The night of day 4 went with my best night sleeping in camp, broken only by the occasional bout of coyote howling. I woke much better rested, and warmer, than my night at Pinnacles. With nothing to do but get on with it, I set out nice and early down Peach Tree road.
Only a few miles down the road, I happened upon another rancher, who I never did get his name. I asked him for some water, and while he didn’t have any on-hand, he did have ice-cold Gatorade, which he gladly offered. While downing the Gatorade, he told me about a creek up the way that had water in it year round. After that, he had to get back to work, so we parted ways, and I continued down Peach Tree road.
Some miles later, I heard the sound of running water, and found a mountain stream running strong. Luckily, there was also a cattle gate at the bridge that I was able to scale and scramble down the bank to top myself off for water and give my head a good dunk in. Refreshing!
After that, the road went consistently uphill, cumulating with the steepest section of road I’ve yet encountered just where the road changed from Peach Tree Road to Indian Valley Road. Off the bike a-trudging I was again! When I reached the top, I was higher than all the surrounding hills, and you know what that means; sweet, sweet downhills! These ones were so steep and twisty, that I had to keep on the brakes as I went down and still hit 40km/h (25mph)!
The descending continued for most of the next hour or so, and with good pavement and a gentle headwind coming up the valley to keep me cool, I was loving life watching ranch after ranch go by.
I stopped for lunch along the side of the road and had essentially tuna nachos. Yum yum! After chomping down an apple for dessert, I was ready to go again.
The scenery was beautiful, the road by this point was mostly undulating, but I had less than 20km to go to the end of Indian Valley Road with civilization awaiting! 5km (3mi) from the end of the road, I crossed into San Luis Obispo (SLO) County (sorry, no photo, it was on a steep hill, but that’s county #6!). The pavement immediately went to shit, and even at cruising speed, I thought all the bolts on my bike would shake themselves loose!
After crossing the first home on the SLO side of the county line, the pavement improved, and I got to an overlook of San Miguel. After searching Google for a coffee shop in the town, and not finding any, I decided to take the 15km (10mi) trip further the Paso Robles.
Along the way, I passed irrigated farmer’s fields, and took a quick shower in one to cool off! Following the bed of the Salinas River, the town sprung up around me all of a sudden.
I made my way downtown and spotted a frozen yogurt shop that diverted me for some ice cold reward!
Several folks noticed the fully-loaded bike and had questions “Where are you going?”, “Where did you start?”, and “How far are you going each day?”.
While eating my frozen treat, I booked a room at the Paso Robles In around the corner. After settling in, taking a shower and a bit of time to update family on my progress, I went across the street for some dinner and a well-deserved beer!
Today 74km (45mi). Tomorrow, laundry and the off to SLO.
What’s the name of the restaurant you patronized for that burger?
Kristen