We had a blast last weekend doing a new (for us) type of
unicycle event: a 2-day supported Coker tour. Originally,
Scot Cooper and his girlfriend Desiree planned a 2-day
unsupported ride from their house near Santa Cruz, Calif to
Monterey and back. She would bike and he would ride his
touring unicycle called the UniBago. In the end, it was 6 of
us, with a car for support.
Saturday morning, we met at their house: Bronson Silva with
his 'Creative Gecko Super Coker' (tinyurl.com26nyOpen ↗),
my son Beau on his Coker Deluxe, my wife Megumi on her
standard Coker, myself on a Hunter36 plus Scot and Desiree.
Megumi wanted to try and ride the whole day Saturday, even
though the distance was triple her longest previous ride.
Desiree happily drove the car with the promise that she
could ride the whole day Sunday. Beau had never ridden over
18 miles on a Coker before but didn't seem too worried.
By 10:30, we were off, heading for Monterey. The first 5
miles was getting out of the built up area south of Santa
Cruz, then we headed past beaches, along strawberry and
artichoke fields and finally, after 20 miles, had to ride
Route 1, in quite heavy traffic, for a couple of miles. We
chose to ride a parallel dirt farm road for a while - a
great advantage of Cokers is their ability to cruise easily
on dirt roads.
Lunch was just past halfway, at Moss Landing. If you ever go
there and want a great meal, go to 'Phil's Fish Market and
Eatery' (philsfishmarket.comphilsfishmarket.comOpen ↗) - it was great.
After lunch, we had few hills, some headwinds, views of LOTS
of artichokes, and finally hit the bike path to Monterey.
This lasted about 11 miles, some of it along gorgeous
shoreline.
We stayed in what passes for a cheap motel in Monterey, the
Rodehouse Inn (note no URL as it is not highly recommended).
It was 'Sea Otter' (seaotterclassic.comseaotterclassic.comOpen ↗)
weekend, so prices were high and rooms hard to come by. Cars
with bike racks everywhere. Still it wasn't that bad,
showers were had, and we headed off for dinner in the
tourist mecca of Cannery Row. I think you can't really go
wrong there picking a restaurant, and we didn't. Great food,
great company, great view of the Bay.
Sunday morning after breakfast, we packed up and started the
ride home a little after 10am. We retraced our steps and
having no questions on navigation was nice. We had lunch at
'Phil's Snack Shack'
(philsfishmarket.comshack.htmlOpen ↗) in Moss Landing
- a very comfortable, inexpensive and convenient place. We
had the whole backyard to ourselves and had a relaxing time,
preparing for the second half of the ride. Maybe the most
difficult thing of the weekend was the fact that we had to
cross Route 1 traffic four times on Sunday (vs not at all on
Saturday). Leaving lunch, we made it back across and started
up to our final turnoff, but after about one mile, Beau and
I both heard a loud hiss that was a piece of glass embedded
in my Coker tire. In 4-5000 miles of Cokering, it was my
first flat! But it's no problem on a supported tour. Megumi
answered the phone on the first ring, came back and I
swapped Cokers with her (had to change the seat around, but
it was simple). So I was back in business quickly. We
continued on, and it started to sprinkle a little toward the
end. Beau kept my spirits up by telling jokes (it helps to
have seen most all the movies he has), singing and inventing
extra curb riding and drop-off challenges.
What a great time! We ended the day at Bruce Bundy's house -
he was supposed to come with us but couldn't at the last
minute due to work. His hot-tub has rarely felt better! It
was fantastic to see how well Megumi and Beau both did. To
see a 12 year old easily cruise 85 miles without complaint
or soreness or problem was wonderful.
This type of tour can be done pretty easily and cheaply by a
small group of cycling friends. Having a vehicle when you
arrive at your destination is great, and it was really nice
to have someone to call for a spare Coker when I had a
breakdown. With a little bit of planning (and good drivers
like Desiree and Megumi), you can actually carry almost
nothing while riding. Clothes, food, water, tools etc - all
can just ride in the car leaving the riders free to just
ride and enjoy.
The ride was 42.7 miles/69km each way, with 1774'/540m of
climbing. This seemed like a perfect distance and challenge
for our group. I remember from Norway that this distance was
a good "not too long, not too short" type of day. We had a
little rain, a little headwind, a little heavy traffic, but
a LOT of fun with a great group. We're doing this again for
sure. One piece of advice: plan your route carefully as we
did. Scot had printed out for each rider detailed map pages
and a list of every turn with mileages etc. Very useful!
Here are '35 photos'
(community.webshots.com135763709CWbLiIOpen ↗).
---Nathan
--
nathan - BIG rides: Muni & Coker
------------------------------------------------------------------------
nathan's Profile: unicyclist.com251Open ↗
View this thread: unicyclist.com31918Open ↗