May 20, 2023 – Santa Cruz to Monterey
Didn’t have the wind to our backs like yesterday, but it was still a good day of riding. We rode 45 miles from our inn at Santa Cruz to Veteran’s Memorial Park in Monterey. Most of the day was spent riding around Highway 1 through farmland or on side trails, which didn’t put us right next to the coast, but was nice nonetheless. Passed a lot of strawberry/artichoke farms and Isaac got the first flat of the trip alongside one of them. When we did ride on Highway 1 for a bit, we saw that they were selling fruit along the side for crazy cheap. The first avocado stand we passed were selling 5 avocados for $1. A mile or so later, they were selling them 8 for $1. Then a mile or two after that they got to like 13 for $1. Was a bummer to not have room to load up some for a good snack.
As soon as we hit the county of Monterey we were able to use a number of bike paths to stay off of the main road all the way into the marina; mainly the Monterey Coast Trail and the Fort Ord Trail. We didn’t spend time down by the boardwalk because we had skipped lunch and wanted to get setup in camp so we could go back down and get something to eat. After a nice day of riding, we hit one of the steepest uphills of the trip to get to Veteran’s Memorial Park. Half of it went through a nice residential neighborhood and the other half winded up a hillside and ended in the park. Despite that unpleasant surprise to end today’s ride, the park is very nice and I’m glad that they’ve kept their hiker/biker site here in the middle of Monterey while many others along the path have closed them down.
Perry was at the campsite when we got there, so once we got our tents setup, we all walked down to the downtown area to get some dinner. Perry had planned on riding down, but I was done being on the bike for the day and definitely didn’t want to cycle that uphill again. Downtown Monterey had some graduation ceremonies going on and was pretty busy, but we found a place called British Pub and I grubbed on some good fish and chips and clam chowder.
I’m not sure if I will post tomorrow as it is our driving day to San Simeon to get around all of the Big Sur closures. If nothing eventful happens, I’ll likely post again on Monday (we have our first 60+ mile day planned that day).
-Chris
