Riding the Rails : Bikes aboard! How to go car-less and see the beach on a slower-paced coastline tour

CARPINTERIA, Calif. — A car-less trip to Carpinteria? It sounded like sacrilege.

Longtime beach-goers like myself know Carpinteria State Beach, about 10 miles south of Santa Barbara, as the quintessential auto outing from Los Angeles. Load up the car with kids (or friends), bodyboards, beach umbrellas, blankets and coolers packed with picnic fodder; barrel up U.S. 101 for about 1 1/2 hours; then catch the waves at what’s billed as “the world’s safest beach” (no undertow, it’s claimed).

But since Amtrak’s San Diegan trains began stopping four times daily at Carpinteria’s new platform in late June, you can go car-less--and take your bike too. It just takes some planning and a sense of adventure. And my bicycling friend, Wendy, and I were up for a challenge. We made a weekend of it--overnighting in Carpinteria, bicycling the next day to Santa Barbara and returning from there by train.

The first hurdle was picking a train. There are two ways to get your bike on the San Diegan: Load it unboxed into the baggage car ($5 fee) or hoist it onto a rack in a passenger car (free). The trick is: Some trains on the route do it one way, some the other, and some don’t do it all. Timetables purport to sort this out. However, two of the three reservation agents I called denied I could take my bike on the train, despite what the timetable said. The third said it looked OK.

So, it was with some trepidation that Wendy and I rolled into Union Station one Saturday morning in July to catch No. 769 to Carpinteria. Sure enough, the ticket agent insisted we couldn’t take bikes aboard. But he sent us over to the baggage supervisor, who said otherwise: No. 769 had several so-called California cars, each with bike racks.

By the time the train pulled out about 9:40 a.m., half an hour late, we’d racked our bikes, put our panniers in an overhead bin and settled into our half-empty car. On board were several families with kids. Two children under age 16 can ride free with each adult on the San Diegan through Aug. 28, and as one Oceanside mother pointed out, the train takes longer but the kids love it.

In fact, the trip took about 2 1/2 hours. Drab warehouse districts formed much of the “scenery,” but there also were fantastic rock formations near Chatsworth, a spooky three-minute trip through the Santa Susana Tunnel, and, in the last hour, spectacular coastline.

We spotted our B&B;, Prufrock’s Garden Inn, just half a block from the Carpinteria station--and 2 1/2 blocks from the beach. Judy and Jim Halvorsen opened the inn two years ago in a 1904 California cottage-style home. Yellow hibiscus and other bright blooms hugged the house on Linden Avenue, the main drag of tiny Carpinteria (population: about 14,500). Inside, the inn was homey, with facing floral-chintz sofas. It was tempting to linger.

But we had other priorities. Hopping on our bikes, we grabbed lunch at Le Chateau French Bakery in a mall a short ride away, then pushed off to the main attraction, the always busy beach. It was dotted with umbrellas, sandcastles and giggling children. Wendy strolled and I rented a bodyboard ($5) from a trailer at the foot of Linden. My toes went numb after only an hour in the cold Pacific, but I got in some gentle, long rides.

By the time we made it back to the inn, about 6 p.m., we were ready for the hearty potato cream parsley soup, whole-wheat bread, coconut-chocolate squares and iced tea for hospitality hour. “This could be dinner,” I thought.

But no. We strolled to Chuy’s Mexican restaurant a few blocks away for karaoke on the lively patio and what I had always dubbed “the world’s greatest margarita in a plastic cup.” Alas, the karaoke had croaked (it runs 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.), and the margarita seemed a little watery--although it had plenty of alcohol.

Dinner awaited nearby at the new Delilah Cafe, a California-Mediterranean restaurant more in sync with L.A.’s stylish North La Cienega than meat-and-potatoes Linden Avenue. Its co-owner, Stephanie Bennett, helped create the hip Newsroom cafes in Los Angeles and Santa Monica before moving here two years ago.

My five little crawfish cakes, served in a pool of arrabiata sauce, were divine, as were my beet salad and Wendy’s rib-eye steak sandwich. The bill for two: $19.23 plus tip. (A warning to weekenders: The cafe is usually closed on Sundays.)

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On Sunday, we began Phase 2 of our adventure: biking to Santa Barbara, after fueling up on the inn’s ample breakfast. Wendy, a former Santa Barbara resident, had scoped out the routes and found a mostly flat one that paralleled U.S. 101 by way of Via Real, Padaro Lane, North Jameson Lane and Coast Village Road, then picked up a bike path to the Santa Barbara beachfront. The highlight was tree-canopied Padaro Lane, running behind gated beach estates between Carpinteria and Summerland.

In Montecito for lunch, we wanted to check out Carlitos Cava Restaurant & Bar on Coast Village Road, opened in May by the same people who run Carlitos Cafe y Cantina on Santa Barbara’s State Street. Cava serves Spanish tapas and Cuban, Mexican and South American dishes. My roasted tortilla soup was not subtle, but it was generous, served in a hubcap-size bowl. Steamed mussels, sprinkled with chorizo, were wonderful.

It was now nearly 1:30 p.m., and our train was due to leave at 4 p.m. We headed down Cabrillo Boulevard past the freeway and picked up the bike path along the serene Clark Bird Refuge.

At the station, we got another surprise: No. 784, which the timetable showed as having a baggage car but no bike racks, did have racks--but only on weekends, the baggage supervisor said. Go figure.

Still, when Wendy remarked on the miserably jammed lanes on U.S. 101 heading toward Los Angeles, I felt mighty smug about going car-less to Carpinteria.

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Budget for Two

Amtrak train tickets (with AAA discount): $62.00

Prufrock’s Garden Inn: 130.90

Lunch, Le Chateau: 8.45

1 bodyboard rental: 5.00

2 drinks, Chuy’s: 6.50

Dinner, Delilah Cafe: 22.23

2 drinks, Palms: 4.00

Coffee, orange juice, Miramar: 5.22

Lunch, Carlitos Cava: 23.90

Snacks on train: 7.75

FINAL TAB: $275.95

Prufrock’s Garden Inn, 600 Linden Ave., Carpinteria, CA 93013; telephone/fax (805) 566-9696.