Monterey in March

We just returned from Monterey. While we were there something felt strange. We asked ourselves, have we ever been here in March? I combed through the many Monterey posts and it was true: we had never visited in March.

For the most part, the reasoning for this was simple. When the kids were young, there were many visits in April centered around Easter and spring break. When baseball became a central part of our lives, opening day was usually towards the beginning of March, and we played a couple games a week until the vacation window during spring break.

When the kids were older, Jennifer and I often went in January and February because the weather was often warmer in Monterey than at home. March is typically pretty nice in the Sacramento area, so we tend to enjoy the March weather at home.

Anyway, on the first day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive.

The weather was pretty damn perfect.

Afterwards we enjoyed a beer at Fieldwork, followed by an awesome meal at Alejandro's.

The next day we rode north with expectations of riding into Fort Ord. I knew the trail through Fort Ord Dunes State Park would be closed due to a campground project that will run through 2027. We would have to ride the less desirable trail along Highway 1 like last time and take the exit trail to 5th Street.

Unfortunately between visits they bulldozed the entire bike trail leading to 5th Street and were using it to truck in dirt.

<rant mode> This kind of shit has been happening for years. It really seems like municipalities will close off cycling infrastructure at the drop of a hat. Need to do road work? Close the bike lane! Want to organize a running race? Close the bike trail! Need to build a campground? Close the bike trail! Need to truck in dirt? Bulldoze the bike trail!

This isn't any new issue. I've been seeing the trend for a long time.

This past spring and summer I wanted to ride in Tahoe before we sold the condo. Then I saw that there were some trail closures due to a Marlette Lake dam repair, and I completely lost interest. These are some of my main trails up there.

The closures seem extremely excessive to me for one tiny little dam. But if you are a cyclist, you already know you are a meaningless pimple on the ass of society. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program. </rant mode>

We simply rode past the closure and continued to the north end of the trail. After turning around I had calmed down enough to start taking pictures again.

The weather was great and I told myself that things could be worse: I could be home working in the yard.

Afterwards we had a beer at Dustbowl and dinner somewhere that escapes me.

The next day we rode south again. I took some video. It's not my greatest work, but what can you do.

After that we packed up and headed home. It was a short but much-needed break from all the hard work we have been doing.

Later.

Pelagic Passage

We go to Monterey so often, I am running out of synonyms for "ocean" to use for titles.

Another trip to the coast in the books.

We drank beer:

Walked around and took pictures of stuff:

Had coffee:

Rode along the ocean:

Had more beer:

Had more coffee at a French bakery:

Dealt with a proliferation of every one of these things on the trails:

Saw some otters up close right near shore:

More sightseeing:

And even more beer:

Not pictured: way too much remote interaction with our Nevada real estate agent as we navigated a weird sale. Otherwise, we had a really good time.

Later.

The Shore

After finishing a big real estate project, we often find ourselves drawn to the sea. Off to Monterey.

We rode at home on Monday morning and left around noon. By 4:30 we were checked in, unloaded and sipping a beer at Fieldwork. Good stuff.

After beers we ate at a place called Alejandro's on Alvarado Street. We walked right by this place for years and never tried it, and that was a mistake. The food was excellent. We started with the ahi ceviche (ceviche de atún), which was fantastic. The chips come with four sauces, all of which were great. I had the mole enchiladas while Jennifer had a vegetarian chile relleno (chile en nogada). Both were terrific. Highly recommended.

The next day we rode south along 17 Mile Drive. At 54 degrees, the weather dipped a bit below refreshingly cool into grab-a-jacket territory. The June Gloom is real.

Still, what's not to like riding along this scenery?

Later we went to the grocery store. Next to the store was this:

I haven't eaten at a Carl's Jr. in years, and I don't thing anyone will be eating at this one for a while. Burned to a crisp.

The next day we decided to head inland seeking sunshine. As we rode north along the coast, conditions were cool and overcast.

As we climbed into Fort Ord, the blue sky was teasingly close.

Eventually we climbed above the marine layer and it was glorious.

I had a new route mapped out, but we ran into some road closures due to the Army and BLM preparing for prescribed burns. Although it wasn't in the original plan, we climbed up to Laguna Seca once again. Jennifer handled it no problem.

The views from up top are great.

Then we descended back down into the gloom. All told we rode just short of 30 miles with over 2000 feet of climbing.

The next day we rode north to the end of the trail and back, a nice 25-mile ride. We did not see the sun even once. Nothing about the ride really inspired me to take a photo.

That night marked the return of Peter B's, a mainstay of our Monterey dining and beer experience for many years. The restaurant had been closed for four months during a $2 million renovation.

The restaurant itself looked great. The booths and walls were removed from the main dining area leaving it brighter and open.

Unfortunately that's where the improvements ended. The beer menu lacked anything I was really interested in, so I had a Legend of Laguna IPA, the only beer that's always on the menu. It typically falls somewhere between great and awful. (I was far more excited about my new Cal Poly shirt than the beer.)

I rarely complain about my food. I have a discerning palette, and appreciate great food, but I also realize I am not "great food rich." If you frequent breweries, you should be pleasantly surprised by great cuisine, but expect mediocrity. Still, a restaurant promoting an all-new menu should perform.

They did not.

Again, I am not a complaint person. However, they left a comment card with the bill, so I let them have it. I believe "bland, boring and uninspired" was part of my review.

Today we opted not to ride in favor of getting a jump on Friday traffic. Still, we hit a major slowdown on Highway 101 because of construction that cost us an extra 45 minutes of drive time.

Another nice getaway in the books, and some lessons learned: Try new things and be adventurous.

Later.

Short Coast

We took a short trip to Monterey. Three nights is probably our shortest stay in many years, but it was just fine.

We only went on two rides which was also unusual. The first day we rode south on 17 Mile Drive. The roads were very quiet and it was a peaceful, contemplative ride.

The next day we rode north on the coastal trail with a loop through Fort Ord.

We saw a few people on gravel bikes as we first entered Fort Ord. After that we were all alone except for the occasional wild animal, like the coyote below.

I really can't get enough of this place. It's so cool to link together rides on car-free roads, and you also have gravel and singletrack options.

The climb up to Laguna Seca is tough, but Jenn did great and even pretended to like it.

Once we reached the racetrack (1000 feet), it was mostly downhill back to the hotel (barely above sea level).

All told we clocked 28 miles with 2000 feet of climbing.

After a shower and a snack, we had a great Russian Imperial Stout at Dustbowl.

One of the unusual things about this visit was the smell. It was . . . not great. This was caused by an unusually large presence of anchovies in the bay. This leads to more predation in the bay, attracting larger fish, sea lions and birds. These predators produce a lot of organic waste matter, and the process of breaking down all that waste creates a hypoxic environment, meaning there isn't enough oxygen to support all the fish. The anchovies are dying off because of it. Most of the dead are consumed by predators anyway, but basically the whole chain reaction results in a bad smell that we could never totally get away from. I could smell it in our hotel room even with the windows closed.

We have seen large numbers of sea lions before, but in different places. This is Sister City Park and I don't think any of the benches or tables will be salvageable.

Nobody likes a crowd:

Pictures will never do justice to just how many birds there were. We have visited Monterey more times than I can count and there were easily 20 times as many birds as I have ever seen.

Anyway, other than gagging on a few occasions as we passed sea lion central, it was a good trip.

Later.