Made it into BIG SUR today!
We continued on a bike path for a while through Marina/Sand City... We got passed by a big group of riders from Team Bissel (probably warming up for the road race that day). Since it was a nice warm day- a snake had decided to warm up I guess by laying in the middle of the path, which slowed us down while we waited for him to move on. I had no idea what kind of snake it was so we didn't want to take a chance! Turns out another cyclists riding behind us had seen the same snake too.
Leaving Carmel we had a very steep/long climb, made worse by the warm weather we aren't used to. But after leaving Carmel Highlands we were into Big Sur- the houses here are down right amazing, but I"m sure cost millions!
Since it was Friday afternoon before an unseasonably warm weekend, everyone was out. There was way too much traffic for us to really enjoy too much, espically combined with the cross winds we were hitting at times and the sections with out shoulder.
We did finally get to Andew Molera Statepark where we planned on camping. Well, turns out that all the sites were full. Althouh our map says there are hiker/biker sites (which if theya re full they just let you share a site since they charge per person)- there weren't. On top of that- no dogs allowed! Just because its a .3 mile trail to the camp from the parking lot- and dogs arent' allowed on the trail. I couldn't believe it! I even just looked up this campsite online and didn't see a thing about no dogs!
While we were calling the other campsites down the road (which we didn't want to go to b/c of the late afternoon traffic, and they are expensive private sites)- a nice guy came by and offered to share his site. Nice- but still had the dog issue. Well none of the other camp sites had openings- so after a while the lady at the registration booth finally said that she'd let us stay and predend she didn't see anything - just meant we had to leave early in the morning and keep the dog in the tent untill dark.
We went back up the road a bit so we could take the fire road to the campsite to avoid going up the stairs on the trail...where we quickly set up the tent and threw the dog in.
It turned out to work out really well- I just which we could've stayed at this site through the weekend instead of having to move on!
Another campsite near us had also offered up their site to two touring cyclists who needed a site but it was already full-- and later while we were there yet another cyclist came though and shared with us. Thanks to Ben for the site- and David and Jim for sharing your warm fire!
Over Cook's shoulder
Little sandy eh?
Mmmm pnut butter!
Hilarious car at grocery store parking lot. If you know Bianchi bikes- this is the car Mr. Bianchi would have! Celeste green and bad paint scheme and all..... :)
Curvy roads ahead...
Yum fresh berries!
Bixby bridge! The highest bridge in California- built in the 30's like many of the bridges/road in this area. The view from it is awesome - a stream passes under with lots of rocks and greenery..but with minimal shoulder no pictures could be taken right there
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