Older gentlemen and their bicycles
Ifweareluckyaswego through life we have some close and lasting friendships— friendships like we “Four Lads” have had. We all went to the University of Redlands and knew one another, and two of us were close friends in high school. But the four of us didn’t cement our friendships until after we married, had raised our sons and daughters, and were well into our fifties and sixties. Then we discovered our mutual love of bicycling. Two of the four of us also liked jogging and running distances, but as you age your knees and hips prefer biking.
We Four Lads are: Don Coursey, Steve Lincoln, Joe Keebler, and Dave Meyers. Steve and I are local Ukiah guys. Joe and Dave are retired attorneys living in Napa and Healdsburg respectively. Steve is a retired California State biologist and I am a retired doctor.
The four of us ride together and sometimes in pairs. Steve and I ride more in Mendocino County; we like Old River Road as it is beautiful most times of the year. First, we usually go to the Windmill or the Mutt Hut for breakfast. All four of us have ridden to the coast via Orr Springs to Comptche and on to Mendocino many times. We four meet in Sonoma County sometimes kind of a central meeting spot-and ride out of Healdsburg or Petaluma. We have taken the SMART Train from the airport station in Santa Rosa down to Petaluma and cycle from there to San Rafael and then take the train back. That is really fun. Trains are so cool.
We have bicycled in other states, but the California ride we have done almost yearly since 1983 is the Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara ride. The heart of this ride is the beautiful, but challenging 71 mile segment from the Carmel Mission to Ragged Point on the Big Sur Highway.
In 1921 construction began on Highway One. Convict labor contributed to a good part of the workforce. With multiple stops and starts the road and 33 bridges were completed in 1937 after the infusion of New Deal money from the FDR administration. Once called the Roosevelt Highway, now it is called Highway One or the Big Sur Highway.
About 7,000,000 tourists and locals use the road yearly. There are historical and traditional stopping points along the way. The Esalen Institute founded in 1962 attracted Ringo and George in 1968, and has always appealed to a long list of spiritual and philosophical luminaries. The Nepenthe Restaurant named after a potion used by ancient gods to induce forgetfulness from pain and sorrow is still popular today. The Nepenthe was also a meeting point for Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1965 movie, “The Sandpiper”. Most tourists are in cars, buses, or RVS and travel the highway in a few hours. Cycling the 71 miles is a whole different story.
We begin our ride through Big Sur from the Carmel Mission after breakfast at the Wagon Wheel Café in Carmel Valley. Immediately you are reminded of the power of gravity as you go up one grade only to descend and to tackle the next grade. We stop every ten miles or so for hydration and calories. There are 260 calories in a Cliff Bar, and you need this plus about a pint or more of water/gatorade hourly. Mike Cannon told me to do this to avoid dehydration and loss of muscle strength. Lynda, my wife, referred me to him after a bout of Big Sur dehydration landed me in the San Luis Obispo ER. The young SLO Fire Department EMT who arrived first when I called 9-1-1 made an experienced diagnosis: “Another old man with dehydration and tachycardia”. At least he took care of my bike for me as the ambulance took off with me aboard.( I also took my attorney friend with me in the ambulance.)
About 13 miles into the ride we come upon Bixby Bridge. This is a classic concrete rainbow arched bridge over Bixby Creek. You see it on TV in a lot of new car ads. When you ride across the Bixby Bridge you want to hug the center of the road as much as possible so the cross winds don’t make you feel like you are about to be blown over the guard rail and into the abyss. There is a strong inclination to get off your bike and walk, but you just prolong the butterflies in your stomach and the fast thumping of your heart. So you ride it.
At the Big Sur Store we always stop to rest up so we can tackle the last grade of the day—a real doozy: The Pfeiffer grade. Think Orr Springs same, same. Then we coast into The Deetjen’s Inn.
Helmuth Deetjen, a Norwegian, and his wife built a home in 1926 at this location. Over time they continued to build several simple Norwegian style cottages. In 1937 they opened the inn to the public. A non profit foundation owns it now and for many years we have stayed there and enjoyed great hospitality plus a good dinner and a formidable breakfast. There are no public phones, no TVS, no internet, and only onebar cell service across the highway at the edge of a pasture. Because I like Van Gogh, I always hope I get the Van Gogh room which is upstairs with two single beds to share with one of the lads.
When we leave Deetjen’s we face the truly hard part of Big Sur-longer grades that you can see in the distance as you descend the grade you just had managed to peddle up. Finally you reach Gorda. Gorda means rest and food for lunch. Gorda in 1983 also meant the last stop before a huge washout and slide which Caltrans was repairing. At that time we had to wait until work stopped and then take our bikes on our shoulders and hold onto a rope as we descended into a boulder strewn canyon and hike across the bottom, then pull ourselves and our bike up the other side with another rope tethered to a secure stanchion.
Finally the last lengthy and curvy downhill part of Big Sur takes you to Ragged Point where you can get an afternoon sweet and some caffeine. Also, in the past, John the Hippy Jeweler was there. Over the years we bought earrings, or a ring, or necklace which he had crafted. We gave these gifts to our wives when we got home.
From Ragged Point we make our way to San Simeon to our next stop at Moonstone Beach. From there we bike to San Luis Obispo, Pismo Beach, Lompoc, Buellton, Solvang, and on to Santa Barbara. But for each trip we always remember how it was going through the Big Sur. We can recall the challenge of biking up the hills, the thrill of the down hills and curves. We always remember the incomparable ocean views, the flowered meadows, and the blue skies with giant white cumulus clouds.
We four lads have made
nine bike trips over the last 22 years to the UK including the Scottish Highlands, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Skye, and the Shetlands. Some trips only three of us cycled, but most times all four of us made the trip. One of the lads, Dave Meyers, is 100% Scot and he knows Scotland like the back of his hand. He studies the maps
and outlines a preliminary journey with mileage and hotels along the way. When we have agreed on the trip and start/end dates, we make our individual reservations for flights and all arrive with our bikes in Edinburgh; from there we train to our starting point.
Our last trip before COVID was to the Shetland Islands in 2019. Cold, stark,
and windy, the Shetlands have a beauty all their own; they also have ponies. We trained from Edinburgh to Inverness. Flew to Sumburgh Airport on the Main Shetland Island and started biking to Lerwick. The next four days we fought a headwind as we biked and ferried north to the Baltasound Hotel on the island of Unst. One misty day we hiked through a national bird park and were amazed by the huge numbers of seabirds and the massive granite headlands dropping into the crashing North Atlantic Ocean. At this point we were only about 190 miles from Norway across the North Sea; we could picture the Vikings in years past sailing to the Shetlands which they ruled until 1469.
For you Jimmy Perez and “Shetland” fans I want
to tell you we stopped at a small village store specializing in locally made woolen goods. I got a woolen skullcap. But there on a table in the store is a picture of Jimmy with his autograph and a note that this is his favorite woolen shop. Yea!
The next two days we retraced our steps and returned to Lerwick and then to the Shetland Sumburgh Airport and back to Edinburgh. This was a wonderful and unique adventure.
Eachyearasweladsage we remember the end of “Ulysses” by Tennyson:
“We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are; One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”