getting there is more than half the fun (83.6% in fact!)
Alissa: We woke up to a great view of the Morro rock. We stopped in SLO for lunch and a quick visit to the local bike shop. It was a great day for a ride! We had to say goodbye to the coast today for a couple of days as Hwy 1 (now called Pacific …
Continue reading “Day #19: Morro Bay to Santa Maria (50 mi)”
Alissa: Very quickly into our ride we turned inland away from the coast for a bit. After a few miles we stopped to see the elephant seals then made an early pit stop for lunch of burgers made from Hearst cattle and some wine tasting for Glen. Then we went on a tour of the …
Continue reading “Day #18: Ragged Point to Morro Bay (45 mi)”
Alissa: Glen surprised me with a fun gift: which I gleefully started unwinding wondering what on Earth could be wrapped up inside. I didn’t have to wait long until I found a plastic frog, a glamorous new ring, and a roll of Smarties. Fun times!
Alissa: Today we rode through both of the road closure areas, which, thankfully, had opened! We had more lovely views along the coast, and the views to our left looked mostly like this: During our lunch stop at the Whale Watchers Cafe, I, suitably, saw the spout of a whale! And, we encountered fellow cyclists …
Alissa: Hooray! Not only did Caltrans open the second mudslide area, but we had a glorious, gorgeous, spectacular sunny day to experience the Big Sur that Google had teased me with. The water was a brilliant turquoise that I’ve only seen in, like, Hawaii . Due to all the recent rain, we passed many waterfalls. …
Alissa: Good news! Caltrans opened one of the two road closures and anticipates opening the other one tomorrow! The road looks like it took a beating. I’m going to have to ask my brother, who knows everything there is to know about concrete and asphalt, how this could happen. (Funny story, which I bet he …
Alissa: It POURED today. During the downpour, I decided to check out what my weather sites had to say about the situation. We both were fairly productive work-wise and Glen enjoyed the Medocino County themed wine and cheese hour.
Alissa: I joined the daily yoga class, which I described to Glen as a “guided nap,” and after which we learned the following: Caltrans *did* wind up closing the highway in two locations, which would have stranded us at the place with no availability for Wed and Thurs. So, score one for us for making …
Alissa: The next few legs of our journey present a logistic challenge in that the options for lodging along this section of the coast are extremely limited. Consider the following scenario: It is Monday and the weather is perfect for cycling! You can get to your desired location, but (1) The weather forecast says 100% …
Alissa: Sigh… Mother Nature: 2; Glen and Alissa: 0 I really need to (1) find another weather website and/or (2) let Glen make the decision about whether we should cycle given the forecast. Weather.gov said that there was a “30% chance of rain prior to 10 am” and “new precipitation amounts of less than a …
Alissa: Neither of us had been to this park before, so we rented a car and drove about an hour east. We stopped at Flapjack’s Breakfast for brunch, which had the best gender neutral restroom sign I’ve ever seen! We kicked off our visit with spelunking in Bear Gulch Cave! It was incredible that this cave …
Alissa: Today was spent mostly off of “the one” since it was highway (hence, no bicycles) and not a state road. We saw very little of the coast, but instead passed miles and miles of crops, mainly strawberries and artichokes! And we saw the first sign indicating our distance from home! Toward the end of …
Alissa: All the wind and rain yesterday was so totally worth it to have the gorgeous perfect day today. It was my favorite leg of our ride thus far, possibly because the entire distance was protected land. Long, flat stretches along the coast in warm sunshine, dotted with state parks and beaches (each with public restrooms, yay!). I’ll let …
Continue reading “Day #13: Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz (48 mi)”
Alissa: Our weekend break in Berkeley turned into four days as we found the forecast for very high winds (40+ mph!) and downpour from another atmospheric river slightly terrifying. We had a great time visiting with Glen’s brother and sister-in-law, having lots of tasty food, visiting some sort of Earth tuning fork and meeting our …
Continue reading “Day #12: Colma BART stop to Half Moon Bay (26 mi)”
Alissa: It was a bit crazy to go from the middle of nowhere to being across the Golden Gate Bridge in about 20 miles! All the small towns in Marin County between Fairfax and Sausalito were super cute and reminded me of the Village area in Claremont. Since we had plans to meet our friend Matt …
Continue reading “Day #11: Lagunitas to Tony’s Pizza in North Beach, SF! (27 mi)”
Shoreline Hwy turned inland, so today’s ride was mostly through farmland. In contrast to the giant trees from a week ago and the gorgeous coastline from the past few days, we rode through lots of green pastures. We saw many cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens and geese. Then we rode along an ENORMOUS bay for …
Alissa: Today was a day of firsts–the first time we saw other cyclists (one of whom was in a recumbent with a sign proclaiming “New York to Seattle!”) and the first time we each got hit by ocean spray. While waiting around for the light mist to stop this morning before starting our journey, Glen …
Alissa: An intentionally nice, easy very-little-elevation-gain ride so we could hang out and do some work in the afternoon. Remember that ad that told us that “great cheese comes from happy cows”? and that “happy cows come from California”? Well, I think these were the ones they were talking about. I mean, look at their view! …
Alissa: Today was perfect! Not a cloud in the sky and long stretches along the coast. It was glorious! I kept hoping to see whales migrating south, but no luck (yet!). Today there were only two towns with any services: Elk and Point Arena. The highlight of today’s ride was the amazing hardware store where we …
Alissa: Today was glorious! No rain and a ride along the coast. We passed through the lovely little towns of Fort Bragg, including a stop at Glass Beach and Medocino, among many others. My favorite parts of these towns are their general stores and post offices, which have so much more character than the ones …
Alissa: After waiting an hour in the morning for the rain to stop, we headed out to tackle the longest climb of the trip. It rained off and on during the climb, but we made it to the top, passing lots of snow on the sides of the road and slush on the ground. It was …
Continue reading “Day #5: Leggett to Westport (33 mi with cheating)”
Alissa: Another day of riding in off and on rain to get to our cabin in Leggett, which had a wood-burning stove! (Glen: And a good thing, too, since we were the wettest/freeziest here of any place except for Redcrest.) On the way we passed many oddities, the first being this giant guy: Then we …
Alissa: We headed down to the Historic Benbow Inn, when Glen caught a photo of a rainbow during a brief period we weren’t getting dumped on with rain. We arrived just in time for delicious orange scones during afternoon tea time. Glen: Kudos also to the Benbow Inn for being the only hotel (at least in …
Alissa: I rode the remaining distance along Avenue of the Giants while Glen took the Humboldt InnerCity Transit Bus to the Garberville Community Hospital, where he was told he would live to die another day. The Best Western was our home for two nights while Glen recovered from his adventure (and supported the Garberville economy by …
Alissa: Leaving Ferndale in the rain, we rode though off and on showers all day. The best part of the day was starting down the Avenue of the Giants, with more super tall trees! Our Redcrest cabin was freezing so we heated it quickly by turning on the oven and all gas burners. Glen: Critical for …
Alissa: We stopped for lunch in Eureka where there were beautiful Victorian homes and an adorable historic downtown. We continued to Ferndale to the Gingerbread Mansion Inn. The main street here resembled that of Disneyland with a General Store and Meat Company, where the host of “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” used to work! We arrived to …
Alissa: After a super delayed flight to Arcata, we woke up to pouring rain so decided to rent a car and head up to the see the giant trees after picking up our bikes! We were the only ones in the park on the rainy afternoon. Arcata is a super cute little town near Humboldt …