Monterey, CA - Great rides??

I'll be in Monterey from the 29th to the 4th, bringing both car and
bike. My days will be free.

Anybody know any "must-do" rides near there? Nearer is better, but
I'd drive an hour if there's something worthwhile.

Don't mind hills at all. Perfectly willing to tackle something 50-75
miles.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions, or a link to a good site for that
area.

TIA,

Neil

Neil Brooks wrote in
:
Anybody know any "must-do" rides near there? Nearer is better, but
I'd drive an hour if there's something worthwhile.

http://www.cypressgroup.org/bs-map.htm

Ken wrote:

Neil Brooks wrote in
:
Anybody know any "must-do" rides near there? Nearer is better, but
I'd drive an hour if there's something worthwhile.

http://www.cypressgroup.org/bs-map.htm

WOW!

Probably breathtaking . . . but abour five months after my 4/29 - 5/4
trip.

Any ride organizers who put the words "hearty dinner" and "full buffet
breakfast" in bold font are ok with me.

.. . . could go back for that one....

Neil Brooks wrote in
news
http://www.cypressgroup.org/bs-map.htm

WOW!

Probably breathtaking . . . but abour five months after my 4/29 - 5/4
trip.

You have the map, so you can easily do all or part on your own. There aren't
many streets in that area, so you're not likely to get lost.

Ken wrote:

Neil Brooks wrote in
news
http://www.cypressgroup.org/bs-map.htm

WOW!

Probably breathtaking . . . but abour five months after my 4/29 - 5/4
trip.

You have the map, so you can easily do all or part on your own. There aren't
many streets in that area, so you're not likely to get lost.

I was thinking about that after I sent my reply (DUH!).

Saved it as a .jpg. It blows up fairly well, so it should be easy to
decipher.

Many thanks.

Neil Brooks writes:

I'll be in Monterey from the 29th to the 4th, bringing both car and
bike. My days will be free.

Anybody know any "must-do" rides near there? Nearer is better, but
I'd drive an hour if there's something worthwhile.

Don't mind hills at all. Perfectly willing to tackle something
50-75 miles.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions, or a link to a good site for
that area.

Nacimiento Spring Ride 06-07 Apr 04

John Woodfill and I loaded our bicycles and touring bags into the car
and headed south from Palo Alto on US101 to Salinas, from where we
took Main Street that turns into Monterey Rd (SR 68) south of town.
From here, on Laurels Grade (a steep road) we drove south to Carmel
Valley to the Blue Sky Motel and dinner. We had done this last year
and found the routine works well for this loop ride that is a bit long
to enjoy on one day.

http://tinyurl.com/bjkew
http://tinyurl.com/2n44x

Tuesday morning we left street clothes behind in the motel room that
we would return to in the evening and drove to the coast, heading
south on (SR 1) along the beautiful almost uninhabited and steep coast
past Big Sur and on to Lucia, where we parked the car to begin our
ride. We took the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road about a mile south of
Lucia into the mountains.

http://tinyurl.com/anvyv
http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/NacimientoRd.htm
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t18451.html

We chose the time because spring came early this year and without much
rain to keep the hills green, we were concerned about the wildflowers
that were plentiful last year. Just the same, we had clear skies, no
significant wind and cool temperatures. In fact, as we drove through
Big Sur, we noticed that the roofs of buildings were white with frost.

The climb up Nacimiento Road starts out steeply but soon becomes a
pleasant climb, especially in cool air. The steep meadows were rich
green with many wildflowers along the road. Columbine, shooting
stars, wild iris, blue and yellow ground and bush lupine, California
poppies, paint brush, indian warrior and many more, with the backdrop
of the deep blue Pacific where frothing surf and azure blue aerated
water surrounded huge rocks lying off shore as though some giant had
thrown them there eons ago.

http://www.beachcalifornia.com/bixby.html
http://www.beachcalifornia.com/bigcreek.html

We entered the edges of a redwood forest about a mile inland, passing
waterfalls in dark canyons under the trees where pale blue
forget-me-nots lined the road. Although we didn't see many birds, we
heard them warbling, black headed grosbeaks, wren tits, and tit mice
while overhead a red tailed hawk soared in slow motion circles. To
make up for that, we saw many blackbirds, scrub jays and steller's
jays.

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_...3202+4143+0078
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/...sotisscor.html

From the broad flat summit at Redwood Spring (2664ft), roads headed
north and south as we crossed to the east side of the divide into a
canyon with a completely different ecology along the rushing
Nacimiento River surrounded by steep hills of scrub brush above and
the shade of sycamores along the water.

The descent that began steeply, gradually leveled off as the canyon
opened toward the broad valley of the Hunter-Ligget military reserve.
Here a guard station with concrete road barriers and a mechanically
erectable metal wall marked the boundary. After identifying
ourselves, we were allowed to pass. We saw only two or three
cars on this impeccably paved road on the way to post HQ.

This wilderness area seems to no longer be used by the US Army, there
being no sign of vehicles, tank or tire tracks, on the unused dirt
roads that crossed our path. Although last year offered a flood of
wildflowers, this year we met only a few areas with a yellow carpet of
buttercups and lavender and blue lupine.

The whole region all the way from the coast has a type of century
plant, that seems to be agave sisalana, but I can't be sure, there
being hundreds of agave varieties. Some of them had bloomed others
were beginning to send up the flowering stalk. Only a few were in
bloom with yellow and white blossoms.

http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/35631/

As we rolled across large open fields, sparsely populated with white
oaks and a sycamore here and there, we spotted a coyote at a distance
and wondered whether we should report having seen a mountain lion as
we suspect is often the case. After crossing a small ridge we saw the
officers club on a knoll across the San Antonio valley, and chose to
use the bridge (that is off limits to tanks) and cross the richly
flowing San Antonio River.

Most of the roads have broad level concrete fords so that tanks can
cross, because building tank bridges is prohibitively expensive.
Riding through 3-4 inches of water is fun if you go slowly. The web
site above shows a M/C crossing one of these fords.

http://tinyurl.com/2oewy
http://tinyurl.com/32dym

We rode up the hill to the officer's club aka Hearst Hunting Lodge
(1100ft) for a good hamburger and large Coke before stopping at the PX
for a take-along soda, candy bar, and bananas for the wilderness ride
ahead.

http://www.pelicannetwork.net/hacienda.html

The San Antonio Mission, a remnant of the effort of the Spanish to
convert native Americans to domestic slaves... oh, I meant Christians,
was looking as lost as ever in the midst of this wilderness, the
nearest town being Jolon in the Salinas Valley.

We rode through the river, heading north on deserted Del Venturi Road
to The Indians (1773ft) at the upper end of the San Antonio River. At
Indian Ranger Station (2086ft), we crossed an inconspicuous divide
into the Arroyo Secco river, crossing the stream on a well maintained
ford as we left paved roads behind. Unfortunately, the road grader,
whom we met farther down, had just "shaped" the road so that it was so
loose in places that we had to walk, but as the road leveled off, we
could ride the two miles to Escondido Camp Ground, where the grader
had turned around.

http://tinyurl.com/25p45
http://tinyurl.com/2npda

From here Indians Road climbs out of the canyon, the narrows of Arroyo
Secco being impenetrable for a road without large expense and regular
maintenance. The climb was pleasant with good traction on this fairly
clean one lane road. The reason it is in good shape is that motor
vehicles can not get past a large rock slide at the summit and others
on the north slope.

As we reached the high plateau (2800ft) we noticed a pair of old MTB
tracks and a M/C track in what had been mud. At the north end of this
section the road begins to climb a little before reaching the large
rock slide. The rocks were easier to cross this time because some
good trail maker had made a track in the slide that lies at the angle
of repose that doesn't stop for nearly 400ft. We got on our bicycles
again after this 100ft portage, some of it steep, that ends under a
cliff with a spring that might come in handy in hot weather. The
slide is at the red cursor on the map at:

http://tinyurl.com/26toc

On the way up, I noted that we did not have to dismount for rocks on
the road but on the descent, we both volunteered to walk, having had
experience with slashed tires on other such rides. The view from this
road are spectacular and the remoteness amazing, so close to
civilization in the flatlands a few dozen miles away.

That there was almost no visible wildlife was striking on this trip.
Once over the cost climb, we didn't even hear any birds although we
saw blue birds, yellow billed magpies and acorn woodpeckers and an
occasional soaring turkey vulture that we hoped was a condor, but no
cigar.

We were back on smooth road as we got down to Lucia Creek (1000ft)
where there were two cars and a large camper bus that showed no signs
of recent human activity. We crossed the bridge and climbed over a
small rise along Arroyo Secco, a richly flowing river at this point.

http://tinyurl.com/2wh2k
http://tinyurl.com/yqa6u

Here at The Lakes Campground (945ft) we were again on pavement, the
last impassable rock slide being a short way above the camp. From
here is was a pleasant cruise to the junction (704ft) with Carmel
Valley Road, also known as Jamesburg Road at this end. Jamesburg Rd.
climbs gradually in woodsy sheltered curves along Paloma Creek. Just
the same, the afternoon wind got stronger and colder as we progressed.

http://tinyurl.com/36bot

The road changes name to Jamestown-Arroyo Secco Road at (1550ft) where
it also begins its climb to its summit (2384ft) over which it crosses
from Paloma Creek to Finch Creek watershed. This area was new to me
because last year we got delayed crossing Indians Road so much that we
ran out of daylight here, and with no moon at all. This year we were
a couple of hours earlier and besides, there was a full moon in the
event that we got delayed.

Today, the land was green and lovely but the wind was not kind as it
blew in our face descending Conejo Grade. It was cold enough that we
put on our jackets and I put up my hood before descending Ardilla
Grade along Tularcitos Creek. I was glad to have my thick doeskin
leather winter gloves on. We got back to our motel (400ft) (97 miles)
in good time, got a hot shower and a filling dinner before getting a
good night's sleep.

In the morning we stopped for breakfast at the corner grocery store
before retracing the route we drove by car the day before. Traffic on
Carmel Valley Rd. was regular commute traffic headed toward Carmel and
Monterey. Once we were on HWY 1 heading south along the coast,
traffic was light and mostly tourists.

That the route is far more interesting seen from the bicycle than from
the car was striking. We enjoyed the scenery immensely and were glad
to find that the weather was warmer than the day before as we
descended some of the longer grades around toward Bixby Creek with its
beautiful concrete arch bridge. We even had a tailwind most of the
way. We met three bicyclists heading north, somewhere south of Big
Sur, so heavily loaded that we could hardly see their bicycles.
Farther on we passed a couple heading south, but that was all we saw
of bicyclists.

We had an interesting incident at Point Sur Lighthouse where we had
noticed in the past that the great rock was open to visitors at 10:00
on Wednesdays (today). This was one of those days and a string of
about a dozen cars was making its way down the paved one lane road
toward the huge rock, so we climbed over the locked gate and followed.

http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/pointsur.html

The tour guide at the end of the column saw us, blocked the road with
his car, and informed us that bicyclists were not welcome and that the
tour was a closed hiking event that took three hours. In other words,
we could not ride our bicycles to the lighthouse. We were told return
another time, and by car.

After that event, we enjoyed the coast, sighting a pod of grey whales
by their white spouts over the deep blue waters heading north as they
usually do this time of year. In Lucia, we packed our bicycles into
the car and headed home, once again noticing how much nicer this route
looks from the bicycle.

The first day was 97 miles and about 6000ft of climb and the second
60 miles and about 1200ft of climb.
-------------------

Neil Brooks writes:

I'll be in Monterey from the 29th to the 4th, bringing both car and
bike. My days will be free.

Anybody know any "must-do" rides near there? Nearer is better, but
I'd drive an hour if there's something worthwhile.

Don't mind hills at all. Perfectly willing to tackle something
50-75 miles.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions, or a link to a good site for
that area.

Nacimiento Spring Ride 06-07 Apr 04

John Woodfill and I loaded our bicycles and touring bags into the car
and headed south from Palo Alto on US101 to Salinas, from where we
took Main Street that turns into Monterey Rd (SR 68) south of town.
From here, on Laurels Grade (a steep road) we drove south to Carmel
Valley to the Blue Sky Motel and dinner. We had done this last year
and found the routine works well for this loop ride that is a bit long
to enjoy on one day.

http://tinyurl.com/bjkew
http://tinyurl.com/2n44x

Tuesday morning we left street clothes behind in the motel room that
we would return to in the evening and drove to the coast, heading
south on (SR 1) along the beautiful almost uninhabited and steep coast
past Big Sur and on to Lucia, where we parked the car to begin our
ride. We took the Nacimiento-Ferguson Road about a mile south of
Lucia into the mountains.

http://tinyurl.com/anvyv
http://tinyurl.com/8cedh
http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/NacimientoRd.htm
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t18451.html

We chose the time because spring came early this year and without much
rain to keep the hills green, we were concerned about the wildflowers
that were plentiful last year. Just the same, we had clear skies, no
significant wind and cool temperatures. In fact, as we drove through
Big Sur, we noticed that the roofs of buildings were white with frost.

The climb up Nacimiento Road starts out steeply but soon becomes a
pleasant climb, especially in cool air. The steep meadows were rich
green with many wildflowers along the road. Columbine, shooting
stars, wild iris, blue and yellow ground and bush lupine, California
poppies, paint brush, indian warrior and many more, with the backdrop
of the deep blue Pacific where frothing surf and azure blue aerated
water surrounded huge rocks lying off shore as though some giant had
thrown them there eons ago.

http://www.beachcalifornia.com/bixby.html
http://www.beachcalifornia.com/bigcreek.html

We entered the edges of a redwood forest about a mile inland, passing
waterfalls in dark canyons under the trees where pale blue
forget-me-nots lined the road. Although we didn't see many birds, we
heard them warbling, black headed grosbeaks, wren tits, and tit mice
while overhead a red tailed hawk soared in slow motion circles. To
make up for that, we saw many blackbirds, scrub jays and steller's
jays.

http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_...3202+4143+0078
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/...sotisscor.html

From the broad flat summit at Redwood Spring (2664ft), roads headed
north and south as we crossed to the east side of the divide into a
canyon with a completely different ecology along the rushing
Nacimiento River surrounded by steep hills of scrub brush above and
the shade of sycamores along the water.

The descent that began steeply, gradually leveled off as the canyon
opened toward the broad valley of the Hunter-Ligget military reserve.
Here a guard station with concrete road barriers and a mechanically
erectable metal wall marked the boundary. After identifying
ourselves, we were allowed to pass. We saw only two or three
cars on this impeccably paved road on the way to post HQ.

This wilderness area seems to no longer be used by the US Army, there
being no sign of vehicles, tank or tire tracks, on the unused dirt
roads that crossed our path. Although last year offered a flood of
wildflowers, this year we met only a few areas with a yellow carpet of
buttercups and lavender and blue lupine.

The whole region all the way from the coast has a type of century
plant, that seems to be agave sisalana, but I can't be sure, there
being hundreds of agave varieties. Some of them had bloomed others
were beginning to send up the flowering stalk. Only a few were in
bloom with yellow and white blossoms.

http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/35631/

As we rolled across large open fields, sparsely populated with white
oaks and a sycamore here and there, we spotted a coyote at a distance
and wondered whether we should report having seen a mountain lion as
we suspect is often the case. After crossing a small ridge we saw the
officers club on a knoll across the San Antonio valley, and chose to
use the bridge (that is off limits to tanks) and cross the richly
flowing San Antonio River.

Most of the roads have broad level concrete fords so that tanks can
cross, because building tank bridges is prohibitively expensive.
Riding through 3-4 inches of water is fun if you go slowly. The web
site above shows a M/C crossing one of these fords.

http://tinyurl.com/2oewy
http://tinyurl.com/32dym

We rode up the hill to the officer's club aka Hearst Hunting Lodge
(1100ft) for a good hamburger and large Coke before stopping at the PX
for a take-along soda, candy bar, and bananas for the wilderness ride
ahead.

http://www.pelicannetwork.net/hacienda.html

The San Antonio Mission, a remnant of the effort of the Spanish to
convert native Americans to domestic slaves... oh, I meant Christians,
was looking as lost as ever in the midst of this wilderness, the
nearest town being Jolon in the Salinas Valley.

We rode through the river, heading north on deserted Del Venturi Road
to The Indians (1773ft) at the upper end of the San Antonio River. At
Indian Ranger Station (2086ft), we crossed an inconspicuous divide
into the Arroyo Secco river, crossing the stream on a well maintained
ford as we left paved roads behind. Unfortunately, the road grader,
whom we met farther down, had just "shaped" the road so that it was so
loose in places that we had to walk, but as the road leveled off, we
could ride the two miles to Escondido Camp Ground, where the grader
had turned around.

http://tinyurl.com/25p45
http://tinyurl.com/2npda

From here Indians Road climbs out of the canyon, the narrows of Arroyo
Secco being impenetrable for a road without large expense and regular
maintenance. The climb was pleasant with good traction on this fairly
clean one lane road. The reason it is in good shape is that motor
vehicles can not get past a large rock slide at the summit and others
on the north slope.

As we reached the high plateau (2800ft) we noticed a pair of old MTB
tracks and a M/C track in what had been mud. At the north end of this
section the road begins to climb a little before reaching the large
rock slide. The rocks were easier to cross this time because some
good trail maker had made a track in the slide that lies at the angle
of repose that doesn't stop for nearly 400ft. We got on our bicycles
again after this 100ft portage, some of it steep, that ends under a
cliff with a spring that might come in handy in hot weather. The
slide is at the red cursor on the map at:

http://tinyurl.com/26toc

On the way up, I noted that we did not have to dismount for rocks on
the road but on the descent, we both volunteered to walk, having had
experience with slashed tires on other such rides. The view from this
road are spectacular and the remoteness amazing, so close to
civilization in the flatlands a few dozen miles away.

That there was almost no visible wildlife was striking on this trip.
Once over the cost climb, we didn't even hear any birds although we
saw blue birds, yellow billed magpies and acorn woodpeckers and an
occasional soaring turkey vulture that we hoped was a condor, but no
cigar.

We were back on smooth road as we got down to Lucia Creek (1000ft)
where there were two cars and a large camper bus that showed no signs
of recent human activity. We crossed the bridge and climbed over a
small rise along Arroyo Secco, a richly flowing river at this point.

http://tinyurl.com/2wh2k
http://tinyurl.com/yqa6u

Here at The Lakes Campground (945ft) we were again on pavement, the
last impassable rock slide being a short way above the camp. From
here is was a pleasant cruise to the junction (704ft) with Carmel
Valley Road, also known as Jamesburg Road at this end. Jamesburg Rd.
climbs gradually in woodsy sheltered curves along Paloma Creek. Just
the same, the afternoon wind got stronger and colder as we progressed.

http://tinyurl.com/36bot

The road changes name to Jamestown-Arroyo Secco Road at (1550ft) where
it also begins its climb to its summit (2384ft) over which it crosses
from Paloma Creek to Finch Creek watershed. This area was new to me
because last year we got delayed crossing Indians Road so much that we
ran out of daylight here, and with no moon at all. This year we were
a couple of hours earlier and besides, there was a full moon in the
event that we got delayed.

Today, the land was green and lovely but the wind was not kind as it
blew in our face descending Conejo Grade. It was cold enough that we
put on our jackets and I put up my hood before descending Ardilla
Grade along Tularcitos Creek. I was glad to have my thick doeskin
leather winter gloves on. We got back to our motel (400ft) (97 miles)
in good time, got a hot shower and a filling dinner before getting a
good night's sleep.

In the morning we stopped for breakfast at the corner grocery store
before retracing the route we drove by car the day before. Traffic on
Carmel Valley Rd. was regular commute traffic headed toward Carmel and
Monterey. Once we were on HWY 1 heading south along the coast,
traffic was light and mostly tourists.

That the route is far more interesting seen from the bicycle than from
the car was striking. We enjoyed the scenery immensely and were glad
to find that the weather was warmer than the day before as we
descended some of the longer grades around toward Bixby Creek with its
beautiful concrete arch bridge. We even had a tailwind most of the
way. We met three bicyclists heading north, somewhere south of Big
Sur, so heavily loaded that we could hardly see their bicycles.
Farther on we passed a couple heading south, but that was all we saw
of bicyclists.

We had an interesting incident at Point Sur Lighthouse where we had
noticed in the past that the great rock was open to visitors at 10:00
on Wednesdays (today). This was one of those days and a string of
about a dozen cars was making its way down the paved one lane road
toward the huge rock, so we climbed over the locked gate and followed.

http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/pointsur.html

The tour guide at the end of the column saw us, blocked the road with
his car, and informed us that bicyclists were not welcome and that the
tour was a closed hiking event that took three hours. In other words,
we could not ride our bicycles to the lighthouse. We were told return
another time, and by car.

After that event, we enjoyed the coast, sighting a pod of grey whales
by their white spouts over the deep blue waters heading north as they
usually do this time of year. In Lucia, we packed our bicycles into
the car and headed home, once again noticing how much nicer this route
looks from the bicycle.

The first day was 97 miles and about 6000ft of climb and the second
60 miles and about 1200ft of climb.
-------------------

Try vcmonterey.org for local velo club. Meets at 7:00 at the Portola
Plaza Hotel (old Doubletree) by Fisherman's Wharf. Does a 40 +/- miler
into Pebble Beach. Breaks into a couple of groups. Another group
meets at 8:00 at the Pacific Grove Movie Theater for the same Pebble
Beach route. Slower, no drop pace. On your own in Pebble Beach is
good--some hills--follow 17 mile drive--or better yet, flag down a
local--look for velo club monterey. Another option is to park at the
Crossroads and go east on Carmel Valley Road. Some nice climbs, wide
road and after you get past Carmel Village there is light traffic. The
Cypress group map for Big Sur ride and Sea Otter Classic shows good
routes in Ft Ord. Closed army base--real good road rides. The Cypress
map also shows the Carmel Valley route. Stay away from south bound
highway 1. Narrow, beautiful views but lots of tourist traffic that
aren't looking for bikes. Drive your car south.

Enjoy your time on the peninsula.

Anybody know any "must-do" rides near there? Nearer is better, but
I'd drive an hour if there's something worthwhile.

I'd suggest doing 17 Mile Drive through Pebble Beach, starting
from Pacific Grove.

Another good area is Carmel Valley Rd, headed east from
Carmel. If you like hills, Laureles Grade from Carmel Valley
Rd to Hwy 68 has a nice 10% grade.

The bike down to Big Sur on Hwy 1 has lots of nice scenery, but
it can be very windy.

Local bike stores will have the "Krebs Map", which shows
bikeable routes in Monterey, San Jose, Santa Cruz, etc.
Try Aquarian Cycles or Josselyn's in downtown Monterey.

Heck, if you want company, I'm up for a ride on Saturday,
the 30th.

Hope this helps.

-- Paul

"Paul A. Steckler" wrote:

Heck, if you want company, I'm up for a ride on Saturday,
the 30th.

I'll take some of that action!

Look for an e-mail from me. Guided tours are so much easier for me to
follow than 8pt font, turn-by-turn directions taped to my stem.... ;-)