Circling the U.S. Chapter 56: The Last of the HIlls (For Now)

Friday, November 15 - Thursday, November 21, 2019

How many dramatic seacoast pictures can I possibly take? Lots. The stunning views just kept coming.

After leaving Carmel-by-the-Sea we continued riding up and down hills along the coast, riding 29 miles to Big Sur. Heavy traffic impeded our enjoyment of the day, but we dealt with it. Big Sur was rather a disappointment. Nestled in the woods, there is really nothing there except for the campground among the trees in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park and a couple high-priced general stores and restaurants. I think the attraction is hiking in the state park.

When we stumbled upon this portajohn sitting along the side of the road, I thought it was put there just for us. But, as you can see, a car stopped as we were finishing our business. The driver figured he'd take advantage of this rogue portajohn as well.

Following are two pictures I took during the day's ride before we headed slightly inland to Big Sur.

Saturday, November 16, we rode 34 miles to a US Forest Service campground, nine miles south of Lucia.  We rode past beautiful beaches, dramatic cliffs, and amazing highway engineering, with many bridges hugging the cliffs.

We stopped at this overlook for lunch. Rob would have smiled but I caught him with a mouth full of food.

Check out the bridge. We rode over a number of these engineering marvels.

Sections of the highway can be closed for rock slides. A sign just past Carmel-by-Sea provides updates on which sections of the highway are open.

We arrived at Plaskett Creek Campground around three o'clock. Even during this weekend in November the campground was full but we were guaranteed a place to set up our tent in the hiker/biker site, for $5 a person. While Rob set up the tent I put together our chairs, got out the stove and heated some hot water. We enjoyed afternoon tea then walked across the road to Sand Dollar Beach to watch the sunset. 

There was only one other bicyclist camping that night. Katie, a young woman from Ontario, was out for her first bicycle tour, riding four days from Monterey to Santa Barbara. She was writing a screen play about a cyclist riding down the coast and wanted to experience it herself. I was surprised that she kept to herself in the campground, not coming over to visit, even though we'd invited her to join us the night before in Big Sur.

Following are pictures of the sunset over Sand Dollar Beach.

Sunday, November 17, we rode 41 miles to Cambria, starting the day with three long climbs. Unlike north of San Francisco, when we'd ride a winding road up a hill, then down into a cove, then claw our way back up again, over and over, now the hills were fewer and longer. I'd look up and see the road above on the cliff and think, that's got to be the top, I can make that. Then I'd get to that summit, round the curve and see the road continue climbing to the top of the next curve, then the same thing at the top of that one. The climb kept going but so did the stunning scenery.

Sometimes I had to stop taking pictures because I thought, there are just too many. But then I'd come across something new.

We stopped on a bridge to watch a colony of seals frolicking in the water.

A mile later we came to a viewpoint for what we learned were elephant seals who have made this part of the coast one of their resting places. The ones here are adolescents hanging out for several months. I think I have finally figured out the difference between sea lions and seals. Seals look like giant sausages when they are lying on the beach. 

We passed right by the entrance road to Hearst Castle without stopping. How can you celebrate ostentatious opulence when so many people in the United States are effectively living in a third world country?

This turned out to be one of those days when we changed plans mid-stream. The shorter days leave us little time to explore some of the picturesque towns along the way so rather than camp in a state park, we decided to stay in a motel in Cambria. We walked around the historic half of the town, counting four bakeries in two blocks. When we heard music playing, we stopped in a Mexican restaurant and saw they had a band playing on the back patio. We drank beer while we watched people dancing and visiting with one another.

Monday, November 18, we rode 58 miles to Pismo Beach, including a long break in Morro Bay to find the sea otters we'd heard might be frolicking there. We couldn't seem to find our way but when we stopped a couple cyclists to ask directions, the woman recognized us. She was the docent we'd talked to at the elephant seal colony the day before. She and her husband had just come from watching the sea otters. With their directions we found them.

The zoom on my camera can only do so much, but at least we had some binoculars to watch these sea otters floating on their backs and munching on seaweed while we munched on cheese and crackers, peanuts, and bananas.

Then we had fast riding with easy rolling hills and a tailwind which made up for busy highways and boring scenery. We rode through beach towns that were reminiscent of some on the east coast with arcades and run-down fast food shacks. But our route also took us inland to San Luis Obispo where we ate lunch next to the old mission and took care of some errands - groceries, a new water bottle to replace the one Rob dropped in the road that got run over, REI for fuel, and the post office to mail a birthday card to our son.

We spent the night at Pismo State Beach Campground where we had to pay full price for our campsite. They'd had to shut down their hiker/biker site because of misuse by vagrants. At least the showers were hot. There was a butterfly grove next to the campground, but we didn't see many. We seem to be either too early or too late for animal migrations.

Tuesday, November 19, we woke to a layer of green foam on our steel cut oats. Having grown tired of rolled oats for breakfast, we'd switched to steel cut, which need to be precooked the night before. To keep our food safe from animals we usually store it in the bathroom overnight and I had put everything in one of the shower stalls. Too much humidity? Fortunately we had the makings for cinnamon toast so we didn't have to start riding on empty stomachs.

State Highway 1 took us inland all day, through farm country where dried mud caked the roads making them extremely bumpy to navigate. We saw people out working in the fields and tried to figure out what was growing. We had one long climb at the end of the day.

The weather all day was what I call San Francisco weather. If you wear long pants you're too hot but if you wear shorts you're too cold. I finally settled on riding shorts and my lightweight running jacket and Rob went with shorts and a T-shirt. We appreciated the cooler weather after the heat from the day before. Then a cold wind kicked in and we weren't sorry the campground in Lompoc was closed. We found a Motel 6 right across from an Albertsons so we were able to have a rotisserie chicken for dinner. (Motel 6 is bare bones - no microwave or coffee maker.)

The next morning, Wednesday, November 20, we found the historic section of Lompoc with murals depicting the town's history.

This picturesque street led the way out of town, but not in the direction we needed to go.

After leaving Lompoc we had one long 750 foot climb, so gradual we shrugged our shoulders at it. Looking at the elevation profile, that was our last major climb along the coast. The next Adventure Cycling map section didn't even have an elevation profile on it. We could coast to San Diego.

But that didn't mean we would have easy riding. We rejoined Highway 101 with its speeding cars and trucks. Rob got a flat tire.

I ducked behind some trees along the side of the road to use the bathroom and here were the railroad tracks holding tightly to the shoreline. Riding the Pacific Coast Amtrak could be fun.

UC Santa Barbara is actually located north of the city in its own town of Isla Vista. Our route took us along the bike paths through the campus. Expand this scene three or four times to get an idea of how many bicycles there were. 

I have never ridden on a bike path as crowded as this one. I said to Rob, "Wouldn't it be ironic if, after making it this far without getting hit by a car, we get in an accident with another bicycle?"

The bicycle path engineering through campus was unlike any I've ever experienced. Cars had to stop well before an intersection and bicycles just kept going, not having to stop. Clearly, bicycles ruled here.

Then we came to this beautiful park along the water.

62 miles brought us to Santa Barbara where we had about an hour to poke around before meeting our Warm Showers hosts. Matt and Stephanie live about 20 miles outside town, but will pick up cyclists who need a place to stay. Matt picked us up at a McDonalds on the edge of Santa Barbara. 

Matt cooked us a vegetable and tofu curry dinner. He works as a firefighter for the forest service. He said that he is seeing dramatic changes from climate change in what he calls his "little domain." He thinks the future for water and the forests in his part of California is looking very grim.

Stephanie works as a night nurse so we didn't meet her until Wednesday morning when she woke up in time to drive us back to Santa Barbara.

It was time to hit the beaches of LA.