California Dreamin on Such a Winter's Day

We got a mile into today's ride when Amy discovered she was under dressed so as she returned to the hotel, I lingered close to the beach.

Our hotel, the Mar Monte is nice but kind of quirky.  The nightly rate for this time of the year is $350 but my daughter arranged for a very steep discount.  Still, even with that, the quirkiness is not enticing.   We headed away from the beach and enjoyed a lot of good pavement on our climb to....

....the corner of Gibraltar & Mountain.  The climb to this point had some steep pitches, one at 27%!  I've climbed Gibraltar a few times and was anxious to do so again but alas, a stop at Fastrack Bicycle shop confirmed the road was officially closed due to storm damage..  Unofficially, you could go part way but some cyclists had been cited, others turned around by workers so we only went up a short distance.

The evidence, lol.

An estate had some mud slides damage.  

Amy went higher than I did.  Previously, she had not enjoyed the high traffic and lack of bike lanes but in this environment, she enjoyed it very much.

I talked to a local who described massive ravines wrought by run-off from the storms. Too bad.

We rode high enough that we got some great looks at the Pacific.  Much of the climb zigs and zags with these awesome views.  Once turned around, most of the balance of the ride was down hill!

We rode about half way on a wharf as part of our route and throughout....

...enjoyed the views.  We finished with 31 miles and 2500' of climbing.