Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Old Coast Highway, near Carmel

July 9, 2000

This was our first foray out of town. We thought we weren't ready for the mountains so we figured the coast would be cool and not too hilly. South of Carmel we stopped at what we thought was Bixby Bridge (none of the bridges were labeled) and found a very steep, narrow trail we believed to be the Old Coast Highway. It gave us an opportunity to ford our first stream. I made it once and had to step off in the stream once. Neil made it both times. The trail was extremely difficult for us beginners and it ended after perhaps a mile. After climbing back to the top we spent quite a while looking for the trailhead. A huge stick caught and bent my derailleur. We found a bike shop open in Monterey and they fixed it for just a few dollars. We headed back down the Coast Highway and found the real Bixby Bridge and trailhead. Until 1932 Bixby Bridge was the tallest bridge in the world. This did not bode well. The trail went straight down for 10 - 15 minutes and then we spent the next 90 minutes going uphill! We then turned around and flew downhill until we met the very steep climb back up to the bridge. I had to walk much of it, Neil nearly made the whole climb. The scenery was quite beautiful, chaparral and dark redwood forest. However, we were laboring so hard we didn't have much time to enjoy the scenery. There were only a few brief level spots so I took very few pictures. We are determined to return and finish this route when we get in better shape. We did on September 17.

Click on an image to enlarge it

Scenery	Neil	Photo credit

[ Home ]