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.
An old barracks.
More old military base.
I then rode through a bunch of random farmland for a while.
Workers in a field
More farmland
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.
Artichoke Center of the World...
They like their artichokes.
Yup.
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.
I think that is Monterey in the distance!
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.
Downtown Capitola
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.