You need legs of steel to get around San Francisco. The distance to the city went by without incident along Highway 1, but once I reached the outskirts of the city it was back to the maps and through residential streets. As you can probably imagine, the residential streets around San Francisco aren’t flat. One was called Skyline Drive, and it probably doesn’t take much to work out that it’s not at the bottom of the hill.
My first port of call was the Golden Gate Bridge where it has always been my intention to get the perfect finishing picture. The city is really good for bikes, there are numbered routes which you can follow to your destination like you would normal roads, and bicycles have the right to use the entire width of a lane. Once I got to the bridge I was immediately frustrated by the large amount of tourists meaning I had to wait for quite a while to get a shot without anyone else in it. I went across and came back before heading into downtown to find a hostel address I had. I obviously haven’t booked anything ahead of time, so sometimes it takes a few goes to find a place, but this time it took just one referral to a place just 2 blocks away. So that was easy.
It doesn’t take long to look incredibly dirty, so even though I’ve only been on the go for 4 days, I look terrible and it always feels good to have a shower. I’m going to have a good dinner and then go to the cinema before heading off around the city tomorrow.
Starting out this morning I only got 2 miles before the curse hit again. It felt like a bad omen for the day. It was also very foggy for most of the morning and I was worried I wasn’t going to see anything of what I knew was going to be magnificent scenery. The bad start didn’t affect too much of the day. The tyre held out and the fog eventually lifted to reveal the most amazing coastal ride you can imagine. It was a long and difficult set of rolling hills that lasted 80 miles before it eventually flattened out, but worth every bead of sweat.
Once I got to Monterey, Highway 1 became a freeway again and I had to go back to following the patchwork of roads that the Pacific Coast Trail follows. It occurred to me that I hadn’t seen a sign for the coastal trail since Santa Rosa, meaning each turn was taken with a great deal of caution. The maps I have aren’t very good. They aren’t always very clear, but you can at least be sure if you’re in the right area. The next 40 miles was spent travelling along the patchwork, and whilst a little less direct, it wasn’t very difficult. It was during this time that I travelled through a very large area of strawberry fields which filled the air with their smell. It happened yesterday as well, and hopefully now every time I smell strawberries I will remember these past few days.
I’ve completed about 140 miles today leaving me with 65 to San Francisco, so I should arrive by early afternoon leaving me with plenty of time to get some celebratory pictures and to find a hostel. 460 miles in 4 days isn’t too bad. It’s crazy to think that I’ll be completing the original route tomorrow and how quickly I’ve done the whole thing. I think I’m going to give myself a good pat on the back.
By contrast with yesterday, today couldn’t have gone anymore perfectly. The weather was cool and overcast, it even rained (by California standards), the wind was still, I didn’t get any punctures and most importantly, I knew where I was going. As a result I managed to set a record distance of over 165 miles.
My basic aim for today was to make up for yesterday’s disaster. I was going along quite quickly and by 5pm I had completed the first 100. After setting off again I eventually see a sign that says San Francisco 250 miles. It occurred to me that if I am to complete this in four days, then the final day should be a particularly short run into the city, about 70-80 miles, so that I have time to organise accommodation. Therefore I felt that I really needed to get that distance down to at least 200 in order to have a realistic shot. This does mean that I have to do 130 tomorrow, but that shouldn’t be too hard.
There was a point coming into Pismo Beach when I suddenly felt all my energy drain and I thought I wouldn’t be able to go on, but a quick pit stop at Subway and I could go again. I’ve brought a bit of food with me today as I’ve stopped in the middle of nowhere, with no guarantee of a decent meal for another 80 miles. What’s weird about this road is that each side is completely fenced off. It means you can’t go down to the beach to sleep, but it doesn’t matter as I don’t really want to sleep on the beach again, the sand has become too annoying.
The problem with cycling specifically to do a long distance like this is that you don’t really stop for anything other than food. As a result the day can become a bit tedious and boring. I’ll just be thankful I made it through the day without another puncture. I’m sure tomorrow will be a different story.
The day started off well but very quickly turned into an absolute mission. I woke up early, packed my things, ate a chocolate pie for breakfast (as you do), said a tearful goodbye and was out the door and on the road again by 9am. I cycled down the road and hopped onto Highway 1 and started to cycle north. Things were going well until I hit some road works. A mile or so in and I got a puncture. After 20 minutes I had fixed it and then 5 miles down the road I got another. I’ve been having such terrible luck with punctures on the road, getting two a day is enough to drive anyone crazy. But the bad luck didn’t stop there.
After 50 miles the highway became a freeway and the bike route was signed to take the exit. At the top of the ramp the signage stopped and I was left stranded next to the freeway. Starting today I thought things would be simple as LA to San Francisco is such a popular thing to do that there had to be a well travelled bike route which ran between the two cities. But as the signs disappeared I didn’t know where the route had gone. I managed to fudge a route along country roads to the next city, Oxnard, where I began to look for a library only to discover that it was shut on Friday’s. I headed back to the freeway where I was going to try and force a route alongside, when I saw a sign for the California Welcome Centre. I’m not sure what one is doing in a town I’ve never heard of, but thank God it was there. The people inside were incredibly helpful and scoured the Internet to find the route that followed the coast. I must have spent almost 2hrs in that place, but eventually I left with a chunk of A4 pages with little maps printed on them that led me all the way to San Francisco. Another example of how poor planning can land you in a serious mess, and how I’ve been riding my luck for this whole trip.
I headed out again realising that it was now late afternoon and I had only done 50 miles. I was annoyed but confident things would go more smoothly from now on, and it wasn’t long before I was in the next town. Looking at my map for the next stop I suddenly realise there are about 5 pages missing. I don’t know how I lost them or where they went, but the next 20 miles to Santa Barbara were gone and I was feeling very lost again. By now it was dark and everywhere except restaurants and petrol stations were shut. Asking anyone where the Pacific Coast Trail was would draw a blank stare. Not knowing what to do I was cycling through the town hoping to see a sign. As I’m going along I catch the sight of a person at a bus stop staring at a computer screen. I almost missed him as I whizzed by, but the light from the screen shining on his face caught my attention so I turned around to ask if he had the Internet. He was sitting outside because for some reason he couldn’t get a connection inside but it worked fine out here, clearly bullshit, but using the Internet address printed at the bottom of the pages I did have, I was able to get directions to Santa Barbara. This was one of the luckier moments on the trip which seem to be in plentiful supply today.
Having reached Santa Barbara, I’ve only done about 100 miles but I don’t want to go on as it is probably the easiest place to get breakfast in the morning, so I’m sleeping on the beach again. Whilst it is more comfortable than in a car park, the sand gets everywhere and makes things uncomfortable again. I’m just going to have to get used to it as there aren’t many other places to sleep in a city. Ah, the joys of being on the road again.
