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| Date | Starting Place | Ending Place | Author | Last Update |
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| 04-15-04 |
Oceano, California, United States |
El Capitan State Beach, California, United States |
ray | 02-27-09 12:21:09 |
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I woke up quite early. The sun was just coming up and the campground was quiet. After lolling about in my tent to see if I had any more sleep in me, I got up and out early. I rode back to Highway 1 and started looking for a place to eat breakfast. Oceano is the poor side of Pismo Beach and has the look of a town with low rents and marginal businesses. Nothing was open this early in the morning. In either case, I didn't see any place to eat anyway. After about a mile of run-down buildings, I was out in the fields to the south of Oceano. About 3 miles from the campground, the route heads up a short, steep, leg-burner of a hill that is the exit point of the Pismo Beach coastal plain. By the time I crested this hill, I was hungry. I stopped at a coffee place at the first commercial intersection I came too. I ate a bagel, some cream cheese, and had some coffee. A fellow I met there told me to be careful as the next section of road is full of dangerous drivers. The route went through an area of unkempt houses and horse stables. The main view was lots of weeds and dirt. The road was straight with rolling hills. Eventually, I turned onto Guadalupe road and the view turned increasingly agricultural.  As the picture shows, the weather was clear and the valley was ringing with green hills. According to the map, Guadalupe was 10.5 miles from Oceano. Guadalupe is a reasonable sized town where virtually all the business signs are in spanish. I stopped at a small store and had a breakfast of 2 bananas and 2 apples. I also noticed that my pants had a split seam in the front that needed to be sewn before I stated hanging out. Between eating the fruits, I got out my sewing kit and did some very amateur stitching. All in all, I spent about an hour in Guadalupe. Outside of Guadalupe, the road gets flat and deserted. Here is a look down the road back toward Guadalupe.  Here is a look up the road.  While the road was flat for a long while, I didn't like the look of those hills in the distance. While I was stopped to put on some sun block, one of the men who shared the campground at Oceano pulled up and we rode together for several miles. The road went from two lane road to four lane expressway during this time. It turns out that the group this guy was part of was a Sierra Club bike trip. He lived in LA and this was a chance to get out and ride. Their original plan was to ride up to Monterey, via the inland route, on to Big Sur and then back to Lompoc, where their cars were. However, the same rain that I was concerned about, forced them to change their plan and they ended up doing a loop in the San Simeon - Oceano area. It was nice to be riding with someone and shooting the bicycle breeze. He was pulling a trailer and we talked about the differences between using panniers and a trailer. We talked about his work experience (engineer) and his biking history. He decided to wait for his group at a main turn off on the road and I kept going. The road narrowed and had much less traffic after the turn-off and the road was rough and needed maintenance. Clearly, the paving contract stopped at the main turn-off. About 3 miles later, I came to Harris Grade Road, which was part of my route. I didn't like the name of this road and I didn't like the view.  Harris Grade Road was a two-lane road that twisted and turned its way to Lompoc. It was a low-gear grind up a winding highway in the heat of the day. Here's one turn that I stopped to take a rest on.  Eventually, I chugged up to the top. Here is the last bit of the uphill, seen from the top.  Here's the view from the top looking down into Lompoc and Vandenberg AFB. It was very windy up here and I didn't feel all that comfortable descending with a strong side wind.  While I was climbing, I had noticed that I was being followed by two cyclists. I figured it was Dave and Toni and that they would soon catch me. We met at the top, while I rested and at an energy bar. We talked for a brief while and then I pushed off a bit a head of them. It was a nice downhill coast for several miles. The road often curved with the shoulder perched right on the end of the cliff. I kept my speed down and the wind was blowing me around pretty good. After the main downhill section, the road flattened out and went through scrub for several miles, This continued up to the newly developed outskirts of Lompoc. I stopped to get a new earplug for my tape recorders, while Dave and Toni stopped to get some cash. We road together through this fresh part of town. We were both looking for a place to eat. As usual, I wanted Chinese food. They were looking for an inexpensive Mexican place. I asked a guy working on the road to recommend a Chinese place and he suggested a place in downtown that I would ride right by. As Dave and Toni were going to follow a different route to Santa Barbara, I wouldn't see them again. We said our goodbyes as they pulled into their restaurant, and I kept going to mine. The place I had been directed to was a 1950's diner that served Chinese food. It was empty and I was the only customer. While these were ominous signs, I decided to eat there anyway. I ordered two dishes off the menu and the food was the worst I had in the entire trip. The sauces were tasteless, the tofu was unflavored and soft, and the vegetables were overcooked. I ate all I could and then pushed off. Downtown Lompoc had a 1950's feel to it. The building had older facades that were well kept, for the most part. The trees lining the sidewalks were mature and the entire place had a nostalgic feel. The town quickly dissipated as I started out of town. Since this would be my last town before my evening camp, I wanted to find a store to buy some fruit and other food for dinner. However, there wasn't anything around, and I ended up at a small Mexican grocery store that had a very small fresh fruit stand. I got some oranges and was on my way. I knew from my maps that the road out of Lompoc was a gradual 15 mile climb over the coastal hllls north of Santa Barbara. The grade look gradual and I wasn't too worried about it. As it turned out, not only was the grade was gradual but the views were terrific. As soon as I turned off the main road, I saw this yellow hillside. It was striking in the full sun.  This is the previous view looking "up" the road. It is hard to see in this picture but the hillside was alive with color.  A bit further on, I saw another "yellow" hill and I couldn't resist taking its picture, as well.  As the road started climbing, the hills on one side of the road gave way to this stunning view.  This photo show the almost constant view on this road. I could have taken dozens of photos just like this one. It was sunny, I had the wind to my back, and was surrounded by rolling hills covered with dark green trees.  Some of the fields had cows who always looked up as I called to them. This 13.5 mile climb was one of the unexpected jewels of the entire ride. This photo was taken near the summit. I just couldn't get enough of these pretty green views.  At 4pm, I finally reached the top of the climb and saw this sign. I felt ready for a 2 mile, 7% downgrade.  It wasn't until I was on the other side of the ridge that I saw that it was 2 miles straight down.  Between my 180 pounds and the extra 45 in gear, I'm sure I could have reached 50 mph or even higher. However, with a wind behind me and not completely flat road shoulder, I didn't want to bomb down the hill (on my face). Instead, I tried to keep it around 40 and still rode my brakes almost all the way down the entire way. It was scary and exhilarating at the same time. At the bottom of this run, the road empties into 101 and I rode on the shoulder, downhill, next to speeding cars for about 2 miles to a rest stop, where I took a break and had a few bars. I was now getting tired and was looking forward to finding a place to stop. I continued out of the rest stop, still on 101, and followed it down to where Gaviota State Beach was. After looking it over, I decided to press on to the next coastal state beach, Refugio. This turned out to be a bad move. First, I was riding on the shoulder of 101, a few feet from semis going full speed. The wind was coming off the ocean and a right angle to my bike and the combination of natural wind and follow on from the semis made the riding a bit tricky. I noticed that I gained a full half mile per hour when a semi with two trailers passed me! The 10 miles to Refugio used up the last bit of energy my legs had. When I arrived, the closed ranger station had a notice informing me that the hiker/biker site was closed. This was not good news. Luckily, El Capitan State Beach was just 2 miles down the way and they were connected with a bike path. The bike path snaked up and down and each uphill was harder to get up. I rode the length of the campground, only to discover that the hiker/biker site was at the extreme north end of the park. I had to backtrack about a mile, going up the parts I had coasted down on the way there. I finally reached what I decided was the hiker/biker site as it wasn't marked. After 79 miles, I finally got off the bike and set up camp.  As you can see, I was tucked under some trees. El Capitan is right up against the ocean and just on the other side of the trees is a cliff down to the ocean. Here's the view looking up toward Refugio State Beach just 10 feet from my tent.  I took a shower and as there was no restaurant within 20 miles, took out all the food I had and started eating. I managed to consume rice cakes and about 3/4 pound of nut mix. After watching the sun go down, I hit the sack. Three hours later, I was shocked awake by the screech of a horn and the sound of a train passing within 200 feet of where I was trying to sleep. I would come to find out that a train comes by the campground every three hours throughout the night. The second train of the evening didn't blow its horn, at least. |
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