Oh Hi, Ojai
There we were, minding our own business at the midpoint of the ride, a shady bench in Libbey Park, Ojai. We each held an ice cream cone, hers a scoop of Ojai Orange on one of those plain sort of cones, mine a double - one a vanilla / caramel mix, along with a chocolaty something or other in a waffle cone. My hands were full with that cone, I tell ya what. I was managing though.
That is until...
along comes Seth. (Drop two or three octaves when you say those three words - along comes Seth). At least that is what he said his name was. Seth rides into the park on his trials bike; I don't know when I last laid eyes on a trials bike, but it wasn't so long ago that I couldn't recognize one when I saw one. Anyway this Seth, he drops his pack on a nearby bench and then starts hopping that bike onto walls and benches and signs and fountains and posts, swinging it around on his front wheel, treating it like a pogo stick on the back wheel. It was enough to draw everyone's attention away from that naked kid splashing around in the fountain. It also compelled me to turn my camera back on and switch the ice cream to my left hand. At that point the waffle holding it all together gave way, broke right in half - you ever try taking photos with one hand while trying to eat a broken ice cream cone with the other? Not exactly easy, and I hope someone nearby got a good laugh about it.
Believe it or don't, but before Saturday morning I had never ridden the Ojai Valley Trail (nor very much of the Ventura River Trail) between Ventura, on the coast, and inland Ojai. When a video of a much longer loop was posted at Gravel Bike California a couple weeks ago, I said to myself, that would make a good ride one of these weekends; mind you, not the big loop of the video, just the out and back portion between the two cities (which still ended up being a nice thirty-three miles), and ending with a sunset on the beach and one of those drive-in concerts at the fairgrounds right behind us. In between was a mostly rural spin on a paved path (except for the times I sliced through gaps in the wood fence to do some gravel grinding on the dirt path right along side), a visit to the MOB shop, sculpture and art sightings, dachshunds, and, well... Seth and his trials bike. I would like to tell you the local brews were tasty, but we never got a taste, both the Topa Topa Brewery in Ojai and the Topa Topa Brewery in Ventura being filled to their pandemic capacity.
Anyway, the Ojai Valley Trail is a heck of a nice way to spend a weekend day.
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