The day had finally come. After a couple months of training, gear acquisition, packing, and route planning, it was the morning of departure. The train was to leave the Ventura station at 11am, which left plenty of time to leisurely enjoy the morning. I’d like to say it was stress-free, but I’m a bit neurotic about everything.

The Pacific Surfliner

The train ride up the coast to San Luis Obispo was beautiful. There are parts of the coast that you can only see from the train. The train ride alone was worth the trip, but the adventure was only beginning. The train let us out in the late afternoon. Just up the road from the San Luis Obispo train station was a great little Mexican food place, Taco de Mexico – we grabbed a quick bite before really getting going.

Route plan

Our plan was to ride the 15 miles to Morro Bay State Park to camp overnight. It was a hot afternoon with a decent headwind and a nice little climb to start. The ride through SLO and into Morro Bay is mostly rolling grass hills. We took the Highway 1 route and you ride directly by Cal Poly University, then the California Men’s Colony, the National Guard, and Questa College. Off in the distance as we rode were the Nine Sisters, beautiful, very old volcanic peaks.

Morro Rock

Instead of going directly to the campground, we took a longer detour out to iconic Morro Rock. We made it into Morro Bay around 5 pm, the headwind had gotten cooler along with a lot fog. Our scenic detour lead us through the beautiful Embarcadero waterfront. We wandered back through the town to the Morro Bay State Campground.

Dinner

After getting camp set up, before heading off to dinner, we decided to explore the little peninsula across the street, with its great little nature trail. We checked the Marina Cafe after our hike, across the street from the campground, but it was too crowded. So we hopped back on our bikes and headed back to the Embarcadero for some very tasty Thai food at Thai Bounty. We got back to camp pretty late. What a great first day of adventure on my first bike tour.