San Francisco to Santa Cruz: Our last hurrah (part one)

Ben in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. 

The final (and much anticipated) leg of our trip involved cycling down the Californian coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles. This involved a big jump over all of Central America which we reluctantly decided to save for another trip as we were both eager to get a taste of the USA and cycle some of the Pacific Coast Route, which is meant to be one the best rides in the world.

San Francisco sure was hilly, but the views were worth it - Alcatraz from a typical street.

After a hugely stressful period of transit out of Colombia and into the USA which we detailed in an earlier post we were relieved to arrive in San Francisco with the bikes safely in one piece and find somewhere to stay relatively easily as we hadn't booked anything or even brought a map or guidebook. We didn't need one as it turns out, as San Francisco is awesome in every direction. Such a big change in scenery immediately recharged our enthusiasm for being tourists, which had waned towards the end of South America - we didn't take a single photo in four days in Bogota which was pretty terrible. We spent the first day just walking around sightseeing and our second riding our bikes over the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausilito and Marin County. The ride was only 50kms but it took us ages due to constant photo stops, then we got lost in Marin County trying to find the Redwood forest nearby. But then it was our own fault as we didn't take any maps. We stopped in for lunch at a cafe and then made a long overdue visit to a bike shop where Ben brought a new magnet for his speedo (lost 6 months ago) and an excellent cycling map of the greater San Francisco Area which held us in good stead until Santa Cruz. The USA Adventure Cycling Association publishes fantastic touring maps covering the whole country especially for cyclists that include camping areas and food places, but we couldn't get them as they have to be posted and we haven't had a mailbox for ages now. Our local map was better than any map we had ever cycled with before so we were confident that we'd be able to muddle through without too much trouble.

Riding on the bridge.

Our "muddle through" style came to the fore the following day when it came to leave San Francisco. After another great bagel in Chinatown (of all places) we headed off on a non-obvious route, through Haight Ashbury and the Golden Gate park, instead of the flat and well-marked trail around the bay. The hills were occasionally steep but the morning was brisk so it was okay and there was a alot of left-right-wait-no-maybe straight-no-left navigation. We stopped a few times for pictures and Anna looked around the De Young Museum on the way through. The wind on the coast side was fierce and progress was slow into Daly City. Fortunately there was a big mall/food court on the side of the road where we could shelter from the wind in KFC and stock up on some food in an Asian supermarket. Ben went in to brave is first American supermarket while Anna waited outside digging through her panniers for all her cold weather cycling gear that we thought we'd never need again. Once layered up the cycling improved and we carried on down the highway without too many problems. There was only one narrow stretch of road up over a hill that reminded us of some NZ roads, but we just plodded through it and the cars were generally aware and considerate. We pulled in that evening at the campground in Half Moon Bay, and upmarket seaside town about 60kms south of San Francisco. It was much, much colder than we had anticipated - we thought California was the home of Baywatch! This was more like Patagonia and down jackets and wollen hats had to be pulled out in the evening and morning. There was quite a few other cyclists in the "Hike and Bike" section which was something we hadn't seen since Patagonia and Ben spoke to Mark and Chip, our neighbours and on/off cycling buddies for the rest of the trip.

Typical seaside view south of San Francisco. It was chilly!

The next morning was freezing! We ate our porridge as fast as we could and set off bundled up like Antartic explorers. After making a hash of following the bike route out of town we eventually rejoined the main road and ran into Chip and Mark who wisely had eaten breakfast in a nice warn cafe in town. We cycled together at quite clip thanks to the tailwind, passing an old lighthouse, windsurfer people in the ocean and numerous cyclists out for their Sunday ride. At least two recomended the artichoke bread in a nearby town but it was at least 5 miles out of our way which was a bit too far just for bread. We ended up getting another bakery recomendation for a town that was bang on route, but a little further away. With the tailwind it was pretty easily reached and we tucked into some great sandwiches at about 1pm, a mere 2 hours after our porridge wore off. We had no one to blame but ourselves for making such a beginner mistake of not bringing snacks.

A cute lighthouse just off the main road

Ben and Chip watching the local 'dudes in action near Santa Cruz

An emergency fruit stop on the way to Santa Cruz.
Who can turn down cheap stone fruit?

After lunch the great cycling continued until Santa Cruz where we detoured from the signposted route to take the bike path along the coast, which was fantastic. We saw natural bridges, heaps of surfers out enjoying great waves and big crowds out on the beach watching them. We resisted temptation to ride the wooden rollercoaster in the boardwalk downtown but carried on around the bays to another beachside campground just south of the city. After consulting with the girl on the gate who assured us that there was some food outlets "just down the road" we were disappointed to find, 4 miles later, that they weren't as close as she seemed to think. Clearly not a cyclist. After over 100kms that day we weren't too impressed but settled town to our first tacos in North America with Chip and Mark before a quick supermarket shop on the way back. After our biggest day riding in umm, 6 weeks (gulp) we were dog tired and worried about our legs seizing up, but we were out to everything the moment our head hit our blowup pillows, not even hearing the racoons having some sort of party outside the tent.

Coastal Santa Cruz

Ben looking out over the Santa Cruz boardwalk. 

Mark and Chip were up early again to go and buy their breakfast so we ate our porridge with John, a local cyclist who had been biking up and down the coast all summer. He gave us some helpful tips on the road ahead including a potential headwind today (ugh) and that leaving Santa Cruz was pretty tricky with a roundabout route to avoid the freeway taking us out into the middle of nowhere for about an hour, which was correct. We went out past huge strawberry fields being harvested by Latino works. It looked like backbreaking work, but the whole area smelt like ripe strawberries which was amazing and made us hungry, we stopped and pigged out at the first farm stand we came across. Things were going well and it seemed like we would be in Monterey by lunchtime and maybe we could push further. We were so confident that we took a detour to see Castroville, artichoke capital of the world, even though neither of us have ever tried an artichoke. From Castroville the wind hit us head on, reducing our speed significantly but soon enough we were on a bike lane that took us right into town and we even got an escort from a local rider who rode across America in 1976 and said he often helped cyclists into town as a way of paying forward all the kindness people showed him during his trip - what a nice guy! He gave us a great commentary on the towns history and local personalities and showed us right to the campground, where we had decided to stay as the afternoon was getting on.

The campground was in the middle of town but up a massive hill which wasn't that much fun with sore legs from the day before. We pitched the tent and walked back to town as Anna refused to ride the bike another inch that day. We walked down and had some great burgers at a local place before stocking up properly at Trader Joes, our new favourite supermarket IN THE WHOLE WORLD. It would be a few days before we would be in a big town again.