On A Mission to see Missions



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Mike Euritt

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We drove from Santa Barbara up the coast on highway 101 yesterday, great day for driving, with all
the wind and rain, bikes got soaked, but I staid dry....

For years I have thought that a vacation going from Mission to Mission would be interesting, and now
that I would do it on a bicycle I think the idea has even more merit, and my wife agrees, so it's
time to start some planning. I think this will happen in stages,a weekend at a time, since we can't
take so much as a week off together, for a while yet.. First would be from home, 6 blocks from
Mission San Rafael up to Sonoma, then down to Mission Dolores in San Francisco. Both should make
suitable day trips and I know the routes.

From there we drive south for a way and do similar. Start at one and ride to the next and maybe even
another, stay the night and return.

Has anyone done a similar ride? Any suggestions for best time of year, or better when to avoid,
what are the best Missions to visit South of San Jose. Any tour guides, books or web sites that
would help out?

Thanks for any suggestions

MikeE
 
Hi Mike,

I suppose this will not be on the Y-Foil ;)

I did a lot of research and work years ago for a photo-essay of the Missions. Did not go well as
Chronicle Books published a fairly good book on the Missions about the time I was finishing up the
first round of photos. You might want to check with the library for a copy of that book. It was
published somewhere in the mid-90's. Sunset Books has a relatively good one, too. That was published
in 1979. Some is a bit dated, but still relatively good info.

Heading south from SF, the next one is Mission San Jose. Nice reconstruction from the late 80's or
so. Before that a big wooden church had been built on the old foundation; that church as moved to
Burlingame so they could do the reconstruction. An OK mission, but not great. Santa Cruz is only OK
in my book, San Juan Bautista is much better. Good town to hang out in, too. Carmel is great, one of
my favorites, but weekend crowds are often large. Soledad is just a few relics and somewhat hidden
out along Arroyo Seco. Mission San Antonio de Padua is the next, hidden up in the Santa Lucia's on
the army base. I think that would be a great loop ride, say from Carmel over to Soledad, overnight
somewhere like Greenfield or King City, then go back through the Santa Lucia's stopping at Mission
San Antonio. Next south is Mission San Miguel, and that is an easy trip out of Paso Robles. I liked
San Miguel a lot more in the late 80's when it was 'undiscovered'. Now it gets much more tourist
traffic; the good news is it may help repair some earthquake issues that threaten the main chapel.
If you are real hearty you could do a loop from Paso Robles down to San Luis Obispo to see the
mission there; relatively nice and SLO is a rather bike friendly town. South of there I will leave
to your research; Purisma is run as a state park, and an easy ride from the Solvang area. You could
visit that along with one of the organized rides centered in Solvang and surroundings. The only ones
that really stand out for me south from that point are Santa Barbara and Capistrano. Perhaps it is a
bias against getting too close to LA.

Hmmmm, a Mission string tour sounds interesting. We are going to do SF Bay to Santa Barbara bike
tour in September. Route is still undecided, but it would be easy to do one or two a day on the way
South if one did not mind leaving the coast. BTW, I will not be doing that on my Y-Foil, either ;)

- rick warner
 
I saw a web site with great photos of a group of 4 that started around Sacramento and went south to
San Diego going from mission to mission.

http://home.att.net/~dlstorm/Missiontour.htm

While trying to google for the above liink, I found another tour of the missions by bike article:

http://www.rawbw.com/~cmi/Reports.html

"Mike Euritt" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> We drove from Santa Barbara up the coast on highway 101 yesterday, great
day for
> driving, with all the wind and rain, bikes got soaked, but I staid
dry....
>
> For years I have thought that a vacation going from Mission to Mission
would be
> interesting, and now that I would do it on a bicycle I think the idea has
even
> more merit, and my wife agrees, so it's time to start some planning. I
think
> this will happen in stages,a weekend at a time, since we can't take so
much as
> a week off together, for a while yet.. First would be from home, 6 blocks
from
> Mission San Rafael up to Sonoma, then down to Mission Dolores in San
Francisco.
> Both should make suitable day trips and I know the routes.
>
> From there we drive south for a way and do similar. Start at one and ride
to the
> next and maybe even another, stay the night and return.
>
> Has anyone done a similar ride? Any suggestions for best time of year, or
better
> when to avoid, what are the best Missions to visit South of San Jose. Any
tour
> guides, books or web sites that would help out?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions
>
> MikeE
 
Check out our tour last Fall at: http://home.att.net/~dlstorm/Missiontour.htm

"Mike Euritt" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> We drove from Santa Barbara up the coast on highway 101 yesterday, great
day for
> driving, with all the wind and rain, bikes got soaked, but I staid dry....
>
> For years I have thought that a vacation going from Mission to Mission
would be
> interesting, and now that I would do it on a bicycle I think the idea has
even
> more merit, and my wife agrees, so it's time to start some planning. I
think
> this will happen in stages,a weekend at a time, since we can't take so
much as
> a week off together, for a while yet.. First would be from home, 6 blocks
from
> Mission San Rafael up to Sonoma, then down to Mission Dolores in San
Francisco.
> Both should make suitable day trips and I know the routes.
>
> From there we drive south for a way and do similar. Start at one and ride
to the
> next and maybe even another, stay the night and return.
>
> Has anyone done a similar ride? Any suggestions for best time of year, or
better
> when to avoid, what are the best Missions to visit South of San Jose. Any
tour
> guides, books or web sites that would help out?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions
>
> MikeE
 
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