Jeff Bikes: ...Go

Carmel – Big Sur

24 Miles

Pattye and I got up, packed and went for breakfast at the Cannery Row Deli, overlooking the bike/pedestrian path that runs from Lover’s Point, through Cannery Row to somewhere beyond Marina. There was an aid station set up across the street next to the bust of Ed Rickets, for an MS Walk for charity. After breakfast we walked over and asked the volunteers to take our picture (see below), and then drove to Carmel Valley, right at the shopping center along Route 1. We gassed up, checked the oil, took the bike off the car, loaded it up and said goodbye. In the two years we’ve been married we haven’t really been apart more than a day or two, so this trip is going to be a little unusual for both of us.

It was hot in the valley! I took off on the bike, feeling it wobble with the weight of my bags (not really “that” much weight, but more than I’d had on the bike so far), rode across Route 1, turned to wave at Pattye and then headed south.

Before I go any further, let me just say to any cyclists following the Adventure Cycling route. The route takes you along the bike path to just before you get to Fisherman’s Warf, then takes you inland and up over the mountain that separates Monterey from Carmel. I’m sure they must have good reason for doing this, and it’s probably a very efficient way to travel, but in my humble opinion, this is a crime, a tragedy, and a huge mistake! Because if you simply continue along that bike path, you will ride by Fisherman’s Warf (your typical beach-resort stores full of painted shells and salt water taffy, but also glass-bottom boat and whale watching tours); into historic Cannery Row (made famous in the John Steinbeck novel of the same name); the Monterey Bay Aquarium (highly regarded as among the best in the world); and then into a veritable fairy land that is Pacific Grove. When the bike path ends at Lover’s Point, you continue on Ocean View Avenue, which becomes a mile of of ocean front that is bordered by beautiful gardens of lush succulents which are right at this exact moment a carpet of the most compelling, vivid purple you can imagine. Try to take it all in but also look out for cars and don’t let your jaw hang open for too long or you mouth will dry out.

When you get to 725 Ocean View Avenue, stop and look to your left and check to see if the blinds in the two huge picture windows of this modest studio apartment are open. Then will most likely not be, because apparently evil, soulless trolls live here and they keep the blinds drawn all the time. Turn your head from the closed blinds and look directly to your right. Yeah, I know…I KNOW! If you stay here long enough you will see sea otters float on their backs with rocks on their chests, cracking open abalone and other sea creatures for lunch. If you are here in the fall you may see monarch butterflies drawing nectar from the flowers that separate the road from the most beautiful coastline you are ever likely to see in your lifetime. OK, “nearly” the most…keep riding…there’s more…and it gets better. Before you pedal off, if the blinds were drawn, shake your fist at the evil trolls and swear that if you ever live here you would pull the blinds off the wall and set them out with the garbage immediately. You may not live here, in this place, with this incredible view, and close your blinds.

Continue on Ocean View Avenue, past the Pacific Grove Lighthouse all the way down to Asilomar Beach. Here the road curves and heads uphill. Ride uphill a bit until you see the sign for the 17 Mile drive. Turn right, greet the guard at the gate with a friendly smile and he will wave you through without charging you the fee charged to motor vehicles. Follow the 17 Mile drive around to the right, towards Spanish Bay. This is where extremely rich people live and play golf at the world renown Pebble Beach golf course. The scenery along the ocean is breathtaking, and you must see it. All of it. Just keep riding and looking. It’s amazing.

Eventually you will exit at the Carmel gate and rejoin the Adventure Cycling route on a big downhill run to Carmel Valley, where I started from this morning.

Carmel Valley was hot, but it’s a short stretch to the Carmel River where the temperature dropped maybe 10 degrees and I rode right into a cool breeze scented with eucalyptus. Very refreshing. It was a spectacularly beautiful Sunday, and there were a lot of people out in cars. My first view of the ocean at Carmel Beach was incredible and I found myself stopping to take pictures less than a mile into the trip.

When you first start riding down Route 1 from Carmel Valley you go through Carmel Highlands, with a lot of trees and driveways leading to beautiful homes along both sides of the highway. About 5 miles along and the sky just kind of opens up as you through the last of the trees, and the scenery goes from incredible to spectacular (and stays that way all the way to Big Sur). Route 1 is tiny ribbon of horizontal asphalt etched into the side of mountains that descend steeply down to the rugged coastline. This time of year the mountains are lush and green and the air is just sweet with exotic fragrances. If it’s not a spectacularly beautiful spring weekend, but just a normal pre-summer-vacation weekday, traffic will thin considerably here.

The next 20 miles were just…I know I’m using this word way too much…”Amazing”. There are times my bike wheel is two feet (and a hefty guardrail) away from near vertical drops right down to the jagged rocks and blue-green pools below. There are a few hills to climb up and down, and no services (so make sure you bring plenty of water). The shoulder varies from two to three feet wide to nothing at all in some spots. There are a lot of turnouts to stop and take pictures or rest for a few minutes.

There is one stretch of road that they are rebuilding and it’s closed down to one lane, with traffic lights on either end. There is a sign here that instructs you to push a button if you’re a cyclist…so I did. I think this either changed the timing off the lights or summoned someone to watch me through the video camera and manually control the lights. The road is very narrow here and maybe…I don’t know…a quarter mile long? The last bit is pretty steep and then you pedal up to the impatient stares of traffic that is waiting for you to go past so they can continue south. It’s OK…they’ll get over it.

All too soon, the road turned inland into a fertile valley you can see from a couple miles away if you’re looking for it, and soon you’re in amongst the tall trees of Big Sur. The smell is “Amazing”. I just got to the very first part of Big Sur and am spending the night here.