Boen's First Pigeon Point trip

 

Boen has ambitious goals for the summer tour, and I wanted a gauge for how things would go. There was a forecast for good weather on both days that weekend of Feb 10th, so I booked spots for us at Pigeon Point Lighthouse Youth Hostel packed our panniers on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day and Eva chose to meet us at Altamont and Page Mill, and escorted us at a good pace up Page Mill road.

At the top of Page Mill road, Stephan Ellner joined us, having ridden from Woodside, and I had the pleasure of introducing the two of them to each other. At the summit of West Alpine road who did we meet but Bob and Betty from the Western Wheelers! From there we could see all the way to the coast, an unsual sight in the summer but common in winter on days like this.

Eva would go down a bit on West Alpine and then turn around, but Stephan was planning to join us all the way until lunch. We zipped down West Alpine as only a tandem could. It was cold in the redwoods but so pretty. Climbing Haskins Hill was a bit warm as there was no good place to stop and shed clothing, so when were rolled over the top we didn't stop but just zipped down the other side. Well, zipped was a strong word as we were overtaken by the sports car club and a fast pair of motorcyclists. 

In Pescadero we stopped at Norm's market and had their usual delicious artichoke garlic bread fresh out of the oven, still warm to the touch when we bought the loaf. We tore through this using prosciutto and cheese brought from home and a pack of salami Stephan shelled out for. We then stocked up for dinner, bought some partially bake artichoke garlic bread to bring home and parted ways, with him stopping by a coffee shop and Boen and I riding on Cloverdale Road towards Gazos Creek road. Not having been there in years the scenery was fresh and even the potholes weren't as bad as I remembered. Gazos creek was babbling.

At the Highway 1 intersection we turrned right and immediately spotted Pigeon Point Lighthouse, against a 10mph headwind. Thus motivated, Boen made short work of the 3 mile and we were at the hostel at 2:30pm. To our surprise, the hostel manager was flexible and checked us in. We even grabbed the sunset spot for the hot tub!

The park system had upgraded many aspects of the area since we'd last visited, including a new exhibit with the fresnel lens, models of the various shipwrecks at Pigeon Point, a cutaway model of the lighthouse, and even outside there was now a viewing platform where you could get a picture with prisoner rock, and stairs that went down to the beach!

It was low tide, so there were also tidepools to explore. We were glad that we arrived early enough to do whatever we could. With an hour left to our hot tub time we went back to the hostel, made hot water for decaf and for hot chocolate (I should have brought more hot chocolate) and then called the rest of the family before the hot tub.

After a bike ride, the hot tub is well worth the price. We'd looked up the sunset time and had time to watch the sunset at the end of our hot tub session. After that it was dinner time. While the spaghetti and alfredo sauce went down well, Boen didn't like the artichoke pork sausage we'd bought. Fortunately, the Filipino family who were having dinner at the same time had plenty of food and offered to share.It turned out that the mother's name was Bon, a homonym for Boen, and they even brought a Fondue set and gave Boen and I chocolate Fondue with strawberries. It was so good!

Sleep for me was fitful. I guess it was the change of environment, but usually a lot of cycling makes it easier to sleep.

In the morning, someone at the hostel started smoking Marijuana in the living room. Fortunately, we were all done with breakfast by the time I noticed and we just packed up and left in a hurry. Riding North into cloudy skies, it was chilly enough to put on all our layers but by the time we started climbing Bean Hollow road I was getting pretty warm. Once into Pescadero and onto Stager Road, I stopped and took off most of my layers, figuring it was better to be chilly downhill than to overheat uphill.

Stage Road was gorgeous as always, and as we approached Highway 1 we were greeted with a stunning view to the east, with low fog lifting over the hills as the sun warmed the water vapor.

The descent on Highway 1 onto Tunitas Creek was fast and furious, and we stopped by the Bike Hut for a quick break and get rid of garbage and eat more food. The climb up Tunitas was gorgeous, dappled light shining through the redwood trees that made for difficult to photograph scenery that can only be appreciated when you're there in person. The steep part is a 16% grade. It's not a long pitch but it wore us out, so we had to stop to eat and rest.

Past the Purissima Creek Park entrance the grade evens out a bit and past Star Hill Road the grade evens out even more! Inspired, I recalled a song from my high school days:

Just around the bend, is the journey's end, and the sky's singing our song, 'cos it's just a stone's throw from the people I know, whoa, I'm coming back to where I belong.

 At the summit, who did we run into but fellow Western Wheelers Steve and Cheryl Prothero and their group who'd just climbed Kings Mountain Road. The terms of the song were fulfilled! We took pictures, ate the rest of my cliff bar, and went down the road gingerly. The road surface looked treacherous, with debris in corners, water all over the road, and at one point our rear wheel kicked out a rock down a steep hairpin. Fortunately big fat tires and long wheel bases are very stable and we made it down with no problem. I gave Boen a choice between high traffic Foothill Expressway or the lower traffic Arastedero and he had enough energy to give the more climbing option a chance.

We made it home by 1:30pm, and now I'm confident that we're going to have a good time in the Alps!