Today I’m getting ready to depart on my first ever bicycle tour. It’s been a crazy month and a half that brought me to this point. One that I’m glad is over, and happy to leave behind.
A month ago, I was having trouble at work; you might have heard something about it. I was a Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) at Uber. Just prior to my friend Susan releasing her blog post recalling her time at Uber, my manager (the same one as Susan’s) threatened my employment at the company with a performance improvement plan (PIP). I had never fared well in performance reviews since I started at the company, but I had been willing to tolerate the treatment for two reasons; first, I believed that I was among the minority at the company who were being treated this way, and second; I believed that I was contributing to the net good that Uber was doing in the world. With both those beliefs called into doubt through all the stories in the media, I made up my mind that I couldn’t stay at the company. I planned to take a mini-retirement to follow my dream of doing a bicycle tour.
Originally, I’d thought to take 3-4 months off and travel across the US to Canada by bicycle. It was a crazy idea for a first bike tour, mostly borne from escapism. After several friends and family members raised their concerns about randomly heading out to bike five thousand kilometers from California to Ontario, I realized they were probably right, and decided to rein in my plans somewhat.
The new plan was to bicycle from San Francisco to Los Angeles — a journey of seven hundred kilometers, before starting my new job in two weeks. This southern portion of the Pacific Coast bicycle route is touted as one of the most scenic rides out there along the Big Sur coast. Unfortunately, this winter’s heavy rains in California have closed the famous stretch of highway through Big Sur, forcing me to make other plans.
Instead of riding along CA-1 all the way down the coast, the northern portion of my tour is going to take me inland following along US-101 down through Gilroy, then CA-25 through Hollister and south via back roads to Paso Robles before following US-101 again to San Luis Obispo where I’ll rejoin CA-1 on its way back to the ocean and Los Angeles. While this route won’t have the amazing coastal views of the Pacific Coast Highway, it should be less busy and have some great views of western landscapes and grasslands.
Tomorrow it will be up to San Francisco on Caltrain, then hop on the bike for the 80km ride down to my friend’s house in Milpitas — a great tune-up ride with lots of options to stop if I find I’ve forgotten anything.
Here goes!
Sounds like an epic ride! May the wind be forever at your back 😉