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Been there
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With the wife out of town for the week, I decided to take a day off and go for a little ride.
I was saving the potential CB11 group ride to Big Sur for when Randy is healed up well enough to go for a long ride, but I figured there wasn't a reason not to go down and scout it out solo on a weekday
First up we have the famous Bixby Bridge:
It's a little hard to get a good shot of the bike in front of the bridge...
If you look closely, you can see where the roadway is along this steep hillside:
Here's my small album of other pictures if anyone is interested to see a little more:
I'm not usually big on taking pictures but I knew I would have to take a few on this one, even if it's just with a crappy cell phone camera!
The ride report:
My morning started out with about 90 miles on the freeway to get to Carmel.. this went by fairly quickly and was largely uneventful as I started a little late to avoid traffic, and was really going in the opposite direction of the morning commute traffic that comes in from Morgan Hill, Gilroy or Hollister to San Jose.
After that I stopped for a quick fill up and stretcher, and then wasted no time in getting back on the road.
This time around I didn't take any side trips, just straight down Highway 1 for a while and straight back.
This area definitely lives up to its reputation. Gentle sweeping curves, fantastic views of the oceans and cliffs and hillsides, a little bit of forest. This has to be the most relaxing stretch of road I've ever been on. I didn't find the cliffs or bridges to be intimidating or scary at all, since there is sufficient separation between the road and the steep drop offs, and there are good solid fences and guard rails in place otherwise.
From the weather report my phone gave me (90 deg F high) I thought it was going to be hot, but the sea breeze kept me very comfortable for the whole afternoon until I got back inland. Lots of little cafes and restaurants to stop for lunch, lots of campgrounds, lots of vista points, and cool old bridges and other various structures like this one:
Big Sur rock shed a dramatic covering for Highway 1
That one definitely caught my attention... didn't think it would be something new-ish and built by CalTrans, I thought it would be something more historic!
I got a few miles past that little rock shed tunnel thing before deciding to turn around and head back up.. about 60 miles south from Carmel.
Coming back the other way had its own flavor.. there were a few places where I had thought on the way down, "Hm, do they really need another vista point here?" only to come back and see it from the other direction and go, "Oh that's what there was to look at here!"
The twists and turns were not as exciting as the ones that we found on our group ride to Calistoga/Berryessa/Napa on Sunday, but the views are incredibly hard to beat. Gotta be something high in the mountains to top this.
All in all a very satisfying day. The little cherry on top was getting back to the San Jose area and looking over to my left to see a huge mess of gridlock on 101 southbound while trucking along northbound at full speed with very light traffic and no hiccups.
I only wish that I had more time to go a bit further south. Maybe it would have been good to camp out or spend a night in San Luis Obispo before coming back. Or maybe some day I'll just take Highway 1 all the way down to L.A. and make it a multi-day affair.
I was saving the potential CB11 group ride to Big Sur for when Randy is healed up well enough to go for a long ride, but I figured there wasn't a reason not to go down and scout it out solo on a weekday
First up we have the famous Bixby Bridge:
It's a little hard to get a good shot of the bike in front of the bridge...
If you look closely, you can see where the roadway is along this steep hillside:
Here's my small album of other pictures if anyone is interested to see a little more:
I'm not usually big on taking pictures but I knew I would have to take a few on this one, even if it's just with a crappy cell phone camera!
The ride report:
My morning started out with about 90 miles on the freeway to get to Carmel.. this went by fairly quickly and was largely uneventful as I started a little late to avoid traffic, and was really going in the opposite direction of the morning commute traffic that comes in from Morgan Hill, Gilroy or Hollister to San Jose.
After that I stopped for a quick fill up and stretcher, and then wasted no time in getting back on the road.
This time around I didn't take any side trips, just straight down Highway 1 for a while and straight back.
This area definitely lives up to its reputation. Gentle sweeping curves, fantastic views of the oceans and cliffs and hillsides, a little bit of forest. This has to be the most relaxing stretch of road I've ever been on. I didn't find the cliffs or bridges to be intimidating or scary at all, since there is sufficient separation between the road and the steep drop offs, and there are good solid fences and guard rails in place otherwise.
From the weather report my phone gave me (90 deg F high) I thought it was going to be hot, but the sea breeze kept me very comfortable for the whole afternoon until I got back inland. Lots of little cafes and restaurants to stop for lunch, lots of campgrounds, lots of vista points, and cool old bridges and other various structures like this one:
Big Sur rock shed a dramatic covering for Highway 1
That one definitely caught my attention... didn't think it would be something new-ish and built by CalTrans, I thought it would be something more historic!
I got a few miles past that little rock shed tunnel thing before deciding to turn around and head back up.. about 60 miles south from Carmel.
Coming back the other way had its own flavor.. there were a few places where I had thought on the way down, "Hm, do they really need another vista point here?" only to come back and see it from the other direction and go, "Oh that's what there was to look at here!"
The twists and turns were not as exciting as the ones that we found on our group ride to Calistoga/Berryessa/Napa on Sunday, but the views are incredibly hard to beat. Gotta be something high in the mountains to top this.
All in all a very satisfying day. The little cherry on top was getting back to the San Jose area and looking over to my left to see a huge mess of gridlock on 101 southbound while trucking along northbound at full speed with very light traffic and no hiccups.
I only wish that I had more time to go a bit further south. Maybe it would have been good to camp out or spend a night in San Luis Obispo before coming back. Or maybe some day I'll just take Highway 1 all the way down to L.A. and make it a multi-day affair.
