Dog Beach

I’ve been trying to get to the coast for a ride for at least a week, but the poisonous air quality around here has extended out to the ocean and beyond, which is quite unusual. Every day I look for somewhere in the Bay Area with tolerable air, figuring the breezy coast should be okay, but the AQI is always crappy everywhere. Today the coast started to clear a little. That’s all I needed. I threw the Ogre in the back of the Forester and headed west at noon. An hour later I reached the Pacific Ocean.

Read more at Bill Bikes

They call me Old Grumble-Face. I have no idea why they do that....

16 response to "Dog Beach"

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      The Ogre kept muttering something about saltwater and corrosion. Got a thorough bath when we returned home. Ogre, not me.

  1. By: BobinVT Posted: September 15, 2020

    Glad you were able to get out at least for a bit. I love all the beach photos. Nice job on getting that selfie while riding. That must have taken awhile to get set up correctly.

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      My biggest fear while taking the riding selfie was having a big wave wash away my iPhone!

  2. By: Lednar De Nalloh Posted: September 15, 2020

    Amazing coastline, One day I’ll work out how to use the timer on my Galaxy.

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      Don’t know about Android devices, but for iPhone it’s necessary to download one of many timer apps in order to really do a decent job. The built-in timer only fires one shot, but some third-party apps allow for continuous shooting, so you don’t have to be quite so precise in setting things up.

  3. By: Scooter Posted: September 15, 2020

    Glad you were able to get out. Such a great shot of the arch between the notch! The selfies aren’t bad either, considering.

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      Coming from you, I consider that comment about my gorgeous selfies to be an enormous compliment! 😉

  4. By: NancyG Posted: September 15, 2020

    Sigh. I envy you being able to ride anywhere. Enjoyed those beach photos. Even saw some mild blue sky in one ;’-0.

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      Glad you liked the photos. The gray sky and sea seems kind of moody and interesting, but I guess I prefer sunny days at Dog Beach.

      By the way, this afternoon our AQI in Santa Rosa (and around most of the San Francisco Bay area) finally returned to “good.” But we’ve been warned not to get too comfortable, because the winds are supposed to shift again and blow all the smoke right back to us.

  5. By: gregblood Posted: September 15, 2020

    Man, that is an awesome beach, and I don’t think I’ve ever thought of cycling the wet sand along a shoreline. Now I’m going to have to try it sometime.

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      Not exactly easy pedaling, but not bad. I probably should have let more air out of my tires. The trickiest part was trying to stay on firm, damp sand without getting the Ogre inundated by incoming waves. Maybe I need a rusty old beach bike with a surfboard rack.

      Hey, have a safe trip back to Minnesota. Looking forward to some Montana photos en route.

  6. By: Suzanne Posted: September 15, 2020

    Wonderful beach pictures! Riding not too firm sand must have been challenging. Glad you could get a bit of reasonably fresh air.

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      Thanks, Suzanne. Along the Sonoma coast the water is always too cold (and dangerous) for swimming. “Sneaker waves” are common, and at least once each year someone gets swept away. We were at Dog Beach several years ago when a dog was swept away and never recovered. Beautiful, dramatic, wild, and dangerous. Not like the warm, sunny, inviting, bikini “Baywatch” beaches of southern California.

  7. By: Rich-Illinois Posted: September 15, 2020

    When I saw Dog Beach, I wondered what the heck is Bill doing in San Diego? Isn’t that where or near where the ACA Southern Tier Route begins/ends?
    Great photos of the emergent coastline — and yes, that one photo — don’t they say Never Turn Your Back on the Ocean? (Don’t say that much in IL) 🙂

    • By: Bill Stone Posted: September 15, 2020

      Good point, Rich. I think you’re right about Dog Beach in San Diego.

      You’re also right about “never turn your back on the ocean.” In the last photo, I was standing sideways to the camera in order to make it easy to turn and look at the waves. In fact, as the timer fired off the shot I was just spinning my head around after checking the water, and that’s why the straps on my helmet are flying out.

      In Illinois I think it’s “never turn your back on the corn.” No, that can’t be right….

Leave a Reply