Day 19 – Kirk Campground to Moro Bay State Park – It’s Semi-Official: SoCal

Day 19 – Kirk Campground to Moro Bay State Park – It’s Semi-Official: SoCal

(Note:  Sometimes I post multiple days. This is one of them.  To make the posts make a little more sense, please read them in order)

65 miles today.  Pretty strong effort considering the route contained a fair number of hills at the start and the preceding days of 58 and 75 miles.  It was a great ride as that it was Saturday morning and I did not have many cars to contend with until later in the day.  The first third of the day consisted of finishing off the coastal hills and final third ended with a complete terrain and climate change.  The guidebook says that this is where Central CA ends and SoCal starts.  It’s beginning to look that way with more palm trees, desert, and cactus.  I’m in Moro Bay area at the State Campground.  Nice enough but see my comments below. 

Here is a link to today’s ride: http://www.movescount.com/moves/move36222510

My Social, Rather Anti-Social Skills

If you read yesterdays’ blog you saw that I was grumpy that my paradise was lost.  My encounter with four other bikers started out badly as they invaded my little happy valley (of one).  That was pretty much was a result of hard riding on both my and the their parts and the fact that the Biker/Hiker campsites that are set aside for, well, bikers and hikers were being scammed by folks who drove in and just ditched their cars on the road.  This created a lack of campsites available for whom they were intended.  A technical no-no but a good plan if you want to get a campsite on the weekend in CA. 

Well, it did not take me/us long to recover.  As that there was no water at the site and I realized I had overstocked on water, I offered them my extra gallon.  No charge. And then I turned them on to the breaching whales in the bay that they were too tired to even notice.  Very cool experience. 

I learned that two were a father daughter team from Burnaby, BC.  He was a teacher and his name is Phil.  Chatty but extremely polite fella.  His daughter, Adrianna, was a graduate student who had an interesting habit of talking to you with her eyes closed.  Really nice.  They started in San Fran and will end in LA. 

The other pair was a couple, Halley and Gavin.  Halley was the boss who kicked her partner’s butt in gin rummy every day after biking.   They are both from Austin, TX.  They started in Seattle and will in LA as well. 

All in all, a nice recovery on all of our parts (but to be sure I put a little distance between them and me as they will end in San Simeon and I’m 26 miles down the road in MB ;-)

Speaking of Hiker/Biker Campsites…..

The Moro Bay State Park Campground is nice enough.  It is mostly flat, has showers (thanks God!), is next to a municipal golf course (my worst idea was to have considered bringing my golf clubs along), and is adjacent to Moro Bay. 

As I type, I’m sharing it with no bikers, one set of car camping scammers (look nice enough) and a homeless couple.  Perhaps I should have stayed in San Simeon with my new friends, Phil, Adrianna, Halley, and Gavin ;-))

  

Photos

Phil, Adrianna, Halley, and Gavin

Sunset at the campground

The hills on the other side of the road

This rock is filled with pelican dung as it is a nesting site.  Funny thing is that there was a photo of it in the restaurant I stopped in in San Simeon.  Seems a strange photo to hang in a restaurant.

And, another one

Hills, hills, hills.  Climbing, climbing, climbing.

Looking back at the hills as I hit the flat lands

Easy money

One last look

Look, Tony! SLO!!

Elephant Seals!!

More ES

Old San Simeon

Look way up there.  Hearst Castle!  As close as I will get!

A little Harmony

Water.  I need water!!

Nice day.  You could see all the way to Moro Bay.  Round rock in the middle is the moro in the bay.  

It's official SoCal when you have this many cactus!

A closer look at the Moro Bay

Closer still