Labor Day Weekend on the California Coast

I had an amazing Labor Day Weekend. For those of you not too familiar with the coastal area from San Simeon to Big Sur, I will start by saying that it's a national treasure. Largely untouched and protected from development, traveling here makes you feel as though you are seeing the same views as the explorers that first came through on horseback hundreds of years ago. I will go into more detail as the blog continues so let me take you back to Friday afternoon and just after my last post which came in Cambria.
Cambria is a town that I enjoyed immensely. The slow pace and chill attitude made it seem like these people really led a more simple life and had it more together than the rest of the world. It turns out it's mostly retirees and they just couldn't move that fast, but I didn't know that at the time, so I decided to chill out there for a few hours eating a burger and drinking a couple of local beers. For those of you that don't know me, if someone told me that I could only do one activity for the rest of my life, eating a burger while drinking a beer just might be it. One caviat would be that it would have to be outside because that's where a burger and beer taste best. So there I was in Cambria, chatting it up with a few locals, each of whom were scaring me to death about navigating the steep, narrow and windy road between San Simeon and Monterey. "It can't be done," one said as he looked at my bike and trailer. "I've come close to killing 10 bikers on that road" another quipped. I decided to ask anyone and everyone their opinion and continually pondered my alternatives as one after another advised me against trying. Keeping in mind that I won't sacrifice the health or safety of myself or Stanley, I had to think about other viable options. I thought about everything from hitchhiking to asking someone with a pickup truck to take the bike and trailer north while Stanley and I walked the route. After a few hours, I finally found a few people that have biked the route (without the trailer, of course) and said that it's not impossible and you just need to be really careful. Thinking back to most of the people in Connecticut that thought this entire adventure was impossible and that we wouldn't make it more than a week, I decided that people will usually be negative if they haven't or wouldn't try something themselves. This led me to the decision to go for it. Staying with my theme of safety first for Stanley and I, I stopped by a local hardware store to make some modifications to our rig. There I found a highlighter yellow 48" ruler and an American Flag and used some Gorilla tape to secure it to the trailer.

Being that it was almost 5 and I had already had a few beers, I decided to set up camp a few miles up the road at the San Simeon State Park. It turned out to be a nice location with beach access and, for the first time on this adventure, no cell phone coverage. For the next three days, I would be out of touch with the rest of the world... no internet, no blogging, no phone calls and no Mets scores. There I met a biker heading south named Tom that helped me prepare for what the next few days might be like by sharing maps and other useful information. He also made me promise to reach the Kirk Creek campsite 40 miles away no matter how hard it might be because it was one of the more beautiful spots around. I accepted the challenge and headed back into town for a few more beers with the local retirees. Here I met Mike, a guy that owns 900 acres and who's family has been in the area since the 1850's . He manages vineyards in the Paso Robles area and he told me about the wine region, the Hearsts and the town festival which was happening that same weekend. Since he was a land owner, I inquired as to why so many people are trying their luck at grapes and not wind power these days. He said that wine is very accepted among the people in the area and that any kind of building that "ruins" the landscape of their pristine area would be met with serious oppossiton and not worth the hassle. He also mentioned that, because of proposition 13, Californians don't pay a lot to keep their property (he pays less than $2,000 a year in property taxes) so there's no real need to go for wind power for the land owners.
Saturday morning I started up highway 1, grabbed a sandwich, enough canned food to last me 3 days and bottle of whiskey which I figured I could drink and/or trade for favors along the way. I was right by a hotel at 10am and thought about stopping off to draft my first pick of my fantasy football team, but decided that it might rope me in for hours, which I didn't have if I was to go 40 miles that day. As I got into the Los Padres National Forest, the road got windy and started heading uphill, the shoulders became non-existent and the views became breathtaking.
This day turned out to be the one of the most challenging and most beautiful days in my entire life. Around every turn was a surprise... would it be more uphill? could the view be any more beautiful? would mine or Stanley's legs make it to the next turn? We just kept going with serious determination and I was impressing myself as we climbed up 1,100 feet, then down a bit, then back up another 700 feet. This went on for hours. As it started to get cooler and evening was setting in, there was no traffic and we were both pretty beat. It was only about 10 miles to Kirk Creek and we were going to make it come hell or high water. It was then that I experienced something that could have only happened on a bike. Around 6pm, when there was no one on the road except for me and Stanley, we encountered a slight downhill and started to coast freely. All I could hear was the wind, the waves crashing against the cliffs hundreds of feet below and a few sea lions doing whatever it is they do. As I gained speed, a large bird swooped down about 15 feet from us as if to check us out and see what we were doing. It proceeded to coast with us at our exact speed for about 30 seconds before letting out a noise (which I assume meant "cool cruising with y'all, I'm out") and took off over the ocean. It was awesome and made me feel as close to nature and to flying as I ever had.
The last bit to get to Kirk Creek was uphill and I was determined to make it before sunset so I pedaled my heart out and made it with a few minutes to spare. I set up camp with a cool group from San Diego that accepted me and Stanley as part of their group and offered me a beer. The beer was very refreshing as I watched the most satisfying sunset of my life from the cliffs over the pacific ocean. Tom was right about this campground, it was beautiful and worth the extra few miles.

The next day seemed like child's play as it was "only" 30 miles, mostly uphill again, but with only 1 huge climb. I saw amazing views and met awesome people along the way and have even received some great encouraging e-mails from them. I would like to single out Corey, who sent details of my adventure to his entire contact list urging them to look at their lives and see how they could help the environment a bit. That sort of thing makes me realize that this whole adventure might actually make a small difference in this world. Thanks Corey! Then there was a large, extended family of vacationers that I met while having lunch at a state park. They were having a great time and it turned out that we were staying at the same campground, so they told me to stop by their campsite later on for a beer. It took me a few hours longer than them to get there, but I made it and was pleased to find the biker section set among large redwoods. It felt good to back in Northern California!
I ate some dinner and headed over to the family's campsite where there was some sort of mission to finish a bottle of tequila and lots of beer, so I helped as much as I could. We laughed and told stories around the campfire until late into the night. The next day, they all passed by me on their way home and I have to thank Gloria for not throwing water balloons at me. She had joked the night before that she would be doing so. But then again, she also danced like Ellen and nicknamed her grown kid Cupcake, so it may have been the alcohol talking.
Monday was a nice ride and a beautiful day all-around. This is a day when I knew that I would end up in a home with dinner and a comfortable bed. I just had to get to Seaside where Cath Tendler and her husband Jan, would be welcoming me into their home. Cath is a very close friend's aunt and grew up with my mom. She was also on Jeopardy once which I think is pretty cool. Monday's views weren't as great and the fires had decimated a lot of the area so I had to find other ways of amusing myself. That's when I found out that farting while going really fast on a bicycle is awesome and that you can tell a person's personality by the car they drive. Camry and Impala drivers are by far my favorite people and BMW 5 series and Toyota Land Cruiser drivers my most hated. Later that day, I got pulled over for the second time on this journey. This time it was for holding up traffic on Highway One in Carmel. I suggested that they speak to Mayor Eastwood about getting better bike lanes. I guess he's not the Mayor anymore and my sarcasm wasn't funny because the cop was very unamused. Once we agreed that this little exercise in power was actually holding up traffic even more, he just asked me to get off the main road at the next opportunity and took off down the road. Once I got to Seaside, I was met with great hospitality and found that Jan and I share a fondness for IPA's and local beers, which we proceeded to drink a few of.
Tuesday turned out to be a quick and easy ride through farmland and Stanley ran leashless for miles at a time. He was loving life... racing tractors, barking at cows and rolling around in dirt. It's amazing how much he's exbraced this adventure. Everywhere we go, he finds some way to amuse himself and when he wants to rest, he just jumps in his trailer and asks me to pedal on. We met some nice people on the road who invited us over for cold water and to meet their dogs and Alpacas and then went on to visit my good friend and cousin, Lauren Fein and her boyfriend Ike in La Selva Beach. They just moved onto a farm where Stanley can play with goats, horses and a whole bunch of other dogs. I also saw four humpback whales swimming and jumping in the bay about 200 yards offshore. What a sight! It was great to hang out with a friend for the first time in weeks and it inspired me to take a day off and stay with them one more night before heading up to the bay area.

So that's about all that's happening around here. You can find more pictures in our Facebook group which now has over 250 members! I love hearing the stories from people that are working to reduce their carbon footprint and hand over a better earth to the next generation. Please keep the stories coming.