Day 20
September 1st 2008
Santa Cruz, CA to Big Sur, CA
75.8 Miles
Today was supposed to be a short day of only about 40 miles, but I was feeling the tug of the finish line and thought I might go for some extra distance today. I am enjoying myself but I can tell this journey is nearing the end of its useful life. I never thought of it before, but in my experience, vacations have a a shelf life, planned obsolescence, if you will, and after so long on the road, I feel like this one is just about to get ripe. The trip is more than half over in mileage and days. By my calculations I have about 10 days left. So I guess part of the extra mileage today was motived by an urge to finish. The other motivating factor was ease of the first 40 miles today. It was relatively flat and I even had a nice tailwind again.
And once again, the route took me through a new type of scenery, at least for the first half of the day. Farmland. It was clearly harvest time although I couldn’t be sure just what they were harvesting. At one point I thought it was strawberries, but later it looked like cherry tomatoes. It could have been both.
The Green Fields
Laboring on Labor Day
It was crisp but sunny and there was a slight mist hanging low. The suggested route took me away from Highway 1 and away from the ocean. Basically after I left Santa Cruz all the way until I reached Monterrey I passed several farms on these quiet back roads. There was no traffic except for the occasional truck taking water from one field to another or carrying a load of recently picked…something. In each field there were lots of people, laboring on Labor Day I noted. And the best part, everywhere was the sound of Spanish Language radio. Because the land was wide open, the music carried a long way. It was awesome. I was riding by myself through these verdant fields on the California coast and listening to fantastic music. It was surreal. In fact I’ll rank this morning’s ride right up there with the Avenue of the Giants and that stormy morning overlooking the sea stacks of Bandon. Ironically my guide book suggested there was nothing interesting about this section. I should ride through it as quickly as possible so that I could spend more time enjoying all the fun things Monterrey had to offer. This is one of the few times the guide book was just plain wrong.
Sadly all good things come to an end and far too soon, I was riding through the suburbs of Monterrey. Once I returned to the streets of the big city my fun factor dropped a couple of points. This was why I was hurrying? On the plus side there was a nice bike path, but on the negative side it was crowded with a lot of people. The other thing I noticed for the first time was the amount of transients. OK it may not be fair to call them transients since I didn’t stop and ask them their life stories, but it seemed like they were just hanging out along the bike path because it was a place to hang out. I soon had my fill of Monterrey and its environs and decided to hit the road south. I guess I’ll save Cannery Row and the aquarium for another visit.
The next town over was Carmel. It represented my last chance to stop for the night if I didn’t want to ride another 30 miles. It was only noon, so I had to ask myself, do I feel lucky? It’s true that a man has to know his limitations but I figured more miles would make my day. So on I pedaled.
Sea Lions lounging
The second half of the day I rode along California’s Big Sur coastline. It lived up to its name, as both the views and the hills were big. I was inspired to take lots of pictures even though I’m sure they won’t do the scenery justice. Plus, as I returned to the Pacific, the tail wind that left me when I entered Monterrey returned as well. This time it was much stronger. It practically pushed me over many of the steep climbs and I doubt the second half of the day would have been so easy without it. To give some of you an idea of how strong it was, I was able to sustain 15-17 mph while climbing! Normally I wouldn’t be able to ride faster than 8 or 9 mph on hills like these. With that kind of speed I reached the little town of Big Sur in no time. 75.8 miles. I rolled into Pfeiffer-Big Sur State Park and called it a day. One more day done, and one day sooner to finishing this epic.
Big Sur coastline
Maury
done
done
