Day 4: Wide Open Spaces and Friendly Faces
Today we entered Big Sur. And what a beautiful beautiful day. With a 20 mph tail wind, and always very gentle ups and downs, we felt like we were flying towards our destination.
We forgot to do our morning yoga session this morning!! We packed up from camp pretty quickly, and as such left with out doing our yoga. We said bye to everyone we had met the night before, and rolled down the hill into town.
We had a recommendation from someone at the campsite to go to a certain cafe, but Mike spotted another one along the way, and we went there instead. Brittany asked about the history of the building, and it turned out it used to be a bakery, but then was turned into a general store. It just re-opened into a bakery! The food was absolutely delicious, and the people were super nice. They had a park/event space in the backyard, and we ended up there for our food.
After a lovely meal, Mike and Brittany went to the aquarium and Mark went to go get more fuel for the stove (I had little interest in the aquarium.) After time to explore the aquarium, and time for Mark to relax in the shade of a tree, we were ready to go!
The climb out of Monterey was uneventful, and nothing special. We passed many monetary’s along the way which all looked beautiful. Climbing out of Carmel we made it to point lobos. We did a brief circle there before continuing into Big Sur.
And that was beautiful!! It’s been super sunny all day, and with a 20mph tailwind, we made excellent time on the road. To our right was a continuous spectacle from MN. (Mother Nature). I wish the photo posting feature was working, because today the pictures are worth a lot more than the words today.
One of the highlights of today was Bixby Bridge. Bixby Bridge is this iconic old arch that supports highway 1 over a very deep ravine. (I believe Bixby creek). It’s amazing what civil engineers can build!
The biggest highlight of the day for me was the downhills. The hills were perfect, with very little need for brakes, and a fully loaded bike screaming down the hill. It was a blast. And the tailwind made the next uphill a breeze! (Pun intended). I would’ve bikes today over and over and over again.
When we made it to camp we saw David and Brett’s tent pitched!! So we were excited to see them there. We also knew that Fred and Aria were coming along behind us, so it should be a party in the camp tonight. Mike, Brittany, and I all wondered into the stream, and relaxed in the freezing cold water before showering and heading to dinner. Before we could, Brett and David showed up and said hi, and then Aria and Fred! So we got to say hi to all of them before going to shower.
For dinner, we went to the restaurant near the campground. Aria joined us for a drink, and we chatted about different experiences along the way. We picked up one more six pack for David and Brett, and headed back to camp to hang around the fire with them.
After a night of a lot of Ukulele and chatting (mostly about bikes) it was time to call it a night!
Tomorrow most people are going to Plaskett Ridge to camp. However, I want to go to Kirk Creek. A slightly more primitive site (no running water) but I hear it’s absolutely beautiful. Depending on the water situation we may or may not stay there.