{"id":79,"date":"2008-07-17T15:47:15","date_gmt":"2008-07-17T23:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=79"},"modified":"2010-07-16T15:28:50","modified_gmt":"2010-07-16T23:28:50","slug":"bill-and-will-roadtrip-day-2-the-central-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=79","title":{"rendered":"Bill and Will Roadtrip Day 2 – The Central Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

We woke up fairly early this morning to some nice sunshine over the Laguna Seca Recreation\/Raceway Area.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Will\u00a0reluctantly said his legs were sore and he did not think he would be up for riding today.\u00a0 I’m glad he told me as I would not have wanted to push him into riding and then not enjoying himself.\u00a0 We were orginally thinking of going to Montana Del Oro State Park and get in\u00a0some riding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Laguna<\/p>\n

The nice thing about working off of an idea vice a schedule is that you can change things\u00a0pretty darn easily.\u00a0 After a bit of breakfast, we broke camp and hit the road.\u00a0\u00a0 It was just earlier in the week that the Pacific Coast Highway was reopened after being shutdown for nearly a week due to wildfires burning in the Big Sur and other areas of the Los Padres National Forest.\u00a0\u00a0 It has been quite a few years since I had been on\u00a0this highway and I had forgotten just how pretty this drive can be.<\/p>\n

\"PCH\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0We stopped at many places along the way early on to take\u00a0in the sights.\u00a0 This was a good thing as before long the coast became completely socked in with thick fog and we could not see much at all until we were near San Simeon about 90 miles south of Monterey.<\/p>\n

\"PCH\"<\/p>\n

One of the really cool stops we did was at vista lookout about\u00a0five miles north of Hearst Castle<\/a> right off of the Pacific Coast Highway.\u00a0 Here you can check out\u00a0a large colony of Elephant Seals.\u00a0\u00a0These are some big critters\u00a0and the\u00a0males make some\u00a0mighty deep and throaty noises when other males get around their babes.<\/p>\n

\"Elephant<\/p>\n

This fellow reminded me of a disgruntled Walmart customer\u00a0say a\u00a0earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

\"Elephant<\/p>\n

We continued down the coast\u00a0until we neared San Luis Obispo.\u00a0 Instead of going to Montana Del Oro State Park we turned inland and made our way to Mt Pinos near the town of Labec.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We ended up at the Mt Pinos campground that sits at 8,200 feet and we had the pick of\u00a0the place as we were the only ones there.\u00a0\u00a0Later that evening two more groups would come in, but\u00a0for the most part we\u00a0had\u00a0the\u00a0great views virtually\u00a0all to ourselves.<\/p>\n

\"Camp<\/p>\n

We had several hours of daylight left after we got everything setup and the next thing you know Will was bucking to get on the\u00a0bike and mess around near camp.\u00a0\u00a0 I joined in on the action and played around on a log.<\/p>\n

\"Log<\/p>\n

The South Ridge\u00a0trail\u00a0starts\u00a0right from the campground and goes down\u00a0to\u00a0the McGill Campground a\u00a0couple of miles down the\u00a0mountain.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had to see the camp host down there so when I\u00a0drove down, Will took the trail.\u00a0\u00a0 He was pretty darn excited when he\u00a0came off the trail and proclaimed it was the coolest singletrack EVER!\u00a0\u00a0 The trail is setup as a cross-country ski trail and has plenty of small rounded jumps that are just the perfect size to catch some XC sized air.\u00a0 Will really dug those and I was stoked to see him stoked.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

Back at camp, we enjoyed the last night of being able to have a campfire as a ban on them would start the following morning, due to the dry conditions.\u00a0\u00a0 We climbed into the tent\u00a0an hour or so after sunset.\u00a0 When we are back at home, Will is always trying to fight off\u00a0going to\u00a0bed.\u00a0 It is like the world is moving too fast and he is going to miss out on something if he is sleeping.\u00a0 It was nice to have him so easily climb into his sleeping bag.\u00a0\u00a0I was reading a book and I had barely turned one\u00a0page\u00a0when I looked up to see him already down for the count.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tomorrow we would get in a good chunk of riding in.<\/p>\n

\"Camp<\/p>\n

More Stuff Like This<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t A new take on Thomas Mountain<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Goodies in the Mail<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Virgin River Rim Video<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Playing on the San Juan Trail<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>