This is a road trip to Joshua Tree National Park and central California coast including Tony’s Gran Fondo at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. Tony wanted to plan this trip, which is normally my domain. We have affectionally called this trip the Low Planning, High Fun trip. We drove 2005 miles and Tofu now has >50,000 miles on the odometer. This van is not pretty inside, but it sure does take us to some pretty places. The van, again, worked flawlessly including the previously troublesome heater which we used a number of mornings. Overall, the weather could not have been more perfect for this trip with warm days and cool nights.

Our first stop was Joshua Tree National Park where we have visited many times in the past as it is one of our favorite National Parks. We spent 4 nights in the park, but due to its popularity, we had to book 4 different campsites in different campgrounds. Our plan was to hike some of the shorter, more popular trails that we have previously avoided due to their popularity, but to hike them in the early morning or early evening in hopes of avoiding the crowds. This strategy worked brilliantly as we usually had the trail almost entirely to ourselves during these times. We hiked in the desert, in cholla gardens, in canyons, near mines and along ridgelines. We had an amazing time which included daytime temperatures near 80 degrees but overnight temperatures in the low 40 degrees. Tony got in several long bike rides as part of his training for the upcoming Gran Fondo.  Purple-pink sunsets, coyotes howling in the distance and surrounded by nature…life doesn’t get much better than this.

After leaving Joshua Tree we headed for the central California coast with stops in Paso Robles, Los Osos, Monterey, Carmel-by-the-sea, Capitola and Aptos. We spent 6 leisurely days driving along the California coast admiring the cliffs, ocean waves and rock formations. A quick stop at our favorite olive oil farm, Kiler Ridge in Paso Robles before pushing slightly south to our first stop at Montana de Oro State Park in Los Osos, CA. This park was amazing with sheer cliff walls and huge crashing waves as we walked along the edge of a bluff trail. We have never been to this area before and only had 1 afternoon available to explore so we will be back in the future to explore further and dig deeper. We pushed north with a stop in Monterey, CA as we had plans to bike the 17-mile Road from Monterey to Pacific Grove to Carmel-by-the Sea. What I didn’t plan on was that this road was a point-to-point road and not a loop. Our little e-boosted Brompton folding bikes were pushed to the limits on this ride, especially with all the elevation needed to connect the beginning and endpoints. This was a lovely bike ride, mostly all along the coast, where we stopped and saw harbor seals, birds, wildflowers and many gorgeous (and humongous) houses tucked all along this private enclave. After Monterey, we pushed north to Ano Neuvo State Park which has the 2^nd largest rookery of elephant seals in California. It was “molting season” so all of the remaining females were shedding their coats and their cute babies, some just a few months old, were located close by. We have seen the elephant seals previously at California’s largest rookery located near the Hearst Castle, but we preferred this rookery as it was more scenic and far less crowded as it required a 3-mile round trip hike. Next on our list was to explore the Capitola and Aptos beach towns while staying at New Brighton Beach State Park. We serendipitously found the Forests of Nisene Marks State Park which is a 2^nd growth Douglas Fir and Redwood Forest located less than a mile from Highway 1. This was a quiet and shaded “locals” park and it felt like we had discovered a hidden gem. The park and trails reminded us of those we have hiked near Seattle and on Vancouver Island and we were not expecting the lush, shaded and pine covered trails we found in this park.  While in this area, we rented kayaks and paddled out to the Elkhorn Slough to see the sea otters. There were sea otter flotillas and also individual sea otters foraging for food along with mama sea otters with their babies balanced on their bellies. A didn’t bring my camera on the kayak and my GoPro pictures didn’t turn out so great, so all we have is our memories of this experience and you will have to trust us the sea otters were super cute.

The main purpose of this road trip was to get Tony to the Sea Otter Classic Bike Expo in Monterey, CA. We camped 3 nights in a less than ideal campsite at this event which had 9,000 participants and another 74,000 friends and family. Thank goodness for ear plugs! We are too old for “festival-style” group camping. Tony enjoyed the bike expo and took part in the 88-mile Carmelo Gran Fondo bike ride. This ride was untimed but supported with aid stations and volunteers to guide the 250 riders along the route. Some of the former pro women gravel racers did Tony’s event after racing the day before as a “recovery ride” so he enjoyed meeting and riding with them as they were riding at more moderate pace for the Gran Fondo.

The main issue was the roads themselves were in terrible condition with lots of potholes, gravel covered and generally just torn up surfaces. Tony was riding with a group of 20 other riders when an inexperienced, young amateur rider tried to overtake Tony going down a steep hill on a tight turn. The group had slowed as the sharp and steep turn was covered in loose gravel but this rider didn’t realize this until he was next to Tony when his bike slid out from under him, Tony hit the rider in the chest with his front wheel and then Tony went over his own handlebars and hit the pavement. The group stopped and was very attentive, the rider who caused the accident apologized up and down to Tony and to the group for causing the accident. Tony has (thankfully) no major injuries, and his bike has no major damage. Tony had another bike crash a little over a year ago where he also went over his handlebars but that time broke ribs and injured his thumb, so this crash was certainly not as serious. However, Tony does still have road rash on his elbow, a bruise on his hip and a big bruise on his sternum from this current crash. He is more pissed about the holes he now has in his favorite bike jersey and 2 big gashes in the carbon fiber of this bike. Several days later, he is still sore and not able to sleep flat, but he doesn’t think there is any permanent damage, but hasn’t been back on his bike yet since this event.

After the Sea Otter Classic was over, we pushed hard and drove home from Monterey, CA in one, very long day. The van is already unpacked, cleaned and safely parked back in storage until our next adventure.

Cybertrucks spotted: 1 (Tracey), 2 (Tony)

Provan Tigers spotted: 1 (Tracey)