The trip to Los Gatos was uneventful enough. Again, this year, I followed the signs to the Los Gatos Creek trail instead of taking the quick entrance on Santa Cruz. D'oh! Eventually I went through some alleyway over a few bridges, and finally on to the trail. The trail was one of the least fun parts. The crushed limestone gravel just slows things down, and I was unable to get traction to climb up some of the steep hills, thus I had to wheel my bike up. From there it was up around the reservoir on Alma Bridge (stopping at one little park with an outhouse), Old Santa Cruz and Summit, and then down San Jose Soquel. The climb is extremely nice - mostly shaded, not so steep that you need the lowest gear, but steep enough so you are not climbing forever. The pavement is also in great condition. The decent is also great. Smooth pavement, and just about the perfect mix of grade and turns to allow fast speed without much breaking. (The only downside was some tree work at the end of a downhill. The flagger even apologized for destroying my momentum.) There is a nice park near the bottom of the hill with water and a bathroom.
Then on to Soquel Road for a long haul. I saw a hole-in-the-wall donut shop somewhat near the community college, so I stopped in for an Apple Fritter. Yum. They didn't have much a of a selection, but the fritter was good.
Around Rio Del Mar, Soquel makes a curve, and I always seem to get confused. This time, I found myself on Huntington, and decided to continue on it. It has hardly any traffic, but some nice little hills. From there, it was a hop down Valencia to Freedom. I continued on Freedom to Watsonville. The first section of Freedom was mostly farmland (lots of apple orchards. (I recall passing a "martinelli" street.) Then it turns industrial, and the pavement becomes absolutely horrid. Eventually, I ended up in downtown Watsonville (and passed by a park with a water fountain) A couple metro buses follow this route, so it could provide an alternative.
From Watsonville, I went over the bridge to Pajaro, and then continued on Salinas and eventually to Elkhorne. This road has very little traffic, with some shaded sections and hills. It makes for a much more pleasant ride than Highway 1.
Then I got to Castroville. Or almost to Castroville. At 156, a sign said the right turn was towards 1 north. I thought that left must then lead to one south. Even the long wait for the left turn signal was not enough to convince me otherwise. After going for a little while, I had a hunch I was going in the wrong direction, but with it being around noon, I had a hard time judging by the sun (and my GPS was gone...) After a little while I was convinced it would be good to make the next right turn. Only problem, is there wasn't a right turn for 4 miles! Finally, I reached a right turn to 101 at Prunedale. I remember this place from the MST 55 bus, so I figured it was not the direction I wanted to go, but I could quickly take the first right to get back towards Castroville.
101 had a nice wide shoulder, and a couple traffic lanes, making it a somewhat more pleasant than 156. Part way down 101, a highway patrolman stopped me, and advised me not to ride on 101. I asked him if it was ok to ride there, and he said it was legal, but there were lots of large trucks and unlicensed drivers and it was dangerous. (Hmm, wouldn't the unlicensed drivers be on other roads, too? And there are plenty of large trucks moving at fast speeds on other roads - most with narrower shoulders.) However, I was clearly headed in the wrong direction, and wanted to get on to Monterey, so I asked him for the fastest way there. He pointed in the route that I was considering, back to Castroville. D'oh! (And his recomendations included a narrow road and then a high volume, high speed road with lots of trucks... Sigh)
So it was back down Blackie road to Castroville. Blackie has a little bit of shading. Which made it better than the heavily exposed other roads I was traveling...
Finally I end up on 183, and notice I'm heading towards Salinas... Again! D'oh! I see a turn off (Cooper) that seems vaguely familiar, and follow it down to Blanco. I remember that one from a previous trip back from Monterey. From there its on to Reservation and then Imjin. Then through CSU Monterey Bay and under Highway 1 to the bike path. I actually took a different underpass that took me to the 'empty' road on the beach side of the bike path. Its a little more pleasant, being a greater distance from the freeway.
I eventually made it there, 2 hours late and very sunburnt. D'oh! The 75 mile trip ended up being about 100 miles.
There was a professor (Stuart Kim) and one of his students that had also biked in. They went through Gilroy and over 152. When I went to my room, there was a do not disturb thing in the door. When I game back with my bike, one of the bikers appeared there. It turned out my roommate was in their same lab, and was letting them borrow the room to shower because her room was not ready yet. I finally had a nice shower and realized I was a little fried. The bathtub was also a slow drainer. D'oh. This room was not on the beach side, so I didn't have all the load beach waves at night... Instead there was highway noise.
The next day, I had visions of going down to Big Sur. However, it was a little further than I had anticipated, and I was a little slower than I hoped. I also got a little twisted up on the way to Carmel. Going down Highway 1 in to Carmel, I decided I would not repeat that route on the way back. (I had done that last year. It did not look like a fun hill to climb, especially with rush hour traffic.)
Highway 1 south of Carmel was uninspiring. The heavy traffic made it loud, and the mixture of wind and hills made for a challenging bike ride. Perhaps the greatest challenge was the fact that it was an 'out and back' route. There was no other road to turn on to make a loop back. I would just be going on the same road that I took there. And the scenery was just cliffs, hills and beaches. It started to get old.
So, around mile marking 62 (Rocky Point restaurant), I turned around to head back. There I realized that the bits were I seemed to be making good speed were really due to a tailwind. D'oh! That left me with a nice headwind going back.
Near the turnaround, there were a group of beachfront estates - it looked like everyone was for sale - for about $6 million dollars. The multimillion dollar homes in Carmel Highlands looked a little more appealing, but I think I would pass on the beach view... Just a little too loud for my tastes.
On the way back, I went by Carmel's beach, through Pebble Beach, and around the end of the '1X' bus route only the coast and eventually to the bike path. With all the detours, the total trip was somewhere in the 40-50 mile range.
For the trip home, I decided to try to be as direct as possible. But things can sometimes get in the way. I took the Bike Path, then continued on to Del Monte. Near Marina, I really had to go to the bathroom, I jumped over the railroad tracks to Marina Library. Then I got twisted up, going out to the Reservation beach before eventually finding my way back to Del Monte/Monte. Then it was on to Castroville via a road and bike path that connects Nashua to Merrit. I tried to hunt again for a public facility, but I just seemed to see industrial areas. Castroville also seemed rather small for the population figure given. Finally I crossed the highway and found the "artichoke capitol" (75% of the US artichokes come from here according to wikipedia). I eventually found the Castroville library - had to ask for a restroom key ("due to vandalism").
From there I continued on Merrit Street, which eventually came to 1. This section of Highway 1 is not horrid, but not fun. It is loud with a lot of traffic, and it goes close to the coast, making for lots of wind.
Shortly before reaching Jensen, I noticed a lull in traffic, and thought I might try to make a left turn to go through the strawberry fields. However, when I got closer, there was a steady stream of traffic, so I decided to continue onward. Then the road became a freeway, with a bikes must exit sign. (I never understand why they make bikes exit when it becomes a freeway - this seems to make it safer for bikes. The traffic splits in to two lanes and the shoulder gets wider. And exits are to the right rather than forcing left turns. Oh well.)
I noticed some "Pacific Coast Bike Route" signs, so I attempted to follow them. This directed me down Salinas Rd. Then a sign
pointed left, so I dutifully turned left at the next intersection - which turned out a private road for a couple businesses. Then I realized it was pointing to the next street, so I eventually made it to the right location, and kept going down Salinas as directed. This lead me through downtown Watsonville, but then the signs seem to have failed me. I continued going straight on the road. But eventually it forked, without a sign.
I continued on Main Street. But, eventually, it entered the freeway. So I followed along the parallel road (westgate). It eventually turned in to Larkin Valley. This is a nice road with rolling hills and very little traffic (but also very little tree cover) Eventually it crossed over Highway 1, and became San Andreas. And right afterwards, it intersected with Bonita, where I found the trusty "Pacific Coast Bike Route" sign again. This lead a short bit down Bonita to Freedom and back to Soquel. Then I continued down Soquel to Porter which becomes San Jose Soquel. I stopped at the park there to 'refuel' for the trip up the hill.
San Jose Soquel seems much longer on the way up than the way down. It really does go past the 10 mile marker. There were hardly any cars going in my direction, but a decent number going the other way (early commuters heading back home?) I had managed to break out a nice sweat by then. Once I started going down the summit, the temperature jumped up noticeably.
This time, I decided to go down Old Santa Cruz Highway all the way (instead of Aldercroft Heights.) It was a fairly nice decent. Good pavement, hardly any traffic. I noticed a VTA bus just ahead of me on summit. I thought I would have a chance to outrun it, but some of the intermediate hills did me in. On the way down, I found myself breaking a little more than San Jose Soquel - partly due to the sun (I just couldn't make out the road.) I road on the shoulder of 17 for the brief bit between the end of Old Santa Cruz and Aldercroft Heights. The shoulder has a few real bad patches there. But, there is still plenty of room. And the rightmost lane is actually an 'exit' lane, so there is plenty of buffer.
After jumping on the Los Gatos Creek trail, I had wished I just stayed on 17 to Los Gatos. To get to the trail, first you have to go down a steep gravel hill. I tried riding, but eventually walked down it. Then up a hill, then down a hill. All pretty much need to be walked, unless you are good with a mountain bike. Yuck.
From there, it was the direct route down Santa Cruz to Highway 9. I had planned on continuing down Saratoga-San Jose to Prospect. However, I got a red light at Pierce, with another car in the left turn lane, so I decided to take that shortcut through the Prospect. I found the right streets, with only one little detour (through a "no outlet" sign I didn't trust, which ended up being true.)
I had already gone through all my water, so just decided to zoom towards home. Eventually made it there, and quickly guzzled the two water bottles that I had forgotten (somebody had placed them in the fridge.)
Trip there was a little before 7 am to 3pm. Trip back was between 10:30-11am to 5:30-6:00pm.
As for the Genetics conference, the talk I found the most interesting was on "barcoding". The goal is to allow quick, cheap tests to determine the identity of species of plants and animals based on a quick DNA sample. The tests have already been used for identifying new species among similar animals in Costa Rica. The speaker envisioned a $2.50 device that would allow for identification, along with a 'tax' that would help support the scientific research and classification. (Somehow, I see the $2.50 device much more likely than the research tax.)
There was also an interesting panel on consumer genetics companies. Should people have access to their genetic information, and what are the consequences. Will some of these super cheep sequencing technologies come aboard? (And not discussed - will this amount to anything? Or will we discover that were missing some other huge aspect of the genetic system?)
View Larger Map
Above is a rough version of the route I took. There were a few additional minor detours that are not included in the map. Also, the 'routing' on Highway 17 was actually the Los Gatos Creek trail, while the routing on 1 was a combination of Beach Range Road and the beachfront bike path.
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