A small State park half an hour’s drive south-west of San Luis Obispo, Montana de Oro’s trails came highly recommended from Chip. Arriving at the trailhead around ten o’clock, the view of the ocean was still shrouded in that strange coastal summer fog. Still, it was sunny above & I was off following another Garmin Connect trail up a fireroad. Just as I got to the start of the East Boundary, I met another rider coming down the hill & he told that the trails had changed a bit & advised me of the best route for a two to three hour ride. I continued up East Boundary with a few switchbacks, ignoring the trails I would have taken had it not been for the good advice. The climbing was pretty easy & I started to get some good views down the valleys. Pausing briefly to let a couple of horses past I was soon going down the other side to a fireroad. This was great fun as it was a smooth trail, but with some quite substantial water bars to jump off. All too soon as I was heading for the coast, with a nice cove, on the fire road.

The local club kindly provided tools in case I wanted to do a little trail maintenance

It wasn’t long until I got off the main road & headed up the Hazzard Peak trail. At the start of this trail, the local bike club had installed a box of small cow bells – for riders to borrow to warn other trail users of fast approaching riders.

I grabbed one for the hell of it, thinking I may as well give it a go. The bell didn’t last long on the gentle climb before being stuffed in my pack. In fact, after a few minutes of downhill I was driven so maniacal by the bell, I was likely to push anyone I met off the side of trail. I continued up the climb (about 300 metres, but not as steep as Monday’s 300m climb), crossed a few of the closed old trails before reaching Hazzard Peak.

The ride off the top was fantastic, some of the most fun, flowing downhill I’ve done in quite a while. There were ample little bumps to catch some air off, some loose rocks to make it interesting & plenty of banked corners to throw the bike into. About three times there would be a tight right-hander all of a sudden & you really had to make those as the outside edge was really sandy & off-camber. The last little part of the trail was called Manzanita & was also excellent, much bigger water bars to jump over with confidence. Back at the car in less than two hours, I was pleased I went around the direction I did.

Back at the motel in SLO we hurriedly booked the last two tickets for the 3.30 tour of Hearst Castle, had lunch & set off up Highway 1 for about an hour to check out William Randolph Hearst’s sprawling complex. Seriously rich from newspapers at the beginning of the twentieth century, he & architect Julia Morgan designed & built a huge place to house his extensive European & Egyptian art collection (he bought something like twenty percent of the big European art firesale after the First World War). The castle & its three guest houses are up a five mile driveway overlooking the Pacific on a site where Hearst used to camp with his parents when he was a kid (his father having built up an extensive holding of ranching land previously).

My first impressions were that it was just a big place of someone who had too much money just throwing all sorts of very old European artifacts together & it was all a little weird. But the place grew on me & as I saw more & more of the collection & heard where various pieces were from & how staggeringly old they were. For instance, in the main living/sitting room in the house were four gigantic Flemish tapestries – these four are part of an original set of ten, only five of which remain – these must be important as the Louvre has had replicas made of all ten. It was some serious art. The last thing we saw was another pool (the outdoor one was built three times before Hearst was happy with it & had pillars next to it about two-thousand years old) built under two tennis courts. The indoor pool was for the most part three metres deep & laid with thousands of beautiful tiles, quite a few of which were coated in 22 carat gold leaf. The guest list was quite something too – Bob Hope, Churchill, Chaplin, Cary Grant, Clark Gable & Carole Lombard, Hedda Hopper, WC Fields & all sorts of others I’ve never heard off. Quite an interesting place all up – unfortunately we didn’t see any of the zebra grazing the land as we drove out. Descendants of originals that used to be in the private zoo (which also included giraffes, polar bears, kangaroos, antelope, impala & others) they have managed to stick around.

After two tiring rides on consecutive days, today was supposed to be a driving day. But unable to sleep from 3.30 this morning I eventually got on the internet & found a short loop just out of Prescott – a town that was vaguely on the route we were taking towards Joshua Tree NP. I did eventually get back to sleep, so after a lazy start we made our way down I-17 towards Prescott (“Press-kit” apparently). We got a little distracted by Montezuma National Monument – more cliff dwellings, but not nearly as many or as grand as Mesa Verde NP.

A fair way & many traffic lights down a highway off the interstate, Prescott is a nice big town. We did seem to park on a street that is mostly antique shops (the town’s not that old), so after lunch we perused these until I got bored & then eventually found the center of town. A nice big leafy square with the grand county court house in the middle – & plenty of statues of course. It was pleasantly warm, but breezy so I wasn’t too worried about going out for an easy afternoon ride.

Just west of town we found the trail head in the National Forest & I set off for what sounded like a fun little loop (or so it seemed in my sleep-deprived state this morning). There was a short easy climb to begin with up to a saddle & then the trail skirted a hill & descended for about seven kilometres. The trail was wide & smooth – mostly dirt, with a little sand – & fast. It was great fun, especially all the little water bars to jump off & some nice banked corners. I was having a great time in the sun, but with the breeze & a few small trees around to provide shade it wasn’t too hot. I would have no qualms about taking a confident beginner down this section of trail.

At about the half-way point of the loop the trail turned southwest & started making a gradual climb up a wash. It was a little sandy in parts, but OK. As the canyon narrowed the climbing got a bit more technical periodically – there were a few steep rocky bits I couldn’t clear. That beginner I was thinking of bringing along better not mind a bit of pushing for a while. The trail eventually came out at a small manky dam & meandered along & across roads for a while – trail finding became a little more of a challenge. With one final climb out of the way, it was downhill all the way back to the parking lot. Having not intended to ride today, I thoroughly enjoyed myself on this little ride & wasn’t really tired when I finished.

With the ride out of the way, we could make for the Californian border. Valerie had mapped out a route through various backroads which was great. From the Prescott area we headed south on the 87, dropping a lot of altitude in a hurry to get down to the plains. Managing to find gas in a small town, we were more confident that we wouldn’t be stranded in the desert as night fell. The big cacti were starting to appear & the towns were looking more delapitdated as we got further away from the main highway. There are an amazing amounts of derelict hotels & gas stations in these parts, with the associated shells of various vehicles. Occasionally we would happen upon a small town that still had a little life in it.

One such town was Salome – we stopped for dinner at a bar/cafe. The bar was dark, with thin strips of neon & full of locals – unfortunately for me, Valerie preferred to eat in the ’50s style diner, which was still fun (at least the burger was great & the lime drink concoction I had was supercharged with sugar, but very drinkable). Not finding a motel room with two beds in it in Salome, we pushed on to Quartzsite (we’re on the I-10 now, the freeway between LA & Phoenix) & are staying at the Yacht Club Motel. That must be a bit of desert humour, as there’s no sailing on water to be had for miles. It’s really a motel of trailers – first time I’ve ever stayed in a trailer. There’s more room in here than we’ve for weeks & almost a proper kitchen – I wouldn’t buy one, but it’s a pleasant change.

The jagged silohuette was very pretty as the sun set

I couldn’t reach high enough to Tipp-ex an ‘n’ on