pacific coast bike ride

Next spring break (end of March 07) i plan on biking from san francisco
down to san luis obispo (where i go to school), probably in 5-6 days.
I have a Felt SR81, and will be getting some panniers.
Do you guys have any advice, or is there anything i should know before
going?

wrote:
Next spring break (end of March 07) i plan on biking from san francisco
down to san luis obispo (where i go to school), probably in 5-6 days.
I have a Felt SR81, and will be getting some panniers.
Do you guys have any advice, or is there anything i should know before
going?

This is a relatively well-travelled route. Check out the archives for
this NG, get the Adventure Cycling maps for the route, and/or check out
the Lonely Planet guide for the Pacific Coast or "Bicycling The Pacific
Coast: A Complete Route Guide, Canada To Mexico" by Spring and
Kirkendall. The latter two guides have more than sufficient
information.

One piece of advice: keep a close eye on the weather and check with
CalTrans on road status. The most popular route down the coast, Hwy 1,
can be blocked by slides in places during that time frame. Otherwise,
late March (if not too rainy) should be a great time to travel the
coast.

- rick

I have made this ride several times. It is a great ride. It is not as
good south of SLO.

While it is natural to start from San Francisco, be aware that Highway
1 from Pacifica to Montera goes through Devil's Slide, which is narrow,
without shoulders, and lots of car traffic. It is the worse section of
the SF to SLO ride. I always start south of Devil's Slide, in Montera
(I live in SF and getting a ride there is easy for me). I would
recommend riding no further south that Pacifica and then getting a taxi
past Devil's Slide to Montera. It is only a couple of miles and avoids
a nasty section of road.

I have posted a journal of my first ride south (Montera to Laguna
Beach) he http://www.myfacilitate.net/ray/sf2labiketrip/

Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Ray

wrote:
Next spring break (end of March 07) i plan on biking from san francisco
down to san luis obispo (where i go to school), probably in 5-6 days.
I have a Felt SR81, and will be getting some panniers.
Do you guys have any advice, or is there anything i should know before
going?

Thanks for the replies so far.
I plan on buying the adventure cycling maps maps and the Spring and
Kirkendall book.
I think I'm just going to expect it to rain, but that is a great idea
about contacting CalTrans first.
Once i get the maps and book, I'll see what my best option would be for
avoiding Devil's Slide. I posted San Fran as just a general start
point. I will be taking Amtrak (bus probably) up north to start my
trip, so my beginning point basically is decided by where the bus goes.

wrote:
Thanks for the replies so far.
I plan on buying the adventure cycling maps maps and the Spring and
Kirkendall book.
I think I'm just going to expect it to rain, but that is a great idea
about contacting CalTrans first.
Once i get the maps and book, I'll see what my best option would be for
avoiding Devil's Slide. I posted San Fran as just a general start
point. I will be taking Amtrak (bus probably) up north to start my
trip, so my beginning point basically is decided by where the bus goes.

Devils Slide: Hwy 1 in the slide area is not the only option. There
is the old road that goes onto Montara Mountain (some cyclists used it
to get around the slide area during the closure this past
spring/summer). You can also head up onto Hwy 35 to 92 and back down.


Amtrak: You did not say where you were starting from. But the Amtrak
train goes to San Jose then east bay to Oakland/Emeryville. Not sure
about the buses. Anyway, do not be constrained by the Amtrak terminus.
From the east bay you can take BART to SF for a start, or from San
Jose you can take CalTrain to SF.

- rick

wrote:
Next spring break (end of March 07) i plan on biking from san francisco
down to san luis obispo (where i go to school), probably in 5-6 days.
I have a Felt SR81, and will be getting some panniers.
Do you guys have any advice, or is there anything i should know before
going?

Did that, back in 1997! Great ride. You are one the part with the
most hills. It gets flatter south of San Luis Obispo.

http://www.neiu.edu/%7Erkastiga/bike/sf2la.htm

On another trip, I took Amtrak, from Oregon, to San Luis Obispo. One
of the few stations that can handle checked luggage, and allows you to
put your bike in a box and take it with you on the train.

--
Bob Kastigar;
Home: http://www.neiu.edu/~rkastiga Work: http://www.wgntv.com
School: http://www.neiu.edu Play: http://www.neiu.edu/~stagectr
Conscience: http://www.neiu.edu/~gcgroup/
Union: http://www.ibew1220.org (Chicago, IL USA)

"Sweet Old Bob" (or just the initials)

I just did this ride (SF to SLO) with a friend as a 3 day ride stating
on Labor Day. (Technically we started in Daly City rather than SF, but
that is the next town south of the city.) We both live in different
parts of the Bay Area so took public transportation to Daly City and
started the ride from there. It is a great ride and one I've done
several times in the past.

Weather wise we had mostly tailwinds and considerable fog in the
morning. The first two days the fog burned off by mid or late morning,
but it was more persistent the last day of the trip.

This was a credit card trip - hotels and restaurants, so we only needed
to carry some clothes. We both had seat post bolt on style racks and
carried a rack pack with our gear. At the end of the trip in SLO we
rented a car and drove back to the Bay Area.

We generally were on SR-1, but were able to take other roads from Santa
Cruz to Carmel (these are on the Bikecentenial route).

Our itinerary was:

Day 1 - Daly City to Santa Cruz (75 miles, 4000 feet of climbing) We
rode over Devil's Slide with no problems.

Day 2 - Santa Cruz to Big Sur (95 miles, 4000 feet of climbing)

Day 3 - Big Sur to SLO (112 miles, 6300 feet of climbing)

If I were doing a 5 day trip I would probably still try to make it to
Santa Cruz the first day, stay in Monterey the second, Big Sur the
third, and Cambria the fourth. I would then be able to get to SLO on
the fifth day in time to catch the train (which wouldn't be an issue
for you since you go to school in SLO). If I had a sixth day I would
likely either spend it in Monterey (and visit the aquarium and other
sights) or the San Simeon/Cambria area and tour Hearst Castle.

I've posted some of my pictures (and elevation profiles from my GPS)
at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jefforum

(I had hoped to post more pictures from Day 3 as that section is quite
scenic, but the fog that day blocked most of the view.)

I hope you do manage to do this ride. It is some of the most
spectacular coastline in the world.

If you get a chance to see Hwy 1 up farther, you may want to start up around Jenner, north of S.F. is spectacular.

Caltrans has number in phonebook which always has the current road closing announcements.

someone writes:

If you get a chance to see Hwy 1 up farther, you may want to start
up around Jenner, north of S.F. is spectacular.

CalTrans has number in phone book which always has the current road
closing announcements.

You can also find that in the CalTrans web site:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi

Jobst Brandt

Thanks again for all of the advice.
I now have another question. I have a friend who is thinking about
coming with me, but her bike probably won't be able to make the trip.
Would it be worth finding an old 10 speed and maybe upgrading the
components? She doesn't want to spend more than $250.