Upcoming trip
 

I am heading down to California in a couple of weeks for some vacation time. 10 days spread between Monterey, Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo. This is the only area of the state that I am unfamiliar with. Planning on taking my hybrid and wondering if you have recommendations for good places to ride or even nice MUPs in the area. I am still a noob so big climbs are still sorta out for me at this time. Still working on that. Thanks.

For Monterey, if you want an easy (and gorgeous) ride, you really can do no wrong by taking the multi-use path.

http://www.mtycounty.com/pgs-parks/bike-path.html

The section starting at the Seaside-Monterey border (Canyon Del Rey Blvd/218) south into Pebble Beach is the best. Past Lovers Point in Pacific Grove the bike trail becomes a bike lane shared with cars, but the traffic is low and slow. The section in Monterey/Pacific Grove has lots of tourists walking.

If you want something more challenge try Fort Ord. It is closed to cars (except for the occasionally rare employee). If your hybrid has knobby tires, you can even do some of the fire roads/dirt tracks.

I ride Ford Ord almost every day. The bike trail is too touristy/flat for me.

I just drove past Seaside on Saturday, and I was looking enviously at the trail - it looked like a nice place to bike!

Go to http://ridewithgps.com/find
Change start to within 10 miles of:
Type in Monterey, CA.
You will get a bunch of options. Look at the profiles of climbing to narrow your options.
Monterey through Pacific Grove and the 17 mile drive is beautiful.
I ride down there a lot with friends that live in the area.
Have fun

Sounds like a great vacation. Check out the San Luis Obispo Bike Clubs webpage for their favorite rides in and around Paso & SLO...
Click Here to View.

BR

Awesome tips, thanks so much. I was completely excited about this trip, but now looking at some of these rides, I'm beside myself! Thanks again, I just love California (almost as much as Washington :))

In SLO, ride out to Montana de Oro State Park. It's one of the best coastal parks in California. Bring a camera and a windbreaker. Also in the area is Morro Rock in the town of Morro Bay. You might see Sea Otters hanging out in the estuary.

We love riding in WA too. Lake Chelan, Twisp, Lake WA, and STP.
Enjoy your trip.

Recently got back from my trip. I had a blast and wanted to pop in and say thanks for all of the recommendations.

We rode a good deal and had a ton of fun. Did the Monterey bay coast trail, rode around SLO, did part of the Silverado Trail in Napa and rode a good deal around Santa Cruz and Morro Bay.

I must have pissed in my karma cup because I biffed twice - in one day.

Once outside the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, where I took a rail road crossing at a bad angle and stuck my front tire which resulted in fall 1. Bruised the crap out of my palm and bruised my ribs where I landed on my camera (which I had on around my back w/a back rapid sling). There was plenty of traffic, I had a captive audience...figured I'd put on a good show.

Didn't stop me though. I made due, sucked up the pain and rode on.

Second biff - I f*d up my wrist. Was at Lover's Point and hit a patch of sand while turning. I would have caught myself but my pedals, which had been unclipped decided to clip in and plunk..down I went, in slow motion and with plenty of cursing. I guess instinctively I tried not to land on my sorely bruised, nearly black, and definitely swollen palm and landed instead on my wrist. I was pretty sure it was broken but after a minute or two I was able to move it a bit, so I said screw it, rode to a pharmacy, got an ace bandage, whined a bit, then got back on the horse, er, bike and went for more. LOL

Shifting and braking is hard when you're wounded.

So in keeping with my bad karma theme, my bike is still in Southern Oregon, along with my '10 Outback which decided to temporarily throw a hissy fit, pissing out all the antifreeze. While the dealer in Medford awaits my new radiator I had no choice but to return back home to Seattle. I have to return to Medford this coming weekend to pick it up. 7 hrs each way (boo, hiss, boo).

So some tough luck, but in spite of that, we had a great time. Have some awesome bruises to show off at work and some great tan lines. Who could ask for better than that?

Here is a pick of my tank at Morro Bay. Thanks again.

I would recommend getting x-rays make sure there is no scyphoid fracture. Common injury when binning it on a wrist.