Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Old Coast Highway, near Carmel

September 17, 2000

A little more than two months ago we took our first trip out of town to the Old Coast Highway, just south of Carmel. We had a lot of problems even before we got on the road and when we finally did get on the road we found it to be much more difficult than the trail guides had indicated. We quit after about an hour and a half. Today, in addition to just wanting to finish what we started, we also hoped to get an indication of how our physical conditioning had changed in two months. We completed the trip under some very difficult conditions and there is no doubt that we have improved dramatically. Last time, despite the relatively short trip, I had to get off the bike and walk several times. This time I only had to get off once, early on, before I caught my second wind. We also flew by our previous farthest point in no time. 

Although it was very satisfying to complete the trip, it was generally not a pleasant experience and we would not recommend it to others. The road was a mix of gravel and hard packed dirt for about 8.5 miles (red on map) and then about 3.5 miles were along the paved coast highway (Hwy 1, yellow on map). The unpaved parts consisted of two long climbs lasting 2-3 miles interspersed with three steep winding, gravel descents 0.5 - 2 miles long. The paved parts along Hwy 1 were mostly long gradual climbs. However, there were brutal headwinds which often slowed us to a crawl and frequent wind gusts which nearly blew us off our bikes. In addition, very cold, wet fog occasionally reduced visibility to near zero. Since there was often no shoulder to ride on our safety became a prime concern. Towards the end of the trip I also became concerned about hypothermia. Since visibility was near zero we still don't have a good picture of Bixby Bridge to post. The sunny costal pictures were taken early in the morning just north of the bridge.

We met four other bikers on the road and two of them appear below. It sounded like this was one of their first trips and they seemed just as surprised by the difficulty as we were the first time we tried the it. If they email me comments I'll post them. If you really want to do this trip skip the paved part. Regularly scheduled busses equipped to carry bikes will pick you up at the southern point and let you off at the northern point near Bixby Bridge. 

Click on an image to enlarge it

Coastal fog	Coastal fog	Coastal fog	Fog on the trail	Fog on the trail
Neil	We came down that	Along the trail	Gravel road	Neil
Me	Redwoods	Coast from the trail	Dan, Carmen and me	Route map (200kb)

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