A cheerful, chirping voice wakes me up this morning. It’s my birthday, Rachael announces. I know that of course, and would have wished her one first and would have given her a grizzled, unshaven birthday kiss if she’d given me a chance. Maybe it would have taken a cup of coffee to get the memory in gear, but I’m sure I’d have gotten there soon enough.
And then I remember the other thing about today. I have to be nice to her all day, and she gets to make all the important decisions. Groan.
I get a start on the being nice to her bit by promising to take her out for lunch when we get to San Jose - her choice of restaurant, of course. And I promise her tailwinds, since as windy as the last few days have been, today’s forecast is even fiercer with a steady 30-35 mph howler from dawn to dusk. We can hear it from inside our room now, as I could off and on throughout the night.
It’s 25 miles to San Jose, and even though there’s some substantial climbing involved it should go reasonably fast with this wind as long as we don’t get blown off the road somewhere. We load up the bikes on our own private patio, and are on the road by 10.
New bike shirt! Rachael picked it up back in Portland before we left, and has been saving it up for her special day. With her helmet and panniers it gives a nice, coordinated look.
Most of the day’s elevation gain comes in the first few miles as we climb away from the coast and into the arid, open interior. As we leave town I recognize several landmarks from looking down on this country from my walk yesterday. The climb doesn’t come with much pain because of the w-assist powering us today, and in spite of my stopping here and there for a quick shot we make good progress. Rachael’s gotten ahead of course, but waits for me as usual at the high point of the day so she can include me in the video of the coming descent.
In better days this would likely have been whitewashed and sparkle in the sun.
I catch up with Rachael at the saddle, do my part by biking in front of her for about the first half of the coming descent, but then pull up when I come to a spot I want to take a longer look at. We changed direction at the summit and are struggling now against a forceful, gusting crosswind as we drop. At the point I stop we’re just about to turn directly into the wind in a narrow hairpin bend. It’s a struggle biking downwind to the bend, and then we round the corner and are suddenly blasted forward again.
The crosswind is a challenge here, but nothing like what she’ll face around that bend ahead.
I wait before the bend because I want her in the frame after she’s rounded it. What stopped me here in the first place though was that hill behind her with its array of olives confined to its north face.
That first long but modest climb brought most of our elevation gain for the day, but this little next hop ahead brings the only real pain. Easy enough at first, but it ends with a steady 10-15% slope whose summit can’t come soon enough for our liking. The wind helps of course, but there’s only so much it can do with a pitch like this.
Doesn’t look too bad but it feels smart to stop here first, taking on water and enjoying the shade for a minute before starting in.
After that though it’s a steep drop, another climb that’s thankfully of the modest type, and then we drop into San Jose and stop at the restaurant Rachael’s picked out for her birthday meal. The lengthy menu is still a work in progress when we bike up, but looks promising so far. Lunch won’t be served for another half hour though so we continue a couple of blocks to the waterfront where I watch the bikes while Rachael heads off to the supermarket to pick up dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast before it closes for the day.
After polishing off our meal we head west out of town to Vistamar Apartments, the third straight place where we’ve booked into the same lodging as the Grampies. As we’re packing up to leave the restaurant there’s a scare when Rachael can’t find her Garmin. I go back to the restaurant to see if we’ve left it behind and then look thoroughly around the area where we’ve parked the bikes but without success when it finally occurs to me that I should be able to track it on my own Garmin. It shows that hers is right here with us, so we just start biking and are relieved when we get a few blocks up the street and see that it’s dutifully tagging along.
Vistamar is a bit out of town but lives up to its name, with our room offering up a superlative view down across the town’s waterfront and the headland beyond. And it’s got a deck with a table and chairs that would make a lovely place to sit and admire that view if it weren’t for the fact that the 30 mph wind is blowing straight at our window. I step out just long enough to take one quick snap before retreating to the room again.
The view from our room isn’t bad, even with the door closed to keep the wind out.
We originally booked ourselves for three nights here, but two days ago reconsidered and cut it back to a single night. Since this is our only night to be here now I decide to brave the wind and take a walk down to Playa de los Genoveses, a beautiful place I remember from our first stay here. Rachael though exercises her Birthday Girl Prerogative and chooses to stay in the room and admire the view while she stays cozy and warm. Later she’ll go out herself for perhaps a ten minute walk but quickly scurries back to the room and out of the wind.
I’ll return two hours later, totally blown apart by the wind but glad I braved it. It’s wonderful seeing this spot again and refreshing my memory of the first time. Besides the relentless wind today, it’s a different experience from last time. Before, we saw exactly one person when we were here in early December, and him only very briefly. This time there are several other hikers on the trail across the headland to the beach, and the bay is alive with surfers and wind sailers.
San Jose and its surroundings in the natural park are such a unique place, and I’m sorry we elected to cut our stay short here and move on tomorrow; but more about that decision later.
After about a half mile walk through the outskirts of San Jose and a walk on this rough trail along the headland, the small bay comes into view.
Playa de los Genoveses, a small beach between two headlands. It gets its name from the Genoese navy, whose ships landed here in 1147 to support the Christian occupation of Almería.
As I was saying, it’s very windy today. Periodically small sandstorms will race across the beach, dissipating seconds after they appear. Not a problem with the wind at your back, but when you’re walking the other direction you have to turn your back to it and wait it out.
Scott AndersonTo Bruce LellmanThanks, Bruce. Actually, I was thinking of you when I shot it. Neither of these shots was converted to B&W - it’s as they came off the camera. Reply to this comment 1 month ago
Karen PoretHappy Birthday on March 23! My Dad would have been 110 today. Nice to meet another Aries! Congratulations and hope no windy days spoil your ride too soon.. Reply to this comment 1 month ago
1 month ago