Day 15: San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Today’s Highlights:

Our 92-mile ride today was the longest of this tour and included over 5100 feet of climbing.  However, it was a very enjoyable ride and the hours went by fast.  I guess we are getting well conditioned for this.

We left San Francisco at 8:00 this morning with low clouds shrouding the Golden Gate Bridge, but not obscuring our view of the shoreline, parks and neighborhoods.  It was cool, but an early climb around the northwest corner of the city warmed me right up.  We reached Ocean Beach after several miles and enjoyed another morning ride along the seashore.

The first half of the ride included a few big climbs, but nothing like we had in Oregon.  One was significant and offered nice views into the eastern valley behind us on the climb and then into another valley on the west side during the descent.  The ride down was great!  It was a steep, wide, winding highway, so we were able to keep some good speed all the way down.

We also rode several miles on a bike path that traversed reservoirs along the way.  It was not a flat rail trail, but instead was very winding and rolling through the woods, and just delightful.

The last 50 miles were mostly along the shore with no major hills, and we had a nice tailwind.  I enjoyed the scenery and the relatively easy ride.  The most interesting thing to me were several farms that seemed to extend to the edge of the bluffs above the ocean.  Generally the soil is very sandy this close to the ocean, but here it is quite fertile. We rode passed many strawberry farms, yum.

Chris and I reached the Santa Cruz town line a little after 3:00 pm, and the route wandered to a shoreline drive with very nice houses and a spectacular shoreline with colorful cliffs.  Surfing is obviously popular here, as we saw many practicing in the cold water.  We made a stop at a small lighthouse/museum, and then cruised slowly down the beach boulevard that had all the usual tourist attractions, plus a full amusement park.  We finally arrived at the hotel around 4pm.

Another Great Day
This really is a beautiful trip. And the weather has cooperated nicely. If only we had time to actually take a swim in this beautiful ocean. But it was a long ride today. In fact, it was my longest ride ever. Go me! I felt pretty good. I felt sluggish the last two rides, but I got my “Built 4 Speed” back on my bike and I felt fast again. Or maybe it was the rest day. Either way, I did shake the buzzards. Ever since our climb into Garberville there have been vultures circling overhead as I crest each hill. They were just waiting for me to keel over before I reach the top. But today there were only hawks overhead – lots of them. Much more auspicious.

We left our hearts, I mean some riders in San Francisco: Rick, and John & Barb – our two week riders – and Derek, Rick & Denise, and Alan & Cindy – our one week riders. I will miss you guys. You are way fun and I truly hope I get to ride with y’all again some time. We had three new rides join us for the last leg of the trip: Tim, Jim, and Leticia. We rode with Tim for a good stretch today – a very nice bloke from Manchester. Jim will be our new roommate for a most of the remaining nights (but not tonight). New friends and new adventures. Woohoo!!

Chris

Pictures Of The Day:

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Chris: