Live for the Path

1068 miles in ?? hours (If someone wants to calculate this feel free – assume 8 hours saddle time for day 1).

I thought that it would be nice to give you guys, particularly the late comers, an overview of the first two parts of my trip today – and to give shout outs to some particularly helpful people. It is hard to believe that I have already done over 1000 miles, but there it is. There have been times of immense nervousness (I was down to my last tube just 15 miles out of Surprise – 300 miles to the next bike shop), weariness (the night trip to Desert Center), but mostly just joy and wonder, which is what I wanted. I have been in California for three weeks, it is time for me to move on and see the rest of the country. I hope you all come along with me.

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10 miles in 1.33 hours

The next morning Pete told me that I could hang out in his place as long as I wanted because the door would automatically lock after me when I went. I took advantage of this to catch up on the internet, and get the website a little more updated. At a little before 2:00 I left and went back to the BART station and took it to another friend’s place in Dublin. I relaxed there the whole night and didn’t really do much.

The day after that my friend and his wife were both not feeling good so I went to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch UFC 99 and then went to a place called Any Mountain to see if they had any gear that I would need in the mountains. They didn’t really, so I just went back to the Curtis’ house and watched TV for the rest of the night.

The next day I went to a Peet’s Coffee and Tea for the first time to check it out. It was pretty good, comparable to Starbucks, and they also have WiFi. I then took the BART back to the Civic Center Station and met my uncle by City Hall and did an amazing tour through it.

I then got driven back to his house in American Canyon to see my Aunt and little cousin Jenny, who we don’t get a chance to see very often. We had a great dinner and a laid back night.

On my final rest day my uncle drove me to REI so I could buy some gear that I needed. I got a tire, a few tubes, some warm weather gear, and rain pants. Not only that but he insisted on paying for everything. Thanks Uncle Jim! After we got back he took his daughter out rock climbing while I stayed home to work on my bike and my website. When they left I figured the least I could do to pay them back was to get them something, so I hopped on my unloaded bike, went way faster than I am used to, and bought them Princess Bride, which no one had apparently seen in the family. I also put a new tire in the back (my old one was worn very low) and did some website work. I got another great dinner and to watch Princess Bride at night, which is always okay with me (even though I saw the last half just a couple days before – it is one of my favorites). I did some laundry and went to bed.

81 miles in 9.17 hours

I got up early, and saw that Tim, Tim, and Melissa had gotten in overnight. But, it being before 6am, I knew they would not be awake by the time I rolled out. I got everything together and was on the road by 6:45. I rode through Santa Cruz, and stopped and grabbed breakfast.

As soon as I got out of town it started to rain. Not just drizzle, but rain pretty hard. I put my raincoat on, my IPod in my ears (very rare), and my head down and just followed the white line. I couldn’t even look up, because the rain hurt my eyes when I did because of the headwind I was going into as well.

I grinded and eventually it cleared up a little bit a few hours into the day.

However, when it did the wind really started. To top it all off, this was literally the only day in the trip where I had somewhere to be at a certain time. I had to be in San Francisco by 4 or 4:30 or I wouldn’t be allowed on the BART until 6 or 6:30. As the day wore on, it became obvious that I was not going to make it.

Not only that, but finally as the wind was beginning to die down, the hills started.

And these were big ones. And I began to feel pretty ill as well. This made for very slow times, but I made it to Half Moon Bay. I stopped, soaking wet, smelling awful I am sure, in a little cafe and had lunch. When they closed I saw that I wasn’t going to make it by 4:30, so I just decided to make the most of my time and went to Starbucks for a few hours. After that I felt much better and was ready to tackle the last 20-30 miles into the city.

Going past Half Moon Bay is was very pretty, but eventually I got to some huge mountains where there was a ton of construction going on and absolutely no shoulders. And it was rush hour. I would later learn that this section of the road is called the Devil’s Slide, and devilish it was. I was going in 200 foot increments because it was so steep and harrowing, and stopping anytime there was even 3 inches right of the white line to hide in and allow cars to pass. I did this for an hour, and eventually made it to the top, and began the decent into Pacifica. This was fantastic, and almost worth the harrowing ride up the hill. Almost. (Sorry – no pictures – was trying not to die).

From Pacifica I took back roads through into San Francisco, and had to climb what had to be the steepest, if not the longest hill of the trip. It was called Skyline Drive, and it was ridiculous. I ended up just pushing my bike up the steepest section at under 3 miles per hour, which is slow even by pushing standards.

Once I got over that last hill, I rode down to the Colma BART station and took the BART to the Civic Center Station. I rode up the last hill and met my friend with 11.1 seconds left in the NBA Finals Game Four. I got there in time to see Fisher make the three to send it to overtime and then see the Lakers win the game in that overtime.

I showered up and we went out and got dinner at a great Thai place and went to a few neighborhood bars. Thanks for the hospitality Pete!

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(First day with no video… sorry gang).

55 miles in 6 hours

I wake up before 6am and quickly pack up. There are even more homeless people in the bathrooms in the morning, all waiting to take a shower before they go to work, I guess. I mean, it is nice that they have somewhere to go, but squeezing through 5 people who are just loitering in a small bathroom at 6am was uncomfortable in more than one way.

I head back down the hill and go to a Denny’s that I passed on the way up the hill the night before. I charge my cell phone there while I grab breakfast. With that out of the way I begin my trip around the bay to Santa Cruz. I first rode through a military neighborhood, and an old military base that was closed down.

I then rode through a bunch of random farmland for a while.

I eventually head through the town of Castroville, which is the Artichoke capital of the world, allegedly. I really only know artichokes from Spinach and Artichoke Dip, which I doubt even has artichoke in it. But, for each their own I guess. Maybe they are really quite delicious, but today wasn’t to be the day I found out.

Anyway, I go through some more remote areas and have to take some desolate back roads to try to get to Santa Cruz, since the PCH is a highway which bikes cannot get on.

Anyway, despite some large hills I make it by around 2, and I roll up to New Brighton State Beach.

“Can I get a hiker/biker spot?”

“You can at around 4, so come back closer to then. If you get here five minutes early we will probably let you in though.”

“Uh, thanks.”

Glad to know they would let me in five minutes early… she was dead serious when she said that. Anyway I rode through the downtown looking for WiFi, which I did not find advertised on any of the coffee shops down there. I eventually decided to ride a few miles across town and just go to Starbucks. I sat there for a few hours and updated the website, and then ate some dinner. I headed back through downtown Capitola so I could shoot my daily video there.

I got back to the campground at around 6, and unfortunately the same ranger was not at the gate this time. I bought my biker (no hiker spots there – you needed a bike – and a photo id) spot and settled in for the night. I made a few phone calls despite having garbage service and planned my next several days in San Francisco. I wanted to shower, but realized that I lost my soap and shampoo somewhere else, likely San Simeon, which seemed like an eternity ago. I went to bed pretty early that night.

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62 miles in 6.83 hours

I roll out before the other group again, ready to tackle the last two peaks in Big Sur. I quickly get to the town of Lucia and nab a couple of cookies, and then continue on my merry way.

I huff and puff through the mountains, but finally, at noon, I have gotten through the last thirty miles, and to the town of Big Sur, which is at the summit of the last peak. I stop for a sandwich, and then fly down the mountain, and into some pretty rolling countryside.

The wind isn’t as atrocious as it has been the last few days so I am making pretty good time, but there are these damn gulches, which are a huge pain in the ass. Basically they are breaks in the land right against the ocean, and instead of building a bridge over the gap, the road just follows them all the way down and around and then back up a big ass hill. Unfortunately I don’t have a good picture of one, but trust me, they are annoying.

I finally get to the town of Carmel and get some cell reception for the first time in a few days.

I then need to climb up a mammoth hill, at rush hour, on a four lane highway with absolutely no shoulder. This is pretty terrifying and exhausting, but eventually I get up the hill, and then glide down the other side into Monterey. I then check my cell phone to see where my campground for the night is. Turns out it is at the top of the hill. Nice.

I cry a little and then get back on the bike and go back up the hill the other way, and eventually get to Veteran’s Memorial Park. I check in and set up my tent. I quickly notice that they other people at the hiker/biker spot seem to be long term residents there, and a little crazy. I then notice that there appears to be some sort of drug deal going down between two of the residents. You can imagine that this makes me a little uneasy. I get into my tent, but am then overwhelmed by the smell of marijuana, which actually made me feel much better. Homeless people on pot are a lot less frightening than homeless people on meth or crack or whatever else it could have been. Suffice it to say that I stay in my tent and get to sleep pretty early.

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42 miles in 5.25 hours

I was the first one awake from our campsite the night before, and quickly got packed and ready before the wind started. By the time I was ready to go most of the other people were up, so I talked with them a little bit. It was hard to leave everyone, but I wanted to cover the over 60 miles to Pfiffer Big Sur, and get all the way through the mountains that day. Eventually, I managed to say goodbye, and rolled out at around 8:30.

For once the winds were pretty calm in the flatlands for my first few hours of riding. Then I reached the mountains and started the first of four large climbs through the range.

At what I thought was the top of the first climb I stopped at a place called Rugged Point and grabbed lunch. I had literally the most buttery grilled cheese I have ever had there, and under any other circumstances I probably would have thought it was pretty gross. But when you are biking, any calories taste delicious, so I thought it was pretty damn good.

I left, only to discover that I was not at the top of the first climb, actually not even close. So I continued to slowly slog along, and eventually made it to the top.

I was told last night and this morning by my southbound friends in the campsite that there would be no wind today in the mountains. Well, they were wrong. I had a pretty hairy decent down the first hill, and then started to climb the second hill in a vicious headwind. Once I got to the top, I started another decent. On this decent I was getting blown around like I weighed nothing, even though I am probably 275 pounds with gear and bike. I got blown so hard that I thought my front tires were going to go out from under me, and almost got blown into a car on a flat.

This rattled me pretty badly, and I was making pretty bad time, so when I got to Kirk Creek Campground, which had been recommended, I decided to call it a day. I paid my $5 hiker/biker fee and set up.

As I was laying around listening to some podcasts I had on my computer, I hear someone shout my name from outside my tent. I go out, and I see Tim, Tim, and Melissa from the night before. It turns out one of the Tim’s has a racing bike, so the back wheel isn’t really made for touring, and he has three broken spokes. This is not good, and the bike is almost unridable. I tell them just to hitchhike to Monterey if he breaks one more spoke the next day. After that we end up hanging out and talking for a few hours, I take some pictures of another sunset, and they give me two hotdogs (thanks guys!) and then I go back and call it a night.

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29 miles in 3.5 hours

I started the day and rode up to the town of Morro Bay. I went to a little coffee house in Morro Bay for a few hours and updated the site. This was a pretty cool coffee shop, and I recommend it to anyone passing through.

I then left there around noon, and grabbed some lunch at a nearby McDonald’s. I then headed up towards my campground for the night at San Simeon. The day started out very well, and I passed through some nice towns.

Of course, as the day wore on these horrible headwinds started, and just continuously got worse. Eventually, I was going 6mph on flat ground, and 4mph up small hills. This really takes a lot of the fun out of bike touring – at least when you are going up a hill you are gaining potential energy which you will convert… pedalling into the wind doesn’t get you anything. I pedaled on though, and stopped for an early dinner in the town of Cambria because I knew that the campground was pretty isolated.

I finally rode by the campground at around 4:30, and saw that there were already a bunch of other bike tourers set up in the spot. My first thought was ‘shit’ because I didn’t want the hiker/biker spots to be full. Luckily when I reached the gate the woman said that they don’t have a set number of sites that they give out, as many hiker/bikers can cram into the spot as can fit. Not only that, but it was only $2, the cheapest spot to date.

I paid the money and rolled down to meet four people already there. Jamie and Adrian were a couple from San Diego who flew to Portland and were riding back down the coast towards home, and Deena and Juli (I think?) had just graduated from Cal-Berkeley and were riding from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. They were all really friendly, and I was happy that I met them all. We sat around and laughed and Adrian rode up to the town of San Simeon (a couple miles away) to buy everyone beer. At sunset, I walked to the beach and took yet another video of a sunset over the pacific.

I walked back to find two more people there, Tim and Melissa, who were also going north. They also had a third person in their group, another Tim, who was out getting them food and beer.

It was a late night of good times, and was the only night there were a significant number of people at any hiker/biker spots on the California coast. We had a nice night despite being yelled at by the ranger, and I met some new northbound friends.

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69 miles in 7 hours

I got up fairly early and headed out of Lompoc at around 7:45.

I took another ‘fun’ road with some switchbacks for a while, but was rewarded with a great ride down the hill (again thanks to Nicole the Ultra-Marathoner).

Once I got back to the PCH I talked to a family who was out taking a morning ride. The father said he had toured the Pacific Coast 20 years ago, but couldn’t imagine doing it now with all the traffic. I have heard similar things from other people throughout the trip, and am always a little amazed. I would imagine that it is probably safer now to do something like this than it was years ago, but I think people always think that things were better, safer, etc. back when they were young.

I also went under an overpass with the strangest bird nests I have ever seen.

I then rode through the towns of Orcutt, Guadalupe, and Oceano on my way towards Morro Bay.

I stopped at a Subway in Pismo Beach for lunch and relaxed for a while, and then ended up rolling out, knowing that I had a ways to go still. I started back northbound and then turned on Los Osos valley road. Of course, since I turned West, the headwinds started again. I grinded along slowly, was called a faggot by a group of guys (it goes without saying they were in a pickup truck… very brave of them to yell out the window while going past me), and eventually made it to my campground for the night, Morro Beach State Park.

I set up in the hiker/biker spot and then walked around for a while. This was a very pretty park, situated right on the bay and next to a marina and golf course.

Best of all, the showers there were free (but cold). I headed back to my tent after my first walk around and read for a while, before heading back out to take some pictures of the sunset a couple hours later.

With that taken care of, I went back to the tent and went to sleep early.

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35 miles in 3 hours

I woke up in the middle of the night, not suspecting that anything was wrong, but confused as to why I woke up. Suddenly I realized that my face was wet, and not only that but it was getting wetter. RAIN! I hustled up, threw my shoes on, hopped outside of my tent, and hastily threw up the rain fly (which I never put up, mostly due to laziness). With that emergency taken care of I went back inside and back to sleep.

When I actually awoke in the morning, I noticed that it was still raining, and because my I did not stake down my rainfly, it was only half effective. I was nice and dry though, so I sat inside and pondered what to do next.

I ran outside to brush my teeth and all that, and noticed that it really wasn’t too bad out. I also didn’t see my friends from the night before, and was sad that they probably got rained on in the middle of the night and had to move on. I then returned to my tent to again sit and plot.

I eventually packed everything up inside my tent, loaded my bike, and then quickly packed my soaking wet tent. Yuk. On my way out of the campground I saw my friends from Berkeley again, who had chilled under and around the canopied restrooms and showers when it started to rain. I said my goodbyes to them, and headed north, into the rain.

I got through the famous tunnel that terrifies bikers, and it was pretty terrifying. It wasn’t a long tunnel, but it was pretty narrow, and it was nearly impossible to stay to the right; you just kept getting sucked back to the middle.

Afterwards I started up by far the biggest hill of the trip thus far. This sucker was not only steep, but it was long.

I spent probably an hour going 4 mph up this hill. I was rewarded with an easy ride through the sun down into Lompoc. It was around 12:30 when I arrived and stopped for some fast food. With no campground within striking distance, a right knee that was having some issues, and a soaking wet tent that needed to dry, I decided to stop at a Motel 6 and make it a very short day.

I spent the rest of the day doing laundry and sat at Starbucks for several hours working on the site. I also bought some supplies in Albertsons and ate a few more meals. All in all a relaxing and productive night.

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64 miles in 6 hours

I got up in the morning and Nicole decided to ride with me for a while, which was quite useful because the path out of town was a little confusing. (They seemed rather stunned that I didn’t have any maps. I dared not tell them that I had recently sent home my cooking supplies as well. Everyone tours their own way.) Anyway she rode me all the way up to Carpinteria, which is the first suburb of Santa Barbara. I felt bad for being slow (since she is a world class athlete and all, and I am not to say the least – plus I was fully loaded and she was on a road bike). Thanks again to Jae and Nicole for being so inviting!

After that I headed through Santa Barbara, and rode along the beach. This was a nice because it was beautiful out and because Santa Barbara is a very attractive town. Wow. Anyway, I eventually got through the downtown beach section, sadly.

I took the ‘Coastal Route’ as opposed to the ‘Crosstown Route’ at Nicole’s urging, despite ‘a small hill’. It was the first small hill I have ever seen that required frequent switchbacks to climb! Despite that, it was a beautiful route, and I am glad I did it.

After I got through town and to the 101, I stupidly realized that I didn’t eat since a late breakfast, nor did I pick anything up for later. This was poor because the park I was going to for the night was in the middle of nowhere. So I turned around and went back to town and stopped in a 7-11 for trail mix (three kinds!) and at a Baja Fresh, which has somehow become very expensive in the last few years.

Having taken care of that, I hopped back on the road and went back to the 101 and got on it. I did around 10-15 freeway miles before hitting my exit, and the beautiful state beach that awaited. I paid the $5 for the hiker/biker site, wrote some for my blog, ate some trail mix, and turned in early, with the ocean in the background.

As I was laying in the tent I heard these people suddenly chatting next to me. How strange I thought, so I put my glasses on and took a look. Two more bike tourists had arrived! I excitedly donned my shirt and hopped outside. It turns out that the two of them, boy and girl, had just graduated from Berkeley and were doing San Francisco to Los Angeles. They were really going bare bones, with almost nothing, just a pretty sweet stereo strapped to the back of his bike. They just had a tarp to lay down and some sleeping bags. I was a little jealous of their set up. I chatted with them for a while, and then returned to my tent to go to bed.