spinnaker

POTD?


Planet of the Dead?

fourfa

I just rode through Big Sur last week, the legal way. Started in SF, camped at hiker/biker at Pfeiffer Big Sur SP on day 3, pushed and carried the bike up the bypass trail around the Pfeiffer Bridge. Rode south through Big Sur with about as many bikes as cars on a Saturday. Plenty of free water to be found BTW, at the parks and volunteered up by shop owners (I bought various stuff where I got water - and the breakfast burrito at the deli by the south end of the bridge is epic!). Climbed out over the brutal Nacimiento-Ferguson Rd (only needed 2L of water for the climb, free water at the USFS station at the summit) and completed the lengthy and extremely hot (105 degF) bypass via Paso Robles to SLO on day 4. The locals warned me up and down about crazy driving on N-F Rd but it's only narrow when two big cars or trucks need to pass each other, for a bike and a car it was perfectly calm and safe.

I got secondhand info from two separate sources about cyclists having pushed bikes over the Mud Creek landslide. It's 100% illegal ($5000 fine), unsafe (loose ground and boulders still rolling), and has active construction crews during the day, but there ya go. Got varying info about the bridge opening in 1-2 months; the slide will be years still.

BTW the hiker/biker site at Veteran's Memorial Park in Monterey is a homeless encampment at the moment - if you're not there with a buddy keep close watch on your gear; got firsthand reports of thefts.

alan s 

Pittsburgh's Overpowering Touchdowns. Indyfabz is just trying to say "Go Steelers!"

Cyclist0108

This is great:

Time-lapse video shows cracked Big Sur bridge being rebuilt

Time-lapse video shows cracked Big Sur bridge being rebuilt - SFGate

Ball Bearing

I rode to Big Sur and the darned 'coons opened all of my panniers and bags. They have amazing dexterity and a very sophisticated palette - they ate all of my organic sprouted bread and choice granola.

indyfabz

They are sneaky suckers. Last year I caught one dragging away one of my panniers into the woods. I was in New Jersey bear country so all my food was stored inside a restroom a ways away from tent. Earlier I had a really pungent everything bagel in that panniers. My guess is that that is what attracted him.

BigAura

Heck, I'm not a bear, those attract me from a very long distance.

J.Higgins 

...and if the tires were filled with helium, you could go back in time!

DropBarFan

Impressive!

Heh, at least they didn't tear the panniers (I hope). A local fox recently stole 2 flip-flops from the patio, a bit ironic since I've left flip-flops outside for years before.

Ball Bearing

No, he (or they) very carefully undid the spring loaded fasteners and untied the inside bags without causing any damage. The plastic bread bags were another story - there was torn plastic bags all over my campsite.



Because I was stealth camping right on the beach I didn't think that bears would be a problem.

Cyclist0108

(duplicate post. sorry)

Cyclist0108

Crews prepare to pour concrete for Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge in Big Sur

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/gen...dge-in-big-sur

spinnaker

Great news. Any news on the slide?

Cyclist0108

Slide won't be cleared -- they will rebuild the road, and I think it will be another year.

I'm going down there again tomorrow for a day ride with my wife. If all goes well, we will park in the State park, shove the bikes up the hill, ride 25 miles to Lucia, 25 back, and then come home. This will be a long ride for her, and she has various hip and back issues, so this will be a bit of a crap-shoot. Hopefully I'll see some condors again.

spinnaker

Oh great yet another hill. I was hoping for a tunnel. a tunnel on that section would be cool.

Actually I am surprised the slide is going to be stable enough for any kind of rebuilding. You would think it would take years of compression to stabilize.

Cyclist0108

I think they are going to build around the slide. I wanted to ride to it today but my wife wasn't quite up for it, so we just went to Lucia and back. There were hundreds of cyclists this time, and no condors (possibly in the far distance, but too far away to get a positive ID vs a TV).

If anyone can do this ride before Oct 15 (when the bridge re-opens) and hasn't yet done it, I highly recommend it. I've done it twice now, and might do it again. The schlep up the hill didn't seem as hard this time. I took some video. If I can edit into something viewable, I will try to post a link.

Cyclist0108

@spinnaker

Some slide photos: PHOTOS: Mud Creek Slide, Big Sur - Santa Cruz Sentinel Media Center

valygrl

I did it yesterday. Amazing weather, lots of whales. road is in good condition apart from a short construction zone.

You can't see the slide from the barriers at Gorda, and there's a construction worker posted there to keep people from sneaking in.

the Whale Watcher Cafe in Gorda really appreciated our business. One of our guys called ahead to ask them if they minded if 13 cyclists came for lunch and they said they wouldn't mind, they would "hug us" - but what they actually did is BBQ'd a tri-tip for us. Yummy.

spinnaker

Looks like they are making really good progress.

numbernine

I'm hoping to do something like this route this week. Wondering if you guys can spot any red flags for my plan:

1) ride from Monterey to Kirk Creek campground (is it open? water?) en route looking for a trail to push my bike around the yet-to-be-opened Pfeiffer Falls bridge (is this hard to find?). I have 30 lbs of gear from pacific coast tour (2 panniers and handlebar bag)
2) long climb up Nacimiento-Fergusson road, fill up water at fire station near 2,500 ft mark, ultimately end up in King City (on US101) for a 46 mile, 4,300 ft day where I'll be picked up.

skidder

A little bit of an update on the slide that covered Hwy-1 :

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/to...cid=spartandhp