Saving the Whales with a Bike and a Bus

Just a month ago OCTA hosted an Urban Cycling Workshop; I went to make a few new friends and brush up on my skills. That’s where I met Wes Parsel.

Wes does OCTA’s Marketing for vanpools and bicycles. He stood out of the crowd that day of the training — he had 2 flat tires that blazing, red-hot day!

Afterwards, we exchanged the customary Facebook friendings and I thought that would be the end of it, but once I had a friend inside OCTA I started thinking of combining the bike with a bus trip — I just didn’t know where I wanted to go. Frequent followers will remember my AMTRAK/bike trips, especially my visit to my mother in San Diego. I felt I could duplicate this experience on the bus.

One problem with planning a bus trip is, the damn bus goes everywhere — who needs to take a bike? Disneyland or the Bowers Museum? The bus would take me to the doorstep. My second idea was a coastal route. Am I the only cyclist who’s knees knock at the thought of riding Coast Hwy through Laguna Beach? I doubt it. This might work, if I can find a suitable destination. Then I hit on whale watching out of Dana Point Harbor. Cycling and ‘Save the Whales’ go together nicely and once I spotted half-price Tuesdays, I felt like the plan was coming together.

I didn’t want to do this alone — I’d never ridden the bus here in Orange County, even though I was a bus driver in college in Massachusetts; I guess I had succumbed to the LA mindset: Drive a car, only the unwashed ride the bus. This myth was due for a shake-up. I emailed Wes, did it sound like a good idea for a story? Most buses have a rack for two bikes on the front, but what if they’re full? You’re gonna be waiting for the next bus. Your fold-up bike, on the other hand, goes right on the bus with you. OCTA had a couple of fold-ups to promote this approach, so with a little back and forth we came up with a plan.

I used to live in Manhattan and when friends from out of town would visit we’d often be planning a trip to one of the many art museums, all of which were on the other side of Central Park. My strategy: always start with a cab — save your feet for the museum and then walk home through the park. It was a tried and true approach and it seemed applicable to this Dana Point junket — we would take the bus from Marguerite and Coast Hwy to Dana Point Harbor and bike our way back. Yes, there was still the wobbly knee syndrome, but the way north through Laguna takes advantage of a quieter road a block in from PCH — we could much more comfortably ride north than south.

I’ll jump right to the bottom line — the day was a huge success! Wes brought a friend, Stuart Sharpe, and two Dahon fold-up bikes; me, I have a Dahon, too, but I rode the Brompton just to be different. The weather cooperated; it was much warmer than originally forecast, but with just enough cloud cover to keep us cool on the ride back. My inaugural ride on the bus? It was on time and much quicker to Dana Point than the schedule predicted — we had time for a slice of pizza before the boat departed.

The one detail I hadn’t researched: could we bring the bikes on the boat? I brought a lock just in case, but these fold-ups attract so much attention, I didn’t want to leave them ashore. I needn’t have worried, fold-up bikes are popular with boat lovers, too. The bikes went aboard and seemingly everyone on board wanted to talk about them.

When I got home my wife wanted to know just one simple thing: Would I do it again? Absolutely! The whale watching delivered in spades. We saw Blue whales and Humpbacks and Fin whales, too. There were so many dolphins on our way to the whales I had many opportunities for a good photo.

The bike ride home — well what can you say about cycling Coast Hwy? All that traffic zipping by contributes quite the pucker factor, but this afternoon we encountered nothing but considerate drivers. Many moved to the other lane to give us a wide berth, but there’s more to this ride than the traffic. At one point Stuart says he feels like he’s in the Tour de France, the uphill part is what he means. It’s like riding a 15-mile roller coaster as we pedaled our way into downtown Laguna where a beer and a bowl of pasta waited.