Seal Beach

On The Loose (OTL) is Pomona’s outdoorsy club that helps students access mountains and canyons and deserts and all sorts of other nature-like places.  I, admittedly, don’t know a great deal about OTL, because I’ve never joined one of their trips before (and this will become yet another resource I’ll miss when I graduate that I didn’t milk to its full advantage.)  That said, I’m proactively nipping this to-be regret in the bud, and I’m joining OTL for a 45-mile bike ride to Seal Beach on Sunday.

The minute I saw this event, I shot Deirdre Kessler (’14 and French major) a panicked message, half-enthusiastic and half-terrified to take the plunge, both screaming at her to join me and questioning whether I’d have any chance of survival.  My roommate, Ben Shand (’14 and Economics major), and I have been “hitting the gym” so to speak, but instead of whipping me into shape, this has just accentuated how much of an athletic mess I am.  That said, I inexplicably carved my name in the holy e-stone of the OTL website signup list.

Although students may take public transit back home, I should mention there is a 90-mile round-trip option.  Despite being an exciting prospect for those whose bodies are sculpted from aluminum, this is almost laughable for me, as it’s uncertain whether I’ll make it to the beach or if the wheels will fall from my bike and I’ll roll over and sizzle into a raisin under the midday sun while the rest of the crew forges onward.

Pictures to come next week if I return.