May 15, 2023 – Ocean Cove to Bodega Dunes State Beach
First off, Isaac is a handy guy to have around. Has been since he was little. Yesterday he noticed that even considering the wind, my bike seemed to not be coasting right. I felt it while I was riding, but I assumed it was a combination of the wind, my trailer, and being wildly out of shape for this kind of trip. So he checked out my bike and noticed that I had tightened my bike lock bracket in a place where it was pushing the rear brake line a bit far out; so my brake was lightly engaged all day. Aside from feeling like a dummy, it made today’s ride a lot more doable once this got corrected.
We decided to take it easy today and just get to the next campground here at Bodega Dunes State Beach. We had some breakfast at camp and planned to stop for lunch at Cafe Aquatica in Jenner. It was a tiny, but cool little town and the salmon rolls that we got at the cafe were excellent. It was the last place to buy groceries even though it was about 10 miles out from our campground, so we went across the street to the gas station / grocery store / fake deli that was there. It was essentially a big liquor store and they said they only make sandwiches when the season gets busier. So we each bought some beef jerky and a couple of prepackaged sandwiches to take for dinner.
The last 10 miles involved a couple of more semi-long uphills, but after that we were able to coast on gently rolling hills for about 6 miles all the way to Bodega Dunes. The sun came out a bit on that last part and it was really just a beautiful view of the coast. Also, we finally have good cell reception at the campsite today .
Another thing that happened today early on was that a fellow cyclist (Perry – retired firefighter from Vacaville) pulled up next to us and started chatting for a bit. He asked us what we were planning to do to get across Big Sur. I asked what he was talking about and he told us that three big landslides had taken out the roads there and they were still shutdown. Isaac had sent me information on those landslides several months ago, but we had both figured that the roads would be repaired / open by now. Turns out we were both wrong about that. I used our good cell reception here to look up the closures and sure enough we’re blocked from about Pfiffer-Big Sur State Park (about 30 miles south of Monterey) to a tiny town called Ragged Point about 20 miles north of San Simeon. We talked to some of the other campers and most of them were still scheming about how to overcome this obstacle. One guy said that he talked to another cyclist who had ridden through Big Sur in the middle of the night while there weren’t any construction crews or cops onsite; apparently they’ve plowed some dirt roads around the slides for construction crew use that he was able to use. Another guy that’s riding a minimum of 80 miles a day (can’t remember his name) decided that he is going to leave the coast at Salinas and go around Big Sur (about a 160 mile trip) for what would’ve been 100 miles down highway 1. His route goes through King City, through Paso Robles, continues on to Atascadero, and comes back in around Cambria or San Luis Obispo (one of those two). I have zero interest in doing either of those things. So, the plan for now is to rent a mid-size SUV after we camp in Monterey (hopefully) next Sunday from an airport that’s just a few miles away from the campsite. We’ll load up our bikes and gear, drive to San Simeon State Park to drop off the bikes and gear, I’ll drive the car back to San Luis Obispo airport to drop it off, and then Uber back to the San Simeon State Park to camp there. If all goes well, it will turn into a weird and impromptu rest day for us and we’ll get started on the trip again. It’s a bummer to not be able to cycle that part, but the point of this trip for me is to ride the Pacific Coast, not through inland mountains and wine country. Who knows, maybe I’ll make a 2-3 day trip up here next year to finish this part after the roads open up again (currently scheduled to open December 2023).
All that aside, I’m glad we found out about the closures now instead of when we got there and I was happy to have a shorter day today and run into 4 other cyclists here at the hiker/biker site. Perry is here doing his retirement trip (wants to go all the way to the Mexican border eventually, but might stop in San Francisco to go rest at home for a bit), Larry and Owen we met 2 nights ago and seem like good people (not sure where their final destination is), and the other guy whose name I can’t remember is apparently a master brewer somewhere and is going to take a rest day in Oakland tomorrow (the guy is a fast rider) at his home before continuing on to his end destination in San Diego.
Last note. Perry found that one of the showers here is “broken” and works (hot water included) without having to pay tokens or quarters for it. So I was able to take a long hot shower in some nice facilities. So definitely a good day overall.
-Chris
