Nacimiento Spring Ride 06-07 Apr 04
John Woodfill and I loaded our bicycles and touring bags
into the car and headed south from Palo Alto on US101 to
Salinas, from where we took Main Street that turns into
Monterey Rd (SR 68) south of town. From here, on Laurels
Grade (a steep road) we drove south to Carmel Valley to the
Blue Sky Motel and dinner. We had done this last year and
found the routine works well for this loop ride that is a
bit long to enjoy on one day.
Tuesday morning we left street clothes behind in the motel
room that we would return to in the evening and drove to the
coast, heading south on (SR 1) along the beautiful almost
uninhabited and steep coast past Big Sur and on to Lucia,
where we parked the car to begin our ride. We took the Nacimiento-
Ferguson Road about a mile south of Lucia into the
mountains.
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We chose the time because spring came early this year and
without much rain to keep the hills green, we were concerned
about the wildflowers that were plentiful last year. Just
the same, we had clear skies, no significant wind and cool
temperatures. In fact, as we drove through Big Sur, we
noticed that the roofs of buildings were white with frost.
The climb up Nacimiento Road starts out steeply but soon
becomes a pleasant climb, especially in cool air. The steep
meadows were rich green with many wildflowers along the
road. Columbine, shooting stars, wild iris, blue and yellow
ground and bush lupine, California poppies, paint brush,
indian warrior and many more, with the backdrop of the deep
blue Pacific where frothing surf and azure blue aerated
water surrounded huge rocks lying off shore as though some
giant had thrown them there eons ago.
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We entered the edges of a redwood forest about a mile
inland, passing waterfalls in dark canyons under the trees
where pale blue forget-me-nots lined the road. Although we
didn't see many birds, we heard them warbling, black headed
grosbeaks, wren [censored], and [censored] mice while overhead a red
tailed hawk soared in slow motion circles. To make up for
that, we saw many blackbirds, scrub jays and steller's jays.
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From the broad flat summit at Redwood Spring (2664ft),
roads headed north and south as we crossed to the east side
of the divide into a canyon with a completely different
ecology along the rushing Nacimiento River surrounded by
steep hills of scrub brush above and the shade of sycamores
along the water.
The descent that began steeply, gradually leveled off as the
canyon opened toward the broad valley of the Hunter-Ligget
military reserve. Here a guard station with concrete road
barriers and a mechanically erectable metal wall marked the
boundary. After identifying ourselves, we were allowed to
pass. We saw only two or three cars on this impeccably paved
road on the way to post HQ.
This wilderness area seems to no longer be used by the US
Army, there being no sign of vehicles, tank or tire tracks,
on the unused dirt roads that crossed our path. Although
last year offered a flood of wildflowers, this year we met
only a few areas with a yellow carpet of buttercups and
lavender and blue lupine.
The whole region all the way from the coast has a type of
century plant, that seems to be agave sisalana, but I can't
be sure, there being hundreds of agave varieties. Some of
them had bloomed others were beginning to send up the
flowering stalk. Only a few were in bloom with yellow and
white blossoms.
As we rolled across large open fields, sparsely populated
with white oaks and a sycamore here and there, we spotted a
coyote at a distance and wondered whether we should report
having seen a mountain lion as we suspect is often the case.
After crossing a small ridge we saw the officers club on a
knoll across the San Antonio valley, and chose to use the
bridge (that is off limits to tanks) and cross the richly
flowing San Antonio River.
Most of the roads have broad level concrete fords so that
tanks can cross, because building tank bridges is
prohibitively expensive. Riding through 3-4 inches of water
is fun if you go slowly. The web site above shows a M/C
crossing one of these fords.
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We rode up the hill to the officer's club aka Hearst Hunting
Lodge (1100ft) for a good hamburger and large Coke before
stopping at the PX for a take-along soda, candy bar, and
bananas for the wilderness ride ahead.
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The San Antonio Mission, a remnant of the effort of the
Spanish to convert native Americans to domestic slaves...
oh, I meant Christians, was looking as lost as ever in the
midst of this wilderness, the nearest town being Jolon in
the Salinas Valley.
We rode through the river, heading north on deserted Del
Venturi Road to The Indians (1773ft) at the upper end of the
San Antonio River. At Indian Ranger Station (2086ft), we
crossed an inconspicuous divide into the Arroyo Secco river,
crossing the stream on a well maintained ford as we left
paved roads behind. Unfortunately, the road grader, whom we
met farther down, had just "shaped" the road so that it was
so loose in places that we had to walk, but as the road
leveled off, we could ride the two miles to Escondido Camp
Ground, where the grader had turned around.
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From here Indians Road climbs out of the canyon, the
narrows of Arroyo Secco being impenetrable for a road
without large expense and regular maintenance. The climb
was pleasant with good traction on this fairly clean one
lane road. The reason it is in good shape is that motor
vehicles can not get past a large rock slide at the summit
and others on the north slope.
As we reached the high plateau (2800ft) we noticed a pair of
old MTB tracks and a M/C track in what had been mud. At the
north end of this section the road begins to climb a little
before reaching the large rock slide. The rocks were easier
to cross this time because some good trail maker had made a
track in the slide that lies at the angle of repose that
doesn't stop for nearly 400ft. We got on our bicycles again
after this 100ft portage, some of it steep, that ends under
a cliff with a spring that might come in handy in hot
weather. The slide is at the red cursor on the map at:
On the way up, I noted that we did not have to dismount for
rocks on the road but on the descent, we both volunteered to
walk, having had experience with slashed tires on other such
rides. The view from this road are spectacular and the
remoteness amazing, so close to civilization in the
flatlands a few dozen miles away.
That there was almost no visible wildlife was striking on
this trip. Once over the cost climb, we didn't even hear any
birds although we saw blue birds, yellow billed magpies and
acorn woodpeckers and an occasional soaring turkey vulture
that we hoped was a condor, but no cigar.
We were back on smooth road as we got down to Lucia Creek
(1000ft) where there were two cars and a large camper bus
that showed no signs of recent human activity. We crossed
the bridge and climbed over a small rise along Arroyo Secco,
a richly flowing river at this point.
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Here at The Lakes Campground (945ft) we were again on
pavement, the last impassable rock slide being a short way
above the camp. From here is was a pleasant cruise to the
junction (704ft) with Carmel Valley Road, also known as
Jamesburg Road at this end. Jamesburg Rd. climbs gradually
in woodsy sheltered curves along Paloma Creek. Just the
same, the afternoon wind got stronger and colder as we
progressed.
The road changes name to Jamestown-Arroyo Secco Road at
(1550ft) where it also begins its climb to its summit
(2384ft) over which it crosses from Paloma Creek to Finch
Creek watershed. This area was new to me because last year
we got delayed crossing Indians Road so much that we ran out
of daylight here, and with no moon at all. This year we were
a couple of hours earlier and besides, there was a full moon
in the event that we got delayed.
Today, the land was green and lovely but the wind was not
kind as it blew in our face descending Conejo Grade. It was
cold enough that we put on our jackets and I put up my hood
before descending Ardilla Grade along Tularcitos Creek. I
was glad to have my thick doeskin leather winter gloves on.
We got back to our motel (400ft) (97 miles) in good time,
got a hot shower and a filling dinner before getting a good
night's sleep.
In the morning we stopped for breakfast at the corner
grocery store before retracing the route we drove by car the
day before. Traffic on Carmel Valley Rd. was regular commute
traffic headed toward Carmel and Monterey. Once we were on
HWY 1 heading south along the coast, traffic was light and
mostly tourists.
That the route is far more interesting seen from the bicycle
than from the car was striking. We enjoyed the scenery
immensely and were glad to find that the weather was warmer
than the day before as we descended some of the longer
grades around toward Bixby Creek with its beautiful concrete
arch bridge. We even had a tailwind most of the way. We met
three bicyclists heading north, somewhere south of Big Sur,
so heavily loaded that we could hardly see their bicycles.
Farther on we passed a couple heading south, but that was
all we saw of bicyclists.
We had an interesting incident at Point Sur Lighthouse where
we had noticed in the past that the great rock was open to
visitors at 10:00 on Wednesdays (today). This was one of
those days and a string of about a dozen cars was making its
way down the paved one lane road toward the huge rock, so we
climbed over the locked gate and followed.
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The tour guide at he end of the column saw us, blocked the
road with his car, and informed us that bicyclists were not
welcome and that the tour was a closed hiking event that
took three hours. In other words, we could not ride our
bicycles to the lighthouse. We were told return another
time, and by car.
After that event, we enjoyed the coast, sighting a pod of
grey whales by their white spouts over the deep blue waters
heading north as they usually do this time of year. In
Lucia, we packed our bicycles into the car and headed home,
once again noticing how much nicer this route looks from
the bicycle.
The first day was 97 miles and about 6000ft of climb and the
second 60 miles and about 1200ft of climb.
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Jobst Brandt [email hidden]