KC and I did a really long ride yesterday. We got a bit of a late start and nearly ran out of daylight, so we didn’t finish by taking G16 back up to Carmel and used a little more of US 101 than we wanted. In all the ride over from the PCH (Hwy 1) through the military reserve to Jolon was little more than a well paved goat trail, but it was fantastic fun. Click on the map image to see the KML file loaded in Google Maps. More photos (not many) at Flickr.
I highly recommend the ride down the coast and then up & over on Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd. Some photos at Flickr, but to be honest, we were enjoying ourselves a little too much to stop and take photos. The ride up from the coast got terribly hot in a hurry and we zipped along the base as quickly as possible to make sure we got a little ‘man-made breeze’.
We ran out of daylight — or were going to, if we took Carmel Valley Rd back to the coast, so we ended up taking CA-183 across to Castroville to save around 30 minutes. In the end we got home just as the sun set, so it was the right choice.
In all, an excellent day out. We are planning another ride north from home for Monday.
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I couldn’t resist. In an effort to ferret out the midrange demons that KC’s monster seems to have I went for a fairly long ride.
CA 9 from Santa Cruz to CA-35 (Skyline). North on 35 to Alice’s Restaurant in Woodside. (drink). West on ca 84 to the CA-1. North to Half Moon Bay (at half-noon). CA-92 east to Skyline again, CA-35 south to CA-9 , CA down to Saratoga, u-turn back up to 4 corners, 35 to black road to CA-17 at bear creek road. Old San Jose to summit road to the San Jose Soquel road to Soquel Dr into Santa Cruz. Home.
Almost 150 miles of twisty bliss. Photo at Half Moon Bay.
Today I am headed to Hollister CA to pick up KC’s bike. I’ve decided to use public transit and my thumb to cross over the pass behind Watsonville. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll update this as I progress.
My first ride was a couple Wastonville-local workers (framers) that picked me up just opposite a large berry farm (Pickt Rite?). The driver was keen to chat but his passenger didn’t speak very much English. He just smiled and nodded a lot. These guys were great and took me all the way over CA-129, up US-101 to CA-25 (which descends into Hollister effectively passing the airport (and therefore Corbin).
Once I walked a mile or so along CA-25, a guy (Mike) in a pick-up truck pulled over. He’s a dirt bike racer who lives in Morgan Hills, and was headed to the Honda shop to pick up some parts for his CR.
He even detoured around the airport so I didn’t have to walk very far at all — a quick hole in the fence and I was right at the Corbin building.
Sadly, I took too long hitch-hiking to connect with the folks in R&D, but KC’s bike was sitting in the show room, ready to go.
The seat looks fantastic and they did a great job. I have a quick photo I snapped of the seat here, but I’ll post something a little more professional when I get a chance. Apparently Corbin will put it up on their web site once they have a chance to edit the photos they shot.
5 hrs to get from Santa Cruz to Hollister, 45 minutes to return home. A tad asymmetric.
Yeah! We’re a two bike family again.
From Project Gutenberg
[Which is, of course just a copy of the 11th Ed. of Encyclopaedia Britannica]
CALGARY, the oldest city in the province of Alberta. Pop. (1901) 4091;
(1907) 21,112. It is situated in 114 deg. 15′ W., and 51 deg. 41/2′ N., on the Bow
river, which flows with its crystal waters from the pass in the Rocky
Mountains, by which the main line of the Canadian Pacific railway crosses
the Rocky Mountains. The pass proper–Kananaskis–penetrates the mountains
beginning 40 m. west of Calgary, and the well-known watering-place, Banff,
lies 81 m. west of it, in the Canadian national park. The streets are wide
and laid out on a rectangular system. The buildings are largely of stone,
the building stone used being the brown Laramie sandstone found in the
valley of the Bow river in the neighbourhood of the city. Calgary is an
important point on the Canadian Pacific railway, which has a general
superintendent resident here. It is an important centre of wholesale
dealers, and also of industrial establishments. Calgary is near the site of
Fort La Jonquiere founded by the French in 1752. Old Bow fort was a trading
post for many years though now in ruins. The present city was created by
the building of the Canadian Pacific railway about 1883.
I found that rather enlightening AND amusing. Oh how far Calgary has come….
Nothing like a little pre-Great War perspective to put a spin on your weekend.
