Looking north on Highway One with the Bixby Creek Bridge in the distance
And south from the same location
My last entry was posted from a coffeehouse in Carmel before heading down the Coast Highway through Big Sur. This rugged coastal area has little or no cell service. Three evenings later I’m at San Simeon State Beach, another hiker/biker campground, having ridden through the rugged central California coast. Still no cell reception…
This image shows the steepness and ruggedness of this mostly undeveloped coast.
Another shot of the Coast Highway carved into the mountains.
Today is Friday. On Wednesday I rode 35+ miles into Big Sur proper, camping at Pfeiffer Big Sur SP. With hot showers and receptacles nearby for recharging, it remains a gold standard among California state parks. The next morning began with an 1100′ climb out of Big Sur, and miles along steep, narrow Highway One down the coast. Thirty-five miles later I camped at a US Forest Service campground at Plaskett Creek, where I had camped decades previously, including once around 1970 when my dad met me there.
…touring on single speed, fixed-gear bikes…
I shared the space with two impressive cyclists from San Jose, who were traveling with minimal but adequate camping gear on fixed-gear bikes. One was even a custom frame, built with touring geometry but without gear-changing capability. The two riders were traveling light but making much better time than I. The fixies were their preference, for their simplicity and for the challenge.
Today’s ride was also only about 35 miles, but the next campground was an additional 30 miles further, more than the day will provide. Tomorrow I will ride into San Luis Obispo, and my arrival represents a sort-of-official end to this main leg of the tour. I once (1969-1971) went to college here in Cal Poly’s Mechanical Engineering program. Touring up and back down the coast that June with a fellow student was my first-ever bike tour.
Caught by a German tourist at 32 mph
The friendly German tourist emailed me the photos he took.
I don’t particularly want to ride through Southern California at all. Instead, it’s time to go home. Following a rest and restock (R&R) day in SLO, I plan to hitchhike across the Mojave Desert and Arizona to New Mexico, to complete my tour by riding home, probably from near the NM state line.
I spent a couple of evenings sharing campgrounds with a man of 69 who is touring down the coast on an “E-bike” – a touring bike with a substantial (48V 12 Ah) battery pack and an electric assist motor built into the front hub. He’s being sponsored by the manufacturer of the bike to blog his journey. Even with all of the climbing and dropping along the coast highway, he told me that with careful use of the electric assist he consumes only about half of the stored energy in a day’s riding. He plugs into receptacles in the bathrooms of most state parks at night.
I’m 63 and able to complete my tour under my own muscle power now. But I want to be able to continue to ride and tour well into my eighties and nineties. Through the natural physical decay that comes with aging, a bike with electric assist may well allow me to keep riding long after I’d have to hang up my shoes otherwise.