Day 2: Arroyo Grande to Lompoc

June 3, 2018

I had planned on today only being about 40 miles long because of the hills I had to negotiate. I'm glad I did that.

Coming off of the mesa southbound is a joy, with long sections of gradual downhill. You come into the flat valley loaded with farmland – fields of broccoli, cauliflower and other vegetables in the process of being harvested. The first town you come to, Guadalupe, is a purely functional working town. Dusty and seemingly half abandoned, there is nonetheless new housing construction going on on the south edge of town. There are several markets and a Subway sandwich shop, but not much else beyond the Amtrak station.

In case you're wondering how far you are from anywhere.

There are far too many of these along our roadways

But the ride through the valley is a joy, with very light traffic and a prevailing tailwind once you leave the town and make a slight left. Mostly flat with a few rolling hills, you are surrounded mostly by your own thoughts. Everything seems to move slower there; I watched a hawk lazily circling, occasionally flying towards some smaller birds who easily escaped his grasp because he really wasn't putting that much into it . These are all big corporate owned farms with romantic names like RANCH 5 NO TRESPASSING and the like, but mile after mile of seeing food crops makes for a really quiet, peaceful ride. The few cars that passed gave me plenty of clearance. A lone strawberry farm with a roadside stand filled the air with the sweet aroma of its crops.

I knew I needed to avoid my mistakes from past rides and eat soon, so I stopped in Orcutt for lunch. I had to laugh when the kid operating the pizza joint where I ate asked me if I wanted it to stay or to go, when I'm standing in front of him all sweaty in my full kit with my bike right behind me. There is a longish rise out of Orcutt that I took slowly, then began another long slight decline down to the turn onto Harris Grade Road.

I'll be honest: I had been dreading this stretch of road since I began planning this trip. I talked to several riders, all of who said it wasn't that bad and that I could easily negotiate it. Standing at the bottom of it, I actually spent 15 minutes considering it. You go from absolutely flat to an immediate 5% grade, a bad harbinger in my eyes. A few small flat areas and slight grades tempt you, then the serious climbing begins. You gain around 1000 feet of altitude in a bit over 3 miles, so the average slope I encountered was about 5%, sometimes more. I walked well over half of the climb, as the gradient was just too much for me to pedal. The sun was beating down and I drank every ounce of water I had before I reach the top and was still feeling parched. A few bikers passed me, all of them much younger and riding lightweight road bikes unencumbered by any kind of equipment like I was carrying. The SAG wagon from a group I had encountered came back to refill my water, and I reached the top about a quarter-mile later. Turning on my action cam, I spent the next several miles in a blissful, 28 mph coast to Lompoc. It almost made the climb up the other side worth it, as if anything could. I will never make that climb again on anything except an E bike. At least I have that video of the downhill to remember the joy of that part of the ride.

" Harris Grade isn't that bad," he said. "You shouldn't have any problem at all."

Arriving in Lompoc, I decided that I had earned a real bed and a real shower at a hotel rather than camping again.

Today's ride: 37 miles (60 km)
Total: 67 miles (108 km)

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