Cycling and Dining on the Central California Coast


This week's Bike Overnight comes from Rachel Duchak, who runs the blog, CentralCoastFoodie.com.

Rachel's story, titled "A Central Coast Foodie Bike Overnight," is about cycling and eating up the great scenery and the good food along the central coast of California in the Big Sur-San Luis Obispo area. It begins like this:

?You can?t camp here,? they said, looking at our bike-camping bivouac in the middle of the military base. The two police officers from Fort Hunter Liggett -- 50 miles north of Paso Robles in the rural foothills of the Santa Lucia Range -- were ruining my thoughts of a restful sleep tucked in the tent with my sweetie.
I actually should thank them for giving us the chance to check out The Hacienda, William Randolph Hearst?s old hunting lodge at Fort Hunter Liggett -- and possibly preventing us from ending up stuck in some tank's treads as the Army played war games around us in the dark. With the closest campsite a dozen miles down the unlit road, we headed back to the well-lit base to see if we could wrangle a room at The Hacienda. Such was the first night of our tour over the Santa Lucia Range and through Big Sur, via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road and Highway 1.
... From the top of the climb, dense trees clouded the view of the ocean. At its summit, Nacimiento-Fergusson Road bisects a dirt road; the way north heads to Cone Peak (6 miles one way); going south, it heads along Plaskett Ridge and to some dispersed campsites. No water or facilities in either direction, but plenty of views.

You can read Rachel's entire Bike Overnight tale at BikeOvernights.org. While there, also check out the archives of bike overnights and Photos of the Week. Our recent weekly photo selection, published April 13 and featured below, comes courtesy of Matt Alford, from his post, Bikepacking to 'Bag' Mt. Townsend.


BikeOvernights.org Photo of the Week, 04.13.12.

Top two photos by Rachel Duchak.

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BIKE OVERNIGHTS is posted every Monday by Michael McCoy, Adventure Cycling?s media specialist, and highlights content from BikeOvernights.org. Mac also compiles the organization's twice-monthly e-newsletter Bike Bits, which goes free-of-charge to more than 44,000 readers worldwide.

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/04/cycling-and-dining-on-central.html

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Traveling the Southern Tier: Judge Dave - Flat Court

The Adventure Cycling Association's Southern Tier tour has just finished their second week on the road arriving in Silver City, NM in the early afternoon. One of the many activities the tour participants enjoy is comparing the number of flat tires of each rider and the total for the group. On my Southern Tier with Adventure Cycling, the leaders awarded prizes for the least and most flats. To everyone's surprise the person with the least flats received a small box of nails; the person with the most flats received a CO2 pump and cartridges along with a patch kit.

I wonder what leaders Dave and Sean have in mind this year on the Southern Tier tour. Southern Tier rider Dee Griffin shared the following story of his group's experience with flat tires, the story of Judge Dave and Flat Court.

Judge Dave Points in full regalia

From the journal of Dee Griffin:

"Later, after a lazy afternoon and a great dinner (sweet and sour pork with rice, followed by pecan pie), we had our first flat tire court.  Everyone logs in their flats on the flat board (I'm tied with Alannah with 3) but you can appeal any flat to the flat court. Jonathan appealed his case because he had bought a tube with "slime"  and it sealed itself after he pulled out the glass. There was a quite a bit of argument about what a "flat" consisted of and whether a puncture was sufficient or whether the tire had to be flat enough not to be ridden.  Judge Dave presided with wig and gavel (lots of banging on the table). We had a jury of four and Dan was the defending attorney. The jury finally voted 3 to 1 to find Jonathan innocent of the flat; however, there was some muttering about jury tampering since Jonathan was threatening to quit adjusting certain people's derailleurs if they voted against him. (Jonathan is a wonderful bike mechanic and has been taking care of all the bikes).  There were also some aspersions cast on the character of the defense attorney (to the effect that he had admitted that he had shaved with butt butter and therefore could not be trusted)."


Photo by Dee Griffin

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ON THE ROAD is written by the tours team -- Mo, Paul, Madeline, and Arlen -- tours specialists and intrepid bicyclists, covering all things related to Adventure Cycling's tours Department. Check out our 2012 Tours!

Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2012/04/traveling-southern-tier-judge-dave-flat.html

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How Boris failed London Cyclists

In 2008, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson became a recognisable symbol across London. He carefully crafted an image of himself which, more often than not, included a trusted bicycle by his side. In the minds of Londoners it conveyed friendliness, at one with the people and emphasis on green credentials. However, after his four year [...]

Source: http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/cycling-london/how-boris-failed-london-cyclists/

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Bike lube: What?s all the fuss?

Keeping your bike well lubricated is probably one of those maintenance tasks that too frequently gets forgotten. But why does it matter? Which lubricant should you be applying? How frequently? Where? How much lube does a bike need? Why should I bother to apply lubricant? We?ve all been told we should keep our bike chains [...]

Source: http://www.londoncyclist.co.uk/maintenance/bike-lube/

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Klöden or Horner Could Win Tour of the Basque Country

Today?s 4th stage of the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Tour of the Basque Country in Spain, was predicted by many to be the decisive battle in the mountains that would reveal the one or two riders that could stomp down on the field and make this race their own. And while it was [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/kloden-or-horner-could-win-tour-of-the-basque-country/

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Team RadioShack Moves 3 into Paris-Nice Top 10 after Stage 6

In Friday’s race of truth, the individual time trial at the 69th running of Paris-Nice, Tony Martin of HTC-Highroad, as expected by many, laid down a devastating effort over the 27 kilometer course, beating the next competitor by a full 20 seconds and scrambling the general classification from the previous day’s posting. However, Team RadioShack [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/team-radioshack-moves-3-into-paris-nice-top-10-after-stage-6/

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Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Stage 1, Zumarraga to Zumarraga

The last few kilometres were all that I managed to see of today?s stage 1 of the Pais Vasco and coverage was intermittent even then as the cameras cut back to the finish line rather than following all the action. But when the focus was on the riders what a stage this was. Let?s be clear. Chris [...]

Source: http://www.teamradioshack.us/vuelta-al-pais-vasco-stage-1-zumarraga-to-zumarraga/

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