Crescent Ave is the “main drag” a skinny strip of soft cobbled oceanfront lined by shops and mobbed by throngs of shoppers. It is a great place to hit for some food or a nice shake to chill the hot sun. There are NO SKATEBOARDS signs at both ends of the strip although there were many longboarders cruising and street skaters flipping around the area. I saw a few guys on mopeds with a “Patrol” sticker on the bike with a radio and one LA Sheriff while I was there. Neither of which seemed to pay any attention to our kind rolling around the square. However if you want to play it safe going one block inland gives you fun little alleys to roll through and during the daytime rush they give a great short cut when in a hurry. Watch out when blasting out of alleys golf carts may not be very intimidating but I doubt hitting one would be fun. I had a blast just rocking through the little alleys carvind up onto sidewalks and just getting lost in this little maze. You get so clustered in large cities that sometimes it just feels good to be lost in such a smaller one.

Taking Sumner Ave West off Crescent then taking a right on Avalon Canyon Rd takes you up a long drawn out hill up to the Botanical garden and Wrigley Memorial, It’s a long hike and you may choose to buy a bus ticket round trip is three dollars and you will only need it one way so that’s two runs for 3$ not bad! The run is a great cruiser no hard lines and few blind corners the only thing you have to watch out for is the tour buses and it’s quiet enough that you can hear them coming. The pavement is perfect with few cats eyes and no other road deformities. The run passes golf courses and a stable the surrounding area is not a picturesque as either of the other runs but for a chill soul healing run in the sun this is the best I scouted.

South following the coast off of Crescent Ave is Pebbly Beach Road it follows the coast tightly and for a while you have a very gentle cobble walkway to roll on. Eventually the sidewalk ends and this road is in real poor condition with my 78a Gums still chattering my teeth however you are skating right next to the beach between the cliffs and the ocean, you can hear the spray and see the ocean pouring out in front of you. You pass by rock outcropping with nesting pelicans and the coves filled with people getting their snorkel on. The road follows the coast eventually parting inland near a freight port the road goes inland and up hills, I turned back at this point eager to get back to the ocean and some better pavement. Now it is worth mentioning that any road that goes inland will be a hill eventually so if you want more speed and some sliding grade there are plenty of little hills around to hit you just have to be on the lookout.

If you follow Crescent Ave north this leads you to the landmark casino this road has a path that parts after the casino the road conditions are good but not perfect potholes and cracks are around. Keep your eyes open after passing the casino you are more or less alone once you hit St Catherine Way it is a private road and the conditions improve. This run crawls through Eucalyptus trees and palms you get a small sense of the depth of the natural wonder that surrounds you. There are some good grade increases here and you can pick up a good deal of speed the road is more or less open above the casino with no traffic a slightly slender road with mildly precarious drops off some of the edges. You can pull some good speed out of some of the lines as the road creeps farther up the dusty crags of Catalina the palms etching their shadows on the broken road and the dusty haze of the high mountain light filters through. It’s a great place to ride and well worth the walk back up.