About three months ago Mike decided that he wanted to ride the Big Sur Ride in September. Last year I did the ride with a handful of friends, and Mike drove and met us at Ft. Hunter Liggett and then at the end of the ride. Big Sur is a two day ride, with overnight camping at the Fort. Day one is about 92 miles starting in Carmel Valley, will a hellacious 7 mile climb up Nacimiento Road at mile 60. Day two is about 76 miles back through King City (over Quadbuster in the opposite direction), up to Cahoon Summit and back up Carmel Valley Road. This year there were nine of us: Mike & I, David, Jeremy, Charlie, Kelsey, Michael, Chris and MaryBeth. We left Carmel Valley at 7:30am on Saturday morning, and had a gorgeous ride down Highway One all the way past Big Sur, almost (about 45 miles short) to Hearst Castle! Charlie, Kelsey and I rode most of the first 2/3 of Day One behind MaryBeth. She is a little slower than us, and we were all wanting to take it easy so by riding with MB, it insured that we would not go to fast, nor drop her and never see her until camp.
If you've ever driven down Hwy 1 south towards Hearst Castle, you will recognize the pictures. Let me tell you, riding it on a bike is so much different because you get the sounds and smells of the sea and as Charlie says, you also don't have to worry about getting car sick because of the winding roads. In fact, the rolling winding roads on a bike are simply awesome!At mile 60 or so, you make a left turn off of Hwy 1 onto Nacimiento Road which is a 7 mile, winding, two lane road with a climb up to about 2500 feet. At the top, there is a rest stop and lots of folks applauding the completion of your ascent. I road up the road at a snails pace, but was happy to meet up with David on the way who had stopped to catch his breath and take some pictures.
This is what Nacimiento looks like after you've climbed a couple of miles...After the climb there is a great, winding, fast downhill a few miles until you get to the gate of Ft. Hunter Liggett, where we camp overnight. Once you are through the gate, it is another 10 miles of rollers, if you're lucky you miss the afternoon headwinds. We were lucky.
Without going into too much detail, I will tell you that Mike and I have decided to make this an annual ride, something like our annual rafting trip, where we invite everyone we know (who bikes) to come out and join us. It is a great ride, well supported and when you ride it with good friends, it really is an event!
