The first week complete… and yet ANOTHER beautiful day for
biking! Even better than the last few days, and I didn’t think that could
happen! This morning was actually
pretty warm (it’s been pretty chilly starting out but feels warm enough once
we’re moving), and never got too hot.
Last night and early this morning we could hear the sea
lions down the hill from the campground, even though we were over a mile
away. How cool is that! Before we got started riding, the Monterey
campground host came over to check on us and make sure we were happy. There were actually a fair number of people
in the campground, but it didn’t feel crowded.
Breakfast of cinnamon rolls from Lilly Mae’s bakery on
Cannery Row – delightful!
The ride over to Carmel-by-the-Sea was hilly. We both had to walk our bikes up several
steep parts. There were also some
exciting downhill runs, especially along the inland stretch of 17 mile drive.
The town of Carmel is lovely. I had never been there before, and I could
have lingered longer. We biked in on the
north side of town, near Pebble Beach’s famous golf course, and then rode along
a scenic road called – can you guess it? - Scenic Road. This is the road that goes along the shore
line, and the views were spectacular. I
also loved all the too-cute little fairy tale homes, most of which are named
something equally cute.
Mission Carmel is gorgeous.
It was Father Serra’s favorite mission, the second that he founded, the
one he based the mission chain’s governance from, and the one in which he died
and was buried. Thus there was a ton of
information about him throughout the mission and its museum, way more than any
other mission (or any website that I had seen in preparation for this trip).
One interesting fact: no one knows what he looked like! Even the portraits made
of him during his life all look different from each other, and the analysis of
his skull made in the early 1900’s suggests that all the portraits are wrong
too.
The mission is currently used as a church and private
school; while we were there the school children were having their school
portraits taken in one of the courtyards.
It is nice to see the missions being used for more than just a tourist
destination. They have fallen apart from lack of use before (including Carmel),
and the more actively they are used and loved, the better chance they’ll have
of surviving into the future.
The best part of this mission was the main courtyard, which
was the most photogenic part of the mission, with blooming flower gardens, fall
colors on the grape vines, towering cedars and pepper trees, and a big fountain
in the middle. Hummingbirds zipped around
the eaves of the walkway, and happy tourists snapped pictures of each other
with the mission bell tower in the background. We were there at noon when they
rang the bells, which was simply awesome.
Another interesting part of the mission was the graveyard,
because all of the graves were lined with or otherwise decorated with abalone
shells, usually placed where other cemeteries would use rocks or low fence, or
hanging on the crosses.
The rest of the day was spent traveling up the Carmel
valley, in which the campground for tonight is located. We stopped for lunch at the Earthbound
Organics farm stand and café near the beginning of the valley. It was a so-so meal, and a somewhat
disappointing experience. For being a
farm stand of such a big organic veggie company, I thought they’d have mostly
veggies, but instead they mostly carried prepared packaged foods from other
organic companies, so it looked like a miniature health food store or
co-op. The café portion had an extremely
limited menu, and none of it was actually made by (or - I expect -grown by)
Earthbound Organics. But it was at least
tasty, and we were all very hungry by the time we got there!
The road up the valley was the scariest we’ve been on. There was no shoulder or bike lane, it was
winding with frequent hairpin turns, it was steep (both up and down), it was
very narrow (only one lane at points), and there were quite a few cattle guards
(sometimes placed on a steep slope around a bend – so you wouldn’t see them
much in advance as you zip downhill around a corner). We decided to get a ride
in the sag wagon for this part, but even the car ride was kind of scary.
The landscape here is so pretty. The coastal range is actually kind of
mountainous here, not just rolling hills like a lot of the range. Tonight we are camped in the Los Padres
National Forest, and our campsite looks right out into a narrow valley with
those tall mountain-hills all around. I
don’t know if they are hills or mountains, they are kind of in-between in my
mind: too big for one, too small for the other.
This campground is very nice, apart from the drive to get to
it. The host says that it’s packed
during the summer, and only recently slowed down. Tonight there are only a few other campsites
being used. There was a problem with the
site that I had reserved, so the host gave us a free site upgrade… and later,
when the hot water in my shower didn’t work, he refunded that too (and I didn’t
even ask!)
The only bad part about this campground – and I wouldn’t
consider it bad except that I am trying to post to this blog every day – is
that there is zero reception for phone or internet. So far only one campground has had wifi, so
I’ve been using a smartphone for a hotspot for the laptop, but even Verizon
doesn’t have any cell towers in this area.
So I will be posting this as soon as I can get some reception.
Today’s route: http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2959871
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