One of the unexpected highlights of the trip was the passage from San Miguel up to Highway 198/25. I knew from past experience that the Monterey Peninsula was breathtaking; I had no idea the valleys east of the US 101 corridor were so spectacular.
Yes, almost the entire way is a one-and-a-half lane road, with stretches that are not particularly well-maintained. But the scenery, wildlife, geology and isolation more than made up for any riding inconvenience. Plus, I got to try out the “soft” setting on my FJR-1300ES’ electronic suspension.
I didn’t stop to take pictures, which would not have done the scenery justice anyway when done with an iPhone camera. But you can get a hint of what some of the geology looked like from this Google Earth screen capture of part of Peach Valley (click to enlarge in a separate tab/window):
What this doesn’t convey is how the sides of the valley look like they’ve been sliced open with a knife, as if they were just huge piles of sand that you were being privileged to see in cross-section.
In addition to many herds of cattle, several herds of deer grazing through cleared out fields, and a seemingly infinite supply of birds and squirrels, there were two particularly interesting wildlife encounters.
The first was with a fox. Stationed in the midst of a herd of cattle. Who studiously ignored him, while he studiously ignored them…and kept his eye on me.
The second was something I’d never seen before on a road, anywhere. I was coming up a hill, and around a curve, fortunately going fairly slow. Only to see a small creature dragging itself across the road. My first thought was that it was the survivor of a hit-and-run…until I realized it had a lot more legs than any mammal I’d ever seen. It was a tarantula! Speeding — in tarantula terms — across the road. Later on I saw a second one, also attempting to cross the road. Hopefully they both made it.
Today, in Gregory Benford’s book The Berlin Project, I came across the first quantum mechanical dirty joke I’ve ever seen (it’s no doubt an oldie, but, hey, I never actually studied quantum mechanics).
