San Francisco to Indio, California

Santa Cruz to Monterey

 I just had a rest day here in Monterey as I wanted to see some of the sights that I had missed on my quick visit last year. As it was, I saw some, but there is much to see and visit here, so I had to make do with what I could manage. The best of today was my visit to the Aquarium here which really is fabulous - lots of marine life, otters and sea birds; well worth a visit if in this area. I also walked the Historic Path in the oldest section of Monterey - one of the buildings was designated as the first theater in California! I also learned a lot about the once lucrative sardine fishing and canning businesses that thrived here - until the sardines were all fished out! That left the cannery area - Cannery Row - empty and eventually ending up as a tourist venue. One of John Steinbeck's favourite subjects were the lives of (fictional) characters on Cannery Row. Apparently the sardines are finally making a recovery after many years, but it is unlikely that they will be fished aggressively again - lesson learned and all that!

 The ride from Santa Cruz went well and most of the route, other than about eight km on Highway 1, was on quiet back roads frequently through agricultural areas - lots of sprouts, artichokes and simply acres and acres of strawberries. Last year I took a different route through Watsonville where I also stayed, so this year I stuck with the Bike Route proper and had a decent ride with some new scenery.

 

 The last 20km into Monterey was all on bike paths and away from the busy highway which is similar to a freeway in this area! The weather is fickle here and it has been overcast for the two days that I have been here. It should improve as I ride farther south. Not much fog though, which is a good thing for me - let's hope that it stays away as the next two days are on some winding and hilly section of Highway 1 south to Big Sur and beyond. The weather report is for maybe a sprinkle of rain tomorrow, but unlikely that it will amount to much. Not like Portland when I left there - it was pouring rain.

 I stopped in Moss landing on the route today hoping to see all the seals that I saw last year - they were spread all over one of the jetties there then. All I saw this time was one seal swimming in the water and also an otter who cooperated for a photo...

 

 More in a few days...

 

AdamK & (Good! - ocean views tomorrow instead of sprouts and strawberries!) Basil

 

Monterey to Big Sur, Plaskett Creek, San Simeon Village

 Although the ride to Big Sur was not a great distance it was very hilly and one that I remembered from last year. But the scenery really does make this part of the coast spectacular; and witnessed by the many tourists that I saw today who seemed to stop at every pull-off to gawk and take photos. I met a young Chinese couple at one of these stops who seemed very thrilled that I engaged them in conversation. The husband insisted that his wife take a photo of me and him with his arm around me - very touching! He rides bike in mainland China and envied my route down this west coast.
I stopped too, many times to take it all in and take some photos.

 

 Soon I arrived at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and found my way to the hiker/biker camp area. On my way out of Monterey when I rejoined Highway 1, I passed another touring cyclist that was merging onto the highway. It was Tyler who I met while camping in Half Moon Bay and thought to myself that he would probably end up where I was heading - sure enough he showed up about an hour or so after me, so a familiar face. He's a young fellow and started riding in Seattle - first bike tour ever! His main goal when he left was to reach San Diego and lose 50 pounds in weight - he tells me that he has lost half of that already!

 The camp is quiet here compared to last year with just a few cyclists showing up this year. One couple are from South Korea originally and now live in Vancouver. She is only riding to San Diego but he is continuing on to Brazil - a lofty ambition.

 

 It rained fairly heavily last night, which was a bit of a surprise, so a wet tent to put away in the morning and the area was soggy, so I opted for a cooked breakfast at the lodge, very nice. I'd forgotten about the steep long hill immediately after leaving the campground at Big Sur, but was soon reminded just how long it was, after every curve I expected the top, but it took many more of those false summits before I could tear down the well deserved downhill portion. Today was one of the hilliest so far as the highway rolls up and down at edge of ocean for many miles. But the scenery! Yesterday's was fabulous whereas today's was phenomenal!

These last two days of views are one of my main reasons for riding this part of the coast again - certainly not my fondness of hills though! I had to be very careful in one section though as a rain shower made the road surface quite slick, so I got robbed of a fast descent from that hill and also got stopped later by a traffic light controlled one lane section. I think that's the end of the rain for now though.

 The only stop on route was the very small community of Lucia, where there is a small store and restaurant that sell very expensive sandwiches - but beggars can't be choosers, right! I met my fellow traveller Tyler there and we chatted through our rest stop. He wanted to travel farther today, so is not at the campground where I am, Plaskett Creek. I camped here last year with some fellow cyclists, this year, no other cyclists have shown up, but the place is crowded with surfers, I guess that surf's up in this area? This is a Forestry campground and due to the water shortage in California, the have closed all the restrooms here and are using chemical toilets, so no sinks etc. Last night in the State Park, they still had showers and flush toilets running, but had closed all the outside washing facilities. They also cut down the time for the shower timers, had to be quick there!

 Looks like all the surfers are in for partying tonight with all the stuff they are unloading, but won't bother me too much once I take my hearing aids out and stuff some ear plugs in - silence is golden sometimes! I watched a nice sunset over the ocean on my evening walk...

 

 Packed up the gear this morning, nice and dry not like yesterday, and rode the three miles to a breakfast restaurant at Gorda. Not much else at Gorda, restaurant, small store and some cabins. Breakfast was good and I knew that I would need it for the hills ahead. Once again, great scenery but some major hills. The hills lasted for about half the ride today and then it was downhill to Ragged Point  - second breaky there - from there are a couple of small hills and a finally a return to relatively flat riding along the ocean.

 San Simeon is Hearst Castle area and the small village of San Simeon proper is just a restaurant/bar and a few very nice Spanish style homes. Where I am staying is "Motel Row" a few miles past the old town. For some strange reason this area is called San Simeon Village - go figure! On the way to my digs today, I stopped to watch the Pelicans feeding - must be good fishing right now, and then made a stop at the Elephant Seal rookery at Piedros Blancas. It was fascinating to watch the males sparring and others just sprawled on the beach resting. What is really special is that these mammals were nearly hunted to extinction not that many years ago, but brought back to present numbers through conservation efforts and a ban on the hunting.

 The weather has sure improved as well as the road conditions. After a few days of cool temperatures, today was sunny and hot all day, albeit windy. Lucky for me, it was a nice tailwind!

 

More in a few days...

 

AdamK & Basil, "Phew, talk about white knuckles last couple of days!"