Tour Report: Santa Cruz County/Monterey County, California
October 3-5, 1997
This was a weekend tour of members of the former
touring@cycling.org (now touring@phred.org)
mailing list. In the last couple of days before the weekend tour, lots of e-mails were
flying back and forth among the tour participants. I knew that a few people would be
staying all weekend and that others would be coming and going, so I brought my cellular
telephone to make the seat-of-the-pants logistics work. I checked e-mail one last time at
6 AM Friday morning, and then set off for the drive up to Northern California. I made sure
not to forget my rain gear, since a chance of clouds/fog/rain was in the forecast for the
weekend.
Friday, October 3
Arrival at Manresa State Beach
After the seven hour drive from the Los Angeles area, I was the first to arrive at Manresa State Beach early Friday
afternoon. Between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey, Manresa State Beach is one in a
series of campgrounds on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I quickly secured a
campsite before all of the good ones were taken up.
A half hour later, I was greeted by Judy Colwell, Alan Bloom, and Al Beyerle, who had
carpooled down from the (San Francisco) Bay Area. We introduced ourselves, set up camp,
and then took a walk along the beach to get acquainted.
After returning from our walk, Clarke Stanley arrived after pedalling about 70 miles
from the Bay Area. Cycling into the campground with panniers, tent, and sleeping bag, he
would prove to be the only "real" tourer in the group.
Clarke set up camp as the rest of us "oohed" and "aahed" at
everybody's bikes (including Alan's 27" "Darth Vader" black Cannondale).
While the guys were talking about technical details concerning the bikes, Judy had
befriended a cat that had wandered in the area.
We debated on whether to eat dinner in or out, then decided to drive up to Aptos for
Chinese food (we saved some of the leftovers for the cat). After dinner I called Jim
Spring and left him a message so he could know where to meet us for the next day's ride.
Saturday, October 4
Castroville/Echo Valley Loop
The weather gods smiled on us as we woke up to clear skies. However, I was glad I took
Judy's advice and put my "dew fly" on my tent the night before, otherwise I
would have woken up in a puddle of morning dew.
Since she accidentally opened the wrong package, Judy had Clarke's instant mashed
potatoes for breakfast. The rest of us had apple flavored pancakes cooked up by Alan and
Judy. Judy's cat never showed up - maybe it had a better offer for breakfast?
Jim rode in from Santa Cruz to meet us for the day's ride. We got a couple of group
photos before Clarke left to ride back to the Bay Area.
Alan had prepared a 50 mile loop with a 70 mile option (or a 70 mile loop with a 50
mile option, as he put it). We rode away from the coast and towards the farmlands outside
of Watsonville. We turned onto the Pajaro River bike path, but after a mile we had to make
a U-turn, since workers were shoring up the levee to get ready for a wet winter.
We saw a bunch of tandems and asked if anybody had seen John and Marty Volz, who were
doing the BART (Bay Area Roaming Tandems) ride this weekend. John and Marty would have
joined us for our ride if it didn't conflict with the BART ride. Nobody had seen them, so
we forged ahead.
Somehow, we found Highway 1 and we were back onto our mapped route. The highway
meandered back to the coast at Moss Landing and then turned back inland. At the next
turnoff point, Alan and I looked back, and rest of the group was gone! We called Jim's
cell phone - Jim, Judy, and Al had stopped at Moss Landing for coffee. After regrouping,
Rufus (Judy's touring teddy) growled at us for "racing" and not
"touring".
We had gone 20 miles and it was already almost lunch time, so we decided to go with the
50 mile option and ride into Castroville for lunch. Castroville is a small farming
community, and it was clear that the cuisine of choice in the town was Mexican. We shied
away from the place with the sign that said "authentic" Mexican food (do you
need a sign to tell you it's authentic?) and ate at the place that actually looked more
authentic. Business seemed a little slow for a Saturday, but Castroville wasn't the kind
of town to attract hoards of tourists wandering in for the weekend.
We found the only eastbound way out of town - a short stretch of freeway legal for
cyclists to ride on and clearly marked "bike route" next to the on-ramp sign. We
got some strange looks by residents whose houses bordered the freeway. The freeway ended
after 3/4 mile, and we turned onto Castroville Blvd., with the scenery returning to rural
farmland.
After climbing a short but steep hill on Bayview Rd., we descended into Paradise
Valley. The stretch between Paradise Valley and Echo Valley was my favorite - a rural road
through a wooded area that reminded me of the suburbs of my native Massachusetts.
We skirted around the foothills going northbound on San Miguel Canyon Rd., then
returned to the flatlands on San Juan Rd. going toward the ocean. We met a stiff afternoon
headwind all the way to Pajaro, a rural farm town. Since we couldn't return on the bike
path along the river, we detoured into Watsonville and found an alternate (but dull
industrial part of the way) route to the campsite.
We, along with Jim's girlfriend, had an excellent dinner in an Italian Restaurant in
Capitola. During dessert, Robin Morris called us to arrange a time and place to meet on
Sunday. He was planning on cycling down from the Bay Area (about 70 miles), so we agreed
to meet at the campsite after our Sunday ride, at about 1:00 or 2:00. Jim wasn't sure
whether he'd be able to join us for Sunday's ride, so he told us to leave without him if
he didn't show.
Sunday, October 5
Santa Cruz County Loop
After waking up to yet another pleasant morning, we had breakfast and packed up our
gear. Right when we were about to leave for our ride, we had the biggest surprise of the
weekend - Robin pedaled in! Instead of meeting us afterward, he started cycling from the
Bay Area 4 AM so that he could join us for our ride! Unfortunately, Jim woke up with a
head cold and didn't make it down for the ride.
The choice of rides for the day was a relatively flat 35 mile loop or a hilly 40 mile
loop. In the interests of time, we went for the 35 mile loop. We found a better way to get
to Pajaro and back onto San Juan Rd., but this time we turned north, riding toward Mt.
Madonna. While riding along one of the rural roads through the farms, Judy and Rufus saw a
sign for apple pie at nearby Gizdich Ranch (good eyes, Judy and Rufus!). We made a pit
stop for apple pie a la mode (yummy!).
After getting as close as we could to Mt. Madonna without having to climb it, we headed
westbound. With apple pie in our stomachs, no one was really hungry for lunch, so we
forged ahead. We had a long stretch of climbing to do to get up and over some hills to get
to the coast - Alan took the lead and helped our tired legs make it over! We crossed
Highway 1, after which it was a short ride back to the campsite.
We went to Capitola beach for a late lunch, over which we discussed ideas for doing
another tour. After lunch, we said our goodbyes, knowing that everyone had enjoyed the
weekend and that someday we'd do it again!
