Cycle Tour Monterey to Big Sur, a Day of Photos

Day three of my tour would be a relatively short ride from Monterey to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. I liked that it would be a short ride so it would give me time to take lots of pictures of this very scenic area.

I got a late start because I spent time fraternizing with fellow riders at Veteran’s Park in Monterey. The ride into the park the night before was a nasty climb to the top of a hill. But the ride out of the park and back to Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) still managed to offer more climbing. I had skipped the scenic 17 Mile Drive the day before, but I did ride the last few miles of it that morning.

The two bananas I had at the campground wouldn’t sustain me for long. I stopped early in the day at the last plaza offering services until I arrived in Big Sur later that day. I stop at that plaza every time I pass by, no matter my mode of travel, be it by car, motorcycle, or bicycle. The road around it was under construction, and it made ingress and egress by bike a little interesting. I found a cute breakfast place where the host seated me near an outlet so I could charge all of my accessories while I ate. The solar panel I brought didn’t help much in the heavy cloud cover along the coast.

The useless solar panels made me realize that my attitude toward the weather had changed. My mood used to depend on it. If I did not get sunny, calm, temperate weather, I was disappointed. But on this trip, I ran into a lot of cloudy, damp weather, albeit no rain. And it did not put a damper on my spirits (pun intended). It was a very liberating change.

The local Post Office was close by, and I stopped to ship items I didn’t need back home, including my CPAP machine and an extra water bottle mount. You can read about the dramas associated with each of those items in earlier blogs. After a quick stop at a market, I continued south. Leaving that plaza is always a bit dramatic for me. I consider it an outpost, a last bastion of civilization, the beginning of the rugged section of Big Sur, even though you are still in Carmel for a short while and there are good places to get supplies along the coast.

PCH south of Carmel had less room on the road for bikes than I remember from my last trip. Signs label the road as a bike route. And California has a relatively new law requiring motorists to give cyclists a minimum of 3 feet as they pass. But I think most people are unaware of the law. And it only helps so much on PCH. California law does not allow drivers to cross the double yellow line to give cyclists that space; instead, it instructs drivers to slow down. On much of the coast, there is no room to give cyclists that much space in the lane; there is nearly always a double yellow line, and almost no one slows down. So it was pretty much business as usual, dicing it up with cars.

Traffic was light, but I had hoped the closure on PCH farther south would reduce traffic more than it did. The number of cars did taper off as I went, and I was thankful for it. By traveling before Memorial Day, the number of large recreational vehicles (RVs) was also very low. RVs on that road can be pretty exciting for cyclists.

I have traveled this coast many times by car, motorcycle, and bicycle. It has been captured countless times in photographs and every conceivable artistic medium. As I traveled along the road, I felt the surreal sensation of moving through a living painting or sculpture, becoming part of the art myself. I imagined the hills rendered in brush strokes, the road portrayed in stippling, or the ocean as a large glass sculpture. I pictured myself in the third person, portrayed in the same media as my surroundings: the structure of bridges becoming rough welded brass, captured in perfectly lit black-and-white photography, or made abstract in watercolor. I have never seen cyclists traveling this road rendered artistically: they are always portrayed with simple photographs. But there must be an art catalog of Big Sur cyclists somewhere.

The only other person in the Hike or Bike area was Shane. I had expected to meet fewer cyclists as I got closer to the PCH closure. Shane was going south and turning back. That was an option for him because he lived not far to the north, making it an out-and-back ride. When I think about living in an area I find so special, I have mixed feelings. Would easy access to great experiences turn the exotic into the mundane? Or would my life be elevated by having this kind of experience often? I expect the former, but given the chance I would take the risk that it would be the latter.

Shane was quiet, but we talked more as we got settled in. He was a very fit rider traveling with a two-wheel utility trailer and wanted to get bags for his bike instead. He had a lot of equipment questions, and I was happy to talk tech about our bikes and gear. My old titanium Airborne Carpe Diem bike and bikepacking style bags garner a lot of attention. I think they also give me some cred so people listen to my advice and usually ask more as I tell them more.

Shane was staying at the park for a couple of days, which seemed like a good idea. Of all the places I might spend extra time on the ride, Big Sur would be on the top of my list, but tied with a few others. I was already beginning to plan a return trip to the coast now that I felt confident in my gear and ability to accommodate my sleep apnea.

Big Sur was thankfully dry. The dampness of Monterey had much of my gear soaking wet. My tent dried out quickly; I set up a clothes line and took care of other housekeeping. My sleep kit and I were getting along well. I fell asleep early and slept hard and long, which I did pretty much every night of my ride. And that was good, because the next day’s ride to Kirk Creek Campground started with a relentless climb out of the valley. But more on that in the next blog.