Pacific Coast Tour (Written by Ben, Anna & Brad)

Written by Ben June 26, 2009

Well after a well deserved and enjoyed two day break in San Francisco we were back on our journey south. However, today was actually a fairly relaxing day miles wise. We only had to travel 28 miles down to Half Moon Bay (although me and Patrick managed to do a couple extra miles due to a slight detour).

We had our lunch in Pacifica, which was really cool cause it had a big beach with waves that broke really close to shore. Then something strange kind of happened. This guy named Daniel wandered into our lunch area and tried to recruit Taryn and Cody into his gang. He then went kind of confused and asked if we had any beer and mustard. After a little while he left, for which everyone was glad – although he did forget his stick of beef jerky. Lunch went pretty smoothly after that, and for the first time everyone made it out before 2:30pm.

Then, after what seemed like barely any time at all (although we did go over a decent sized hill) we arrived in Half-Moon Bay with time to spare. Since, we had an hour to go before we were supposed to be at our host site, me and Patrick decided to try and go find a library, so that we could get Internet access. However, we were met by a rather unfriendly librarian who told us very explicitly that we were not allowed more than 15min (which since my computer froze half-way through turned out to be about 7min).

Finally, after taking about half an hour to find the church, we got there to find out that they had a Nintendo 64 (which the boys were quite excited about), and a huge collection of books, which we were more than welcome to take with us. We had dinner, and then a very interesting (and somewhat painful) game of Capture-the-Flag in a field beside the Church.

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Written by Anna, June 27, 2009 

Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz, 49 miles

We woke up bright and early at 6:00 am in order to clear the room out for a meeting. The group moved efficiently, grabbed breakfast in the church’s fog room, and soon enough we were all on our way. By 10 am (the time at which we have become accustomed to taking off), we had already covered 10 miles– even after a leisurely break at Starbucks.

My pod for the morning was comprised of Carly, Rachel, Taryn and myself. There were some long, steady climbs, but the heavy fog and Oceanside views kept things interesting and some good conversation kept my mind off the hills. We found a surprising number of cyclists on the road and asked whether there was a ride going on. The woman answered, Òno, this is just California– we like to cycle! About 30 miles into the ride, as we approached our lunch spot, Carly got her first flat– a pretty remarkable blow-out. The group struggled for about an hour to repair it and eventually continued alongon with the sweeps (Brad and Cody) following behind us. Carly quickly got over her flat frustrations when we decided to go strawberry picking! 7 delicious pounds of strawberries later, everyone was in a good mood and we moved on to our lunch spot by the beach, where the soaked up the sun and watched some surfers.

The afternoon was hot and had some hills, but I found quite a bit of energy and the 19 miles left in the day went by quickly. My pod arrived in Santa Cruz around 5 pm– just in time for dinner at the New Life Center. After showers, a number of us biked down to the famous Santa Cruz boardwalk to soak up some Americana– fair food, ice cream, carnival rides and a quick jaunt to the beach! We found our appetites had not been satiated, so we biked downtown to a cute strip with restaurants, boutiques and some street performers. After some cheap and filling Mexican fast food, we biked back to New Life and crashed.

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Written by Brad June 28, 2009

Another relatively easy day, the extensive bike paths and bike lanes today were a blessing between Santa Cruz and Monterrey, CA. Ever since San Francisco–but not before–the scenery in the morning has been veiled by a thick fog until mid-morning or early afternoon. A mixed blessing: even though it was hard to see, the fog made the temperature and the sun bearable, which was especially obvious when the sun finally did come out. Although not a terribly interesting day, the ubiquitous bike lanes and less-traveled roads allowed Cody, Sahriar, and myself to engage in a productive discussion about what poverty really is. For good measure, allow me to add a taste of the aforementioned self-imposed century back a week or so ago.

The day biking into Arcata is what I am considering my hump day for the trip for a variety of reasons. But the day after, biking to Humboldt State Park, was among the best. In general, I find that the faster I go, the less I stop, and the greater the challenge to overcome, the happier I am at the end of the day. I think it has something to do with a sense of accomplishment. At lunch, when we realized that we still had the keys to the church in Arcata (and later, that we had left important receipts there as well), Eva volunteered immediately to go back by bike with one provision: that she could put her panniers in the van. The idea immediately intrigued me. How fun would it be to backtrack 25 miles and challenge myself to complete the entire 56 mile ride starting late in the afternoon after a 50-mile prelude–without panniers! We set out from the lunch spot around 1:30, and didnÔt stop until we got back. Although the challenges were mainly mental, the headwind was a very real problem. About to dig into several granola bars once we arrived, Robin offered to take us out for burritos downtown as a thank-you for biking all the way back. We could have sent the van, after all, but this way was much more enjoyable for all.

By the time we left Arcata again, it was already 5:30 in the evening. Realizing the challenge at hand, we pushed ourselves rather hard, taking breaks only when absolutely necessary. The highway seemed so much more pleasant this time around, which was quite simply because the sun was shining, enabling me to see the water and trees more clearly. Overall, the highway was quite flat, and the tailwind made our job significantly easier. All these things helped us to arrive at the state park, amazingly enough, before dark. While most people got lost that day because of faulty directions, Bugsy came to our rescue just a mile or two from the site in the van to tell us which exit to take. Our grand entrance into the campground was fun–it was neat to be cheered on by the team, and they were intrigued to hear how our day had gone. Surprisingly, I woke up early the next morning, with my left knee only slightly sore, in time to do yoga in the redwoods for about an hour before anyone else but Ben was awake.