Day 28. Watsonville to San Luis Obispo, CA

250 miles zoomed by today from Watsonville to San Luis Obispo with a side trip to the highway 1 road closure at Big Sur. 

We stopped in Carmel for beeakfaat and a walk on the beach. 

On the way to Big Sur we saw some beautiful scenery and a CA 1 that looked like a nice bike riding road. Unfortunately the flooding this spring washed out the Pfeiffer Canyon bridge followed by a 1/4 mile wide landslide further down the road cutting off some iconic California ocean views for locals as well as through cyclist and tourist. 

Angela thanks me once again for renting the minivan to jump ahead to San Luis Obispo on our bike trip. 

The Big Sur road closure in person.  A woman working in the market by the state park there told me some cyclist were pushing their bikes on a steep trail around the bridge closure and were using a back road to bypass the land slide. 

Seeing the landscapes slide by from the car was much different than cycling the route but still pleasurable, especially on the 40 mile long Carmel Valley Rd. we took to bypass Big Sur. In two days of driving the scenery has started to change dramatically from Redwoods and heavily forested coastal areas to rolling, arid hills, oaks and scrub brush. Our last 7 days of cycling to San Diego start tomorrow!!

Day 27. Ft. Bragg to Watsonville, CA

279 miles today, a fabulous day if you're riding bikes but we cheated with a rental car today. 

😱

That's Angela loving on our Dodge Caravan as we picked it up at Enterprise in Ft. Bragg around 8am this morning.   It was not an easy thing for me to do but Angela was truly happy to be taking a couple of days off of her bike and skipping down the coast to San Luis Obispo. A few days back when we struggled into Myers Flat beat up and worn out after only 35 miles this scheme was born.  We both needed a couple of days off and yet not lose the time we needed to make it back for Graham's 3rd birthday. By skipping past the Big Sur landslide detour on Hwy 1 we would also avoid some nasty riding. Counting tomorrow's drive we'll be taking just over 400 miles or 8 days of cycling out of our trip. 

Making "cheating" on our ride even more difficult, our friends who had camped a few miles north of Ft. Bragg for the night dropped by our hotel to say one last goodbye.  We had all been on a similar pace but now we'll be too far ahead to see them again.  I'm not usually an emotional guy but seeing Dietmar, Sabine, Heinrich and Domien this morning was very sad as well as heartwarming.  We wish them all a safe and wonderful ride and trip back home. We hope to see them again, either visiting us in Colorado or seeing them again in Europe. 

About 100 miles down the road from Ft. Bragg, after slowing to eyeball 12 other cyclist traveling south along the route, we finally caught up to one of our first friends from our trip, Katherine!

We met Katherine and her friend Leanne on one of our earliest cycling days and then again several more times along the route.  We'd been staying in touch via email, blog and YouTube and always hoped to catch back up with them. We had just about given up hope of finding Katherine when we finally spotted her climbing one of the many steep hills along Hwy 1 and pulled over to exchange hugs and catch up before saying goodbye for the rest of this trip. We hope to visit again when she gets back to Denver. Great job Katherine!!! Ride safe and see you soon!

I was looking forward  to crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on my bike so one more bittersweet moment as we cross south in our minivan. I have to admit though, covering 280 miles in one day today after riding a bike the last 24 days about 50 miles per day was a gigantic shift for us and did give me guilty pleasures. 

Angela's long time GE colleague and friend Steve and his lovely wife Toni offered us a wonderfull home cooked meal and a great nights sleep in their home in Watsonville, not far from Monterey and Carmel.  We had a wonderful evening and I got to sample some of Steve's home distilled whiskeys. Excellent. Thanks Steve and Toni!

🥃

Day 26. Standish-Hickey State Park to Ft. Bragg, CA

A 46 mile day with lots of elevation change and changing climates from the state park back down to the sea side town of Ft. Bragg, CA. 

Levine the park at 8:30 and starring our 1,000 ft. climb on California Hwy 1 for the next 3 miles. So many of the roads are either showing signs of land slides on top of them or sliding down towards the sea. 

The good news was the traffic was very light all morning and the forest was quiet and beautiful. 

After a long climb we had a long decent of around 2,000 ft. back down to sea level.  Ironically we had to put on warmer clothes as we descended from elevation. 

And we're back to the iconic sea stacks we saw so much of along the Oregon coast, now in California. 

A fair amount of fog and mist along the coast today, still following CA 1. 

Guarding my Fritos, sandwich and chocolate milk around 1pm. After 32 miles of riding we found a small convenience store/deli in Westport to get something to eat and warm up a bit. This stretch of the route was beautiful but very remote and isolated. 

Angela, hand on hips, looking back at the hills we've just climbed at a short rest along the coast.  Just about 10 more miles before we get to Ft. Bragg. 

Day 25. Myers Flat to Standish-Hickey State Park

A nice 45 mile day to Standish-Hickey State Park from Myers Flat, CA. 

Leaving Myers Flat and back onto the Avenue of the Giants to be awed by the giant Redwoods and the quiet road. 

We were on and off the 101 today, mostly off.  Here we emerged from the Redwoods into a gradually drying and rolling hills climate. 

Onto the 101 and wondering if we would be considered pedestrians. Of course we had no choice!

Paralleling 101 on the Old 101. 

A little after noon we couldn't resist stopping at The Legend of Bigfoot for a drink and a snack. I really wanted to buy a little lawn gnome to carry on my bicycle back to the Wisecup's who are watching our cats and house but I was afraid I would have trouble keeping him secure while perched on top of my bike!  Too bad. 

Another hot afternoon but we only have another 10 miles to climb to our campsite for the night!  We are both feeling much better today than yesterday. 

👏👏👏

2:30 and we're rolling into the park.  Yea! Angela was especially mean and tough today. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!

Our campsite where we joined Sabine and Heinrich.  Shortly afterwards Dietmar and Domien joined us for a convergence of the "Global Gray Riders" all in one campsite.  We enjoyed talking about our day as the conversation drifted from English to German and back again and smells of marijuana wafted over us from the hikers next door. 

Sabine, Heinrich, Dietmar, me and Ang, and Domien. 

Blogging the late afternoon away while we wait to rendezvous at the The Peg House beer garden just across the highway. 

🍺🍺🍻

Day 24. Fortuna to Myers Flat, CA

Riding from Fortuna to Myers Flat for a 1pm arrival. A great weather day through the Redwoods but we decided to make it a short day of 35 miles. 

Entering Humboldt Redwoods State Park after about 14 miles on US101 out of Fortuna. In some cases the 101 was okay but as the climbs became more common the road shoulder often narrowed and traffic volume increased. 

🙁

Riding on the "Avenue of the Giants"  is like riding through a long, shady garage of huge trunks and ferny underbrush, at least 10 degrees cooler than in the sun. Only 239 miles to San Francisco according to the sign!  Since we left Vancouver we've ridden about halfway to the Mexico border accumulating about 970 miles over 21 days. Today we're both starting to get a little weary, both mentally and physically.  We started talking about other means of travel besides riding on a bike seat. Today was my first day feeling this way but Angela has been quietly leaning in that direction for at least few days now. 

So often the Redwoods are stacked amazingly close together for such big trees bu this one stood out all by itself asking to have its picture taken. 

Does this tree make my butt look fat?

We had planned a 75 mile day today, pretty much a steady uphill climb towards Leggett, CA. However we both had heavy legs and were growing a bit weary of bike travel.  We stumbled onto this B&B in Myers Flat in the Redwoods forest and decided to pull the plug and just take the afternoon off. The temperature was in the mid 80's and very hot when we weren't in the shade of the Redwoods. 

After a shower we read, walked around and just took it easy. We also started making some adjustments to our travel plans.  In the evening we paid Dietmar and Domien a visit at their campsite about 1/4 mile away. We agreed to meet up again tomorrow night and camp together at the Standish-Hickey State Rec. Area. 

Day 23. Patricks Point to Fortuna, CA

A beautiful 55 mile day to Fortuna from Patrick's Point State Park.  We went off route a couple of times and had all kinds of riding surfaces to partake of. 

Saying good bye to our camp friends Sabine and Heinrich.  We had a wonderful evening last night topped off by marauding skunks or raccoons who paid our camp a visit after we went to sleep. They drug things out Angela's pannier, knocked over my bike and tried to drag my handle bar bag with my map into the woods.  I shook the tent wall and shouted at them from inside which seemed to drive them off. It's a good thing we used the bear box last night. It could have been worse. We all laughed in the morning about our midnight visitors. 

Early and one of the few great ocean views on a wonderful but dilapidated shore line road. So many of the roads are literally sliding down into the sea as the soil erodes and shifts. 

 

Caltran was kind enough to cone off a whole lane of 101 for a short stretch today.  An example of construction that really isn't construction but we liked it. 

And here we've moved to a gravel trail on a steep hill.  This won't be the last time we push our bikes today. 

 

Another small ocean side road paralleling the 101 and one of our last ocean views today. 

Now we've moved to an asphalt trail that takes us through McKinleyville on our way towards Eureka. 

And back on the 101 which has a great shoulder to ride on and modest traffic into Eureka   

And this is one of the places all those logging trucks we see every day since Washington State must be going, a lumber mill in Eureka. 

And this is where we decided to be smart and venture off of the AdventureCycling route and take a short cut into Fortuna for our overnight. It was a 6 mile, little traveled road that kept us off of the 101 and probably shaved 5 miles from our travels today. But..,. 

It may have been 5 miles shorter in two dimensions but when you add in a third dimension with a monster steep climb and decent for 3 of those miles, it might not have saved us time. The road was barely one lane and probably close to 15% or more grade.


Finally near the top we have great views from the 700 foot high peak.  On the way down, a very steep decent on a rough road, I stopped to wait for Ang and blindly reached down below my pannier curious to see how hot my brakes rotors were. I now have a little burn on my finger where I touched them. Very hot!!

I always enjoy wheeling our bikes into the hotel lobby where we stick out like a sore thumb.  Chili and salads and a beer at the Eel River Brewery next to the hotel and we're down for the night.