Day 6 featured the last major climbs of our trip. We awoke to gray -- fog and dampness. The best chance of clear weather along the coast is September-October but we were faced with another day of gray. Riding blind.
The night was COLD! And the never ending cry of a bird that turned out to be a pair of peregrine falcons that hunt seagulls at night. It was a rather eery cry and almost sounded like a hurt or sick bird.
We were up and packed and headed to Gorda for a cup of coffee. The whole town has a population of about 10 hard scrabble souls; the worst and most expensive coffee of the entire trip. But I knew that right out of Gorda we would begin several climbs each 1-2 miles so I was willing to drink 2 cups of the swill.
Up in the saddle -- just start turning those cranks. Riding in the fog; well, there are both good and bad points. It is good: you only ride the couple hundred yards you see and not the entire climb ahead. It is bad: you can't mentally or physically pace yourself. How close am I to the top? to the next curve? But no matter what you can't see the fabulous views that are lurking everywhere along Route 1. I can confirm gray is boring after a few days.
There was a fair bit of road work going on. Highway 1 is a permanent project for Caltrans. At one point, the Caltrans worker was holding his "GO SLOW" sign. I said: No worry, I'm going slow. He smiled and said: You have a mile to the top and this is the last climb. Words to motivate!! A motorist going the other direction was waiting for traffic to clear and he offered me this advice: just get in your cadence....you've got a bit of climbing left. Well, yeah.
But we went on and on; up and up. And then down and down. And then up and up. And then down and down. After a few hours -- there was Ragged Point and two jagged cyclists rolled in and had REAL COFFEE AND REAL CHAI. And a real proud feeling of accomplishment.
The rest of the route was down to the beach edge; even got some surf spray at one point. A bit of clearing and eventually blue sky. A view of Hearst Castle perched on the hill. We decided not to do a tour; just not into seeing how the old money was spent in excess.
We watched Elephant Seals on the beach tossing sand on themselves and gallumphing into the surf.
On to Hearst San Simeon State Park. It was nearly deserted. For some reason the hike/bike campsites are furthest from the entrance to the park and closest to the road. I guess since we listen to road noise all day someone figures we might like to camp 15 yards from the road at night. YUCK.
But then we cleaned up. Read a bit. And rode into Cambria (on a delightful bike route along the coast) for a deluxe dinner at Robins. Cute town laced with money. We were happy to spend and to eat.
Here is some info about our daily routines on this trip.
We would arrive in camp in mid to late afternoon. Off come the cycling shoes and on with those crocs. Alan would pitch the tent; we'd dry out the fly as needed. We would get the sleeping mats, pillows, and sleeping bags into the tent.
Then it was off to the showers -- mostly they were $.25 for 2-3 minutes of warm to hot water. Cleaned up and with our street clothes on, we would walk around the campground, through the park, maybe to town...whatever option was best.
Other riders would be coming into camp and we'd share stories of the day.
Dinner time was next. We had dehydrated our meals so it was easy to boil water to reconstitute and heat up a tasty, healthy meal. (Some folks lived on cookies, beer, nuts, smokes....) We would pack up snacks for the next day alternating dates, dried bananas, nuts, and GORP (good old raisins and peanuts laced with M&Ms).
Lunches were peanut butter & nutella on sourdough; or cheese. I missed fruit and veges.
Breakfasts were granola or oatmeal (again, we had made and dehydrated our own.)
We read until it was too dark or too cold or we were too tired.
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| Living Life Large as an Elephant Seal |
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| The Sun is Back and Shining on Hearst Castle |
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