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.
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