Monday of this week, I decided at the last minute to take a trip down to San Juan Capistrano to see Jen jump horses, which I hadn’t seen her do yet. I decided to reach deep in my bag and pull out a bike camping trip, because it’s been forever since I’ve done that and I love cycling so much! I was impressed, first of all, at how quickly I was able to pull it together; I decided Sunday to do this and Monday morning at 9 am I was off!
I rode my standard routes down to San Jose, just like I used to when I was going to work in Sunnyvale for Apple. Right at the point when the bike path leaves to the West, though, I stayed on San Jose city streets and wound my way down through the city, headed out along the Capitol freeway until I matched up with the Coyote Creek bike trail. It was a sunny day but actually perfect for riding, and even with my gear in tow I made great time down the bike trail all the way to Morgan Hill, where I once again ended up on city roads towards Gilroy. Right before I hit Gilroy I picked up state route 146 towards Wastonville, and that’s where the first problems began. Highway 146 is…not good for cycling. Which is a bummer, because there doesn’t seem to be any other way through. Which might make the inland route not a great idea. The road is windy and 2 lane with no shoulder, and you have to go uphill, which means if someone comes flying around a blind corner you’re a sitting duck. However, I made it to Watsonville which, I have to say, was…unimpressive.
My goal was to make it to a hike and bike campground at Sunset State Beach. California - especially the coast - has an impressive set of free-or-low-cost campgrounds for people that are on foot or travelling by bike. I’ve taken advantage of them once or twice but wanted to see if I could get a cheap night’s stay in someplace beautiful - and I did! $5! And you can just roll on in and pitch a tent! It’s pretty cool. I will say though I never really got to see the “beautiful” part. I never even really saw the ocean. Nice sunset, though. I ended up doing 96 miles that first day.
The next morning I had a choice to make - continue down the coast, and try to make it to Kirk Creek, or go inland. Because I’ve already ridden the coast, I decided to try something new and head inland. I also thought there might be more services available and more opportunities to bail when I wanted to. I knew I didn’t want to ride all the way to Los Angeles; for one thing, I didn’t have time. So in Watsonville, after a trip to Starbucks, I headed towards 101 and city roads, using Google as well as signs for an inland bike route whose name I don’t know. The riding got kind of hilly and the sun was baking down on me, but I still managed a solid 85 miles. About halfway through the day I realized that my last stop was King City; it was another 50 miles to the next hotels in Paso Robles.
The ride to King City is a mixed bag. I was lucky to have a serious tailwind and so I flew along at 20 miles an hour. However, the riding was rough, and a little sketchy. At one point Google Maps, in its infinite wisdom, took me directly into a private commercial farm, and when I finally realized the problem and turned around, I had to ride a mile into 30 mph headwinds, which was…zero fun. And it was dirty and dusty and smelly and sometimes I had to get on the shoulder of 101, or ride on agricultural roads that I didn’t love. So, yeah - glad I experienced it, but also happy to stop in King City and hit the hotel room. King City just feels like a random collection of storefronts and new homes; again, can’t say I was impressed.
In the next post I’ll tell you about my grand journey on buses and trains down to San Juan Capistrano!
