Day 9: King City to San Antonio Reservoir

Today we had a cheat-day for biking, although that was not originally the intention, but it’s a good thing we did!

After enjoying some of the goodies from La Plaza bakery for breakfast, and making good use of the laundry facilities at the campground, we opted to drive as far as the mission.  This was originally because we were still tired from yesterday and wanted to skip the hill (yes, we were feeling a bit lazy this morning), and because right after the hill was a military checkpoint that we were not sure if we would be allowed to bike through.  So I thought for the purposes of research we would drive there and inquire about bike policy. 

The reason we had to drive through a military check point is because Mission San Antonio de Padua is in the middle of Fort Hunter Liggitt.  The volunteer at the mission told us that this scares or confuses a lot of people, so between that and it not being on a major thoroughfare anymore it is the least visited mission in the chain.  So the lesson is: if you are visiting Mission San Antonio, know in advance that you will be passing through a check point.  This does not mean you are lost! And yes, you are allowed to enter the military base to visit the mission!

Though I had been warned that we’d have to present identification and possibly have the vehicle searched to enter the base, when we went through the check point there was no one stationed there was a big welcome sign for visitors.  So, we drove right in.  For future reference, the mission volunteer gave me a better phone number to ask the base headquarters about biking regulations. But for today, we just drove through to save the trouble of dealing with trying to reach someone.

Mission San Antonio is my new favorite.  Although not as gorgeous as Carmel, it is more original and has the most total acreage still intact with the main mission complex.  It is called “the mission that time forgot” and for good reason.  It was abandoned after the missions were secularized, and eventually reclaimed by the church.  In the meantime, unlike other missions in more urban settings, it was unused even by local ranchers.  

The Hearst family later bought it as part of their huge ranch, and built their own mission-style “hacienda” about a half mile south of the mission complex.  But they too left the mission ruins alone.  They then sold the property to the Army for the Fort Hunter Liggitt training area, and the army also had no use for it and left it alone.  Being on a military base protected it from being developed (or pillaged), so when it was eventually restored as a historic site and sometimes-church, it was pretty much intact except for normal decay.  

The mission is still in the process of being restored (and some people were working on one wing while we were there) but a large section of it is fully restored for touring, including the padres quarters, the chapel, the courtyard, and some other wings of the main complex.  The padres’ rooms can actually be rented nightly (and for a very reasonable cost!).  I would have loved to do that, but haven’t yet figured out how to arrange the route to make a stopover there a logical choice.  (The Hearst Hacienda is also a good historical hotel).

For the unrestored areas, there is still a lot to see, including an Indian cemetery (currently being restored), an amazing water operated grist mill (partially restored), and irrigation system (unrestored, but still the best example of mission irrigation in the state – you can still see quite a bit of the system including wells, ditches and reservoirs), a threshing floor, a tannery, and other similar sites.

Inside the mission museum, you can walk through the wine cellar and wine pressing room (with original wine vat), which is unique among the missions.  The museum was small, but had an interesting collection of Indian baskets and pottery, as well as a barbed wire display that I found fascinating (weird, yes, but fascinating.. where else can you see over a dozen types of barbed wire from the 1800’s? and they were all so different!).

After the mission, still not sure if we could bike through the base, we rode the sag wagon to the gate.  Then, seeing how late it was (we spent a lot of time at this mission!), we thought we’d just get a ride the last few miles to the campground.  And it was a good thing we did, too!  Because when we got there, we found out that it was closed.  Shame on me for not double checking more timely to our trip… though I had checked back in late September, and there hadn’t been any notices then. 

We were supposed to have camped in the North Shore campground of Lake San Antonio, but the sign at the gate said we had to go to the South Shore, which was at least a 30 mile detour.  Couldn’t have done that by bike, especially since it was already so late in the day!  And since we had been driven there, it was still early enough in the day that we could drive around the lake to the south shore before it got dark.  Whew!

The reason for the closure, I have now learned, is that the lake is so low that they’ve had to close it down for boats.  And apparently they assume that anyone camping on the North Shore is going to want to use a boat – or at least enough that the lack of boaters made it unprofitable to keep the campground open. 

And the lake sure is low!  It is practically dry enough to walk across from the north shore to the south shore (although probably too muddy to do so safely). There is a small stream running down the middle, but otherwise the huge reservoir is bone dry.  It is quite a sight.  Good thing I wasn’t planning on swimming here!

This kind of screws up my route for tomorrow (again, good thing we have a sag wagon for this section!).  I have to figure out where we pick up the route, and we will at least have to skip the first 10 miles (from the campground to as far as the east shore), if not further.  So, tomorrow’s ride will be abridged somewhat… but we will be at a hotel for the first time, which will be a welcome change!  I love camping, but a nice long (untimed, and free) shower and indoor plumbing and electricity will be a treat.

Today’s route (as far as the north shore): http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2860155