The beer rewards a good Long Beach stride
LONG BEACH — Urban hikes have different flavors than woodsy ones. You probably won’t see any leaping deer while strolling the Long Beach shoreline pedestrian/bicycle path, though you’re likely to glimpse a pirouetting inline skater or two. But nature isn’t far away: The blue Pacific is your walking (or riding or running) partner every step of the way, and there are sights galore that will keep you striding forward. And that will spur you on to earn the fresh-brewed beer on the return trip.
The path has conveniently separated lanes for bicyclists (and those rentable “surrey-style” pedal carts) and another for walkers, runners and skaters. The occasionally bewildered beachgoer may sometimes be frozen in terror when a line of bike racers whips by, but mostly, the walk is a genial scene of weekend warriors, wobbling toddlers, athletes in training and nonathletes in not-training.
What’s great about the walk — or ride — is what you get to see: the waves, giant oil tankers on the horizon, sailboats, Long Beach’s trick-ofthe-eye “oil islands,” the Queen Mary, the Queen Mary Dome (former home of Howard Hughes’s Spruce Goose), cruise ships and the skyline of handsome buildings from the 1920s to the 2000s.
You’ll be alternately gawking at the parade of landmarks and the parade of landlubbers, but do keep an eye on the trail.
If you start from the Belmont Pier parking lot, it’s a 3-mile trek past the Long Beach Marina, with its mix of sleek yachts and grizzled old veteran craft, to a turnaround where you’re directly across from the Queen
Mary. Even though it’s in need of a paint job, it’s still one heckuva hunk of a 1,000-foot ship.
Bop on back from there — another 3 miles, but it’s flat, so you shouldn’t be puffing much — to the Belmont Brewery, which has wind-protected outside seating in addition to inside booths, where you can look at the gleaming brewing tanks. Established in 1990, this is one of the oldest craft brewpubs in Southern California, and it has a friendly atmosphere that goes well with its light-filled rooms and good gastropub grub.
I had a sweet and delicious ahi sandwich with a tangy wasabi kick, softened by their Ranch IPA, which had a punch, minus any harsh knockout. The mass o’ fries that came with it was TOO good — perfectly done, crisp on the outside and not greasy inside — but I’d have to walk that trail twice to earn all of them.
If you really want to dawdle on the trail, you can stop and check out the marina shops, or head up some stairs to the compact and fun Long Beach Museum of Art, which has revolving exhibits that are generally good. Just don’t cheat and take a taxi the rest of the way back — you’ll never convince anyone you earned a second pint.