Bike Touring Day 6: San Luis Obispo to Lompoc

Our 6th day of riding began with a great breakfast.  (Ruth's jam was so good that we didn't want to leave!)  Before long we had our bikes and equipment packed in a couple of pick-ups so that we could leave from San Luis Obispo instead of Atascadero.

Getting our gear out of the trucks brought back many memories from our trip the previous year.  We had met in the same parking lot to start our trip from (San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles).  I was really looking forward to comparing our present trip to the year before.

We topped off our tires with air, said goodbye to our friends, and embraced the misty morning air.  It was fun to see some familiar things - we even stopped at a couple of the same places.  The morning seemed to go by quickly as we pedaled through Pismo Beach and into Guadalupe.






Guadalupe is a small agricultural town.  If you ever find yourself there - but do not know where you are - just look at the side of this building!  It has a big hand pointing to where you are on the map and shows you how many miles it takes to get to more promenant places.

Do you think a lot people get lost in Guadalupe?  Maybe they pull over and go inside this Napa auto parts store to ask for directions.  After the second or third person came in to figure out how to get to Los San FranDiego, or something, the guy says to himself, "You know what I should do? I should paint a big map on the side of the store so that people don't have to ask me no more!"

Actually, the map looks pretty cool - and the people in the town are quite nice.  We stopped at a little restaurant called Romo's to get lunch. 

We took advantage of a great tail wind as we rode out of town.  There is a very gradual ascent over the miles between Guadalupe and Harris Grade Road, but the breeze blew us straight through.

I was struck by the different types of scenery we were seeing on our trip.  The hills and coastline of Big Sur, the flatter coastlines through Cambria and Pismo, and the various types of agriculture in between were all unique.

Another group of riders merged onto Highway 135 just ahead of us.  Our three boys kept pace with them for a few miles before the group broke free.  (You can sort of make out the pink riding jerseys of the other group).  I was impressed with the boys for holding the quick pace that long.  They were keeping up with hybrid bikes and 30 pounds of gear! 

Dal got a flat somewhere along the way, so he and I stopped to fix it.  The rest of the gang rode on ahead and waited for us at the turn off for Harris Grade Road.  Harris Grade would be our challenge for the day.  The rode winds around and over a range of hills and eventually intersects with Hwy 1 in Lompoc.

Once Dal and I met up with the others we all got psyched up for a nice three mile climb.  I'm not sure if Payton's tire picked up some thorns in the picture above, or if it happened after we started riding again.  Whatever the case may be, he soon had a flat tire with two thorns sticking out of it.  I am glad that Rob stayed back with me to change it.  (Rob can change a tire almost as fast as the NASCAR guys).

I'm sure we didn't break any speed records on the climb, but the boys handled the incline really well.  I remember giving the boys at least one rest stop on the way up the previous year.  This time we took it all in one effort.  While resting at the summit, a kind woman who was also stopped along the side of the road offered us a cold jug of water and container of fresh strawberries.  Is that cool or what?!?

Before long we were riding through Lompoc on our way to River Park Campground.  After dropping off some gear, Dal and I headed to the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner.  We decided to go with a Boyscout recipe.  We wrapped pieces of potatos, carrots, hamburger, onion, and peppers in tin foil and let them cook in a bed of coals.  A little ketchup made it into an amazing meal.  

The only down side of the day was that my left knee was hurting.  I'm not sure if it was because I adjusted my left foot position on the pedal (to keep my ankle from hurting), or if it was just the strain of riding.  The good news is that my knee only hurt when riding.  The bad news is that it only hurt when riding!

 

 

Bike Touring Day 5: San Simeon to Atascadero

The plan for Day 5 was to make our way to Atascadero, just under 40 miles.  We would take Pacific Coast Hwy a few miles past Cambria and then go east on Hwy 41 towards Paso Robles.  From there we would take back roads and a little bit of Hwy 101 south to Atascadero.

Normally, I like to study the route and get acquainted with everything - how many miles it is from one place to another, what the elevation changes will be, where we can stop along the way, and stuff like that.  But today would be different, and that made it pretty exciting.  Our adventure cycling maps didn't include our detour, and I didn't bother to look things up on the computer before our trip.  It was sure to be an adventure and I was very curious to know what elevation changes and scenery we would experience.

Our San Simeon Hiker/Biker Site

 Although the morning was overcast, we were not fogged in with much marine layer.  It was nice to put away dry tents for a change.  Soon we were on our way.

The cloud cover gradually faded away as the morning progressed.  It didn't get too hot, thankfully, but we could tell we would be going through some hills on our way to Paso.

At first the ascents were only 1/4 or 1/2 mile of uphill before descending again.  After 8 to 10 miles, however, we encountered a constant ascent.  The curves in the road kept us from knowing how long the uphill climb would last.  Every time we got around a corner, we'd see more hill to climb!  I should mention that though the climb was long and steady, it was not terribly steep.  And it did grant us the enjoyment of some beautiful scenery.  Since I had no idea what the road had in store for us, I was very curious about how much elevation we were gaining.

Rob and I had been hanging out in the back of the group, so when we finally reached the summit, they guys ahead of us staged a dramatic pose for us to enjoy!  The hill had definitely gotten our attention for both length of climb and total elevation.  It would mark the highest elevation of our whole trip.

As the saying goes: "It's all downhill from here."  The rest of the way to Atascadero was indeed mostly down hill.  Better yet, we started to catch an awesome tail wind.  We zipped past a few wineries (no time for wine tasting on this trip), and stopped for lunch just outside of Paso Robles. 

Vineyards outside of Paso Robles

Eating lunch outside of Target

After resting and eating lunch, we rode the last several miles to Rob's Uncle Jim and Aunt Ruth's house.  They have a nice place on the outskirts of town.  We had stayed at their place a year ago on another bike tour, so it was nice to see them again.  Rob's mom and dad were there also.  It was fun to talk about our experiences over the last number of days. 

 

It was also really nice to do some laundry.  And dinner was really good also!  Not to mention a clean shower and bathroom.  Uncle Jim even turned off the sprinklers so that our tents wouldn't get drenched :)

Bike Touring Day 4: Plaskett Creek to San Simeon

Day 4 turned out to be a short one.  It was sort of liberating to know we would only be going half of our usual mileage.  Our early plans were to go from Plaskett Creek Campground to San Luis Obispo in one day.  Rob's uncle and aunt, who live in Atascadero (not terribly far from SLO), were hopeing to host us for an evening.  It sounded like a great idea, so we wanted to find a way to squeeze it in.

Rob worked out a plan to ride to Atascadero instead of SLO.  He recommended splitting the ride from Plaskett Creek to Atascadero so that it wouldn't be too long of a ride, with too much climbing.  It seemed reasonable, so that became the new plan.

(Unfortunately, the new plan would add an extra day to our trip.  Since I had some things planned at home for Saturday, the day I thought we would be home, I would need to get picked up Saturday morning from Pt. Mugu instead of riding the last day into LA.  I contemplated putting off the obligations I had on Saturday, but knew it just couldn't be done.  Dal was also in a bind.  He was planning to go camping with his wife and a group from their church the weekend we were planning to arrive at home.  Since we would no longer get back by Friday evening, as we'd first planned, he was going to get picked up in Santa Barbara by his wife on Thursday.  More on that later).

Dal suggested we get an early start in the morning.  Sounds like a simple suggestion, right?  Well, most mornings we were up by 7am.  However, by the time we got dressed, made & ate breakfast, cleaned up after breakfast, loaded bikes, etc... we would get rolling around 8:45-9:00am.  Dal suggested that we get up a little earlier, pack our things, and eat breakfast in Gorda.  He won us over to his plan by saying he'd buy everyone breakfast at the restaurant!

His plan worked.  We got up around 6:30am, packed our things, and got out on the road about an hour later.  Before long we were parking our bikes outside the restaurant and ordering eggs, pancakes, and other stuff.  (By the way, the water in Gorda isn't potable either.  Do you think it is just a conspiracy to make you buy it for $5/gallon?)

We burned off the pancakes by riding through the rest of the Big Sur.  We took a little break mid-morning to use the restroom and get a couple of snacks at the Ragged Point Inn.  Notice in the photo below that Dal is enjoying a Diet Coke - his favorite form of hydration!  We knew that every time he walked into a convenience store, grocery store, campground store, or restaurant he'd come out with a smile on his face and a cold, caffeinated, carbonated beverage in his hand.





Now that we had completed the Big Sur portion of the coast, the next stretch was relatively flat.  We also had a great tail wind.  It was a nice change of pace.  We stopped to see the elephant seals a few miles north of San Simeon.  We also saw a zebra hanging out with a heard of cattle.
 

 

The elephant seals like to worm their way up on shore and flip sand on themselves as they sunbathe.  Their deep barks and occassional sparring had us mesmerized.

We soon road into San Simeon Village in hopes of buying groceries for lunch and dinner.  The convenience store did not have a very wide selection.  After assessing what the place had to offer, we discussed our options.  Soon we were outside putting together a wild culinary concoction.  Dal combined an onion, a jar of salsa, a can of refried beans, and a can of enchilada sauce in a pot and warmed it over one of the pocket rockets.  Soon we were dipping tortilla chips into it.  Rob sliced some cheese (the boys prefer to say he "cut the cheese") to put with the newly formed sauce on soft shell tortillas.  

It has been long hypothesized that food tastes better when you are camping.  Some people speculate that it has something to do with eating out doors, others suggest that it is caused by extaordinary hunger.  Whatever the case may be, it seems to be true.  We honestly enjoyed Dal's recipe and finished every last bite.  After finishing lunch we picked up a number of items to take with us to the campground for making dinner.  We decided to keep it simple and go with some canned spaghetti and meatballs and cheese and crackers.

We only had to ride a couple more miles before arriving at the San Simeon State Park where we would be camping for the night.  Little did we know we were in for a little suprise.  As we turned left toward the campground a car followed us into the entrance and pulled along side of us.  We were amazed to see that we recognized the two people in the car!  

John, the boys' 7th grade science teacher, and Kelly, his wife, were traveling up the coast on a vacation of their own.  He knew that we were going to be taking the trip from San Fancisco to LA, but never considered the fact that they might see us along the way.  As the two of them were driving north, he spotted our group of six bikes.  There is nothing unusual about that in itself.  Seeing three boys in the group was what caught his eye.  He decided to make a U-turn and check us out.  How cool is that!?!

Soon they were back on the road and we were making our way to a campsite in the campground.  It was nice to arrive in the early afternoon so that the boys had time to explore the beach and goof around a bit.  I enjoyed a little time to make notes about our trip and just relax a little.  We also had the pleasure of hearing stories from a fellow hiker/biker.  For both his sake and yours, I will spare you the details.  Our nickname for him was Compression Shorts - and let's just leave it at that.

After relaxing for a few hours we took advantage of the showers, had dinner, and got ready for bed.  Not only had we enjoyed a short day of biking, we were looking forward to a similar one in the morning.  Ahhhhhhhh....          Zzzzzzzz......

   

Bike Touring Day 3: Monterey to Plaskett Creek

When planning the trip, we knew that Day 3 was going to have a lot of climbing.  The 65 miles for the day would cover much of the Big Sur coastline.  Besides hills, we were looking forward to impressive views of the coast.  Big Sur delivered both.

We had more of a climb heading out of the campground, but soon enjoyed a fun down hill stretch toward Carmel.  I'm not sure I have ever seen a sign for a wild boar crossing before.  We were starting to wonder if we'd been transported to Arkansas over night.

Curves ahead: FOR THE NEXT 74 MILES! 

Once again the weather was mild with cloudy skies.  While climbing, you work up a sweat.  While coasting, you get the chills.  After riding the hills for 30 miles, we took a lunch break at one of the small service areas along highway 1.  The prices were as steep as the hills and the line for the men's room was 6 to 8 people long!  On the other hand, the sun came out!  It gave us an opportunity to dry out a few things.

 

One of the fun parts of the trip was meeting people along the way who are interested in where you are coming from and where you are headed.  Thankfully most of the drivers are courteous about sharing the road with cyclists.  There is not a bike lane or much of a shoulder on the coastal highway through the Big Sur area, so you have to take up part of the right hand lane.  About 6 drivers honked at us that day, but a vast majority of cars were patient and waited for good places to pass when necessary. 

The views were beautiful and helped motivate us when the climbs presented a challenge.  At about 6pm we pedaled into the Plaskett Creek Campground - our stay for the night.  Upon arrival, we found out that the water was not potable.  We had some water, but not enough.  We needed to make an important decision.  Should we boil water in order to have what we needed or go to the next town and buy more?  Gorda, the next town, was several miles away (up hill).

Dal decided to talk to the campground host.  I wasn't sure what his plan was, but I knew that he was less than happy about the situation.  He came back to report that the host was willing to drive to Gorda to pick up several gallons of water for us (for a fee of course), but at least we wouldn't have to make the trip ourselves.

One of the interesting things about bike touring is meeting other cyclists.  The hiker/biker campsites are a good place to meet them, and Plaskett Creek was no exception.  Two riders that we met were Grant and Larry.  They were from San Diego, and riding several days from Big Sur to Santa Barbara.  They were both seasoned riders, so it was fun to hear about their experiences, especially Grant's stories about riding from Alaska to Seattle. 

After a dinner of pasta, sauce, carrots, and bread we enjoyed some water and went to bed.  Oh, by the way, did I mention that due to a water shortage, the bathrooms were out of service?  Well, they were.  That meant we got to use a couple of fancy (NOT) port-o-potties.

Bike Touring Day 2: Pescadero to Monterey

 

Day 2 began with a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and some fruit.  After breakfast, our adventure was set to begin.  I was a bit anxious to see how things were going to go with my rear tire and tube.  Our strategy was to put a tube patch on the inside of the tire and place four layers of ducktape between the patch and the tube liner.  After putting the tube inside I carefully inflated the tire enough to carry its load without causing the hole to open too much.  We were hoping the tire would hold up until we got to a bike shop in Santa Cruz - about 20 miles away.  Rob's dad, Tom, was willing to be "on call" in case the tire wouldn't last.  If we got into trouble we would give him a call and he would take me to the bike shop with his truck.  

The miles gradually ticked by as we headed toward Santa Cruz.  I could feel the swollen part of the tire each time it took its turn on the road.  I was praying we'd make it so that Tom wouldn't have to bail us out.  As we made our way into Santa Cruz we were relieved to see the bike shop only a few blocks into town.

By the looks of the tire, we didn't arrive any too soon.  After examining it more closely, I discovered the patch had warn through, as well as two layers of the ducktape.  I bought a set of new tires and went to the work of changing them.  (Since it was getting close to lunch time, the guys got some food while I switched out the tires).

 

In case you are wondering, the old tire was meant to be smooth between the treaded part - it hadn't worn down quite as much as it appears :)  The new set was looking good and ready to roll!

After lunch we navigated our way out of Santa Cruz and rode between various fields of strawberrys and produce.  It is hard to beat the smell of strawberry fields.  One road was quite rough, however, and caused Dal's headset to get loose.  Thankfully he had a long enough wrench to get to the screw that needed tightening.  Unfortunately, he had to empty nearly every bag in his possession before finding it!  One thing that made the stop even more interesting was that we were down-wind from a goat farm.  Let's just say the goats didn't smell like a strawberry field.

As we got rolling again, I could tell that it was going to be a long day.  Our day was long to begin with - 75 miles - but our stops to work on our bikes added time as well.  Another challenge was that the back of my ankle was getting very sore.  My hunch is that I had placed the seat a little too high at the beginning of the trip.  I felt a little better after lowering the seat, but I could tell that the muscles/ligaments were going to take some time, probably days, until getting back to normal.

Our late afternoon included riding on back roads, a little bit of PCH, and bike paths leading into Monterey.  Since the whole day was overcast, it was difficult to know how much sunlight we could count on before arriving at our destination.  It felt like we were going to cut it close.

As dusk approached we finally made our way into Monterey.  Seeing our bikes loaded with gear, a local asked if we were going to Veterans Memorial Park.  "Yes!" was our immediate reply.  "You're getting close," he said, "but you might want to get some dinner before going up the hill to the campground."

The boys were all over that idea!  There was a McDonald's nearby so we decided to make the stop.  We were all exhausted and scarfed down value meals and enjoyed a rest.  It was somewhat dark by the time we got back on our bikes.  We turned our lights on and checked the map to see where we were headed.  The local gentleman mentioned a hill - and he wasn't kidding.

We were doing a steady climb for about a half a mile and then saw what looked like the entrance to the campground.  That's where the hill got even more steep!  (We later found out it was a 13% grade).  As we travelled another half mile up the steep winding road into the campground I was thinking, "Please Lord, let there be room in the hike and bike.  After this hill, I don't think I can go much further."

Thankfully, the hike and bike area was pretty large and there was enough room for our weary bodies to lay down.  We put up our tents and managed to muster enough strength to take a shower.  The showers were hot and free :)  But small and not very clean :(    Regardless, it was nice to get cleaned up before crawling into the sleeping bag.

Bike Touring Day 1: San Francisco to Pescadero

With the trip from San Francisco "in the books," it's time to give a report of the adventure.  There is much that can be said about the trip, so I hope that I am able to communicate all the important and interesting details.  Feel free to post/email a question if you have specific questions, okay?

(I am not planning to talk a lot about all the gear that we took for the trip unless it pertains to specific details.  Again, if you have questions, please ask and I'll be happy to elaborate).

Our trip began at the Golden Gate Bridge.  As you might expect, there was plenty of fog - marine layer - to send us on our way.  The bridge is used for a lot of tourists who are walking/cycling, and native Bay Area residents who like exercising in the salt air (though I cannot imagine why they would put up with the crowds).

Although the skies were gray, our spirits were feeling good and ready to roll.  Our route kept us out of the city streets and close to the coast, which was nice.  We soon realized, however, that the first half of our journey (to Los Angeles) was going to be a lot of up and down - with very few flat sections.

We stopped in Daly City for some lunch.  As would become our custom, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things for lunch and snacks later.

Hills Everywhere

As we rolled into half moon bay, Dal's legs started to cramp up.  We stopped for a while to get him some water and give him time to relax.  After a while we continued riding, but he struggled with it for the rest of the day.  Sometimes when the weather is cooler it is tempting to drink less water. 


Our plans were to ride about 60 miles until we arrived at a KOA campground a couple of miles past the Pigeon Point Lighthouse.  Rob's parents were planning to stay the night there and wanted to make dinner for us upon our arrival.  The campground was the nicest one we would stay in by far!  But more about that later.

We were approximately 3 to 4 miles away from our destination when I heard/felt my rear tire suddenly go flat.  It went flat so quickly that I knew it must have been something substantial.  I couldn't figure out what caused the flat, but it became apparent that the tire (not just the tube) had a hole the width of a pencil eraser.

Could I get a new tube to stay inflated with a compromised tire?  I had a tire liner inside the tire, but I still added a couple of folded dollar bills between the tire and tube to try to reinforce the tire and hopefully avoid having the tube punctured again.

Thankfully we made it to the campground without another flat.  (Now to figure out where to get a new tube).

Rob's parents spoiled us for the night by feeding us chicken, potatoes, carrots, fruit, and sourdough bread.  We even got to have some ice cream for dessert!  (Thanks Tom and Judy!) We enjoyed it, because we knew the days to come would not include such nice accomodations.  The clean bathrooms and free hot showers were awesome.