| For a few years now I've been dreaming of riding the Pacific Coast. The dream was Vancouver to Los Angeles, but not many companies want to let you take six weeks off, so I picked up the dusty "Bicycling the Pacific Coast" book from my shelf, called up my buddy Dave and said, "This book says it takes 10 days to do a self-contained ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Do you think seven days is possible?" Before he knew what hit him, Dave was online looking for a touring bike. Within a week or so we both had bikes and had added a few positive points to our eBay accounts for various gear. |
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Dave crossing bridge going north / Jayme crossing bridge going north
| An early morning bus ride from LA to Bakersfield, a train from Bakersfield to Emeryville (some very interesting people ride the train), another bus from Emeryville to 100 Embarcadaro in San Francisco. We're dropped off around 5pm with bikes dismantled in boxes. I stubbornly insisted that we start the ride by crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, so Day 0 had to get us north of the bridge. We didn't beat the dark but we did get to snack on a few unidentified flying insects making our way to Bicentennial Campground and our first 14 miles of our tour. |
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Morning at 1st camp (setup in the dark while a half dozen deer wander past) / View of bridge from camp
Dave (before crossing bridge) / Me
The fruit stand sent from heaven / Kitesurfers playing as we enter Santa Cruz city limits
| We made our way back to the Golden Gate, this time heading south. Something just felt special about beginning our journey there, and we were all smiles crossing the bridge. Of course, that's easy when you're just a few miles into the day. By mile 40 I was tired and not just wondering about making it to Santa Cruz but had a bigger question on if we could really make it to LA in seven days. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind because we were less than half way through our first day. Loading a bike with a week's worth of your worldly goods is, as I quickly learned, very different from riding a 19-pound racing bike. |
(Click play ">" for audio of Day 1)
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Dave & Bonnie just before beginning today's ride
Taking a break in Carmel / Somewhere just north of Big Sur
Also just north of Big Sur / Dave praising the PBJ gods
Me crossing the 1932 Rocky Creek Bridge to Big Sur (I'm the tiny dot above the peak of the arch) / Big Sur
| September 12th, my birthday! Santa Cruz was our one and only night indoors, at Bonnie's house where she humbly gave up her bed and in the morning took us to a birthday breakfast at her favorite diner. :) Camp was Big Sur and getting there was beautiful. |
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Seals on San Simeon beach in bottom-right photo
| Four big climbs starting with one right off camp. With a few thousand feet of climbing today between Big Sur and San Simeon, the muscles were sore while the views were spectacular. I'd have to say this was the most scenic day of the week. The day was not without woes too though. A tour bus takes me off the road, a rental RV buzzes Dave, and Dave takes a bee sting to the leg. |
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