Day 16: Santa Cruz to Carmel Valley

Today’s Highlights:

Today’s ride started out differently, with a 7:00 departure and a stop two miles down the road for breakfast. We immediately continued from the restaurant for a very gloomy twenty miles on typical business roads, then finally reached farm land.  We passed huge fields of strawberry, avocado, lettuce and other produce I did not recognize.  One amazing part of the farming process I saw was workers covering acres of land with plastic, which they do prior to planting.  Our route through the farmland eventually took us back to the Pacific and once again we saw the fertile fields extend out to where the horizon met ocean.

The gloomy skies finally broke around 11:00 when we were on a bike path on our way to Monterey.  We reached the bay and were rewarded with very nice views.  The best part of the ride was actually not riding, but stopping for lunch at Old Fisherman’s Wharf, sitting in a sunny spot near the water and enjoying a relaxing meal.

Our ride continued on a bike path along Ocean Blvd and Sunset Blvd with nice views along the bay and ocean.  We saw some seals on the way.  Later we rode most of 17 Mile Drive with the shoreline on our right and Pebble Beach golf course and large mansions on our left.

After sixty miles, we turned inland and headed to Carmel Valley.  We ended our 74-mile ride around 3:30 at the Los Laureles Lodge and enjoyed a nice dinner on the premises tonight.

Strawberry Fields Forever
The first part of the day was a little dreary, but the miles and miles of produce was something to see. I now believe that everything I eat comes from California. And then we passed a random llama farm.

Once the the sun came out the ride along the cost was pretty. We had a good time in Monterey. The seals were out in mass, playing in the surf. I don’t think that 17 Mile Drive is all it was hyped to be. I did enjoy the Cyprus trees. I guess the other big draw is the golf courses; maybe if I played golf then I would have appreciated them more. I enjoyed the ride around Ocean Blvd much better. Still… another great day.

Chris

Pictures Of The Day:

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Statistics:
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Chris: