Santa Cruz to Seaside, California

January 7, 2013

We spent the night trying to breathe as little as possible in our supposedly no smoking room. Then we got up extra early and quickly left. We followed the route set out in the ACA map, though it headed a bit inland and not by the water as we had somehow hoped for. It turned out that there was a marked bike lane beside the road, or a wide shoulder, or a bike path, all the way to Seaside/Monterey.

The first stop along the way was the small center of Soquel. Because we had left the smoky motel in a hurry, we had prepared no breakfast. So we were interested when we spotted a bagel shop. The sign on the door quoted 35 years of tradition, but the bagels were pretty ordinary. On the other hand, the bagel, cream cheese, and scrambled egg gave us plenty of power to carry on toward the town of Aptos and on to Seaside.

Not Montreal bagels, but they did the trick

Palm trees are common now. This is a big deal for us, it means we are getting quite south.

Soon we entered a serious agricultural area, with very black earth and arrow straight rows, to the horizon. There were acres and acres of strawberry, all under plastic mulch. At times one could mistake the hillsides of silver plastic for the sea. There was other fun stuff to look at, for us former farmers: Artichoke fields, heather plantations, and roadside fruit stands. Kirkendahl and Spring suggest that this is an area to zoom through on the way to interesting Monterey. But for us, this was great: flat road, wide shoulder, and farm stuff to look at.

An agricultural area appears as we approach Seaside

Road leads through nice agricultural lands

This young man, T. Alan, cycled the Southern Tier and is heading up to San Francisco for just a bit more exercise.

20 km from Seaside a wonderful bike path begins. It is little advertised and poorly signed, but carries on for a further 8 km until its end at Lovers' Point in Pacific Grove. We were half way down this when two cyclists approached. " Grampies on the Go we assume", they said. It was Janet and Jack, who had graciously invited us to stay at their place in Seaside, and had come out to guode us in. Janet and Jack not only live here, but they have blogged their trips up and down the coast.

We knew that there was an REI store somewhere around here, but Jack and Janet naturally could lead us right there. REI was important because one of our 300 lumen main lights had died in Oregon. With the chances of being caught far from a destination and needing to ride at night quite high, having working lights is critical.

It was quite a relief to roll up to REI, which in addition to MEC in Canada, is the mothership to us in terms of critical gear. We quickly bought a light, and instantly felt much better and safer.

As it happens, our dead light was made by Light and Motion, which is located in Monterey. We had the bright idea of visiting them and dropping the failed unit on their counter, but practically would not have time to search them out on the bikes. After we reached their place, Jack and Janet offered to spin us over to Monterey by car, to search out Light and Motion. The location is a factory not a retail place, so we somewhat snuck in. The first person we ran in to , turned out to be the production manager. A quick look told him that our light had drowned. Now, we made no secret that we had ridden it down the Oregon coast, in the monsoons that we have talked about in this blog. But, I said, " I have to ride my bike outside, that's the whole idea". Light and Motion understand that, and work hard to make their lights waterproof, and to understand any failures.

This Urban 300 from Light and Motion drowned in Oregon

A bin of our drowned light's family friends

Dodie and helpful Light and Motion production manager

Anyway, we were very quickly handed a brand new light - a level of support that we find extremely admirable. This now leaves us owning four powerful lights, which is just fine. If you are riding some unknown highway in the dark you need reliability and backup, and thanks to both REI and Light and Motion, we have that now.

Since we were now in Monterey, Janet and Jack took us around a bit. Cannery Row is the location of the aquarium, and is a revitalised formerly derelict area. It was the haunt of John Steinbeck, author of Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, Cannery Row, and many others. p

We also got to see old adobe compounds that have been preserved in the centre of Monterey, and we had a look at the main street of town.

Janet and Jack brought us back home and offered us a great meal of salad, pot roast, and locally produced bread, plus our pfavourite Ghirardelli brownies. Then they evicted themselves from their bedroom, so we could have the best place to sleep. The bed has memory foam and a heater!

We would feel terribly guilty to receive all this kindness, but we also know how satisfying it can be to collect fellow cyclists from the road and care for them a bit. Stories get shared all around and it is loads of fun. The CGOAB community as well as Warm Showers fosters this, and we think it is a truly wonderful thing. Tomorrow we will be well rested and prepared to reach Big Sur, and we will have Jack and Janet to come out and guide us a bit and set us on the right road. Wow!

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 1,557 km (967 miles)

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