21 October 2006

Pigeon Point from Hwy 1 I took advantage of the beautiful weather to climb Haskins Hill from the west and Alpine Rd for the first time. I started north on Hwy 1, stopping to take a horrible picture of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse, which is the white dot in the distance. It was sunny, and mostly warm, with some cold pockets.

I turned right at Pescadero Rd and continued up and over Haskins Hill. There were a number of cyclists headed in the opposite direction, including five or six tandems. At Alpine Rd, I turned right and headed up to Skyline. Near the top, one more tandem passed by going the opposite way.

On Skyline, there were packs of motorcycles. I stopped at the fire station for a break and to refill my bottle. Then, I headed down Hwy 9 to Felton. There were more motorcycle packs on Hwy 9. I think at least one of the packs was also on Skyline, since one guy made pedaling motions with his legs both times. From Boulder Creek to Ben Lomond, I played leapfrog with a SCMTD 35 bus. All the traffic reminded me why I generally prefer heading up Jamison Creek to Empire Grade rather than continuing down Hwy 9. At Felton, I took a break at New Leaf.


Monterey Bay from High St From Felton, I headed up Felton-Empire to Empire Grade. Felton-Empire had relatively heavy traffic, and the air pollution from the oversized pickup trucks was bothersome.

I headed down Empire Grade, stopping near the UCSC west entrance to take a picture of the bay. I had hoped that this would be one of those rare days where the Monterey peninsula would be clearly visible, but it was fogged over, as usual. My crappy camera phone would probably not be able to capture it even if it were clear anyhow. After that was a short downhill coast back home.