by Liz

Day’s mileage : 40

Running total : 1,436

Ascent : 1,955ft

Wednesday.

I had wondered, once we reached San Francisco, if our much loved rural landscapes were behind us. The answer seems to be yes and no. Last night I inserted myself into a slightly precipitous top bunk in our dorm at Pigeon Point Lighthouse hostel, so that this morning I could peek out of the curtains and see the crashing waves and lines of pelicans heading off to fish further up the coast. I wasn’t disappointed. See the photo of the scene, taken through a rather grubby window.

Pigeon Point felt like it was at the end of the world. We saw sea lions, and further out, what must surely have been a pod of dolphins leaping together. Last night at dusk Cathy saw a line of pelicans gliding home to roost, literally hundreds of them in a single line. They are the coolest birds.

Today we managed to miss the elephant seal look out point 🙈 and decided not to cycle back the four miles into a headwind to get to it. We passed many farms and ranches and stopped at one that said it sold pies. Piers’s comment after our practice weekend, that I should be feeding Philip more pies, has been a bit of a theme on this trip, so I’d hoped to finally find him a pie. But they don’t seem to do proper savoury pies on the west coast and I wasn’t prepared to pay $40 for a marionberry pie that without a doubt would have been crushed into a scrumple in a pannier.

For much of the day we rode with the sea in view, grey and moody to begin with and all shades of turquoise once the sun came out. It seemed particularly huge today, fewer islands and coves, just ocean as far as the eye could see. Turkey vultures hunted to our left and pelicans fished to our right. We watched a sea otter play in the waves at our lunch spot. Then we got to Santa Cruz. Here there were pods of surfers in every cove and a theme park right on the beach. Thankfully we’re a way along the coast and uphill this evening, in tranquil Aptos.

Staying at hostels you meet such interesting people. Last night we shared the keeper’s quarters with Tom and Stephen who flew in from the UK yesterday. They’re going to be rowing from Monterey to Hawaii with three others. They’re expecting to take about 30 days to complete the journey. What’s more, it’s Tom’s second time. And I thought our adventure was pretty adventurous!

Additional notes

Pigeon Point to Aptos, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties, CA

Left at 10.20am. Arrived at 4pm.

Weather: Overcast morning. Cold, 12 degrees. A stiff tail wind. Sunny from mid-morning. 

Landscape: The 1 with small hills to the left and a moody sea to the right. Ranches and farm shops. More small hills to the left and to the right large fields of crops to the edge of the coast. A state park, free for walkers and bikers, which led us to the edge of Santa Cruz. A bike path along the edge of town and the cliff top. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, actually a busy street with a huge theme park next to the beach (poor Santa Cruz). Bike paths to Pleasure Point. Residential roads to Capitola. Big roads again after Paradise Beach.

Towns: Santa Cruz. Pleasure Point. Capitola. 

Trails: Through Wilder Ranch State Park. 

State roads: Highway 1. 

Breakfast: Fruit, yogurt and Dorset cereal (the one brought from home). Porridge. 

Lunch spot: On a bench beside the bike path on the outskirts of Santa Cruz, the ocean in front of us, houses behind us. There was a big rock in the sea just out of sight and every so often a wave would smash against it and the spray fly up higher than the road.

Dinner (C): Pasta bake, sitting around the fire pit with a little view of the ocean a mile away. Fruit and ice cream. We shared a chocolate pie (finally a pie). 

Wildlife: Pelicans. Seals. Dolphins. Turkey vulture with prey in its clutches. Kept looking for whales but no luck. Sea otter. 

Plants: Armfuls of wildflowers growing on the verges. 

Things we saw: The remains of a scorched forest in the hills. A ranch sign that read ‘Cascade Ranch, historic farm since 1852’. A farm shop advertising pies but it was shut (Piers commented P needed to eat more pies). At a snack stop there was a small sticker on a post that read ‘Prepare for climate disasters’ with an image of a person carrying a child in rain and a flood. And 1kg of onions left on a picnic table there. Stopped at Swanson Berry Farm to look for the blessed pie but it was all fruit and expensive so we bought three strawberry cookies for $9. Tractors and irrigation systems at work in the crops. Lots of surfers in and out of the water and a surfing museum in Santa Cruz. A house in Capitola, dark blue with a tree in front of it laden with yellow lemons, so pretty but I didn’t feel I could stop yet again to take a photo.

People we spoke to or saw: Stephen from Ireland (the rower), used to work for Cirque du Soleil, also rode the PCH in 2019 but with no experience or preparation. Lots of people walking and cycling along the trail through Santa Cruz. Many surfers at Pleasure Point, doing an impressive job. Chatty men outside the supermarket. Joe, the friendly owner of our AirBnB.

Incidents: I put my phone on the slatted bench while I packed up and when I next looked it had a beautiful but unfamiliar image of a flower on the screen – it was under the bench and the camera had focussed on it. C pressed the shutter and the image was captured!

Shopping: Safeway, Aptos.

Accommodation: Luckily up the hill in Aptos where it’s tranquil, in a comfortable guest suite.

Today’s sound: Boom of spray hitting the rock.

Today’s smell: Gas from the patio heater while writing the blog outside.

Special moments: Waking up in the top bunk beside the window and looking out to see waves crashing on the rocks and pelican line-ups heading up the coast. The sun came out mid-morning and instantly the sea was all shades of turquoise. A snack on a bench at Greyhound Rock with a lovely sea view. Tea and cookies on the long window seat and later writing my journal there. Looking round the owners’ garden. 

Positive experience from my journal: Waking up beside the window and looking out at the amazing view. 

Appreciation from my journal: Chatting easily. 

Blog comment from Don Lewis (IBM).

Video: Pelicans from my bunk at Pigeon Point (21s). Pelicans in flight (5s). Sea and yellow flowers, Sant Cruz (10s). Wave at Santa Cruz (9s). Surfers (21s + 13s). Aptos AirBnB (16s) and fire pit (10s). 

Mementos: Safeway receipt, Aptos.