LOS ANGELES TO VANCOUVER 2016: ATTACK OF THE COONS + RIDING TO VANCOUVER WITH A WOODEN LEG

DAY 15

MONDAY 18 APRIL 2016

MONTEREY TO SANTA CRUZ

0900 - 1745

76.91km (47.79 miles)
Av. Speed: 16.2 km/h (10.1mph)
Max. Speed 57 km/h (35.4 mph)
Time on Bike: 4h 43m 20s

Oh my God they play a lot of Men at Work here.

There has not been a day pass here in the U.S I have not heard a Men at Work song playing in the supermarket, in the post office, in the convenience store, in the gas station etc....

Not bad for a humble Aussie band who hasn't released a single since about 1986 to still be on high rotation play on AM/FM stations across the U.S.

I just hope Mr Hay and his bandmates receive ongoing residuals for all this.....

AN INTERESTING DAY, I MUST SAY.....

Fucking Raccoons.

I should have known better I suppose than to inadvertently leave freshly purchased food supplies in one of my bags during the night in lieu of storing it in the provided food lockers that prevail in most campgrounds that I have stayed in so far.

Only then to be woken at an unreasonable hour by a fully fledged raccoon attack as they raided my large trolley bag which was well sealed to be sure but these aggressive little buggers had breached the seal and taken off with a decent share of what was in there.

When I jumped out of the tent to inspect the damage, it was obvious that they had made away with whatever they could, in addition to the mess remaining inside the bag itself.

They'd also had a decent crack at a bag of washing powder which I can only imagine was anything but flavorsome.

I rescued what I could and placed it all straight into the food locker as several of the beasts started encircling the bag in the dark, ready for another sortie.

The size of this trolley bag is such that I have been leaving it outside of my tent during the night as I have deemed it too large a fit to accommodate it with myself trying to sleep along side of it.

So it was, that after removing the food to a safer place and pelting a few of these rabid bastards with whatever I could find, I rolled back into the tent to resume my nights' rest.

Within 10 minutes however, I could here them at it again and at this, burst back out into the night air, head torch ablaze to find at least 4 raccoons skulking in close proximity of their intended target and this was enough for me.

I shoved the bag into the tent and made room along side my mattress for both of us, hoping that their sense of smell and cunning was not such that they would start chewing through the tent as they are otherwise capable of doing..

Only minutes later, I could hear another camper up and about in much the same mode as I had been about 20 minutes earlier, clearly caught out in an attack of the Coons.....

Day 15 was a great days' riding.

Superlative weather conditions (for the 3rd successive day) and no discernible wind.

The distance between Monterey and Santa Cruz is only 75 kilometers (45 miles) and it's mostly flat.

In addition, the first half of it between Monterey and Moss Landing is dedicated bicycle path!

This morning's ride however was interrupted by a chance meeting about 5 kilometers north of Monterey.

I was stopped on the "Monterey Bay Coastal Trail" by a fellow who was fascinated by my bike.

He introduced himself as David Derby and explained that his knees were about to force him into retirement and continued to pore over my touring beast.

I'm normally more than happy to answer questions and tell people who are genuinely interested anything they need or want to know about it.

And this fellow seemed in that category.

So after about 20 minutes of chit-chat, I decided to start making way again when a slight adjustment on the weight of the rig was followed by a reasonably loud "CRACK" and the whole thing toppled onto the ground.

"That didn't sound too good..." was my audible thought bubble.

And sure enough, I looked down to see that my aluminum kick stand had snapped clean in half.

To be honest, I had the feeling that it was just a matter of time before this happened and now it had.

David had also introduced himself as a welder and welding a piece of aluminum back together was what he did, but for the fact that all his equipment was back home in Connecticut, which wasn't about to serve any use in Monterey, California.

He was in town because his father had passed away 3 days previously and we happened to be only a few miles away from where his father had lived, so that's where we went.

With David driving slowly and me following, we arrived and David then went to work, rummaging in his father's trailer park shed to retrieve the necessary tools and a chunk of Californian Redwood.

Talking, working, measuring and nearly 2 hours later, he had fashioned me a new stand out of this modest piece of timber.

I insisted that he signed his autograph to it as it was likely to be travelling all the way to Vancouver with me and perhaps even beyond.

And also the fact that this hand-crafted creation would likely be the envy of many a touring cyclist that I may meet along the way and David may even stand to earn himself some retirement cash if people know where to find him....

MY NEW "WOODEN LEG" WAS PUT TO IMMEDIATE USE...

SANTA CRUZ

It was easily one of the better day's riding into Santa Cruz and despite not getting away until 12.30 from my woodworking session with David, I made generally excellent time for the remainder of the afternoon.

Taking the coastal bike path as far as Moss Landing, I passed through the "Artichoke Capital of the World", Castroville before taking on a pretty shitty, heavily-trafficked section of Highway 1 through Moss Landing, Elkhorn and merging onto the Freeway past Watsonville.

I even got pulled over by a "CHiPpie"!!!

When I was 7-years-old my dream (if I had one) was probably to be a motorcycle cop.

And if I couldn't be, I thought it would have been the coolest thing in the world to be pulled over by Jon and Ponch and spoken to for anything at all.

So at age 44, it finally happened.

Even though it was neither Jon or Ponch, the motorcycle CHiPpie pulled me aside on the freeway section of Highway 1 and told me that I actually wasn't supposed to be there.

Fair enough, I told him. The sooner I could get off it the better.

He then told me to take the next exit, turn right and then left and pick up Soquel Drive, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Soquel Drive is the bicycle friendly route straight into Santa Cruz so it was a timely intervention.

The freeway exit I had been looking out for (State Park Drive) was about another 2+ miles further along , so I probably got off before acceptances but still not a moment too soon.

Soquel Drive for the final hour or so was great riding, through some very pleasant villages on the outskirts of Santa Cruz until the traffic really started to bank up the closer I got.

With dedicated bicycle lane for the entirety, I was fairly unfazed by any of it.

5.45 pm was a fair return for the day's outing when I finally pulled into the HI Santa Cruz hostel at 321 Main St.