Central California - ahsum

Sorry - this post is really long, as haven't had good internet access in ages!!  So it's a little dated :-)

Santa Cruz appears to be the mt bike mecca of the Central Coast of California! We like! Found the best local single track trails at Soquel Demonstration and managed to hook in with a chatty group of friendly Americans who were just about to set off for a ride when we arrived. RAD. Epic 5 hour tour of all the tracks (inc significant amount of chatting) but neat trails and pretty technical in places too. FUN! The group taught us heaps about where to ride and what to look out for (Poison Oak – worse than stinging nettles – makes you come out with itchy blisters.. and it's everywhere! So paranoid I was going to fall in to it)...Finished up pretty late so stayed in our new van/home next to the remote mt bike park, and cooked a feed by the side of the road. Made the silly mistake of reading all about mountain lions before we went to bed so was freaking out about that during my nightly loo stops, haha... however we did see a deer which was cool!

Woke up the next morning to find Brent looking most perplexed....there was a critter embedded in to his arm – and wasn't looking like it was going to move any time soon :-) A tick! No doubt the tick was pretty happy feeding away, but Brent was pretty keen to get the thing outta there and it wasn't going to budge. Ended up having to go to docs to get it gouged out, arms n legs n all (it was pretty well stuck in there)...and after a vist to a couple of medical clinics, we finally got it tested for Lyme Disease (nasty illness carried by a small percentage of Deer ticks – which is what it was). Results came back after a day, frrom the lab – negative! PHEW! Lesson learnt anyway...always check yourself out after a ride or walk in the American woods – they're full of creatures ready to bite :-) Not used to this in NZ!

Hung out in a campground afterwards, near Capolito (just south of Santa Cruz) – a very chic, trendy and vibrant holiday town. Looks kinda Mediterranean. Jumped in the ocean for about a minute, which was frickin freezing – but so refreshing! Temp are about 21 / 22 but lush in the sun (already got a red nose dammit) – warm enough for a bikini on the beach (Brent decided not to wear his bikini though – he opted for shorts instead).

Also checked out a bizarre little tourist place called 'Mystery Spot', outside Santa Cruz. Random! Apparently (they claim), it's a gravitational vortex of 150 square feet, where the compass points the wrong way, and forces play havoc on balance etc. Think there were a few optical illusions thrown in to really 'enhance' the effect (Brent says it was just all bull sh!t, his cynicism was in full force haha)...but anyway., was entertaining watching all the tourists get sucked in. Very amusing!

Next day, drove down through Big Sur – famous stretch of rugged, rocky and beautiful coastline. Lovely vistas every 100 metres...although tons of tourists so decided so take a sharp left turn and go bush, in the hills. YEH! After ages on the windiest road in the world, passed thru one of the many military camps. It was vast!! The US government seem to own a lot of land for their military / air forces...the money that must get sunk in to their defence budget!! Ended up at a very neat camping spot, inland at San Antonio Lake. Apparently a very busy fishing spot in summer – but was totally empty when we arrived! Had the whole camping area to ourselves – plus oodles of cute (very friendly) deer and squirrels. No Mountain Lions though. Phew. Checked out their mountain bike trails in the morning and nearly melted. Seems that the temperature skyrockets when you head inland. Think we saw 36 deg on the temp gauge?!? And this is not even mid summer yet! Think we have some acclimatising to do. Weather here has been just lush though – blue skies every day. Can't complain :-)

Headed back to the coast and now in a cute little town called Cambria. Going down to Montana de Oro State Park today, as apparently they have some rad mt bike trails. Ahsum (aka awesome).