Seniors Zach Canning and Jesse Robertson Bike from San Francisco to Santa Monica

Aliza AbarbanelSpecial Report EditorThe road from San Francisco to Santa Monica spans roughly 500 miles of coastline, passing beaches on asphalt and rocky roads. This Spring Break, seniors Zach Canning and Jesse Robertson made this journey sans car, biking 500 miles in 6 days.“I just wanted to do something awesome over spring break. I didn’t want to just sit at home and go to the beach a few times,” Canning said.They sped around cars stuck in traffic, and waited for cows to cross rural roads. Canning and Robertson spent time planning their route and finding hotels in which to stay the night.  Then, they strapped on their backpacks, and the adventure began.“We took a bus up and then stayed in San Francisco for a couple of days,” Robertson said. “After two nights in San Francisco, we started our route down the coast and a little bit inland.”The time window of 6 days didn’t allow for leniency, the pace was kept at a solid 80 miles per day. Their longest day? 120 miles of winding roads and hills.Canning’s father joined the boys on the trip to serve as a guide and a general “support system.”“My dad leapfrogged. On any particular day, he would go to the destination or to the halfway point and then start biking back,” Canning said. “Some days, the routes were pretty crazy so he would have a hard time finding his way back, so he would just go ahead like 20 miles, stop and call us to make sure we were ok, then go ahead."The boys used this method to methodically work their way down the coast, taking each day on as it came.“After day three, we were sore consistently, no matter what we did, so we just tried to ignore it and keep going. It’s not like we were pushing it so that we would hurt ourselves, we just were trying to get where we needed to go,” Canning said.With a grin, Robertson joined in on reflecting back on the journey.“Just keep a steady pace throughout the whole thing,” Robertson said.On the sixth day, Robertson and Canning arrived at their final destination in Santa Monica, Hot Dog on a Stick. There, they feasted on hot dogs, fries, and lemonade as they sprawled out on the grass, close to their bikes.With 500 miles conquered, there is a whole world of cycling ready to be explored.“If you raise awareness, people want to bike. And if people want to bike, people don’t want to drive. The bikers are happy and there are no cars. That’s my goal. No cars,” Canning said.A world with no cars? A dream like that can only begin on one place, the seat of a bicycle.