Pacific Coast, Day 24: Capitola, CA to Soledad, CA

I started the long detour around the closed Big Sur highway today. The roads were fine, and I had a strong tailwind for most of the ride.

Farms lined the route, and the most prominent and recognizable crop was strawberries. The smell of ripe strawberries is everywhere and many of the fields had strawberry pickers with big hats working in lines, and full and empty strawberry boxes placed at strategic spots. The workers sometimes looked up and waved aa I rode by.

There were also many vineyards with what I assume are wine grapes, because they didn’t look like the kind of grapes you buy in a store. I stopped to take a picture of the grapes, and a man came by on an ATV and stopped to see what I was doing. I told him I just wanted a picture of the grapes, but he didn’t speak English, so I switched to bad Spanish. He laughed and said OK. While I was doing it, another guy on an ATV rolled up and stopped. He also didn’t speak English, so I explained in my bad Spanish. He looked at my bike and I told him I was riding to San Diego. He looked skeptical. I told him I was crazy, and he laughed and patted me on the back, and rode away.

I ran into a couple guys riding to Oregon, with their dog, Missy, in a trailer. They told me to spend as little time in King City as possible, and that they’d almost been murdered. I didn’t pry for details.

I split this detour into four chunks: around 70 miles today, 30 tomorrow and the big day, 62 miles with lots of hills, on Saturday. I probably could have split it up better if I had planned ahead, but at least I will be well rested on Saturday!

I loved this day. I felt so connected to our food, and everyone was so friendly!