ON 19 June, I did the Cambria, Santa Rosa Creek bike loop. Over the years, I have done the loop 6 times, but not since 2021. I may have discovered why I stopped. It is a very tough ride. Cambria is a nice little town on the coast. It is a 1 ½ hour drive from Santa Maria. The Santa Rosa road part of the loop is 16 miles up, and I mean up, a small rough road. It finally drops down to route 46, which is a very nice road. From the Santa Rosa intersection it is only a 2-mile climb to the top, and then you drop like a stone back into Cambria.
There is a ¼ mile section on the Santa Rosa section that is so steep that I have to push the bike. I don’t feel bad about that at 78, because I probably couldn’t have ridden it at 18.