Nacimiento Arroyo Seco Spring Ride 23 Mar 07
On Friday evening 22 March, Bob Walmsley, 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 (10%)) we drove south to Carmel Valley and the Blue Sky
Motel. Having already had dinner at home, we stopped to get some
breakfast snacks at the AM-PM Keley's market. From previous times we
followed a routine that worked well for this loop ride that is a bit
long to enjoy on one day.
http://tinyurl.com/29nqsc
http://tinyurl.com/2n44x
Sunday morning we ate our power breakfast, left street clothes behind
in the motel room to which 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 toward
Hunter-Liggett military reservation.
http://tinyurl.com/anvyv
http://www.pashnit.com/roads/cal/NacimientoRd.htm
http://www.cyclingforums.com/t18451.html
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.
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 offshore as though some giant had
thrown them there eons ago.
http://www.beachcalifornia.com/bixby.html
http://www.beachcalifornia.com/bigcreek.html
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 wren [censored], and [censored] mice while overhead red tailed hawks soared
in slow motion circles.
http://elib.cs.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=8253+3202+4143+0078
http://www.ct-botanical-society.org/galleries/myosotisscor.html
On the climb we saw century plants, that seemed to be agave sisalana,
but I can't be sure, there being so many 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.
From the broad flat summit about eight miles up 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 enormous sycamores along the water.
The descent that began steeply, gradually leveled off as the canyon
opened toward the broad valley of the Hunter-Liggett military reserve.
Here a guard station with concrete road barriers and a mechanically
erectable metal wall marked the boundary. We were were required to
show identification (driver's license) seemingly a formality that I
could imagine might become strict if need be. 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 be mostly unused by the US Army, there
being no sign of vehicles, tank or tire tracks, on the dirt roads that
crossed our path. Although other years had offered a flood of
wildflowers, this time we met only a few areas with a yellow carpet of
buttercups and lavender and blue lupine. The descent from the coast
range follows the San Antonio river that was flowing richly with
crystal clear water.
http://plantsdatabase.com/showpicture/35631/
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 and passed an unused training area with two M60 tanks parked in
the field as props. 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 works nicely if done slowly. The
web site above shows a M/C crossing one of these fords.
http://tinyurl.com/2oewy
http://tinyurl.com/32dym
We rode up the hill to the officer's club aka Hearst Hunting Lodge
designed by Julia Morgan (1100ft) for a good lunch, but it was still
closed this early in the spring, so we stopped at the PX for a
microwaved burrito and some bananas and drinks, there being nothing
for a few hours ahead.
http://www.pelicannetwork.net/hacienda.html
http://www.pelicannetwork.net/mission.san.antonio.htm
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.
Taking the road along Mission Creek we were amazed how smooth this
unpaved road was maintained. This road joins paved Del Venturi Road
to The Indians (1773ft) toward the upper end of the San Antonio River.
At Indian Ranger Station (2086ft), we crossed an inconspicuous divide
into the Arroyo Seco river, crossing the stream on a well maintained
ford as we left paved roads behind. Unfortunately, a road grader, had
just "shaped" the road so that it was loose in places but that only
lasted for about three miles up to Escondido Camp Ground, where the
grader had turned around leaving us with Indians road in its closed
state.
http://tinyurl.com/25w38z
http://tinyurl.com/25p45
http://tinyurl.com/2npda
Indians Road climbs out of the canyon, the narrows of Arroyo Seco
being impenetrable for a road without great expense and regular
maintenance. The climb went well with mostly good traction although
there was more rock debris than on earlier trips on this fairly clean
one lane road. It is in as good a shape as it is because motor
vehicles are blocked and cannot get past a large rock slide beyond the
summit as well as smaller slides on the north slope.
http://www.ventanawild.org/projects/ias/ias.html
http://tinyurl.com/2ysres
As we reached the high plateau (2800ft) we noticed some MTB tracks
that had been made when the road was muddy a few weeks ago. At the
north end of this long flat section the road climbs again as it
approaches the large rock slide with large angular boulders. The
crossing is steep enough to carry the bicycle over the well worn path.
The slide lies at the angle of repose that doesn't stop until Arroyo
Seco about 800ft down. 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:
http://tinyurl.com/26toc
http://tinyurl.com/yocv4s
At various spots there was enough loose rock on the road that we
decided to walk, in spite of which I got a slash in my front tire that
required a boot. Just in case, we had spare tires in the touring bag,
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 not many miles away.
On the way through Hunter-Liggett we saw coyotes in the fields,
bluebirds, magpies, woodpeckers and golden eagles above but no
condors.
The descent to Lucia Creek (1000ft) Arroyo Seco camp ground steadily
improved until we reached the Park, crossing a bridge and climbed over
a small rise along Arroyo Seco, a richly flowing river at this point,
whereas farther down it was just a rocky dry wash.
http://tinyurl.com/2wh2k
http://tinyurl.com/yqa6u
Here at The Lakes Campground (945ft) we were again on pavement. We
stopped at a small grocery store and took on some food and drink.
From here is was a pleasant cruise to the junction (704ft) with Carmel
Valley Road, also known as Jamesburg Arroyo Seco Road at this end.
The road climbs gradually in woodsy sheltered curves along Paloma
Creek. Just the same, the afternoon wind got stronger and cooler as
we progressed.
http://tinyurl.com/36bot
http://tinyurl.com/pwhth
Carmel Valley road rolls along Paloma Creek, gradually climbing until
about five miles up the valley where begins its climb to its summit
(2389ft) over which it crosses from Paloma Creek to Finch Creek
watershed. On the way up, we saw many wild turkeys out in the lush
green meadows. Although the land was green and lovely the wind was
not kind as it blew in our face descending Conejo Grade and on Ardilla
Grade along Tularcitos Creek. Bob towed us along about as fast as I
could hold his wheel to get back to our motel (400ft) (101 miles) in
good time, got a hot shower and a delicious dinner before getting a
good night's sleep.
In the morning we got another quickie breakfast from small market
before retracing the route we drove by car the day before. Traffic
was light on Carmel Valley road as well as on HWY 1 heading south
along the coast. That changes as tourist traffic got rolling.
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 yesterday with fog close to
the ground. Today we had large areas of sunshine and a good view out
to sea. From some of the higher parts of the road before Whale
lookout, we saw the spouts of many whales and had a beautiful panorama
from the heights down toward Bixby Creek with its beautiful concrete
arch bridge from 1932. We even had a good tailwind down to Big Sur
and cool sunny weather. At the Bakery on the climb out of Big Sur we
we met a group of bicyclists from Santa Cruz who were on their way to
Los Angeles for spring break. Other than that we saw no other
bicyclists.
http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org/pointsur.html
As we approached Lucia, large steep meadows below the road were solid
orange with California poppies and demanded a photo stop. In Lucia,
we got a satisfying gourmet burger with fries before packing our
bicycles into the car and headed back to the motel to pick up our bags
and head home, once again noticing how much nicer this route looks
from the bicycle.
The first day was 101 miles and 8590ft of climbing and the second
61 miles and 3800ft climbing
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Jobst Brandt