Short day. Slept in late and enjoyed the city of San Luis Obispo (including an Indian food buffet that hit the spot after long days cycling). Headed across the dry interior of CA for a bit and now outside of Oceana.
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Woke up to hot waffles smothered in maple syrup and vanilla ice cream – excellent. Murdock, our host, was awesome. We got on the road for a 68 mile day and climbed two large climbs with steep grades affording classic views of the ocean around Big Sur. We exited the rugged coastline as the grain smoothed. Suddenly, signs appeared that we were entering an area for Northern Elephant Seals (so-named for their tremendous size – like a car – and large bulbous noses males develop). I was stoked. So far on the trip, we had seen sea lions and harbor seals at a distance…but motherfucking elephant seals!!??…this was a dream. The marine layer poured in over land and as I strained my eyes towards the beach, I couldn’t believe it but to see an entire rookery of them. The pics and videos are above. The males were clashing on the beach by biting, bugling, and thrashing into each other. Females and youths lay about sleeping. As it was summer, they were molting skin/fur. Apparently the rookery was famous because it’s a safe place to sleep and prevents killer whales and great white sharks from getting too close. Afterwards, we made it to Morro Bay, had some salmon tacos, made camp in a drizzling fog, and called it a night. Woke up to blue skies and a grand view of the Big Sur coast. Only 35 miles today so we took it easy with every viewpoint possible. I have concluded that after this ride it will be damn near impossible for me to get over the pros of biking anywhere you want to visit. Take for example state/national parks: throughout our ride, we’ve been able to enter anywhere we want pretty much whenever we want – no lines, no reservations, no waiting. Passing state parks today, lines of cars would stretch for a half mile outside of parks, waiting for a chance to enter, pay a fee, and battle for a single parking space. On the other hand, we rode past the line to the front, entered for free, the Rangers watched our bikes, and we hiked to a waterfall. Each evening as we approach the most popular campgrounds in each state/the nation, a permanent “Campground Full” sign would prelude the entering. Meaning if you want to camp, you should have payed $40 per night months before. Us, we ride up. $5 per rider per night, no reservations needed, never turned away on policy, and community-centered communal hiker/biker sites right by all the facilities. Anyways, we continued our ride until lunch when a full thunderstorm hit us. We packed up quick with the darkening clouds and lightening. Throwing on rain jackets, we biked in the downpour. No desire needed to get stranded in the cold on an exposed highway in a remote area subject to landslides and floods. We made it to our stay for the night, a Warmshowers host who is a national forest wildfire fighter. His place along the highway afforded us our first views of whales spouting everywhere. A note on his national forest housing door invited us to go in and make ourselves comfortable because he had to report for local lightening strikes. We made spaghetti and garlic bread for him and upon his return we feasted and shared stories. Now time for a warm bed. So I accidentally miscalculated how far we had to go this day because I skipped a map, and thus we had to crank out 80 miles. The night was filled with marauders from raccoons to skunks (both of which walked up to sniff us under our tarp). In the morning my towel was covered with dirty paws as can be seen in the photo above. Knowing we had 80 miles, we pushed to get 40 in to Monterey by lunch. Basically, we cruised through the industrial agricultural coast section of California, riding through pungent fields of ripening strawberries, huge bitter-air fields of cabbage, and got sprayed on continually by industrial sprinklers which we prayed were not filled with some herbicide or fertilizer. The land was flat and made for good sailing. All morning we knew Janna’s bike was going to need the wheels trued and the axel fixed due to her accident the day before. Plus, my front wheel had developed severe weight bearing problems ever since the Lost Coast. Luckily we found an REI en route where the bike crews quickly fixed up all the problems in a few hours and got us back out there. Crossing the hills out of Monterey, we descended into cream thick fog that blocked out heat and light. To sweeten the deal, Highway 1 lost its shoulder and developed huge cliffs with drop offs while cars streamed past with summer tourists flying. We kept it slow and careful with all lights blaring as we ascended the cliffs and entered the sea otter country of Big Sur. Views were limited to say the least. However, approaching Bixby Bridge, the fog abated and we had awesome views of that classic icon. We crossed the bridge and exhausted, around 8 pm, finally rolled into Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park. At the hiker/biker sites, we met a packed crew heading north to make it to San Fran for the 4th. Among them was this old veteran who had been living on the road over 16 years and was about to hit his 100,000 mile. I want to be that guy some day. Awoke on the beach for a 70 mile day. Blue skies erupted from the fog, the sun rained down, and a huge tailwind smacked our backs allowing us to cruise near 20 mph as an average. And it was beautiful and glorious.
A string of state beaches lined the route with greens and reds from plants contrasting with the blues and indigos of the ocean water. We did encounter one mishap when Janna hit a stray orange safety cone on the side of the road. She flipped into traffic causing a truck to skid into a car which flipped the car over three times. Meanwhile, I was screaming into the traffic dragging Janna and her bike back simultaneously. Jk. She did hit the cone and crashed but with minor surface wounds. No traffic crashes either. We did find this balla placed called Pie Ranch which serves as a social justice/locavore/organic environmental ethics restaurant and operates out of an old barn in the middle of the country. We happened by it 4 minutes prior to it opening. We decided to stop and wait, and the place was immediately swarmed by cars of people arriving at this little gem which is apparently actually a big deal place. The pie was fucking great. They also take interns to encourage a new generation of farmers concerned about the welfare of the land and building awareness in school children about where food comes from, amongst other endeavors. Later, we arrived in Santa Cruz where we rode down the boardwalk past roller coasters which seemed a harsh contrast to the previous days’ rural and wild settings. Now prepping for a 70 mile day tomorrow along Monterey Bay to Big Sur. It is truly wonderful to lighten the eyes from the covers of a bed. After waking at our Warmshowers place, David, Janna, and I biked to the Golden Gate Bridge. It seemed like a monumental moment for me – an official marker of sorts that indicated, “hey, you’ve fucking biked from Canada to San Francisco!” This badass feeling was immediately supplemented by comments from other road bikers training around the city. They would catch up to us and ask where we started/were going. They seemed to drool (my interpretation) from our responses and gave us mad props. Fucking badasses…at least to some. After passing over that bucket list ride of the Golden Gate, we headed downtown to get food and drop by the Pride Parade. Good food from local vendors, a bakery, and farmers market for produce made being back in a big city super sweet. We parted ways with David and headed south alone. We took tons of time to just enjoy the day and the views of Golden Gate Recreation Area and Golden Park. Alas, our first flat tire happened, but we were only 6 minutes from camp, so we walked the rest of the way. Also, we got out of the fog after passing through the Devil Slide Tunnel- this was a big deal to us. After being in extremely remote/rural areas of Northern California for a week, a return to cell reception is a return to speak. First moment reception brought speak was a text from Harrison coming through to let me know that SCOTUS had ruled in favor of health care and gay marriage. Janna, Adam, Brianne and I quickly turned our phones into news feeds and celebrated with shouts of joy in a small grocery lot in the middle of no where by the ocean. Love won. Which brings me back to meeting up with Brianne and Adam. About a week ago, after conquering the remote Lost Coast (with chewed roads that spat on us resulting in wheels being broken off bikes and pannier clips breaking off), we came into the land where we camped in the red woods. Behold as night was carrying on, Adam and Brianne rode into camp having caught up to us. Hot tea flowed and it was fucking awesome to have them catch up with us again. We decided to ride together to San Francisco before we would part ways. The next day was my favorite part of the trip as we rode through the Avenue of the Giants on our bikes. A far immersive measure is provided by biking in this regard; while a car allows one to see many things quickly, it is as if you pass them by. The redwoods in a car would seem like a movie preview. A bike is the movie. You experience everything in detail of the full senses – fog hitting your flesh, the shadows of the trees fading coolness on the skin, sun’s warmth grappling with the branches to get through, the sweet smell of fennel and cedar in the air, and the road birthing hills that force you to sweat with mouth open in awe at the passing redwood. Definitely the best. We rode through the drive-through tree in Myer’s Flat and conquered a hill in heat to cross out of Leggett, back over the mountains in a high pass, and back to the coast. Now on the ocean, we spent days with Adam and Brianne admiring the swiftly changing coastline and ecosystems as trees fell way to golden grass and a dryness in the air that inferred drought. As a consequence, biker/hiker sites at campgrounds began charging more fees to use water for showering and water conservation was the first tip on everyone’s tongues. We met up with Jeremy and Espoire (the 16 and 17 year olds biking the coast solo), when they texted us to hold up so they could catch us. As their typical badasses, they also did the Lost Coast and buried their knees in asphalt as a result. David also caught up and we spent several days as one giant group camping, cooking, and biking out those miles. Today, we pushed for San Fran and said goodbye to all as everyone is moving to slightly different routes. To begin the trip, I assumed meeting characters on the road would be a treat and novelty; now I’m grateful for cemented friendships and the promise of future hangs after the trip. After camping in the relentless fog, damp cold, and nights with raccoon screams, Janna and I arrived in San Fran, more than a little stunned to find a ton of food options after so long (hence ice cream immediately). Tonight, to sweeten the fact, we biked with David to stay at a Warmshowers host in a beautiful house on the Sausalito Hills with a direct view over the entire bay. They cooked a giant vegetarian meal for us and honestly brought out six ice cream containers for us to eat as much as we wanted from. The view of the bay can be seen in the photo above. With laundry being done, full stomachs, and clean skin, it feels satisfying to be here. |