Life is better on a bike!

Category: touring (Page 1 of 12)

30 Days of Biking: Days 25-30

We returned home from California yesterday. My body is here, but my heart and head are still there. Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula to be exact, where we spent the last few days after our bike tour ended. We rented bikes for the days we were in Pacific Grove, just basic hybrid type bikes to get those daily rides in for 30daysofbiking and to tool around the area and see the sights. Words cannot describe the breathtaking beauty, maybe some of my shots can.

I will write a brief summary of my rides of April 25-30th and then I’ll do a separate blog for our Central Coast California Tour. Just one post instead of my typical blogs of each day. Thanks for following along!~ Susan


Day 25 – 30 Days of Biking:

The reason I quit blogging about the tour from Day 25 on, was dinner the evening of Day 24. We had dinner at a seemingly nice restaurant in Santa Ynez that served Mexican food and I got food poisoning! Of course with food poisoning you don’t know there is a problem until many hours later.

Day 25 started out great. Our ride was a loop around Santa Ynez through Happy Canyon and an optional climb of “The Fig”. The Fig is Mount Figueroa, a legendary climb in Santa Barbara county. I hadn’t decided whether I was going to do the climb or not, I would decide at the base, depending on how I felt. Although I wasn’t sick yet, I didn’t feel great and made the very wise decision to not attempt it. I did ride 1 1/2 miles of the road that takes you to the base of the climb and even it was steep. Beautiful too.

P106059320130425_10540720130425_10540120130425_105500

The Garmin pic shows how steep it was. I haven’t downloaded all the Garmin information but I recall in that 1.6 miles I climbed around 475 feet.

The plan on Day 25 was to ride back through Happy Canyon (love that name) and Santa Ynez and Los Olivos past Neverland Ranch (yep) and to wait for the two riders and support van to come down the descent of The Fig. I made it to that point, but was so dizzy and nauseous that I did something I have never done. I got into the support van and quit. I have never quit a ride, but I couldn’t go on. Once I got back to the Santa Ynez Inn it went downhill from there. If you have ever had food poisoning, you know. If you haven’t you don’t want to know. I was able to get Phenergan from my local Doc which helped a lot. We missed our final dinner with our group which we were both disappointed about.

35 miles for the day.

CA Central Coast Day 5 – Santa Ynez Loop – Details


Day 26 – 30 Days of Biking:

Against my husband’s advice I rode the next morning. It was an out and back ride from the Santa Ynez Inn to Topanga State Park. It was a fairly easy 21 miles but it took all I had to do it. We said goodbye to our tour-horts, picked up a rental car and headed to Pacific Grove driving on Highway 1 through Big Sur. In many people’s minds, the prettiest drive in California and what I saw of it was breathtaking but mostly I slept. It took a full day, plus 12 more hours of sleep before I felt decent.

P1060657P1060663P1060674

21 miles for the day.

CA Central Coast Day 6 – Santa Ynez to Topanga SP – Details


Day 27 – 30 Days of Biking:

We picked up our rental bikes, a 7 speed Breezer from Adventures by the Sea in the morning and rode north along the beach on paved bike trails. We rode through Monterey all the way to Marina on the Monterey Coastal Trail. The trail is wonderful, wide and well-maintained – and surrounded by endless beauty. Can you imagine being able to bike there regularly?

It was cold and cloudy so we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee before heading back. The sights were beautiful, so many interesting and beautiful plants and wildlife all with the backdrop of the Pacific. Gorgeous and I will tell you these pictures don’t begin to do it justice.

P1060695P1060697P1060719P1060723P1060741P1060743

P1060733

26.2 miles for the day.

California – Pacific Grove to Marina – Details


Day 28/30 Days of Biking:

On today’s ride we rode the trail along the coastline, but this time heading south. We also rode the infamous 17 mile drive to Pebble Beach, henceforth known as the 17 mile ride to Pebble Beach.

When I think of our 11 day trip, the first place I go in my mind and see in my mind’s eye is here. We saw and biked mile after beautiful mile in California. All so pretty that it probably isn’t fair to pick one place over another, but for me this was the best. It is gorgeous anyway as you ride along the coast on the Monterey Peninsula, watching and hearing the waves, birds, sea otters, but add to that the fact that it was spring and there were miles of gorgeous pink, purple, yellow, peach flowers – it is enough to take your breath away and forever make you long to see it all again and ride it.

P1060868P1060778P1060779P1060871

pg12pg13pg14pg15pg16pg17pg18

28 miles for the day.

CA – Pacific Grove to Pebble Beach – Details


Day 29/30 Days of Biking:

After the beauty we saw on the ride the day before, we headed right back to the same area. Because of time constraints we couldn’t ride the Pebble Beach *ride* but we did ride to the entrance. This was the first sunny morning we had and the water was a brilliant blue. We rode 12 miles in total and tried to take in and savor all that was around us.

P1060889P1060890P1060846P1060894P1060895P1060898


Day 30/30 Days of Biking

I managed to ride every single day in April. Some days were tricky, slike the day I was in San Jose with no bike so test rode a Virtue mixtee to get a ride in. Several of the days were rainy and cold, but I learned I can ride in the rain and even enjoy it. Obviously the days in California were the best but I believe I enjoyed something about every single ride. I learned too that it is fairly easy or at least possible to ride most every day.

Today’s ride was a 5 mile ride through the neighborhood.

420709_578431938853700_1532128946_n

Bluebonnets and Bikes

734465_496028593783212_1042071455_n

Above is a photo of Mark and me last March when we rode with Classic Adventures in the Texas Hill Country. The photo is in the Classic Adventures 2013 catalog. The picture was shot the day we rode through the beautiful Willow City Loop. You can’t believe all the wildflowers we saw – bluebonnets and beyond. Just incredible.

The riding was pretty incredible too.

If you care to read about the Texas Hill Country and our tour you can do so here.

A couple of studs we are.

eye roll

The Galloping Goose

We are on vacation celebrating our wedding anniversary. Today we rode bikes on the Galloping Goose trail on Vancouver Island, part of the Trans-Canada bike network. What a fabulous place to ride!

If all goes well, there should be photos below.

*Pics will have to wait it seems.. or you can check out the Facebook page.

Texas Hill Country-Hilltop Ride

Day 6/6 of “Biking and Blogging” on the Classic Adventures Texas Hill Country Tour.


Another last day of another bike tour. About the time the last day rolls around, I find I’m getting into a good groove and don’t want to stop! I love riding daily and exploring new places by bike.

CA logoOne thing is for certain, we will ride in the Texas Hill Country again. Soon, hopefully next year.

Every bike tour has a “Queen stage”, the toughest day of the tour – the ride to Hilltop, Enchanted Rock and back to Fredericksburg would make it the most challenging (and longest at 67 miles) of the week. Daily mileage options are always provided and on this day in particular our group utilized all the available options.

Mark and I didn’t ride to Enchanted Rock, only to the entrance then back to Fredericksburg. We chose not to do it because of a tough climb coupled with a strong headwind and since we know we’ll be back we elected to save it for another day.

Even without Enchanted Rock it was a challenging day. Mainly because of the heat and headwind we faced going back. Still, it was an awesome day – good route, good mileage (it would put us around 250 miles for the week) – and just another superb day of riding.

We started out as usual from the Inn on Barons Creek. A good day for sunscreen so I slathered it on and put the tube in my trunk. I think Mark and I  were the last of the group to pull away, other than Dianne. We headed out on the road we had come in on the day before. Got to see these guys again.

Day 89e

Wasn’t it nice of them to pose for me.

Although our route took us back on a road that had a fair amount of traffic (compared to the other roads), cars weren’t an issue and we didn’t appear to be a problem for them. They passed when it was safe and gave us a wide berth when doing so – all any cyclist needs or expects from drivers.

I have never encountered more courteous, respectful drivers than those in the Hill Country. Mark and I have talked a lot about this fact; most recently yesterday when we were out riding on our local roads and cars were buzzing by us as if waiting for two seconds to pass safely was too much to expect. We have come to the conclusion that the biggest difference is no one in the Hill Country (that we encountered) appeared to be in a hurry. No one felt the need to catch up on their phone calls, send text messages, read that report for work, do their nails… while driving, so they didn’t feel irritated by our presence. They weren’t in a hurry and everyone everywhere else is.

P1020749

It’s that mosey thing. I’m telling you, we all need to mosey more. Moseying on a bike – even better.

We were all stretched out on the road. That is Deena in the photo just above. She is a strong rider and relatively new, but you wouldn’t know it by the way she rides. The day we rode the Willow City Loop, she also rode it the other way so she could do the toughest hill again going the other way making it steeper. Several years ago before she started riding, she was on the Willow City Loop in a car, saw some cyclists riding that same hill and couldn’t imagine doing it. Several years later it is her charging up that hill.

Most if not all who bike have similar stories and I love hearing them.

Mark and I met up at the snack stop and headed off together. We rode an easy pace, savoring the last day of the tour. As the pictures show it was a beautiful day.

P1020751eP1020753P1020757

With bucolic bliss adding to the biking bliss.

P1020759P1020761P1020763

P1020752

The last miles to Hilltop Cafe were fast and smooth as glass thanks to a tailwind and a newly paved road and shoulder. I parked Lucille and noticed Deena and Christopher aka the speedsters were already there.

The food was very good, including the gumbo which was possibly better than the stuff I grew up on although I would never admit that to a family member.

P1020765

P1020767P1020768P1020770

More homage to the bike outside the Hilltop cafe.

Soon after lunch we rode through a gypsum mine that sort of resembled the surface of the moon. It was a blizzard of gypsum dust, making it very hard to see and breathe. I guess the wind was kicking it up. Fortunately we noticed a Tonka looking truck roughly the size of a huge tank approaching on our right. He didn’t appear to want to wait and who were we to expect him to since he could have crushed us like a bug.

The rest of the route, however, was more of what we had experienced all week – roads that were more like paved bike paths, particularly today because there were more bikes than cars. We saw more cyclists out than all the previous days combined.

You only have to bike here once to understand why.

We had a bike club from Houston flying down the hills with what for them was a tailwind as we were ever so slowly making it up the hills with the headwind. One hill in particular was very steep and fairly long. I actually stopped in the middle of the climb because my legs refused to turn the pedals fast enough. They paid for it when we had to get started again.

A few more shots of the lightly traveled roads and quiet beauty of the Texas Hill Country on the remaining miles of our last day.

P1020774P1020780P1020782P1020779

P1020790P1020795

P1020797

I told the cows above that I had chicken for lunch and they let me pass.

We finished the day with 60 miles, 3228 feet of ascent, and 2546 calories burned. For the week we rode 258 miles.

It was an outstanding week of riding, far exceeding any expectations I had.

I highly recommend the Texas Hill Country for your biking pleasure and the same goes for Classic Adventures. Dale and Dianne managed to make a highly organized tour seem flexible and relaxed, I’m not quite sure how they did it. The accommodations were very good, the dining choices very good and the daily routes superb. They provided each of us with excellent support throughout the week and treated us like friends rather than customers.

I hope you have enjoyed the blogposts, especially those of you on the tour. Safe travels.


Previous Posts on the Texas Hill Country Bike Tour:

Texas Hill Country – Classic Adventure

Texas Hill Country – Boerne Arrival

Texas Hill Country – Boerne to Comfort

Texas Hill Country – Fredericksburg

Texas Hill Country – Ride to Doss

« Older posts