Wednesday 5/18/2016
We left our camp before most campers were up. Our neighbor next to us, who we shared their fire and long conversation with the night before got up to see us off.
It was around 7:30am. We were getting away before the big bicycle race event. We rolled quietly up the steep grade out of the camp valley area and laughed as Al had to get off his bike and open a large gate, we drove through and then he closed it, like we are escaping.
We drove about an hour in heavy sea fog; south from the San Simeon area to the small town of Cambria where we fueled our bikes, ate breakfast and did our laundry, all in a quaint village area clumped together.
On the way there we did see the elephant seals in their notorious place. We had watched the shore line for long enough we thought we might have passed it when suddenly appeared on the beach 100s and on and on in several areas of beach area 100s upon 100s they lay populating and wedged together covering the beach area very visibly. We stopped on a couple of different viewing areas complete with decks built for the observances of tourists. Here is a very good article on their domain there on this particular California coastal beach of Piedras Blancas.
We headed California inland from Cambria, leaving on 46 hwy and through a small mountain range that overlooked the clouds covering the sea below where we were leaving. It was a view of good- bye route one – you will be a sweet cherished memory.
We journed on and ate a combined lunch/dinner around 6:00pm in Bakersfield CA. and took that time to plan how much further we could go in the 90s temperatures we had been experiencing when we came down out of the mountainous regions and into the flat dessert heats. When we stopped I felt over heated and exhausted of energy, though after we ate and cooled down as we looked at our map we decided to ride a few hours longer. Al checked temperatures; where we were heading was not any better and was not even cooling off later. Although the elevation of the mountain ranges we would be riding through were cooler so we journeyed on into the evening with a purpose to cover some miles.
Gorgeous mountains with a rocky western flare in appearance, driving into swooping long curves, some of these mountains seemed to fold up around us.
Al navigates us well as we chose this particular direction over the heat of the interstate. We drove on through Lake Isabella CA, a gorgeous oasis in the mountains there and on into Ridgecrest, CA where we are lodging after a long hot day of riding.
Ahhhh
We were exhausted, it was nearing dark and 9pm when we checked in.
Hoover Dam is our destination tomorrow.
And that is a wrap for this 13th day.
happytrails2U 