Today was expected to be a very challenging day! The thought of scaling those hills (illustrated below) scared a van-full of riders off part of the route, if not all of it. It is always an option to get a 'bump' ahead 20 or 30 miles to shorten the day or eliminate an especially big climb. Many are being careful of knees, and/or wanted to do some touring of the area. San Simeon boasts Hearst Castle, which has very interesting tours.
The day was foggy almost the whole way...and I mean REALLY foggy! I have to admit there were quite a few long hills that wound around the jagged coast line between Big Sur and San Simeon. The last miles did smooth out, and we enjoyed seeing the pod of Elephant Seals on the beach.
5/19-6/10, 2016 WomanTours' "Atlantic Coast" (Northern Half) Alexandria, VA to Bar Harbor, ME *3/5-5/1, 2015 WomanTours' "Southern Tier" from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL. *Aug 9-16, 2013, WomanTours' "Ride the Rockies" tour in the Colorado Rockies. *9/26/12 to 10/27/12 Pacific Coast Tour Canada to the Mexican Border *5/19 - 6/30 Northern Tier (Eastern half) 2011 WomanTours' from Fargo, ND to Bar Harbor, Maine. *3/5-4/30, 2010, Southern Tier, San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
Friday, Oct 19, 2012 Monterey to Big Sur 44 miles 2,300 ft of climb
The ride from Monterey started out as a rolling rest day. We took the 17-mile Drive, which gave us a great view of Pebble Beach Golf course. There were workers out with rollers on the greens, rakes and leaf blowers cleaning up the sand traps, and lots of grounds keepers. Mike thought it costs about $500 to play there. That's probably about right.
There are huge homes along 17-Mile Drive, and the road was winding and somewhat hilly at that point.
After the 17 miles, we continued to follow SR 1. There was a part that was reduced to one lane, and had a stop light set up at each end of the hilly stretch. There was a group of us, but we did not know how to proceed. We pushed the bicycle button, which was to hold the light green on our side to help us get to the end before the north-bound cars came our way. We decided to 'take the lane' and go ahead of traffic, just to be sure we made it. Others were not so fortunate...a few ended up head on with cars coming at them! Fortunately, the cars were moving very slowly, and moved over as far as possible between the rock wall on their right and the cyclists on their left. It all ended happily!
The last 10 miles we entered Big Sur (It used to be called 'Country of the South'). There were very steep climbs all the way in. Once we arrived, many of us had lunch on the patio of their restaurant. That evening we had a nice buffet dinner, which included a birthday celebration for Jean, one of our sag drivers.
There are huge homes along 17-Mile Drive, and the road was winding and somewhat hilly at that point.
After the 17 miles, we continued to follow SR 1. There was a part that was reduced to one lane, and had a stop light set up at each end of the hilly stretch. There was a group of us, but we did not know how to proceed. We pushed the bicycle button, which was to hold the light green on our side to help us get to the end before the north-bound cars came our way. We decided to 'take the lane' and go ahead of traffic, just to be sure we made it. Others were not so fortunate...a few ended up head on with cars coming at them! Fortunately, the cars were moving very slowly, and moved over as far as possible between the rock wall on their right and the cyclists on their left. It all ended happily!
The last 10 miles we entered Big Sur (It used to be called 'Country of the South'). There were very steep climbs all the way in. Once we arrived, many of us had lunch on the patio of their restaurant. That evening we had a nice buffet dinner, which included a birthday celebration for Jean, one of our sag drivers.
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