6-5 Salinas to Big Sur

Met up with thom foody and began the journey south via caltrain and Amtrak to Salinas, home to John Steinbeck where he wrote The Grapes of Wrath.  After a quick lunch, got on the bikes around 12.30 - one fully loaded aircraft carrier and one porsche.  Headed west to monterey, by the strawberrry, cabbage and cauliflower fields of Blanco, surely being picked by eager american workers at more than minimum wage.  Found some cool abandonded roads then got to a nice bike path along the water.  After carmel, the path ended and rode along a good shoulder on route 1 - and the climbing began.  Several 500+ ft climbs, followed by long screaming descents, alternately by the water or back in the sycamore trees.  We traded bikes (and shoes) about 2/3 of the miles into the day - and maybe 1/3 of the climbiing, arriving at the redwoods of big sur around 6pm.  One more killer climb up to 1000', then onto deetjens, an inn built in 1930s.   54 miles.