| Date: October 20, 1999 | | Location Canada to Mexico - #32 - Gilroy to Marina | | Where: Old Marina Inn - Marina, California | Wednesday - Jim writes
Our train ride yesterday afternoon and evening to Gilroy turned out to be a very interesting trip for both Jeanette and I. We boarded the train in downtown San Francisco taking our loaded bicycles with us on a special "bicycle" car. Bicycles can travel at no extra expense. It was a standard car with the seats removed at one end allowing cyclists to lean their bikes along each wall.
As we traveled south we collected more commuting cyclists. They would simply add another layer of bicycles attached to the wall by bungee cords. There were three rows on each side of the car (6) stacked up to 5 bikes deep. By the time we got to Palo Alto we were beyond capacity and it took a good deal of patience and cooperation to dig out a departing bike and make room for a new boarding bike. The cyclists did it all in good humor.
Looking out the window I was able to see freeways clogged with traffic crawling at a snail's pace. It made me feel good that in this heavily congested area the bicycle is making a valid contribution to transportation needs. It left me feeling much more positive about the future.
By the time we got to the end of the line, and our designation, Gilroy, it was 6:30, and much to our surprise fairly dark. We scurried along the streets like a couple of rats looking for a motel room before total darkness.
As we travel south, the California coastline begins to bend east so that evening now falls sooner. Not only that, but this Sunday daylight savings ends, and it will then be dark at 5:30. This led Jeanette and I to decide last night to abandon tent camping for the remainder of the trip. With darkness coming so early it is a long evening to endure in the tent with flashlights. We decided to ship back to Salem our tent, sleeping bags, stove and cooking gear, rather than packing the extra weight with us.
This morning upon leaving our motel room we sought a way to ship our gear home. We ended up at Gilroy Toyota where they cheerfully let us box and ship via UPS a big box of gear to Capitol Toyota in Salem. They will hold it there until we return.
Gilroy is "The Garlic Capital of the World", as we cycled out of town the air did indeed have a unique odor.
We choose Highway 129, which follows the Pajaro River as it skirts around the south end of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This turned out to be (as I suspected) a flat route back to Highway 1.
We took a side road off of 129 and went through the tiny village of Aromas then wound our way through the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Sanctuary. We followed back roads to Castroville then a bicycle trail that brought us to Marina (just north of Monterey.) This kept us off the busy freeways.
Tomorrow we plan to reach Big Sur.
|  | | Artichoke field near Castroville |  | | bike path near Marina Days Distance: 41.0 miles
Days Climb: 740 feet
Days Average Speed: 11.7 mph
Days Max Speed: 25.0 mph
Total Distance: 1463.6 miles
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