Central Coasting

Just a few miles south of San Luis Obispo--sometimes called SLO Town--flourishes the little-known Avila Valley. For 13 years, this area has invited our family’s active exploration as we wandered over trails, traipsed the back roads and tasted the fruit of the land. By midsummer, local orchards of apples, apricots and plums are bringing forth fruit ready to be eaten, and the coveted Gravenstein apples begin to ripen in nearby See Canyon. Through Thanksgiving, farms offer a wide variety of apples: Gala, Matzu, Jona-Gold, Empire, Golden Delicious, Bellflower, Laura Red, Braeburn and Fuji.

For an active outdoor weekend, tote your bike, bring hiking shoes or pack your in-line skates. We had been wanting to pedal the four-mile Avila Valley Bike Trail, which opened in late ’96 and joined a pleasing web of country roads and bike trails that already existed in the area. Several resort hotels convenient to bike and hiking trails and area farm stands are perched along the steep bluffs of Pismo Beach, about 10 miles south of SLO. They include Shore Cliff, Shelter Cove Lodge, The Cliffs and the brand-new English-cottage-style Cottage Inn by the Sea. The Cliffs offers a boardwalk stairway down to the rocky beach, while Shelter Cove boasts a private beach. Norm and I booked an ocean-view room at The Cliffs.

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Early Saturday morning we heard the foghorn in the distance--common this time of year. Although drippy fog often hugs the coast, just two miles away Avila Valley burns warm and clear.

We threw our bikes into the car and drove to the Custom House, on Front Street in Avila Beach. Renowned for its hearty meals, this beachfront restaurant features omelets accompanied by San Luis Sourdough toast, a local bread that San Franciscans are known to buy and take home. Over steaming coffee, we pondered the rest of our day’s activities.

One choice was to bike north along Avila Beach, turn left at Avila Beach Drive and continue west past a blue-green serpentine rock formation near the entrance to Diablo Nuclear Power Plant. If you do this, inhale the salt air and listen to sea gulls squawking and workers sanding down ships in dry-dock. Fat Cats 24-Hour Cafe in the bustling port area is good eating: Fishermen hunkering over bowls of steaming clam chowder mingle with university students building their own omelets.

Another option: Conditioned bicyclists can make their way to See Canyon Road and pump up the hills of the canyon’s apple-growing areas, where warm days and nights with the snap of cold air make for good fruit. See Canyon Road becomes a dirt road (Perfumo Canyon Road) that crests near an old-fashioned windmill. Riders often stop here to admire the view before beginning their descent through the Irish Hills into San Luis Obispo and completing the loop back to Avila Valley.

We decided to set out along the new bike trail, which occupies the old Pacific Coast Railway right-of-way from Avila Beach to Ontario Road, the frontage road for California 1 and U.S. 101--one and the same at that point. Traversing ancestral Chumash Indian grounds, the trail took us through areas of diverse ecology and geology. Heading north up Avila Beach’s waterfront, we crossed the bridge where San Luis Creek empties into the Pacific. Past the San Luis Bay Inn and golf course, old dunes turn to coastal sage shrub and chaparral growth, with rolling grasslands stretching behind. In the distance spreads an oak-grassland mixture, with oak woodlands at the horizon.

Pedaling along San Luis Creek, we glimpsed great blue herons, white egrets and black cormorants, as well as other wading shorebirds. The clattering cry of blue herons alerted us to a rookery high in a stand of oaks. For several minutes we gazed upward, fascinated by the graceful flight of herons with 6-foot wingspans silhouetted against the blue sky.

The sound of a waterfall signaled a small dam and fish ladder just around the bend. If you look carefully into the water on a bright day, you may be able to see suckers, trout or salmon swimming upstream. To the north, sparse ferns poke out of rocky crevices, while dried liverwort and moss line shadowy hollows created when ground water formed rounded “solution caves.”

We reveled in the abundance of wildflowers. Late summer and autumn bring sprays of peach-colored flowers blossoming on dusty-grey dudleya. Black sage’s pink dingleberries dry to a brittle brown, while chamise, coyote bush and yellow sticky monkey flowers dominate the terrain. Beware, and be able to identify poison oak; it abounds here.

When the trail ended at Ontario Road, we made a quick right turn, then another right on Avila Beach Drive, and our favorite fruit stand, the Avila Valley Barn, was in sight. The smell of fresh-baked apple and berry desserts wafted out to greet us. Besides just-picked fruits and vegetables, pies (apple, apple-raspberry, peach, olallieberry, strawberry, plum, raspberry-pear) and loaf breads (pumpkin-raisin, zucchini and apple-maple) are wrapped to take home. We decided on 10 pounds of apples, local honey and an apple-maple loaf for later on.

Throughout summer and autumn at the barn, a tractor-driven hay wagon drops off fruit pickers in berry patches and orchards and chugs back periodically to load up sunburned, juice-stained families for the return trip. Now bright orange pumpkins dot the ground, as do Old World blue and small sugar pumpkins. An abundance of squash includes butternut, acorn, spaghetti and banana. Families flock to buy pumpkins, and fascinated youngsters pet the farm animals kept nearby.

As evening approached, the friendly staff at The Cliffs welcomed us to a pleasant room with a balcony, and we meandered down to dine on the terrace. The Copper River salmon, served with salad, specialty breads and key lime pie, was excellent. A quick dip in the spa, and we were ready to call it a day.

Morning broke clear and sunny, perfect for enjoying the beach. A quick bite on Fat Cats’ outdoor patio, and we headed for the beach. But not before visiting Avila Grocery for a take-along picnic of deli sandwiches, SLO roasted coffee and snacks. Ah, yes, the SLO life.

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Budget for Two

The Cliffs at Shell Beach: $119.90

Breakfast, The Custom House: 16.70

Avila Valley Barn goodies: 21.50

Dinner, Seacliffs Restaurant: 69.34

Breakfast, Fat Cats Cafe: 15.75

Snacks, Avila Grocery/Deli: 9.98

FINAL TAB: $253.17

The Cliffs, 2757 Shell Beach Road, Shell Beach, CA 93449; tel. (805) 773-5000.