Day 3: Half Moon Bay to Manresa State Beach

Much, much better. Spectacular, actually.

I started early today, hitting the road at 8:30. I was anxious to get going.

4 hours of stunning and fairly quiet costal riding. Endless views of beaches, wide shoulders, cool breeze scooting me along and not much else.

And I really mean not much else. I hadn’t anticipated no place to eat breakfast so gas station treats it was (dried spicy mango is a new fav). No matter, I made up for it at lunch in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz and it’s beaches were packed. So many people and so suddenly after my quiet morning. It was nice and had a carefree summery feeling, but was also a little much. So I skipped the nearby campground that was recommended to me figuring the one an hour away would be quieter.

I rolled up to the hiker biker spot at Sunset Beach to two guys running two generators and a power saw. Ripping sheets of plywood from a stack they had, apparently upgrading a 10 ft long bike trailer. Sure, they had e-powered cargo bikes and that trailer, but still. How they got all that stuff there I’ll never know. Had they not been total assholes, I may have asked.

Asshole 1 says to me, “can I help you with something?” I have to ask him to repeat it many times because Asshole 2 hasn’t stopped sawing so I can’t hear a damn thing.

Turns out they think the spot is theirs exclusively and I am intruding on their space. I explain that’s not how these sites work but they were not having it. Rather than try and sort it out I decide to leave and promptly do so. Our differences were irreconcilable. And the modern Deliverance vibe was a little too strong for my liking.

Headed back the hour to the other site, I run into the folks from night one who are on their bike around the world book promo tour. I advise them against sunset park, strongly. They can’t make the hour trip back so we resolve to call a park right by us which reportedly does not have hiker biker sites. Turns out they do and they are empty. So we split one. I spent a whopping $20 for 2 campsites tonight. Expensive by the standards out here.

Lovely dinner and chat. My little week long bike trips are nothing. They did the world with kids in 16 months. That’s something else.

I think it’s going to be pretty remote for the next 2 days or so.