Our final destination for this week was San Luis Obispo, CA where we stayed with our friend Will for 3 nights. SLO is a truly amazing town. The first night in town was Halloween so we cooked dinner at Will’s new house and waited (in vain, unfortunately) to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters. The next morning we headed downtown to explore. We had dropped off our dear Westy for a tune-up and it was great to be in a town that was so bike-friendly!
**An aside about the Westy tune-up, we had planned on bringing her to GoWesty, the renowned Westfalia shop here in SLO, but as of September they no longer do repairs, only rebuilds. They recommended Broad Street Automotive for our tune-up. We LOVED the guys there. They totally know what they are doing in regards to Vanagons and could not have been nicer. They even bumped us up in the queue given that we were just passing through town. Check them out if you are in the area**
Back to our SLOventures! After checking out downtown, we met Will for a lunch-break mountain bike ride. Will works for SRAM and is encouraged to take up to two hours to ride during his lunches. Pretty awesome company to work for! The guys biked up the trail and I decided to trail run instead. The route was up and down Madonna mountain. The ascent was one continuous hill with a few switchbacks, pretty tough for this flatlander! The descent was even crazier. The trail is called “Rock Garden” so you can imagine what it looked like. Super rocky single-track at steep grades for 2/3 of the way down that eventually flattened out to more switchbacks across a meadow on a hill. We were hurting by the end, but it was gorgeous and challenging and all-around a great workout. The video below is not ours, but gives a good overview of the trail and is pretty fun to watch.
**An aside about the Westy tune-up, we had planned on bringing her to GoWesty, the renowned Westfalia shop here in SLO, but as of September they no longer do repairs, only rebuilds. They recommended Broad Street Automotive for our tune-up. We LOVED the guys there. They totally know what they are doing in regards to Vanagons and could not have been nicer. They even bumped us up in the queue given that we were just passing through town. Check them out if you are in the area**
Back to our SLOventures! After checking out downtown, we met Will for a lunch-break mountain bike ride. Will works for SRAM and is encouraged to take up to two hours to ride during his lunches. Pretty awesome company to work for! The guys biked up the trail and I decided to trail run instead. The route was up and down Madonna mountain. The ascent was one continuous hill with a few switchbacks, pretty tough for this flatlander! The descent was even crazier. The trail is called “Rock Garden” so you can imagine what it looked like. Super rocky single-track at steep grades for 2/3 of the way down that eventually flattened out to more switchbacks across a meadow on a hill. We were hurting by the end, but it was gorgeous and challenging and all-around a great workout. The video below is not ours, but gives a good overview of the trail and is pretty fun to watch.
That night we headed out to SLO Brew, the local microbrewery and restaurant for their $12 pizza-and-a-pitcher night. It was delicious and at 9pm they even switched to $1 pints of all their microbrews on tap! That’s a serious deal and we definitely took advantage.
The next day Tom and I headed out to find the local rock climbing spot (about 15 minutes from Will’s house, pretty amazing). We hiked in and found a couple of walls, but had a really hard time finding exactly the one we wanted (one that Tom wanted to lead and that was relatively easy enough for me to top-rope). Tom got in a few climbs before we were too starving for lunch to keep going. We headed back to town for some grub and to rent a surfboard for that evening.
Around 5pm Will got back from work and we loaded up the boards and headed to Pismo Beach for some sunset surfing. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Tom and Will were out catching waves and there were 2-3 seals out playing in the surf with them. Every time they would paddle back out to catch more waves, the seals would pop up 2-3 feet behind their boards. The boys surfed until it was too dark to see the waves. Not a bad way to end a workday!
The next day Tom and I headed out to find the local rock climbing spot (about 15 minutes from Will’s house, pretty amazing). We hiked in and found a couple of walls, but had a really hard time finding exactly the one we wanted (one that Tom wanted to lead and that was relatively easy enough for me to top-rope). Tom got in a few climbs before we were too starving for lunch to keep going. We headed back to town for some grub and to rent a surfboard for that evening.
Around 5pm Will got back from work and we loaded up the boards and headed to Pismo Beach for some sunset surfing. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. Tom and Will were out catching waves and there were 2-3 seals out playing in the surf with them. Every time they would paddle back out to catch more waves, the seals would pop up 2-3 feet behind their boards. The boys surfed until it was too dark to see the waves. Not a bad way to end a workday!
We have truly had so much fun in SLO, it’s an adventurer’s paradise. Biking, climbing, surfing, hiking, snorkeling, diving, boating, and who knows what else all within an hour of town. Skiing and snowboarding not too far away, 70 degree temps year-round, and a thriving downtown area. Not sure what else you could ask for! We will definitely be back!