Bike tourists everywhere

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We shared the hiker/biker site in Monterey with a cyclist named Greg who is heading from Oregon to San Diego. We commiserated over the upcoming climbs over breakfast before he pedaled away while we were still packing up. Yesterday we went through Big Sur, a wild stretch of coast with some big hills and great views. Strong tail winds blew us towards the base of the biggest climb where we ran into Greg again. We stopped at the bottom of the hill for some burritos and snacks to fuel our ascent. The food worked and we all made it to the top without much trouble. I don't really remember much else from the day's riding. The past few days have blended together in a mash-up of coastline, hills, beaches, good weather, and tail winds. We stopped at a small cliff-side general store for a couple of beers to enjoy at the campground that evening. We did a longer day of 57 miles to the Lime Kiln State Park and, once again, ran into Greg who had mysteriously not been charged for camping there. We advised him not to question the ranger's generosity but wondered if Mike Sr. was giving our tour the appearance of wealth.

Today was more of the same. Up the climbs, through the mist, above the clouds, around the curves, down the hills. A road worker recommended a snack shack at Ragged Point to us while we were waiting to go through a patch of construction and we stopped there for lunch. There we met a couple more bike tourists, a couple travelling from British Columbia to the country of Colombia. Strong tail winds blew us southward to a spot where we could see elephant seals. Those things smell. They also jiggle when they move, which is fun. As we passed Hearst Castle we saw zebra grazing in a field. Just your average Californian wildlife. Tonight we're camping at San Simeon State Park. There are no exotic animals here but there are raccoons who seem determined to eat some of our property. We had stowed our food in a storage locker so they instead turned to the ziplock bag containing our kitchen ware. The Mikes scared them off and then put away some more items. We are hoping that we haven't left out anything of interest but given that they started to eat a plastic bag I am not confident. Stay tuned for an update.

Yesterday's miles: 57
Today's: 44

Contemplating existence

Inlets and lagoons

Feathered friends

Hugging the sea

Twisty roads through this stretch, false summits

Big Ocean

Points and rocks and surge and crash

Headed toward the Big Sur climb

At Gorda, a tiny outpost

Elephant seals!

Are jiggly

Short detour to Africa

Comments

  1. CheriOctober 26, 2018 at 4:10 PM

    Thank you for today's stories - you had be smiling and laughing at your tales.
    Ride safely.
    Cheri

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 27, 2018 at 12:50 PM

    So many sights, amazing. Thanks for all the brilliant reports, take care xx

    ReplyDelete

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