The First Step

They say the first step is the hardest part of the journey, or something like that, right? Man, that's the truth.

I'd planned on taking Route 35, called Skyline Boulevard, just south of San Francisco down to Santa Cruz. What I didn't really pay attention to on my map was the notation "Santa Cruz Mountains." I've been on the route by car, but have never been over it on a bike. Ack! It just goes up and up and up for at least 15 or 20 miles at least. Not a good ride for the first day. I was making little progress, it was getting dark and cold and I wasn't close to anything.

So I made my first executive decision and scrapped the Route 35 plan. What had taken me a few hours to climb to about 15 minutes to descend. I decided to take the relative flatness of Route 1 and biked to Half Moon Bay. I camped out by the beach, and though the wind was blowing so hard I thought my tent might fly away, I had a pretty decent first night out.

So the first day was a baby step overall, I guess.