Ride day three

I left Santa Cruz early this morning. After a ride for an hour along Soquel Drive I stopped for a big breakfast at a little cafe. Good food. I bought some cookies to take along on the ride.

I jumped on a bike route shortly after breakfast and followed that path all day. In some spots it was unused old roads but in other spots it was made for a bike route and ran along highway 1. For most of the morning I was riding though cities with tree lined paths and not much views. Then the trail dipped down to the beach. I have learned that on my bike, what goes down always comes up.

I had a short grade leaving the beach. Lots of strawberry fields and artichokes. A few other item were growing here and there but not much else. The trail flattened out after a small grade and for a couple of hours I just had the fields for company. I helped a guy that had bike trouble on the road and got hime running again. Maybe the karma will pay off for me somewhere along the road.

When I arrived at Marina I was going to spend the night there but changed my mind and continued on to Monterey. It was all dedicated bike paths. In Monterey I found my campgrounds at the Veterans Memorial Park and set up my tent for the next couple of nights. The campground is almost at the top of Carmel grade so everytime I go to town I need to climb back up to the campgrounds. Yesterday that ride was the worst part of the entire day. I was so tired I had to stop very often and even walked the bike in a few of the steeper sections. I am able to walk the bike but I always pay a price in pain later on and lst night was no exception. I had high pain all night but by morning it was better. I am just very tired and sore now. So one more night of rest here in Monterey will not bother me at all since rain is also predicted for tomorrow. I do not want to ride the big grades in the rain because it is just too dangerous.

So today I am off to the Aquarium here in Monterey and store up on food. I also sent a box of things forward that I won't need for the big grades coming up of Carmel, Big Sur and Gorda. I want to be as light as possible. More later...