Alternate Ideas for Santa Cruz to Carmel
 

Hi all, new to forums but not new to cycling.

I've ridden from the SF Bay Area to Monterey now twice and am looking for alternate routes to Carmel. I dont like navigating through Santa Cruz, nor the ride from Santa Cruz outskirts to and through Monterey (windy, cold and foggy).

What I'd really like is to be picked up at the Boardwalk and driven to Carmel with my bike.

Are there alternate inland routes that might get me off Hwy 1 and out of the navigational hell of Santa Cruz and Monterey and quickly get back to the nice parts of Hwy 1 towards Big Sur?

TIA

cgoab

i wouldn't be surprised if there was a greyhound bus route between SC and carmel.

Unfortunately, Monterey just tends to be foggy. I've attended quite a few events at Laguna Seca, which is somewhat inland, and it's often cold and foggy especially in the morning...

Once you're in Santa Cruz, you pretty much have no choice but to navigate through it. Honestly, I didn't think it was that difficult: follow West Cliff Dr. to the Boardwalk, walk across the pedestrian bridge, follow East Cliff Dr./Portola Dr. to 41st Ave, cut over to Soquel Dr. and you're on your way. There's a decent amount of pedestrian, and some car, traffic on this route but it isn't terribly difficult to follow.

If you're just going from Santa Cruz to Carmel, or even Big Sur, try leaving late in the day. Often, the fog will burn off by lunch time. In the summer, you can easily make it to Big Sur before sunset even if you leave Santa Cruz at noon...

Sure. You can take BART to Fremont. Then ride south to San Jose and pick up the Coyote Creek Trail to Morgan Hill. Ride rural roads to Hollister. From Hollister go west a bit to pick up the San Juan Grade over to Salinas and the Highway 68 to Monterey.

Use the Kreb Bicycling map for South San Francisco and Monterey Bay.

+1 for purchasing a Krebs Map. They're a great resource. You've got lots of good options. There are a few through the Santa Cruz Mountains if you like climbing. The route from Fremont described above isn't bad. I find the stretch from Morgan Hill to Gilroy to be pretty boring. From Gilroy to Hollister you'll probably get a screaming tailwind if you hit it in the afternoon. Don't go all the way into Hollister, but instead, turn right on 156 at the light and that will take you to San Juan and the San Juan Salinas Grade Road. That's a great ride. I find it incredibly easy to get lost in Salinas, but if you stay on the grade, go left at North Main and head straight through downtown (you have to detour for one-way streets but just by a block) you'll emerge at the edge of town on Hwy 68. I usually leave near Spreckels to take Reservation Road to Marina, but since you don't like that, you can stay on 68, detouring the section it briefly shares with Hwy 1 (closed by bicycles on that stretch) on surface streets that you can find on Krebs or Google maps, and then get back on 68 all the way to the 17-Mile Drive into Carmel.