Salinas to Santa Barbara

Day one took me up Carmel Valley road, WOW just freakin wow. Lovely ride long climb but 1-2 % the whole way. The ride is along Carmel valley a long gradual climb mostly in oak forest and very little traffic, in fact during one 2 hour period I saw one car and two motorbikes. I would recommend this route over trying to stay near Hwy 101, also a short detour at Arroyo Seco rd leads back to a FS campground which while a bit cold when I stayed there is a lovely campground with potable water flush toilets and pay showers.

On a note regarding the post about bike set up, I did wont to point out that I run mechanical disc brakes, if anyone is thinking of getting into bike touring disc brakes are a must and the dual piston mechanical brakes from TRP are a nice balance between field repairable and braking power. I recommend these brakes. Kim is running a different TRP system the HYRD which are mechanically actuated hydraulic brakes. So the brake lever pulls a cable and the hydraulic reservoir is on the caliper, she really likes them and so far have not caused us any heartache.