funday (fun and Sunday...get it?) ride. We left the AV at 6AM and drove to Marina Del Rey. There were 3 routes and we thought we wanted to ride the 37 mile, non hilly route. We talked to the ride coordinator and he said he "hoped" to do the first 11 miles in under two hours. Well that's just a little too slow for us so we joined the longer, hilly and faster group (about 50 riders). We left at 8:30, first riding on a the Ballona Creek bike path. We were soon in Baldwin Hills. There is a reason it's called Baldwin Hills. Short but intense hills. We made it up the first three but we walked the last part of the last hill as did about half the group. We then rode through South Central on our way to Watts. One bike club was predominately African American and the leader gave running commentary about riding in the the "hood". While is was all good-natured, we have lived in So Cal most of our lives and have never been to the Watts Towers. Kind of a sad commentary on us and how LA is still segregated. Our group split up on the way back and we rode with about 10 others. The pace was pretty fast for us but we kept up. Got to rest at the many lights, but we were riding at 17-19 mph most of the time. We headed toward downtown and then turned up MLK Blvd and made our way back to the beach. Total miles: 42. It was a beautiful day and even hot as we ended our ride. Hey it's February in LA!
