July 11, 2009
Day 2: To New Brighton State Beach
I got up at 7:30 after sleeping 10 hours. On the road at 9:15. The fog was close to the ground, so views were less than wonderful.
As usual the road goes from beach to headland to beach to headland. The headlands aren't extremely high, so the riding is fairly easy. Especially with a constant tailwind.
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Closer to Santa Cruz I started seeing more sandy cliffs and fewer rock outcroppings.
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I had lunch at the Gazos Grill, halfway from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz. It's not shown in my 1990 edition of "Bicycling the Pacific Coast". Lunch cost $20, but at least there was live music.
The book directs me to ride an inland route through Santa Cruz. That doesn't make sense to me because the Santa Cruz waterfront is so interesting. So I took the Cliff Drive turnoff and pedaled Cliff Drive through town. Most of it is on a path along the top of the low cliffs, looking down on the surf. Excellent scenery and people-watching.
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Navigating from Cliff Drive to New Brighton State Beach in Capitola was confusing because I didn't have a city map. $5 for a hiker/biker site. I'm not sure why some parks charge $3 and others charge $5. The hiker/biker site is very close to the park amphitheater. Tonight's "ranger program" was live bluegrass music. Being a Saturday, the park was crowded and noisy. The park is on a tall headland, but the hiker/biker site is right next to the main path leading down to the beach.
Traffic was heavy all day. That will probably be the norm as long as I stay near the coast. Temperature was 56F in the morning and 65F in the afternoon. The sun came out late in the afternoon, but it never felt warm to me.
Most Californians don't think of Santa Cruz as being in southern California, but I do. One reason is because the coastal cliffs tend to be sandy instead of rocky. The other reason is that Santa Cruz is the first town (when going down the coast) where people wear swimsuits on the beach instead of sweatsuits and windbreakers.
Distance: 61.9 mi (99 km)
Climbing: 2721 ft (825 m)
Average speed: 10.4 mph (16.6 km/h)
Maximum speed: 39 mph (62 km/h)
Today's ride: 62 miles (100 km)
Total: 106 miles (171 km)
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