It shouldn’t have been that tough a ride; instead of the usual (Pescadero/Tunitas loop) Kevin and I rode straight out to San Gregorio, north to Los Lobitos and then back up Tunitas. Only 47 miles, what’s the big deal? Of course Kevin flew up Old LaHonda, probably 4 minutes ahead of me; pretty used to that by now. Maybe what made the ride so tough was the run to the coast, into a headwind, from LaHonda to San Gregorio, with our pace set high enough to keep three guys we spotted behind from catching us. Amazing what motivation that can give you!

Beautiful day everywhere except the coast itself, which was quite a bit cooler and foggy. As soon as we made the turn inland the fog was gone, maybe just a bit too soon… the part of Los Lobitos shown in the photo, on the opposite side of the valley Kevin’s presently seen riding, is nasty. Steep, barren and just not a whole lot of fun.

Tunitas? Nice thing about doing Tunitas this way is that you don’t have a time to shoot for, since you’re connecting to Tunitas well inland. Still, Tunitas is never easy, and this was no exception. At least not until the upper, flatter section, where we spent a bit of time talking with Robert, an old friend we caught up with.

Statistics? I’d have accurate stats except that my Garmin lost track of the satellites mid-way up Tunitas, so it’s drawn a long, straight line about 10 miles long, and skipped a bunch of elevation. Rare for it to mess up like that. But my trusty Trek Node 2 told me it was 47 miles and 15mph average speed (ok, 14.9 actually).