Day 28: San Luis Obispo to Gaviota
June 26th, 2024
75 Miles
I woke up at 6 AM and started packing my things. My hosts needed to leave by 8 AM, so I didn’t want to overstay. Jo kindly offered me some granola bars for breakfast, which I appreciated. After chatting for a bit, I thanked Jo one last time and left around 7:20.
My first stop was Pismo Beach, about 8 miles away, where I enjoyed a breakfast burrito before continuing south around 8:40. The terrain was fairly flat with not too many cars, until I reached Harris Grade Road. It was the last winding backroad with no shoulder and hill climbs of my trip, but it rewarded me with a nice 2-mile descent.
Entering Lompoc, I stopped at Burger King for lunch and checked my map. With about 24 miles left to the campsite, I had to navigate through town before joining the 101 for the rest of the day. Mentally, this stretch was tough because it felt like there was a whole lot of nothing, and I just wanted to reach the campsite.
I encountered the last big climb of the trip, a 7% grade downhill for 2 miles. To reach the camp, I had to get on the freeway towards LA-Santa Barbara, which was a bit sketchy at first, but seeing the bike signs reassured me. Finally, I arrived at the park located at the bottom of the descent.
Setting up camp, I was joined by Elijah from King City, whose goal was LA, where he works as a freelance photographer. He shared how helpful Reddit was for finding suggestions related to places to stay and touring routes—a resource I wish I had thought of earlier.
Soon after, Stewart arrived. I briefly met him in Oregon while heading to Sunset Bay State Park in Coos Bay. Once settled, we spent about 2 hours sharing our experiences throughout the trip. It felt good to relate to others about the hardships we encountered. Stewart tried to navigate through Big Sur, but after encountering traffic cones and a daunting rock pile leading into the ocean, he wisely turned back. He hitchhiked to Morro Bay to avoid the detour that Elijah and I had taken.
Elijah recounted his tough stretch from King City to Paso Robles, where he also stopped at the same pizza shop and market that I did. Eventually, we all settled in for the night.
