wily in pacifica
09-15-2005, 01:20 PM
Ride to San Luis Obispo (SLO)
Well, to celebrate 10 years of marriage, my wife drove down to San Diego with the girls and left me in San Francisco to finish some work. Having them in SD for the next week really allowed me to gets lots of work done. Actually 85 hours of work in that week.
But this left me with no way to get down to San Diego. Actually that was part of my plan to be able to ride down the following weekend.
I worked on Saturday for half a day (8 hours) then got the bike all ready for the trip. My plan was only to ride as far as Santa Barbara then rent a car. I missed the girls and this way I could just shoot to do the entire ride in one shot. It is about 360 miles from our house in Pacifica.
I took off at 5 am in the dark and fog. After 2 miles I hit Devils Slide which is no big deal unless you are riding in the dark and in the fog. After another couple of miles I was home free on the relative flats headed toward Santa Cruz. Over the next 60 miles it you hit a couple mile long hills and it is still a bit foggy. Foggy enough that I have to take my clear lens glasses off to see thru the mist.
65 miles later and i hit my first stop at the usual Denny's in Santa Cruz. Good thing about any Denny's is that it is fast and you know exactly what you are going to get. I really wanted to go a bit further before breakfast but I did not know where the next best place to eat was after Santa Cruz. I kept my eyes pealed and now know there is another Denny's at miles 100 & 110. I would have rather waited for one of these as I am in a bit of a hurry to get over the Big Sur hills before sundown.
My budget for this ride, like most brevets, is about 10 MPH but that includes any time off the bike. I gave myself 38 hours to get to Santa Barbara which would get me in at 7 PM on Monday. This is important in that the last train to San Diego, if I want to go that route leaves at 7PM. The more I thought about it the more it made sense for me to take the train since I will be in no shape to drive after almost two days without sleep.
So now I am merrily on my way to Monterey which consists of riding thru flat farmland. Not much to look at but just a way to get to Big Sur. I make a stop at a bike shop to grab a couple of Cliff Bars for my ride over the hills. Being a Sunday afternoon I am not sure what will be open out in the middle of nowhere so figured I would stock up. Now I am off toward Carmel which is nice and downhill. You are quickly thru Carmel and heading the 15 or so mile to the town of Big Sur. Along this section of Hwy 1 you will find a couple of easy 1 mile climbs. Each of these climbs starts off on one of the historic bridges you see on all of the post cards. One is the Bixby bridge.
Soon I am into Big Sur where I stop for a nice smoothie. It is nice and warm now and I have about 4+ hours, until sundown, to get over the next hilly 50 miles. This will get me out of the hills and I should make it well before dark.
For some reason this 50 mile stretch seems to last forever. Even thou it is the most beautiful scenery of the ride it is full of ups and downs. Very little flat and there are three tough ~2 mile hills. The last two are right at the end and they are steep. 2 miles hills don't seem to tough unless you are riding a 35+ lb bike and are used to riding sub 20 pounders.
Eventually I get to Ragged Point which is the food trap immediately after the hills. I stop for a coffee and put my night riding clothes on as I only have about 45 minutes of sunlight to go. I am headed to San Simeon to find dinner. The sun is down just as I come upon the beach with the Sea Elephants. Usually there are a hundred or so tourists staring at them but at this time of night it is only me as I pass by.
It is now dark which makes for a very cool ride. The difference between day and night riding is that during the night you can't see much of what is ahead so you just keep turning the pedals. Also, anyone who sees you out here in the dark thinks you are kind of nuts.
As I continue south on Hwy 1 I can see Hearst Castle up on the hill to the east. usually you can barely see it during the day but at night it is all lit up. Very Cool.
Hit a restaurant for a burger and fries before my push toward Marro Bay and SLO. My left knee is starting to act up which is new to me. Usually I am fairly bullet proof but I think I may have wrenched it earlier in the day. Well I guess I will have to see how it holds up over the next few miles.
I hung out for about an hour at dinner. There was a good band playing so I took my time. Plus, now that it is dark I am no longer racing daylight. I head out about 10ish and have about 40 miles to SLO. It is very flat and very dark. I almost hit some guy walking along Hwy 1. Scared the crap out of me as I did not see him AT ALL. It was just luck I did not run into him. I stopped to see if he was OK and apparently he got in a fight with his wife and was walking the 5 miles home. I mentioned he should walk on the other side of the road so at least he will know if a car is about to hit him rather then getting rear-ended.
So it isn't getting any darker but I am making good time to SLO. My knee is still acting up and I am getting a bit worried if I am doing any damage to it. As I get into SLO I call Amtrak and find out there is a train to San Diego at 6:45 am so decide not to push on to Santa Barbara. I am a bit bummed as I had 18 hours to go the final 110 miles which means I was bout 6-7 hours ahead of my 10 MPH schedule. But I have done this ride a few times and there is not much between SLO and Santa Barbara so if my knee gave out I could be in a bad spot.
So it is about midnight:30 and I have a few hours to kill. I find a Taco Bell open so go in for a midnight snack and waste about 45 minutes. Then I go out looking for a 24 hour fitness to try to clean up. Well no such luck and the SLO Hostel closes at 10PM. I really need to clean up if I am going to get on a train in the morning. I don't think I would even be able to sit next to myself the way I smell. So I head to the 7/11 to see if they know where I can find an all night laundry mat. I'm in luck as there is one a mile away next to another 7/11. It even has a bathroom.
I get a bunch of quarters and change in the bathroom into my clean bike clothes and throw the rest in the machine. I then get some deodorant and a bar of soap at 7/11 and wash up in the sink just like the homeless guy that was there 15 minutes ago. All in all I am smelling pretty good and I even got my laundry done.
Damn, still have a couple hours to kill before the train station opens and SLO is closed down for the night.. Well it is nice and warm in the laundry and my knee hurts if I have to climb any hills on the bike so since yesterday was Sunday I just grab the Sunday paper and kill off the two hours reading everything you don't need to know about SLO.
The sun is coming up so I head down to the train station to grab my ticket. There are only a few spots for bikes on the train and it is first come first serve so I am there when it opens. If you travel south you just hang your bike up on a rack but if you head north you have to box it up in one of there $10 boxes. I made a point of not sleeping during my time in SLO so I would be nice a tired for the ride. It is a nine hour ride so I should be able to get some good sleep.
You know I have never been able to sleep on planes and after being awake for 27 hours and riding 250 miles I cannot seem to fall asleep. Man am I going to be a wreak in San Diego. After 7.5 of my 9 hours I decided to check out the diner car only to find out they have beer. Man, a big 20oz beer at 7 am would have done the trick for sure. Oh well, maybe next time.
The train gets into San Diego about 3 pm and JJ and the girls will be down to pick me up. She did not tell the girls so it was a surprise for them to see me get off the train with my bike. Nothing like seeing your four girls after being away for 8 days.
Well not the 360 mile ride I was looking forward to but the 250 was fun and my knee seems to be OK. Not worth risking a knee for 100 miles in the dark in the middle of nowhere. The 250 mile ride was so nice I may give it a try every few month just for fun and see if I can talk some other into joining me. With one or more it would be no problem to just rent a van for the ride back home.
Willy in Pacifica
Well, to celebrate 10 years of marriage, my wife drove down to San Diego with the girls and left me in San Francisco to finish some work. Having them in SD for the next week really allowed me to gets lots of work done. Actually 85 hours of work in that week.
But this left me with no way to get down to San Diego. Actually that was part of my plan to be able to ride down the following weekend.
I worked on Saturday for half a day (8 hours) then got the bike all ready for the trip. My plan was only to ride as far as Santa Barbara then rent a car. I missed the girls and this way I could just shoot to do the entire ride in one shot. It is about 360 miles from our house in Pacifica.
I took off at 5 am in the dark and fog. After 2 miles I hit Devils Slide which is no big deal unless you are riding in the dark and in the fog. After another couple of miles I was home free on the relative flats headed toward Santa Cruz. Over the next 60 miles it you hit a couple mile long hills and it is still a bit foggy. Foggy enough that I have to take my clear lens glasses off to see thru the mist.
65 miles later and i hit my first stop at the usual Denny's in Santa Cruz. Good thing about any Denny's is that it is fast and you know exactly what you are going to get. I really wanted to go a bit further before breakfast but I did not know where the next best place to eat was after Santa Cruz. I kept my eyes pealed and now know there is another Denny's at miles 100 & 110. I would have rather waited for one of these as I am in a bit of a hurry to get over the Big Sur hills before sundown.
My budget for this ride, like most brevets, is about 10 MPH but that includes any time off the bike. I gave myself 38 hours to get to Santa Barbara which would get me in at 7 PM on Monday. This is important in that the last train to San Diego, if I want to go that route leaves at 7PM. The more I thought about it the more it made sense for me to take the train since I will be in no shape to drive after almost two days without sleep.
So now I am merrily on my way to Monterey which consists of riding thru flat farmland. Not much to look at but just a way to get to Big Sur. I make a stop at a bike shop to grab a couple of Cliff Bars for my ride over the hills. Being a Sunday afternoon I am not sure what will be open out in the middle of nowhere so figured I would stock up. Now I am off toward Carmel which is nice and downhill. You are quickly thru Carmel and heading the 15 or so mile to the town of Big Sur. Along this section of Hwy 1 you will find a couple of easy 1 mile climbs. Each of these climbs starts off on one of the historic bridges you see on all of the post cards. One is the Bixby bridge.
Soon I am into Big Sur where I stop for a nice smoothie. It is nice and warm now and I have about 4+ hours, until sundown, to get over the next hilly 50 miles. This will get me out of the hills and I should make it well before dark.
For some reason this 50 mile stretch seems to last forever. Even thou it is the most beautiful scenery of the ride it is full of ups and downs. Very little flat and there are three tough ~2 mile hills. The last two are right at the end and they are steep. 2 miles hills don't seem to tough unless you are riding a 35+ lb bike and are used to riding sub 20 pounders.
Eventually I get to Ragged Point which is the food trap immediately after the hills. I stop for a coffee and put my night riding clothes on as I only have about 45 minutes of sunlight to go. I am headed to San Simeon to find dinner. The sun is down just as I come upon the beach with the Sea Elephants. Usually there are a hundred or so tourists staring at them but at this time of night it is only me as I pass by.
It is now dark which makes for a very cool ride. The difference between day and night riding is that during the night you can't see much of what is ahead so you just keep turning the pedals. Also, anyone who sees you out here in the dark thinks you are kind of nuts.
As I continue south on Hwy 1 I can see Hearst Castle up on the hill to the east. usually you can barely see it during the day but at night it is all lit up. Very Cool.
Hit a restaurant for a burger and fries before my push toward Marro Bay and SLO. My left knee is starting to act up which is new to me. Usually I am fairly bullet proof but I think I may have wrenched it earlier in the day. Well I guess I will have to see how it holds up over the next few miles.
I hung out for about an hour at dinner. There was a good band playing so I took my time. Plus, now that it is dark I am no longer racing daylight. I head out about 10ish and have about 40 miles to SLO. It is very flat and very dark. I almost hit some guy walking along Hwy 1. Scared the crap out of me as I did not see him AT ALL. It was just luck I did not run into him. I stopped to see if he was OK and apparently he got in a fight with his wife and was walking the 5 miles home. I mentioned he should walk on the other side of the road so at least he will know if a car is about to hit him rather then getting rear-ended.
So it isn't getting any darker but I am making good time to SLO. My knee is still acting up and I am getting a bit worried if I am doing any damage to it. As I get into SLO I call Amtrak and find out there is a train to San Diego at 6:45 am so decide not to push on to Santa Barbara. I am a bit bummed as I had 18 hours to go the final 110 miles which means I was bout 6-7 hours ahead of my 10 MPH schedule. But I have done this ride a few times and there is not much between SLO and Santa Barbara so if my knee gave out I could be in a bad spot.
So it is about midnight:30 and I have a few hours to kill. I find a Taco Bell open so go in for a midnight snack and waste about 45 minutes. Then I go out looking for a 24 hour fitness to try to clean up. Well no such luck and the SLO Hostel closes at 10PM. I really need to clean up if I am going to get on a train in the morning. I don't think I would even be able to sit next to myself the way I smell. So I head to the 7/11 to see if they know where I can find an all night laundry mat. I'm in luck as there is one a mile away next to another 7/11. It even has a bathroom.
I get a bunch of quarters and change in the bathroom into my clean bike clothes and throw the rest in the machine. I then get some deodorant and a bar of soap at 7/11 and wash up in the sink just like the homeless guy that was there 15 minutes ago. All in all I am smelling pretty good and I even got my laundry done.
Damn, still have a couple hours to kill before the train station opens and SLO is closed down for the night.. Well it is nice and warm in the laundry and my knee hurts if I have to climb any hills on the bike so since yesterday was Sunday I just grab the Sunday paper and kill off the two hours reading everything you don't need to know about SLO.
The sun is coming up so I head down to the train station to grab my ticket. There are only a few spots for bikes on the train and it is first come first serve so I am there when it opens. If you travel south you just hang your bike up on a rack but if you head north you have to box it up in one of there $10 boxes. I made a point of not sleeping during my time in SLO so I would be nice a tired for the ride. It is a nine hour ride so I should be able to get some good sleep.
You know I have never been able to sleep on planes and after being awake for 27 hours and riding 250 miles I cannot seem to fall asleep. Man am I going to be a wreak in San Diego. After 7.5 of my 9 hours I decided to check out the diner car only to find out they have beer. Man, a big 20oz beer at 7 am would have done the trick for sure. Oh well, maybe next time.
The train gets into San Diego about 3 pm and JJ and the girls will be down to pick me up. She did not tell the girls so it was a surprise for them to see me get off the train with my bike. Nothing like seeing your four girls after being away for 8 days.
Well not the 360 mile ride I was looking forward to but the 250 was fun and my knee seems to be OK. Not worth risking a knee for 100 miles in the dark in the middle of nowhere. The 250 mile ride was so nice I may give it a try every few month just for fun and see if I can talk some other into joining me. With one or more it would be no problem to just rent a van for the ride back home.
Willy in Pacifica