Okay so we didn’t climb Mt. Everest by bike…. but we did climb over a total of 30,000 ft throughout our journey from San Francisco to San Diego.
And by our I mean my Dad and I, with my Mom in the support car (it’s a good thing she came because we were useless after a day of riding). The goal was 2 weeks, 600some miles, 30,000some ft, and 2 rest days… all ending in my move to San Diego!
Before the ride my Dad and I had many conversations… mostly about him being nervous he wouldn’t be able to make it… silly Dad, and mostly me telling him not to worry and everything would work out (spoiler alert: it did) but as my Dad always says…. Plan for the worst and hope for the best… which is exactly what we did.
Day 1: San Francisco to Half Moon Bay (40.3 miles, 2,254 ft elevation)
We awoke on a cloudy windy day in San Francisco (I still stand by the fact that SF is the true windy city)… and after a few nerve induced bathroom breaks, and Mike needing his caffeine fix (did I mention Mike came with us!) we were packed and ready to go. We started off through the city and within 10-15 minutes of riding… The rain started. Well it’s a good thing we came prepared with rain gear!
The next 20some miles to Pacifica were pretty miserable, we could barely see the ocean… we were going slow… and of course I got a flat tire and we ended up having to go way out of our way to a bike shop inland Pacifica. It all worked out and we ended up in Half Moon Bay. Here was our first view when the skies cleared.
The most intense part was climbing up out of Pacifica and on this windy road with no shoulder. Our first taste of many crazy climbs.
Day 2: Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz (49.7, 3,329)
I was pretty excited about day 2, I love Santa Cruz and couldn’t wait to show my parents the cool Norcal city and I also remember the drive being beautiful without being too hilly. I also wanted to find a fun bike path into Santa Cruz and sit by the lighthouse and watch the surfers.
Along the way though we were suprised to see brussel sprouts everywhere! Apparently they were in season and all the trucks kept dropping them.
I left my cell phone at the awesome little pie place we stopped by on the side of the highway. I had a delicious strawberry shortcake and if I remember correctly… my dad went back for seconds! Luckily, we called my mom and she got my phone… which of course was just sitting there. Then we all met up at this little thai place I went to before which has a view of the SC pier and beach volleyball. They have vegan Thai Iced tea that I am a huge fan of.
After lunch, we took a walk down the pathway by natural bridges state park and took some sunset photos. The sky looked especially beautiful, although for some reason my iPhone camera took much more colorful pictures than my dads Nikon.
Day 3: Santa Cruz to Monterey (46.3, 1,763)
This was a beautiful ride and one I would certainly do again. Santa cruz had a great section that was not on the main road and so did Monterey. A great bike path where we could enjoy the ocean without the fear of cars. I also had never seen Monterey from this vantage point, it was very pretty seeing the little town (city?) across the bay. We were looking for whales during our entire ride hoping we would see one breach, which we did! We ate at Passionfish, a seafood restaurant that specializes in sustainability.
Day 4: Monterey to Big Sur (40.9, 2,979)
The start of this bike ride was the famous 17 mile drive where I got to show my dad a ride I had been on for one of my previous birthdays since I moved to cali. It is such a beautiful ride, going through pines and eucalyptus and seeing these huge homes right on the ocean with waves crashing into rocks. What an amazing place to live. On our way we decided to stop at a bike shop (Bay Bikes in Carmel Valley) since I had a couple flat tires and my brakes were squeaking. They really helped us out… turns out I needed new brakes and a new separator between my wheel and tube. We also decided to pick up new tires just for good measure. The guy helping us had been on this trek with his family more than once and was a huge help because we wouldn’t see another bike shop until after Big Sur. So we loaded up on tubes and headed for the hills, literally.
Here is us on the 17-mile Drive and below before we start into Big Sur.
We stayed at the cabin in Big Sur, it was beautiful and also our only choice. But it was also the solar eclipse so my dad fashioned a cut out piece of paper to view it. Here is our pinhole projection! Pretty cool.
Day 5: Big Sur to Ragged Point (49.8, 4,896)
The next day was some serious climbing and a ton of miles, but once done we knew the climbing was mostly over. It was also insanely gorgeous and fun going down some really speedy downhills. Being on curvy roads right next to the larger vehicles, especially RVs was pretty scary, and on one corner I jumped off my bike into the bushes because I thought I would get hit, oops! We ate lunch at a restaurant on the way and kept the leg burn going. We also started to notice there was a hosted group coming in to Ragged Point. They were coming all the way from Seattle and biking down to Mexico, oof! and I thought our ride was intense!
Day 6: Ragged Point to Cambria (21.1, 1,117)
Day 6 my tan lines were really starting to show… as you can see from the picture below. Today was a good day, instead of a rest day we just did a shorter day and it was a nice break. We stayed right next to the beach in Cambria and we didn’t have to climb barely at all, lots of downhill coming out of Ragged Point! On our way there was an area of elephant seals that we watched for a while.
Day 7: Cambria to Pismo Beach (46.9,1,811)
The ocean from Cambria to Pismo Beach was very calm and Morro rock was nice to look at. We got to ride through some eucalyptus groves. We ate a great vegan cafe called Shine Cafe in Morro Bay
Here is a picture of the cliffs near Pismo Beach and the beautiful view of the sunset and ocean. There was even a wedding going on on the cliffs.
Day 8: Pismo Beach to Lompoc (49.3, 2,198)
We had to discuss a lot on this venture, the picture below describes why…. Lompoc is in the middle of two pretty big climbs that we didn’t want to have to do in one day and reach all the way to Santa Barbara, so we split them in two and did a bit more the second day to get to Santa Barbara. There isn’t much in Lompoc, but we had some pizza and relaxed.
At the top of the first hill we had a beautiful view of the valley as seen below.
Day 9: Lompoc to Santa Barbara (58.5, 3,636)
I love Santa Barbara so I was excited to show my parents around. When we first arrived, we got to ride through campus… unluckily during a class change and the bike lanes were busy! But it was great seeing the campus. When we got to Santa Barbara, first stop was to get the Pink Panther at Juice Ranch, nom nom nom. We also went to have acai bowls at Backyard Bowls which was also delicious. We got to watch the Sunset on the pier.
Unfortunately this was also the leg of the trip where we had to bike a long a busy highway, which made me want to cal my mom to pick us up… I did not like semi-trucks driving 6 ft away.
Day 10: Santa Barbara to Ventura (29, 818)
Today we had another easier day in order to rest our legs, and we got to enjoy the beautiful Santa Barbara/Ventura area, passing through lots of surf spots that were completely flat and lots of different campgrounds that I logged away as places I wanted to come back to.
We also had a great bike lane that was just built and very appreciated. We ended up seeing dolphins in the waves. Definitely one of my favorite parts of California.
Day 11: Ventura to Malibu (48.1, 1,759)
I especially loved Oxnard because it seemed like every house was on water.
We stopped at the beach to eat our lunch, and then got a surprise visit to some very cool planes on our way.
When we got to Malibu we went to Nobu for drinks, the view was beautiful. We walked around on the beach to a surf spot which I now know it famous, it was really small that day but apparently it can be an amazing point break. I can’t wait to go back and check it out.
Day 12 (Halloween!): Malibu to Long Beach (44.8, 953)
I was excited to be in Long beach for Halloween, but unfortunately couldn’t get any friends I knew to want to go out… so what did I do? I dressed up as a mermaid and went to dinner with my parents, you gotta do what you gotta do. My dad and I were quite nervous about the trip through LA, and thought it might be pretty dangerous, but it was actually totally fine and worked out great.
We did a lot of biking a long the beach, and saw a ton of different surf spots and runners.
We ended up on our own bike path down a river which led us into Long Beach. LA was surprisingly bike friendly.
Day 13: Long Beach to San Clemente (44.9, 1,608)
In the morning there was big storm, which we somehow missed and then continued on to San Clemente, on the way we went through Laguna and I have to say that was the scariest part of our journey, the drivers were not bike friendly. One guy even clipped my hand, luckily not hitting me enough to hurt me. We went through a beautiful secluded area called Crystal Cove State Park which I highly recommend visiting.
I really liked San Clemente, it’s a small military beachside town with some cool bars and cool eats. We went to a place called South of Nick’s which was quite good and got very good reviews. The beach was all pebbles as you can see below.
Day 14: San Clemente to La Jolla (53, 2,383)
Our last ride!!!! This was a very exciting day and we got to do the bike ride that I would eventually do quite often on highway 1. We also got to go through Camp Pendleton which not everyone gets to do. I didn’t realize that the base would be such a community of people. Once we were in Oceanside it was a straight shot and all along the water. We stopped in Leucadia for Haggos Taco, which was delicious.
On the way we saw a beautiful double rainbow.
We had to do one last climb at Torrey Pines which was a lot longer than I expected, and we were greeted upon arrival by a big sign made for us! What a trip.
I highly recommend the trip from Half Moon Bay to Pismo Beach and would gladly do that leg again. Once we got passed Pismo Beach it got a little bit too car busy to enjoy for me. I am excited to do more trips like this!
Feel free to ask for any advice if you plan a trip like this!
Diana
Amazing! You inspire me. 😉