It appears that everyone I met in the cycling community here in SF at some point or another has ridden, or is at least planning to ride, to Santa Barbara. So this ride was on my list, but I was always concerned about cost and time. This last week everything seemed to come together, Daniel was planning to drive up from SB and I thus had the return logistics nailed. As for getting there on a budget I thought I would just try to ride it in 2 days, ie. with one night of accommodation along the route. I hadn't been able to find a blog or blurp on Google giving me any cues as how to do that. So here is my itinerary:
Day 1: SF to San Simeon: http://app.strava.com/rides/15097177
Day 2: San Simeon to Santa Barbara: http://app.strava.com/rides/15096565
The ride setup was simple:
- Felt B2R TT bike
- 1 pair of shorts
- 1 M2 bike jersey
- 1 set of arm warmers (not used)
- 1 vest (used)
- bright LED headlight and red tail light (SMART!!!)
- 2 spares, 1 patchkit, 3 CO2, toolkit (next time will include a pump)
- old boxers, old T-shirt, sample toothpaste, toothbrush and deodorant (discarded after night 1)
- Cell phone, Garmin + chargers
- Camera (with corrupt chip, so no pictures)
- rudimentary directions
- 7 Cliff bars, 5 GU gels, 3 waterbottles
The plan (!) was to ride 200 miles to San Simeon, crash at the Motel6 there, and finish it off day 2. As it turns out a second look at the distance would have been advisable, as it actually is almost 250 miles to San Simeon. OK, that includes a scenic ride along 17mile drive in Carmel, which was completely unnecessary, but it happened.
Day 1:
Usual fog from SF to about Santa Cruz, where I blew the first tire due to a small staple in my front tire (I like it though when you can identify the culprit). This section of the ride is beautiful as always, but also very familiar. Stocked up CO2 and inner tube in Aptos and grabbed fluids and a bagel+Muffin at local Safeway. Santa Cruz to Monterey is really nothing exciting and it seems like you are just logging the miles. If I were to do this again, I would find a better route through Monterey, somehow I ended up doing needless climbs and eventually did the 17mile drive loop to Carmel, because I didn't want to end up on what seemed a busy HWY1. As it turns out I just did one wrong turn, which cost me several miles, hey but it was beautiful. Refuel stop in Carmel with Gatorade, nut mix and a Starbucks coffee shot (best thing ever). Then began the most beautiful, jaw-dropping section along HWY1 through Big Sur!
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| Big Sur |
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| Really? 90 more miles? |
That section really is what makes this ride what it is. Along the route I realized that my estimated distance was way off, but I couldn't determine an ETA due to lack of cell signal ... so I saw daylight, dawn, sunset, nightfall and stars. Yes I saw it all along this most beautiful section of the route! Luckily I had my lights. I finally reached the pre-reserved the Motel6 just before 10PM (left my house at 6.11AM). Unfortunately every place to eat was closed (except the liquor store - actual suggestion by the front desk), so I raided the vending machine, took a shower, sent some quick 'I am OK' emails and hit the mattress.
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| Recovery Meal |
Day 2:
Was hoping to catch some breakfast, but the restaurant didn't open at 7AM as promised and I wanted to hit the road, so had another $5 worth of vending machine stuff and off I went. The section between San Simeon and SLO is OK, but it was foggy and Morro Bay was a dark spot since I hit a metal piece ripping a hole my front tire ... the old dollar bill trick did the temporary fix and another coffee + bagel stop in SLO was well deserved. I wanted to replace the tire, but the bike shops weren't open yet. So I continued. More of the same along the highway riding past the Vandenberg AFB, finally hitting Lompoc for a super delicious sandwich at Subways, combine that with a smoothie and you are golden. After Lompoc my dollar bill fix needed a second look, blowing my last tube ... this time I added a GU wrapper and quadrupled the dollar bill. This seems to be a solid solution (as of today). The ride from Lompoc to where you meet the 101 along the coast is very nice, just along a cool canyon (that actually is somewhat hot). You merge onto the 101 at Gaviota State Park. At this point I just wanted to get to SB and riding on the shoulder didn't seem so bothersome, especially since was the first time in 2 days that I had a tailwind ;-) I think you could potentially make this more scenic and with less traffic by doing something through Solvang and HWY154, but I won't try this anytime soon. At around 5PM I rolled into Santa Barbara! Almost 150 miles on day 2. Called Daniel and went straight for some FroYo!
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| FroYo! |
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| Santa Barbara |
Take home:
- Big Sur area is the most beautiful section along this entire ride
- You can burn over 10.000 calories in a day
- If your recovery food is catered by a vending machine you won't push big numbers the next day
- You can ride from SF to SB on about $120 and in two days (excluding return cost)
Until the next big adventure ...
