Ride to Half Moon Bay

My original intent was just to hop over the hill for lunch and back.  Unfortunately I cannot be trusted when left alone and my short lunch ride wound up being 80 miles.

Yep, you read that right — 80 miles! I just about doubled my entire mileage for 2010 in one fell swoop.  I stopped to stretch and rest a lot and so far, after some ice packs and some resting, my back is hanging in there pretty well.

I started out with my original plan to take Cañada Road to 92 and hop over the hill to Half Moon Bay.

Once I got to Hwy 92, though, I realized the flaw in my plan…today was supposed to be a nice warm day and everyone who lived with 500 miles wanted to go to the coast.  Hwy 92 is the main route over the hill to the ocean, so everyone who lived within 500 miles was sitting on Hwy 92.

I sat with them for about 3 miles until the top of the hill, where I turned left (south) onto Hwy 35, also known as Skyline.  I didn’t really have a plan past that; I didn’t really want to have lunch at Alice’s, which was further down Skyline, but I figured I’d play things by ear and see what I came up with.

I came up with Tunitas Creek Road.

I was last on Tunitas Creek in December 2006 when I took the thumper Beemer to the coast to see the surf.  It’s easier to ride in the summer than in the winter…or would be, if the county wasn’t paving it (?) which seemed to mean “sprinkling loose gravel along the length of the road”.  No pucker moments, but it did remind me to go even slower than usual.

Apparently this is the only turnout I ever stop at along Tunitas Creek.  I don’t think I have pics of bikes anywhere other than this exact turnout.

Sorry this one’s blurry; I should have brought my tripod.

I hopped onto Lobitos Creek Cutoff to make it over to Highway 1 a little quicker.  Once you get closer to the coast, the road exits the redwoods and opens up quite a bit.  I saw a small amount of traffic on Tunitas Creek but none on Lobitos.  Zoom zoom!

Zip zip zip up Highway 1 for a few miles to Cameron’s.  It may have taken me a few extra miles to get my clam chowder for lunch but I did make it!  I just love Cameron’s.  The only problem with it is that they have an awesome beer selection and I’m almost always there on my motorcycle.  Maybe my overnight trip this fall should be to Half Moon Bay so I can walk to Cameron’s and have a beer at the pub.  Hmmmm!

After lunch, I decided that I wanted a picture of the Ninja with the ocean, so I headed south to San Gregorio State Beach.  The bad news is that the beach was closed for some reason — something about the lagoon? — and the ranger was turning people away.  The good news is that it was the same adorable ranger from December 2006 who jumped on my Beemer for a ride around the parking lot!! He gave me a big smile and wave today again — I doubt he recognized me (different gear; different motorcycle) but I think he just really likes bikes.

So I rode a couple of miles south to a nice turnoff along Highway 1 that allowed for good photos of ice plants and the ocean.

Yay! Bike with ocean!

After these pics, I turned around and took Highway 1 back up through Half Moon Bay to Highway 92.  It was still trafficked heading east but nothing like the other direction — it was still bumper-to-bumper towards the coast.

I stopped again a couple of times between Half Moon Bay and home to stretch.

All in all, an excellent ride and my back is doing well so far.  I have nothing but rest days for the foreseeable future so hopefully my muscles will continue to be happy and I can look forward to more rides of this length!

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