I had a nice bowl of oatmeal at the hostel before leaving, bidding farewell to the friendliest staff and the travelers from Finland, Malaysia, and Kansas. Today is the first day of riding uniquely interesting roads, and the hostel staff were very excited to hear about my day's itinerary.
First up: Santa Rosa Creek Road. It starts right outside Cambria, passing a few cow farms, and climbing gently along the creek. I said good morning to a pair of ranchers right where the real climbing started. It was quite a struggle to stay upright on the steep pitches of sometimes over 20% grade. I was definitely missing having the Long Haul Trucker's low gearing. However, I realized foolishly I'd actually been in my 2nd to lowest gear. It got easier after that.
Over the top was a terribly steep descent, the "wall", and then some downhill rolling to Highway 46. Old Creek Road had nice pavement, unlike the brokenness of Santa Rosa Creek, and it was rolling uphill until an outrageously fun descent. Coming into Cayucos, I saw an enormous reservoir to my right.
I found the bike path on the side of CA-1 we missed last year. I came to Tognazzini's for lunch, oyster chowder and lingcod scampi. I may have eaten too much...
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