After a great first day cycling around San Francisco Bay, day 2 saw me heading up the Santa Clara Valley and into the countryside.
The day started with breakfast with Nick and Jon at the San Jose staple, Bill’s. After breakfast, Nick graciously took us to a sporting goods store to pickup a few odds and ends that I’d forgotten. Afterwards, it was back to Nick’s place and time to hit the road!
A bit of an extended goodbye ensured, as Nick had originally planned to join me on the whole trip, but by noon I had departed.
The ride was split into 4 main segments; the first was mostly riding through San Jose on the Capitol Expressway for nearly 16km. While the speed limit was high, and there was a lot of traffic, there was a bike lane for the whole stretch, which made the ride bearable.
The second segment took me on the Coyote Creek trail. This nice, winding trail followed the creek through a lot of greenery and cool shade, which was great! The creek had recently flooded a large portion of San Jose, so the trail was a bit of a mess in spots, and flooded in others. There were a few stream fordings as I went.
Eventually, I came across a couple, Steven and Carol who had stopped at a section of the trail that was flooded in over two feet of water.
After a bit of chit-chatting, I unmounted my bags from the bike and carried them across, only to find the trail completely blocked by an uprooted tree. I had to cross back again. Thankfully, Steven helped me out re-loading the bike, and after Carol tried out the weight of a loaded touring bike, we said our goodbyes and I was off to find a detour. Thanks Steven and Carol!
The detour brought me to the third section of the day’s journey, a very quick run down Monterey Highway with an amazing tailwind that had me flying at 30km/h instead of my normal 18km/h cruising speed. Away I went! I took a rest break for lunch in Morgan Hill at a local brew pub, then decided I would push myself with the tailwind to Hollister! The scenery was beautiful, with the lush, green hills of the valley narrowing in as I went. The tailwind held all the way for the next 20km to Gilroy.
The final section had me on CA-25 heading from Gilroy to Hollister. Unfortunately, at this very end of my day, I had to struggle for the last 15km through a pretty strong headwind, sore feet and butt. The scenery, thoughts of a warm shower and a beer of triumph kept me going.
I pulled into Hollister around 6:45, finding my motel mercifully on the near edge of town. Another day’s travel in the books, and I’d done another 84km! Time to relax for the night!
