Day 168 – Kirk Creek to San Simeon – Elephant seals!

We got up very early, so early that it was pitch black and the stars were still all out. As expected it was a rather cold morning. I had planned ahead and setup firewood in the fire pit the night before which we lit with one match to get the fire going. We packed up and had breakfast as the sky became brighter. The sun was still behind the mountains as we set out on our bikes. We noticed the rest of the campground had frost but our section was spared.

We had the road all to ourselves and it was a beautiful morning. The sun finally came up over the mountains and we needed to de-layer! We stopped at the first gas station to have a morning snack, and had a nice long chat with a gentlemen from Southern California.

We then rode by a road sign facing the other way that had the distances in both miles and kilometers. Strange!

We cycled through a few more hill and had lunch at a tourist rest stop area with many picnic tables. After one last downhill and a slight up hill, we came out to a vast opening and the hills disappeared. Out in the distance in the fields I spotted what looked like a Coyote.

Cycling a little further we spotted some Habour Seals resting on the rocks. Further south we stopped at a colony of Elephant Seals. It was the first time we had seen any Elephant Seals, and we were blown away by their size and their numbers. It was mostly males and juveniles on the beach. They are the first ones to show up in the winter, followed by the females a little later.

We then cycled past Hearst Castle. We visited the information centre, and were interested in visiting the actual castle, but decided we didn’t quite have enough day light left in the day. We continued further to the town of San Simeon, which appeared to be mostly a strip of hotels and motels by the highway, and managed to scramble together supplies for dinner at a small store. We headed a little further south to reach our campground for the night. Right before the entrance we met Jim and Mark, two older guys from Scotland and the UK who were cycling from San Francisco to LA. They were fixing a flat and we stopped to see if they were okay.

We arrived at the campground which was two-thirds closed off for the off-sesason. It was us and maybe 5 other Rvers in the entire campground. The showers were again luke warm but we had a great meal of rice, beans, and canned corn for dinner. It is really amazing what soy-free meals you can come up with, from a small store with very limited choices (it is pretty tough sometimes)!

Click here for today’s photos

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