Day 6 (Sunday 5/16/2010) - Pacifica to Santa Cruz, CA

Sunday I woke up very early to the sound of the golf-course grounds crew. I didn’t want to get caught camping, so I packed up and headed out.

The start was a little rough, and it took a while to clear my head, but the day turned out to be absolutely amazing. I headed from Pacifica down the coast, through Half Moon Bay, then all the way down to Santa Cruz.

For the first time, I fell into a nice rhythm and cranked out the miles. I did a few sessions of “bicycle meditation,” where I placed my attention on the pedal-strokes. Meditation can be defined as the practice of focusing on an object of attention—often the breath—but anything, really, can be a focus. With bicycling, a very obvious object of attention is the rhythm of the pedal-strokes as they go in circles. Anyone who’s been involved with road cycling has undoubtedly heard that the smoother your pedal stroke, the more efficient you are. So that will be one of my main practices while I’m on the bike—keeping my attention on smooth, regular pedal strokes. When you find a groove and maintain a meditative state of attention, it’s what is often referred to as “being in the zone.”

The first half of the day had a few long, steep climbs, but once I hit Half Moon Bay, things flattened out, and the miles cruised by. It was a very long day. I probably put in around 70 miles, and 10-12 hours on the bike. Needless to say, when I pulled into Santa Cruz I was wasted. I found a dinner I had eaten at when I was here 9 years ago, had some fries and a coke, and got on the internet.

I tried to contact a friend I know who lives in Santa Cruz, but no luck. I tried a few contacts on a web-site for bicycle tourists (http://www.warmshowers.com), but no luck there, either. So, I headed just north-east of town to Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and found a site just off the road to stealth camp for the night. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of traffic on the road throughout the night, and I didn’t sleep very well—guess that’s the price you pay when you’re flying by the seat-of-your-pants, with no advance itinerary. Oh well, the Redwoods were beautiful!!