Cycling Monterey: To Carmel and Back

Bay Patio - Cycling Monterey: To Carmel and Back

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Living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I've visited Carmel and Monterey many times. They are only 2-3 hours away and the scenery is stunning. Because of the flat terrain and the scenery, cycling has long been popular. Folks whether rent bikes or bring bikes into Monterey, and then take 17 Mile Drive colse to the Monterey peninsula to Carmel and back. Less favorite is to unblemished the circuit by going over the hill above Carmel back into Monterey. I had always been enthralling about the route bikes can take to get back to Monterey without doubling back colse to the peninsula. This weekend, my wife and I decided to check it out.

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We arrived at the Monterey Plaza Inn and Spa early on a Friday. Aside from being perfectly situated on the water, it is perfectly situated along the bike trail that turns into 17 mile drive. It is also appointed with great bike storage if you bring your own. The place is not cheap, but it had everything we were finding for with this bike trip.

We hung out colse to Cannery Row that night. Cannery Row is pretty touristy but there's a lot of great food and bars a block or two in any direction. And some spots were charming despite all the schmultz colse to the corner. From a small stretch of beach, we walked to Gianni's Pizza on Lighthouse Avenue. This is just a nice, clean, pizzeria: nothing fancy, but nothing greasy or over-priced either.

Given that 17 mile drive is only 17 miles and my mean bike speed is 15 mph, we started the next day fairly late mental we had plenty of time to finish the ride. We spent the morning savoring the pricey but spectacular gym and jacuzzi at the hotel. That got us thoroughly stretched and relaxed for the ride.

We cycled about a mile down from Monterey to Pacific Grove to grab morning meal at the Red House Café. Great shaded deck and great light California cuisine. After cycling just a few blocks from breakfast, this is what we found: spectacular flowers, surf, and rock formations.

Bike lanes here and on the whole route are sporadic. Initially, there were none just out of Pacific Grove but a bike lane started about a half mile later and continued for miles. The lanes are not large and are frequently used by stopped cars and pedestrians, but at least they are there. Fortunately, most of the competitive traffic is not enthralling very fast because everyone is gawking at the scenery. Even when the lane narrowed or disappeared, the situation didn't feel threatening.

As we pedaled colse to the tip of the peninsula well out of the Pacific Grove proper, the golf resorts started. These are all gorgeous in their own right, but they do push the road away from the shore a bit. The good news about that is you pass under trees right about the time you are getting a bit hot.

Once you get past the Spanish Bay golf resort, you are pedaling through a full-blown forest of pines. In expanding to providing a nice place to cool off, they contribute their own aesthetic value to the ride, especially when you get filtered glimpses of the enthralling blue shoreline.

At this point, it was becoming prominent to find a bathroom. Sadly, there are very few facilities along 17 mile drive. There are no gas stations and very few businesses of any kind on the west side of the peninsula north of Carmel. The exceptions are the golf resorts. We honestly darted inside the Pebble Beach Resort and they graciously allowed us to use the facilities. This lack of facilities applies to input as well as output, of course. As always, it is prominent to pack water on this cycling trip because there are very few places to hydrate until you get to Carmel.

Once we were past Pebble Beach, Carmel was not far off. There's a steep drop down into the outskirts of town with no bike lane. This had some of the fastest enthralling and voluminous traffic of the ride so it was a bit hectic, but no worse than a lot of typical rides in any place else.

The road from 17 mile drive dumps you out near the coast of Carmel. This positions you perfectly to see the supreme beach at the base of Ocean avenue. This is not to be missed: the sand is super white, due to the high silicon content. It has an fabulous squeak when walked upon.

Carmel community is at the top of Ocean Avenue. This a pretty steep hill, but it is only a concentrate of blocks until you are in the town of things. Scenes like this one make it totally worth the climb. We stopped for an Arnold Palmer (iced tea and lemonade) at the general Store. This has the best patio in Carmel for my money. It also has great Long Island Iced Teas if you are not driving or riding.

After the break, we had to decree which way to take home. We had tentatively planned on going up and over the hills of Carmel to get back to Monterey. This route was only 5.9 miles as opposed to doubling back on 17 mile drive. The qoute was that my wife, like most of the riders of the world, is not a big fan of hills. After the climb required to get into Carmel Village, she wasn't too keen for a lot more climbing. Worse, the path to go over the summit complicated going all the way back down the hill to the coast to get back up to 17 mile drive. Once you are up on the hill in Carmel, there is no shortcut from the community back over to 17 mile drive. There is no way to save the altitude you've already gained if you want to go up and over. And the roads are frustratingly close to one another.

After a failed exertion to find a maybe undocumented trail to 17 mile drive from Carmel Village, we doubled back down to the coast and then back up to 17 mile drive. Just the climb to get back up to 17 mile drive was steep, hot, and car-filled. That was adequate to give my wife serious reservations about going to the summit. Since I had not done my research on the distance and degree of the incline to get to the summit, she was seriously mental about just doubling back. To her credit, she decided to go for the summit after all (what a sport). It didn't take long to witness we had made a good choice. Using iPhone Gps, we soon discovered the summit was only a mile up and we were rapidly manufacture lots of progress on the map. We made it to the top in about 23 minutes and that was with frequent stops to avoid traffic or just sit in the shade. The last bit is sufficiently steep but still relatively short, as climbs go. The worst of it was the unknown. Next time, I'll research the incline better.

Once at the summit, we found the trail that parallels the freeway back into Monterey. Given it's proximity to the freeway, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was this gorgeous shady pathway dedicated to cycling: long, straight, and steep. Bombing down it was a nice bonus for slogging up the west side.

Once you are down the big hill, you go under the freeway onto Munras Avenue. Munras honestly has a nice set of dedicated bike paths just off the road as well. Another pleasant surprise.

After Munras, the dedicated bike paths turned into bike lanes on the street, but were still deluxe compared to places like Vegas.

Back in Monterey, we stopped off at the "East Side Café" for an iced coffee. This is a great coffee house with not only a great patio, but with an utterly lightless room for the hungover, web-obsessed, or goth-like.

From here, we took the bike trail that runs along the water back to the hotel. Although this is a dedicated bike path, it tends to be overrun with pedestrians. Dodging pedestrians is still good than dodging cars, but at times you just have to stop and wait for some of the chaos to pass.

The payoff for taking the bike trail along Cannery Row is, of course, the scenery. There is a nice herd of seals hanging out in the harbor. The rocks in the background are covered with seals. They are quite the hams, but cool nonetheless. Farther out in the water were quite a few sea otters eating a meal off of their bellies. Monterey delivers on the wildlife.

Back at the hotel, we decided to relax a bit with some mixed drinks. All in all, we felt great about the day. The weather was perfect. The summit climb had been good than feared and gave us more time to do something else than if we had doubled back on 17 mile drive.

With hindsight, leaving earlier would have been good to avoid the heat. Strategizing about bathroom breaks is also a good idea. Regardless, when you reconsider all the fabulous smells of sea air, trees, and flowers, cycling is the best way to see Monterey and Carmel.

As a nice bonus, the next day at morning meal we stumbled upon a bike race through the town of Pacific Grove: The Butterfly Criterium. We had a nice view of all the performance from Toastie's.

On the way back to our car, as we headed out of town, we found one of the racers warming up under a tree. A nice end to a bike-themed weekend.

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