Up The Pacific Coast Highway to Neptunes Net (and How I Met Charlie Sheen)

One of my favorite and most frequently taken routes I take is from Santa Monica to Neptunes Net. It is a gorgeous ride, not too treacherous, and really allows you to take your time on the road and pay attention to the beautiful environment you're going through. In a previous post, I had found a pretty cool place on the road. Today was also a perfect day to go riding

While the rest of the country freezes over, we languish in our amazing weather

 I decided to take my second ride on motorcycle with my friend Ben. We had initially 

planned to go on the Angeles Crest Highway, but his little vespa was chickenshit compared to the rest of the vehicles on the road, and we called it off and decided to reroute.

My Friend Ben. As you can see, he has a Vespa

And so we decided to go up PCH to Neptune's Net. The weather was perfect, but road conditions were less than favorable. The traffic was rather terrible, and we got almost run in to at least 3 or 4 times by some idiots (car drivers please watch for us motorcyclists FYI) in Santa Monica. However, once we go on to the main road, everything was pretty nice. 

It was pretty empty north of Santa Monica

At Neptune's Net

And so we arrived at Neptune's Net after a couple of hours. Located 30 miles up the coast from Santa Monica, the whole place was filled with bikes and bikers, and a bunch of interesting characters just in time for lunch.

This is only a small portion of the bikes parked

I'm not usually a fan of Harley-Davidsons, but this one was beautiful

Oddly enough, the garden burgers were pretty tasty, so vegetarians can go and not feel bad eating meat. However, Neptune's Net is known for their seafood, which is admittedly amazing (before I turned vegetarian, I used to order the crab cake burgers and was never unsatisfied).

"Where's Charlie Sheen?" you're probably asking. Well, he decided to take a visit to Neptune's Net at the same time that we were. Unfortunately, I was too busy taking photos before the battery on my camera ran out before I could snap a photo, but Ben was able to take a picture. He commented on our jackets, calling us crazy for wearing such thick gear on a hot day.

Overall, definitely a good day, and a good ride. Check Neptune's Net out if you can. Where are some other good riding/driving locations you know of?

Backpacking Ideas in Southern California

    I personally love to do go out in to nature for a weekend and do more than just a day hike. The feeling of your backpack against you, the long roads, and the ever changing environments are simply precious. However, searching for nice places to do multi-day backpacking trips in Couthern California is quite difficult. The reddit forum (http://www.reddit.com/r/socalhiking) is okay, but does not provide a definitive list of places to go backpacking. So, here is the best place to look:

District 5 National Forests

http://www.fs.usda.gov/

We have 4 national forests in Southern California. The closest to LA is Angeles National Forest, a popular destination for motorcyclists to go through due to a beautiful highway that splits the forest in half. Northwest of that is Los Padres National Forest, located north of beautiful Ojai. San Bernadino National Forest is to the east, compassing part of the Pacific Crest Trail. In the south, near San Diego, is Cleveland National Forest. Check them all out, mix and match trails to your liking and you can control how long you want to stay in the forest. Pretty cool huh? Don't get turned off by the "Fee Areas" name, you only have to pay for parking (or not depending on which forest. Rangers have to prove that you parked with the intent of using the forest recreationally. Whether you want to take that risk or not is not in my hands).

So, do you guys have any favorite trails or trips?

Malibu is the Coolest (Pics)

I stumbled on this place a while back while going North on PCH. It's over a hill, and the view just as you're coming over is beautiful when it is clear.

After a little bit of relaxing I snap a few photos of the area

As I follow the stream of water it becomes greener and filled with more trash and bits of concrete. I then look up and see this

HOLY SHIT THIS IS COOL

Oh, FYI, there were slabs of concrete chillin' right next to the tunnel

So I ventured through and on the other side was a basically untouched, despite being next to a road.

And later I ran across what seemed like an ideal place for druggies to hang out

If you see this place as well, please check it out. It's gorgeous and I haven't even explored half of it.