Season 3 Episode 14 (10/18-10/19) To Take, or Not to Take a 104-Mile Gamble

Season 3 Episode 14 (10/18-10/19) To Take, or Not to Take a 104-Mile Gamble – 

10/18 Atherton to Aptos, CA. 65 miles 3697’ climb.

After 2 evenings with our friends Amy & Bill, it was tough to get back in bike mode. On the one hand, we were recharged, rested and rejuvenated from our 2-day stay. On the other hand, it had been as if we were at home with friends, and we’d broken the rhythm of our adventure. We needed to get back into it.

We enjoyed more west coast bike friendliness of safe trails through Cupertino. We decided that we had to visit the world HQ of Apple as it was just a few miles away. We rode over to the new Apple HQ at Apple Park aka Apple Campus 2, but it’s a security fortress closed to visitors. I told the security agent I had an appointment with CEO Tim Cook - she laughed with me.

Denied, we took a few photos and headed over to the original Apple HQ at 1 Infinite Loop.

We were unsure if we should go around the loop - because it could go on forever. [Unavoidable dad joke😉] We went around once and all was well.

Shortly after lunch in Los Gatos, Heather started to feel nauseous. I worried she may have had another allergic reaction. As she also felt dizzy (not a good thing when trying to balance on a bike), I diagnosed her as dehydrated.

The Woman of Steel is rusting. I had finished the climb, and didn’t yet realize how bad shape Heather was in lagging behind me and needing help.

This is 17 minutes later - 12 minutes of her sitting and 5 minutes walking up the slope without her bike.

Three minutes later she was back to the curb to recover.

After about 20 more minutes, Heather decided to grind it out and push through.

30 minutes later we passed a huge barrier where the road had fallen away - giving credibility to those signs warning of rock slides, and instilling fear in me like hope this doesn’t happen when I’m right there. And only 15 minutes later when I asked what she thought when she passed the exact spot where half the road had washed away, she had no clue what I was talking about. She was just mustering enough strength to pedal and had not lifted her head to see anything. I had been struck by this image and took 4 photos. She was still in a daze and hadn’t even noticed it.

Heather soon started to feel better which was a good thing as after a lengthy climb while she was woozy, we had a lengthy descent with minimal shoulder and lots of curves. I loved it! She did not. We came to the very charming surf town of Capitola. Great vibe, youthful, active, low key not fancy.

I met an Aussie who was living here and I liked how she carried her surfboard by bike. Imagine riding down the coast with that!

We soon arrived at our Warm Showers hosts Laura and Patrick, and their 3 cute kids ages 8, 6 and 4. I cannot recall when Heather and I last sat for dinner with a family with 3 kids those ages. While I am loving our independent stage of life, and the relationships with our own kids as adults now ages 27, 25 and 22, I would trade places in a heartbeat with Laura and Patrick. What a delicious stage of life they are at! And I encouraged them to savor this time.

Our hosts were lovely and were generous in the space they extended to us and the delicious dinner. I was inspired by stories and the album of their own 15 months (!) on a bike trip circumnavigating South America 10 years ago. Hmmm…, this could be fodder for an international season of Shifting Gears.

They asked where we were heading next. We shared our plan was to head to Seaside and the Monterrey Peninsula and iconic 17-mile drive. We would then head inland from the coast through King City and Paso Rablos and in a few days return to the coast and Highway 1 at Pismo Beach. We would not ride straight down the coast through famous Big Sur because of the road closure since January 2023 due to the rock slide known as Paul’s Slide. We understood Highway 1 was completely closed for a 2-mile stretch and repairs had even been temporarily halted in August as the ground was still shifting. And this was arguably around the same spot in 2017 that ground had shifted. So many people have driven this spectacular stretch and we knew we would be missing a beautiful ride. We’d come to accept that in our planning and had already booked a hotel in King City, and arranged a warm shower host in Paso Rablos.

But both Laura and Patrick said we would miss Big Sur which is the very best part of riding down the California coastline. They heard that it was possible to bike through now and thought other riders they recently hosted have done so. Patrick suggested there was somebody to call near Big Sur who could advise us and encouraged us to call him. As we had a very short ride of 36 miles that day, they said we could hang out at their place while we had WiFi to check into it (there is limited cell service in this area.)

Heather and I discussed the pros and cons. Aside from the possibility of land still shifting (and not to minimize that), the big risk was getting there and being turned back! In Oregon, when we took a chance on a road closure at Cape Mears (Episode 8), we took a 12 mile risk. That is, when we in fact got turned back, it resulted in us doing 12 extra miles. In this case with the Big Sur closure, it will be 52 miles riding to see if we make it and thus if turned back it will be 104 miles extra! That’s a hell of a gamble!

We emailed the contact suggested to us in Big Sur, and he replied quickly and agreed to speak by phone. He explained how we would need to ride through after 5:30pm when the road crew was gone for the day. He sent us videos of what it looked like by others who recently rode through it. There was another obstacle if we did get through the closure. We needed a place to stay. We would have to cycle 10 miles in the dark to Gorda and very expensive lodging, or 30 miles to affordable lodging. And that would be in the dark, on top of all the riding already done. It seemed beyond us. Our contact would have been happy to host us on the south side of the closure, but he was going out of town. After a few minutes, he asked us if he could trust us to stay at his place with nobody there. After our affirmative reply with supporting statements, he said “let me think about it for 15 minutes and let me check you out online and I’ll call you back with my decision.” He called us back 10 minutes later with a yes we could stay there, he would leave the back door unlocked.

We again weighed the risks and rewards as best we could and decided to go for it! We cancelled our other lodging and thanked Laura and Patrick for inspiring us - or so we thought without yet knowing the outcome.

Saying goodbye to Laura.

Laura thought our route from her house was suboptimal and had a shortcut that she would lead us on as easier than explaining it to us. Despite being in a dress to below the knee, she hopped on her bike and led us for a few miles. That is the Warm Showers above and beyond community.

*     *     *

10/19 Aptos to Seaside, CA. 36 miles 1366 climb.

Our ride to Seaside took us through amazing farm country. I was aware we were not far from Salinas, the setting for Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” where George and Lenny work on a farm. I made a note to re-read that classic that I last touched in high school.

At one point we came over a hill, I was sure it was the ocean but it made no sense as it was in the wrong direction. As we got closer I could see it was like other fields we had passed.

We learned strawberries are planted using plastic sheeting to prevent the soil from being blown away and to protect the crop.

Another angle.

And once they drill holes for strawberries to grow through.

We rode by various crops that got us thinking about our food supply.

We soon got to taste some of this locally grown fruit. Yum, fresh!

We took advantage of a day with short riding distance to pop into the REI store on route to check out a few things. Since we were going to attempt going through Big Sur with our biggest climb yet, and biggest descent, I wanted to fix my gears as for about a week I was not able to shift into my lowest gear (what’s called your granny gear). And I asked them to check a front brake noise. It turned out my rear brake pads were badly in need of replacement. These pads are hard to locate and finally after carrying pads around in my panniers for 3 years it turns out a good thing I did so.

Trent and Ben reset my gears perfectly and replaced my brake pads. And they gave us thumbs up on our decision to try to go through Big Sur.

We stayed in Seaside with a lovely young couple Stephanie and Sean who kindly accepted hosting us. We learned about their work and her rides and went to bed early in preparation of the big 104-mile gamble to come the next day.

© Copyright Mark Segal 2023.