Day 15 - ... to Shining Sea

September 3, 2006

(Click on photos to see them full size)


I finally found the right opportunity to finish this great trip. I thought I might do a day-trip to Santa Barbara and back, but somehow it just didn't seem like the right way to do the last legs of an epic journey. I hunted around for camping sites near the coast on the internet, and finally got lucky with the last spot available at Fremont Peak State Park between Salinas and Hollister. It turned out to be one of the nicest tentsites in the state.

I spent Saturday prepping for the trip to Monterey Bay. I decided that I went all the way to the East Coast to get a trailer, so I might as well use it, even for a 2-day trip. So I rounded up the camping gear and added a few items I didn't have for the first 4200 miles and loaded it up. I re-installed the dork gear, such as GPS, XM satellite radio, and digital thermometer. Put 10 new CDs in the changer and began to think that I just might be over-doing this whole touring-bike thing.


Now where'd I misplace the kitchen sink?

So, Sunday morning I was ready to roll. Saddled up, stopped by the office to pick up my camping chair and hit the road. My plan was to go up through Carmel Valley and come back on the Pacific Coast Highway. Highway 198 between I-5 and 101 was as nice as I remembered it, except now the scenery was all brown, not the beautiful green that Dwight and I enjoyed on our ride back from Fremont. The mountain road between 101 and Carmel Valley was much rougher than I remembered it, and though the scenery was great, the road beat up on the equipment and my shoulders more than I liked. I will stay off this road for a while.

Traffic into Carmel town was awful, but I eventually made it to the beach and the Pacific Ocean. Total distance on my route from the Atlantic at Cape Cod to the Pacific at Carmel was 4307 miles, most of them terrific.


From sea to not-so-shining sea.

I got to the beach around 4:00, but the daily fog/overcast that usually disappears by noon was still hanging around. It took the "shine" away from the sea and made the pictures less than beautiful, but Carmel Beach is still one of the best in the country.






You have to imagine the sunshine.

I wanted to get to my campsite with plenty of daylight to spare, so I skirted Monterey and went directly to Salinas and San Juan Bautista to start up the mountain. The last 11 miles to the park was full of twisties (good), but not in a good state of repair (bad). The last 3 miles had a climb of 1000 feet. A fun road, but a lot of hard work to finish up the day's ride.







My tentsite was by far the best in the park, and a great place to watch the sun set. In fact, about half the people in the park came over to my site to watch the sun go down. It was a very friendly group of people and the girls in the neighboring site invited me over for drinks during "cocktail hour."





Today's ride was 309 miles, and 4483 since the start of the ride.