Club Member Spotlight

Credit Card Touring by FFBC Members

Central Coast Tour – May 28 to June 1, 2012  Joyce Tanaka

Tina Boomershine, Joyce and Ed Tanaka, with Rochelle Kiner in spirit

This multi-day trip was supposed to start in White Fish, Montana. Alas, the Montana ride sold out, so Tina, Rochelle, Ed and I came up with the Central Coast Tour. Unfortunately for Rochelle, she couldn’t join us as she sustained serious injuries from a bike crash two weeks before our trip. We included Rochelle in our pictures to give her and us the feeling that she was with us, albeit in spirit.
If you don’t like camping and still want the thrill of an unsupported multi-day trip, this is the trip for you. The itinerary provides you with the accommodation information. One note, Big Sur accommodations are limited, so plan accordingly. We determined the dates of our travel by working around the reservation at Deetjens.

Travel Light when "Credit Card" Camping

Bicycling the Pacific Coast by Spring and Kirkendall, is an incredible book, mostly geared for the bike camper. It has the climbing profiles and details cyclists will want and need. We had incredible views of the Pacific Coast as we lucked out with great weather and 25MPH tail winds in our favor. The only bike mishap: one flat tire, 20 steps from the hotel!

Climbing out of Big Sur. No cars.

Ed, the yellow speck on the Bixby Bridge

Itinerary, for our 175 mile ride with about 10,000 feet of climbing, below:
Day 1- Stay overnight in Pacific Grove at Lighthouse Lodge & Suites www.lhls.com

Day 2- Pacific Grove to Big Sur, 50 miles 3,500 ft. “Tootle” day, lots of photos, east start. Stop and check out Point Lobos.  Big Sur Inn http://www.deetjens.com/

Day 3- Big Sur to Cambria, 75 miles, 4,500 ft. “Big Climb” day, can’t doddle too much. Lots of climbing, maintaining the pace is key to enjoying this day.  Blue Bird Inn http://bluebirdmotel.com/

Day 4- Cambria to Port San Luis, 50 miles 2,000 ft.  Return to San Luis Obispo to catch the train back to San Jose the following day “Last” day, be sure to plan your last day to coincide with the San Luis Farmer’s market every Thursday night.
La Cuesta Inn http://www.lacuestainn.com/
AMTRAK back to San Jose http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak

Jorge and Ken’s Four Day Bike Tour  Jorge Gildelatorre

Four days of ”credit card touring” staying in motels.  They rode 198.8 miles and climbed 8,535 feet.
Day 1: Fremont to Capitola – June 18, 2012                                                                                   54.65 miles with 2605 feet of elevation gain

Jorge Gildelatorre and Ken Goldman at the start of their tour. Ken rode 8 miles on his bike to meet Jorge at his house

Day 2: Capitola to Monterey – June 19, 2012                                                                                 41.74 miles with 1555 feet of elevation gain

Rest stop at Manresa State Beach

Arriving in Castroville and heading straight to the 'panaderia' where we each had a couple of
Mexican sweet pastries melting in our mouth before the coffee had time to cool

Day 3: Monterey to San Juan Bautista – June 20, 2012                                                                50.51 miles with 3474 feet of elevation gain

Ken at the Laureles Grade Road summit

San Juan Bautista to Fremont – June 21, 2012                                                                              70.40 total miles with 51.4 miles ridden, 19 miles on light rail, and 901 feet of elevation gain

To get more information on this trip here is Jorge’s Four Day Bike Tour blog from where all this information came.

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