N37° 17.903′ W122° 20.162'

Yesterday’s drive started with one basic premise: that we were going to drive to the quaint town of Pescadero and get some bread.

Of course, if you’re familiar with the bread at Arcangeli’s, you know this isn’t ordinary bread, but some of the best bread to be had anywhere. Of course, we weren’t just going for the bread, but for a family “Sunday drive.” We’d travel some terrific backroads across the mountains, to our main destination of Pescadero, and play it by ear from there… My GPS wanted to route us along highways as much as possible, and suggested a long, roundabout route which I immediately dismissed. Instead, from San Jose we took Hwy 9 from Saratoga up to Skyline, then took Alpine Road east to Pescadero.

I’d loaded up one promising-looking geocache in Pescadero, both to use as a convenient destination waypoint for the GPS, but also because I was hoping to get a chance to find it while there. The logs also sounded very promising, with comments about happy kids and animals, and visitors buying nuts and other treats.

When we arrived after a pleasant drive over the often-narrow mountain backroads, it turned out that the cache was located a place called Phipps’ Ranch. They have a casual indoor aviary, an open farm you can tour (although they charge an entry fee for that), and a roadside building where they sold veggies, many varieties of beans, local honey and jams, and more.

While I checked out the huge selection of dried beans, a group comprised of several young couples – some barefoot and looking like dedicated tree-huggers – browsed as well, with one young man positively fawning over the beans. He was clearly impressed with the selection, which included some “heritage” varieties, and I suspect that he knew a lot more about such things than I did!

We really enjoyed our visit. After looking over all of the offerings, and all of the many birds in the back area, we left with our own bag of goodies. Our haul included fresh veggies and peppers, a jar of their honey, a few treats for Allison, and two kinds of beans for me: red lentils and a European split pea of some kind. Like much of the offerings, these were organic and I like to support organic, sustainable farming despite the fact that it’s trendy.

We’d been past the Phipps roadside stands several times but had never stopped due to its proximity to downtown Pescadero. We’d either just left, or were almost there, and this discouraged us from making an additional stop… But now this place will surely become part of our regular Pescadero itinerary.

Speaking of which, our next stop was Arcangeli’s, for bread (two garlic artichoke loaves), some drinks, and sandwiches from the deli. The latter are very good, with perfect ingredients, and are priced accordingly. The town was looking pretty overrun on this holiday Sunday, and it was chilly with a nippy little breeze, so we opted to eat lunch in the Jeep.

After we were all stuffed, we decided to head out of town in some random direction. I opted to drive north past the old and unusual cemetery, up the pleasant country lanes and winding roads until we approached Pomponio Creek Road. It immediately grabbed my attention because I’d not been on it before, and it was shown as a dashed line on my GPS… Maybe a dirt road?

Alas, there was no dirt, and eventually the road reached a gated ranch property, which blocked the road which I had hoped would go through. Despite all of that, it was a wonderful little backroad that I really enjoyed. It began with a large hillside cutout that was filled with colorful, fragile clay rock. Soon the road narrowed and passed through several farms, with trees alongside the road. Notable sights included old derelict barns and other buildings, and a five foot high tree stump that was decorated with horseshoes. It looked like a great place to call home.

After we reached the unexpected gate, we backtracked to the intersection and I pulled over to scan the GPS for other interesting opportunities. It was mid-afternoon so I picked another likely goal that would be on the way home south along Highway 1 on the coast: Swanton Road, another backroad I’d been meaning to drive for some time now.

This turned out to be another nice drive. While it didn’t capture my imagination like Pomponio Creek Road did, this one had the advantage of connecting back up with Highway 1 at its other end. We crossed a few narrow bridges along the winding road, past some historical markers for the Ocean Shore railway and the old settlement of Swanton. We continued along, past a residence(?) that was signed as “Old Seaside School”, and then encountered a wonderful old building that was part of the old Swanton Pacific Ranch, which had apparently been established way back in 1843.

Soon after that short but pleasant side road, we were back at Highway 1. With Allison snoring loudly in her car seat, I took the direct route home over Hwy 17, and we called it a day. And a nice day it was.