Live for the Path

69 miles in 7 hours

I got up fairly early and headed out of Lompoc at around 7:45.

Drive-in in Lompoc

Quiet Saturday Morning

I took another ‘fun’ road with some switchbacks for a while, but was rewarded with a great ride down the hill (again thanks to Nicole the Ultra-Marathoner).

Switchback

Looking back at Lompoc

Once I got back to the PCH I talked to a family who was out taking a morning ride. The father said he had toured the Pacific Coast 20 years ago, but couldn’t imagine doing it now with all the traffic. I have heard similar things from other people throughout the trip, and am always a little amazed. I would imagine that it is probably safer now to do something like this than it was years ago, but I think people always think that things were better, safer, etc. back when they were young.

I also went under an overpass with the strangest bird nests I have ever seen.

The nests

I then rode through the towns of Orcutt, Guadalupe, and Oceano on my way towards Morro Bay.

Countryside

Not the biggest shooulder ever... but not the most traffic ever either.

This part of Cali is agriculture driven.

Guadalupe Main Street

Pretty brazen about his sign stealing.

Clouds and mountains... llike usual.

Prime Real Estate

I stopped at a Subway in Pismo Beach for lunch and relaxed for a while, and then ended up rolling out, knowing that I had a ways to go still. I started back northbound and then turned on Los Osos valley road. Of course, since I turned West, the headwinds started again. I grinded along slowly, was called a faggot by a group of guys (it goes without saying they were in a pickup truck… very brave of them to yell out the window while going past me), and eventually made it to my campground for the night, Morro Beach State Park.

A mountain in California?!?!

I hope people aren't getting tired of mountains. Plenty more to come.

Unless you want a Hiker/Biker spot.

I set up in the hiker/biker spot and then walked around for a while. This was a very pretty park, situated right on the bay and next to a marina and golf course.

The golf course.

Best of all, the showers there were free (but cold). I headed back to my tent after my first walk around and read for a while, before heading back out to take some pictures of the sunset a couple hours later.

The bay.

Silhouette of Morro Rock

Morro Rock

With that taken care of, I went back to the tent and went to sleep early.

Goodnight