In HMB: the Pescadero loop

December 4, 2023

Breakfast at Moonside isn’t available until eight, so while we wait Rachael wraps up the project she started last night. Ever since she bought her new Samsung 23 phone with its impressive camera and I got upgraded to her handmedown 21 we’ve been unable to communicate with or track each other with our Garmins. It took her awhile to understand what the issue was - basically, both phones are linked to our devices through her email, so nothing communicates through mine - and it took even longer for her to resolve the problem. She easily invested over an hour working on it, but in the end it’s successful and we can track each other again so the time is well spent even though we don’t end up getting much return on her investment as we’ll discover later.

We’re totally pumped up about today’s ride, one that’s been planned for maybe two months, ever since we decided on staying in Half Moon Bay for a few nights. All we needed was a break in the weather, and even if Kathleen couldn’t show off her pet gannet to us she did well on the weather front and today is pretty much ideal. It’s already warm and pleasant when we arrive in Pescadero, arriving literally seconds before Kathleen drives up herself.

We already shared our hugs and hellos yesterday, so we don’t have to waste any time on social niceties and are on the road heading toward the coast as soon as we’ve gotten the bikes unloaded.

Hi again. Let’s get this show on the road!

Moving’ out. I’m quickly behind, because I waited to cross over the road so I could get a better angle on the parade.

Kathleen planned today’s route and sent us to a link to it, and it looks pretty simple - mostly flat except for a few suspicious-looking rises toward the end. We’re not a quarter mile into the ride though when Kathleen comes up with a better idea - let’s go climb a hill, she says, laughing to herself about the edge she’ll have over us with her hot e-assist number.

And so we do, turning off on quiet Bean Hollow Road for a modest climb that gives us some nice views and shortens our distance on the coast highway once we get there.

Climbing Bean Hollow Road, an unanticipated challenge to warm us up.

The view inland from the top. That’s most of Pescadero off on the left.

Not a bad climb, but enough to remind Rachael that she hasn’t been on the bike for close to six weeks, and me to remember that I’ve hardly put in anything since Spain myself. It’s worth it though - quiet, scenic, and at the end we get to enjoy a nice coast to the highway.

Once we’re on Highway 1 it’s only another two miles before we’re turning off toward the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It’s a fine stretch of coast though with a wide shoulder, and we’d have been fine with a longer stretch of it. Really, it looks like it would be a good, safe ride all the way down from Half Moon Bay - one more reason to find ourselves back this way again some day.

As we coast down one stretch, Kathleen gives us her best sales pitch for converting us to trikesters. Impressive, but we’re not quite convinced yet.

I should have stopped for more photos on the way, but I didn’t want to lag too far behind. There’s this one at least.

Soon after we’ve pulled off onto Pigeon Point Road I see a raptor on the wire up ahead. I stop to pull out the camera before we’re too close and scare it off, but the others keep going until they come to a stop nearly right beneath it. Surprisingly the hawk doesn’t fly off, so I close in too and get a decent shot. A red-shouldered hawk! It’s one I haven’t seen many times because we don’t have them up north - in fact, the first I ever saw was back in February, down in Sn Luis Obispo.

While we’re stopped Kathleen takes her opportunity to test out Rachael’s bike, something she’s been curious about. She likes it fine as she coasts downwind toward the lighthouse, but is less impressed after she turns around and realizes she didn’t think to ask Rachael how to shift gears on the darn thing.

Kathleen was pretty interested in Rocky’s Bike Friday until she realized she couldn’t shift gears.

Pigeon Point is a beautiful spot, worth a lot of time and earning the lion’s share of today’s photos.

It’s especially nice approaching it from the north on this side road.

Even a scenic spot like this can be improved with the right bike.

From the lighthouse we soon cross the highway, head inland, and begin the northbound half of the loop. We’re not far along though when our tour guide proposed a second addition to the agenda - a side trip up Gazas Creek, for a few yards or a few miles, depending. The uncertainty is because Gazas Creek was ravaged by one of the catastrophic wildfires back in 2020, and was closed because of all the downed trees and hazardous conditions.

It’s a beautiful ride along the creek on the empty road lined with live oaks, redwoods, and a great diversity of other vegetation - strikingly different from the conditions we’ve been biking through before this. We don’t get far though before seeing the first signs of the fire, and soon we’re biking past the sickening sight of horribly charred redwoods.

Katherine suggests that we should turn back, thinking perhaps that it’s unsafe and we might succumb to a falling trunk or branch. Unfortunately she makes this suggestion only to me, since Rocky has been long since out of sight, drawn in by the open road. And we really are in a dead zone, as I find when I unsuccessfully try to call her because there’s no coverage. With nothing to be done but ride on, we ride on; and are relieved a half hour later to see her ahead biking back toward us, unbrained.

Painful to see all of the blackened redwoods. Sickening, really.

There are still a few miles left in the ride, including those small hills toward the end that I mentioned earlier. When we get there though, we find that our guide neglected to warn us that these are short, steep climbs, the worst topping out at 13% - certainly the stiffest little climb Team Anderson has stared at for awhile. It’s not quite Mont Ventoux, but it at least catches our attention and reminds us some training is needed before we’re ready for Spain again.

The remaining few miles of the ride are different again as we bike through farmland and past pastures featuring goats and a few longhorn cattle. And above, we’re treated to an aerial show: a column of a dozen or so ravens spiraling their way skyward on an updraft, a red tailed hawk higher still and a pair of them beginning to ascent from below.

And then, finally we’re back at the car, packing the bikes away and finalizing plans for the rest of the day: we’ll pick up dinner at Sam’s Chowder House on our way over to Kathleen and BJ’s home, planning to show up around five.

It doesn’t quite work out that way though. You’ll remember I said we didn’t get the return on investment we expected when Rachael repaired the Garmins? When we got home, Rachael discovered that her Garmin was missing. A thorough search of the home and car didn’t unearth it, so I drove the fifteen miles back to Pescadero to see if it had been dropped there while we were loading bikes in the car. I fully expected to find it there because nothing else made sense, but was afraid I’d find it crushed because it has been stepped on or run over in the past hour.

No luck though, so our otherwise perfect day has this one minor scratch on it, hardly noticeable. Thanks, Kathleen, for leading us on this outstanding ride; and thanks to both of you for having us over. For dinner. We’ll be back, so please arrange to have the gannet in town next time.

Kathleen stopped us in Pescadero to look at a pair of interesting vintage doors. But I was more interested in this little western fence lizard(?). Is this the first lizard I’ve photographed since Italy? I forget.

Video sound track: Everyday, by the Classic Dream Orchestra

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Today's ride: 22 miles (35 km)
Total: 80 miles (129 km)

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Kathleen JonesIt was a lovely time with you two. Couldn’t have asked for a better day or better company. Your photos and the video really show off how beautiful and varied this part of the coast is.

(And that 100-yard-long bump topped out at only 11% on my track.)
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11 months ago

Andrea BrownOh no! Sorry to hear about the lost Garmin. They need to add trackers to those things.
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11 months ago

Gregory GarceauThat was a pretty good trick Kathleen played on you when she led you up those hills after making that "impromptu" route change. Also, happy belated birthday, Scott. I bet you were wishing you were far enough past your surgery to ride your age, as you've done so many times before.
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11 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Gregory GarceauOh, a birthday ride is in the plans alright, for when we get to Tucson. I never do it on my actual birthday anyway because we’re not usually in the right place for it.
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11 months ago