Day 3 Synopsis and Day 4 Dedication

Carmel to San Simeon/Cambria – 92 miles and 9k+ feet in climbing

Day 3 was beautiful when we started in Carmel with the temperature in the mid 70s and it was sunny down the coast to Big Sur. We hit the big hill in Big Sur which capped off at about 1,000 feet and then we passed Nepenthe restaurant and almost immediately after it turned foggy and cold. We were held up by construction a couple times where they were paving the road and they had it down to one lane, but we had fun chatting with the construction workers both times. The downside was that our muscles tightened up almost immediately when we would stop because of the foggy/cold weather. There were a couple people that crashed due to either hitting a stray water bottle or slipping on some loose gravel, but both people finished the day and are doing fine. We ended up riding past the lunch stop because the rest of the group was a little further behind us and the support van was stuck in the construction, so we ended up eating at the restaurant in Lucia. They were great to us at the restaurant considering 15 riders showed up at the restaurant unexpectedly and they were able to serve us in a very reasonable time. That was good because we were all banking on hitting a lunch stop about 8 miles prior to the restaurant and were starving at that point. After lunch we had another large hill which capped out at around 800 feet. Once we made it off the hilly section of the route, we were right along the coast, but we still could barely see the ocean due to the very thick fog. There was one section in the home stretch (right before Hearst Castle) where there were hundreds of sea lions on the beach. It was quite a site, but we did not stay long to try and prevent from getting to stiff. Right past the Hearst Castle we also saw the zebras that graze on the grounds of the castle. It was quite weird to see zebras out grazing in the cool weather since it was not the environment you would imagine when you think of a zebra. A few miles past the castle was our hotel and it didn’t come soon enough. The riders who did the century ride the first day (including me) were definitely feeling the effects from it today. We had a great group dinner at the hotel in a banquet room that overlooked the ocean, but unfortunately it was still foggy. We shared our stories from the day and many laughs were had by all. Hopefully it will be sunny in the morning, but I am not counting on it since the fog typically does not peel off until later in the day.

Everyone has been impacted in some way by the cancer disease. Therefore I am dedicating day four to the friends/relatives of my donors who are cancer survivors or became victims of the disease.

Day 3 Stats