Day 12 - It's really about the Journey not the Destination

In the end it really was the Journey, the Golden Gate bridge was the Destination, but really...the destination was a nightmare of tourists on rented Bicycles that they didn't know how to ride! Just a big crush of people going both ways on the bridge. But we made it and we rode from one side to the other. We had a bit of lunch and then I left my three younger companions to tour San Francisco on their own. When Lee suggested we ride down Lombard Street, I said I'M OUT! Lol! I'm currently on the Ferry to Larkspur where my Knight will be waiting for me in a rented van to hold my chariot. I've gained strength (and pain) in my legs that I have never felt before. I've got saddle sores like you never want to experience. I have tans lines that make me look like a panda bear. Fueling this biking body has been interesting. I've definitely gained muscle, and lost no weight. We ate and ate and drank lots of beer #bikesandbeers Tomorrow we head North towards home, wiser, stronger and feeling a sheer sense of accomplishment.

Day 11 - Hot Shower, Soft Bed & a Home Cooked Meal

3 August - Before we talk about today's ride, how about we talk about things that go bump in the night. As I've done most every night of our trip I am the first one to bed. So last night I left all the younger folks standing around the camp fire and I climbed into my tent to go to sleep. Long around 3:00 am, I woke with a start at the sound of some one rattling around our camp site. There were about 12 of us in one area all cyclists going in one direction or another. I felt around my tent for my light but couldn't find it. I kept hearing the clatter. I finally found my light, then thought to myself what am I going to do if I do confront someone? Guess I will worry about that when the time comes. So I threw on my flip flops unzipped my tent fly, shined the light out and WHO did I see? None other than Ricky Raccoon.  Each camp site is provided with a wooden cupboard to put your food stuff in, so critters don't get in to it.  But since we were in the hiker/biker camp site we had one shared cabinet and no one put a lock on it. So the raccoon was just enjoying the heck out of himself. He had gotten a hold of Lee's dry bag, chewed through it and ate off the bag of tortillas. I shewed him away and used bungee cord to lock the cupboard. I went back to my tent but continued to hear noises.  Then I heard something right near my tent, the next thing I knew, Ian's bike had fallen over and hit my tent. I swear it was an earthquake, but know one else felt it. By now Kelsey was awake and she picked the bike up. I continued to hear crazy noises all night long. Adam the guy from New York, said he found that the raccoon had gotten into one of his bags and eaten his banana and created a huge mess. Enough with the critters..... mountain lions, bears, ticks, raccoons, mice, I'm out!
Today was about a 50 miles ride to civilization. Civilization in this case looks like getting off of highway 1, riding on wider shoulders, fewer hills and even lots of bike paths. Civilization was cold beer and good food at the Lagunitas Brewery in Petaluma, California. Civilization was arriving at Mike's Bikes in Petaluma so Kelsey, after 5 flat tires could get new tires for her bike. Civilization was arriving in San Rafael and the home of my wonderful sister and brother in-law, for a shower, a swim in the pool. Civilization was having my wonderful husband arrive with Patsy the dog and the chariot that will take we weary riders back home. Civilization was the wonderful pasta dinner that Molly, "just threw together" (wish cooking was that easy and to me), and sitting around the dinner table nine of us being thankful and loving what we have. Tonight that is my civilization.
But it's not over. Just 20 miles to greatness. Just 20 miles to Bridge and our journey will be complete.

Day 10 - Things Change

Today we were supposed to be entering San Francisco, but that would have meant making that 100 mile day last week and that just didn't happen. So here we are one more night of camping. Tonight we are in Bodega Bay. We had a great dinner at La Bodegita, great food and awesome margaritas. Now we are sitting at our camp site with a couple from Austria, an Italian that lives in Canada and a guy from New York. Tomorrow is the home stretch, we will turn off of Highway 1 and head for San Rafael. Friday morning we will head into San Francisco.
The sites are simply beautiful, the hills are brutal. My legs are killing me. Such an adventure a time to never forget.

Day 9 - And I thought Yesterday was Hard.

1 August - This morning we got a late start, which means a late end, but I'm jumping ahead of myself. Since our camp site in Cleone was just 2 miles away from the town of Fort Bragg, California, we decided to eat a nice hot breakfast in town instead of a camp side bowl of oatmeal. We road along Haul Road, which is a no motorized vehicle path from Cleone to Fort Bragg. We had a really good breakfast at Cafe One and then went to the Fort Bragg Bike shop to get a resupply of inner tube, since we had been through a few of our spares. None of the hills were as high as yesterday but there was so much up and down, that it added up to about the same elevation. We got separated at some point today and no one was quite sure where anyone else was. Our end point was Anchor Bay but we wound up in Gaulala at a camp site with a lot of folks speaking various languages. Next to us was a pretty amazing French family with 2 young boys doing the same trip we are and then some. They had been all over Oregon and now the coast line to San Francisco, with 2 kids on bikes! I found it hard to believe.
As I said our day started late and so we were just pulling into our camp site at 7:45 pm, way too late to still be riding. But we made it in. I am forever grateful to Lee, who always has that last bit of energy when no else does. Lee grabbed a pizza in town and beer and got it back to our camp site, since no one was in the mood to cook anything. He is a rock star.
As we would say in the Army, "one more day and a wake up".

Day 9 - And I thought Yesterday was Hard.

1 August - This morning we got a late start, which means a late end, but I'm jumping ahead of myself. Since our camp site in Cleone was just 2 miles away from the town of Fort Bragg, California, we decided to eat a nice hot breakfast in town instead of a camp side bowl of oatmeal. We road along Haul Road, which is a no motorized vehicle path from Cleone to Fort Bragg. We had a really good breakfast at Cafe One and then went to the Fort Bragg Bike shop to get a resupply of inner tube, since we had been through a few of our spares. None of the hills were as high as yesterday but there was so much up and down, that it added up to about the same elevation. We got separated at some point today and no one was quite sure where anyone else was. Our end point was Anchor Bay but we wound up in Gaulala at a camp site with a lot of folks speaking various languages. Next to us was a pretty amazing French family with 2 young boys doing the same trip we are and then some. They had been all over Oregon and now the coast line to San Francisco, with 2 kids on bikes! I found it hard to believe.
As I said our day started late and so we were just pulling into our camp site at 7:45 pm, way too late to still be riding. But we made it in. I am forever grateful to Lee, who always has that last bit of energy when no else does. Lee grabbed a pizza in town and beer and got it back to our camp site, since no one was in the mood to cook anything. He is a rock star.
As we would say in the Army, "one more day and a wake up".

Day 7 - Leggett California - Less than 200 miles to go

Sunday 30 July - I'm putting the date down because, all of the days are running together and I don't always have WiFi available to upload my blog on the intended day. After a very cool night of sleeping in the Redwoods, we had facing us one of our most taxing days. The hills leading to Leggett, California. The carrot at the end of the day was a shower and a night in a comfy bed, if only we could get there. The ride was really beautiful, but we knew we had those hills on this the hottest day of our ride. It was above 80 and it may have gotten to 90 degrees.  We checked on one another and made sure everyone was drinking plenty of water. Our journey took us along the Eel River. The river seemed to be taunting us, as if to say, "you know you want to jump in and cool off". But it never seemed like we were close enough.  But finally the opportunity hit, we found a spot after looking at the river for 2 days,  to actually jump in and cool off. It was just what we needed at that moment in time. The water was wonderful and rejuvenating and gave us what we thought we needed to get to Leggett. I think that was about the time we also realized had we known it was going to be a blazing hot day we probably would have started our day much earlier than we did. The glory of the river kind of wore off after about an hour as we faced each hill that confronted us. The worst parts were when we were on highway 101 in the blazing sun, the black top was relentless. Finally the temperature began to cool and we were feeling better, but the Kelsey got not 1 but 2 flat tires in less than one hour. That was the bad news. The good news is we we're not far from our dinner spot for the evening The World famous Peg House. The burgers were AWESOME! They even had live music playing. The problem? We still had 4 miles and two more elevation climbs to go. But....we made it!  We are staying the night at the Stonegate Villas, really cute little place with a really nice and accommodating owner.  What a day.

Day 6 - Days all seem to be running together now

Woke up slowly but surely in a comfy Motel 6 bed today. No one wanted to get up, it's was too comfortable, but we did. We rode into the Arcata square and had breakfast at the Alibi. A really good breakfast, check it out if you are ever there. Then it was off to the Avenue of the Redwoods. I must say that the last two days have been the most beautiful and scenic. We rode through lots of farm country. Lots of "California Happy Cows" as a young Ian would say. We saw two strange cemeteries, all of the plots were above ground, I guess because of water levels like in New Orleans.  We stopped for Gatorade in the small town of Loleta, known for the Loleta cheese factory according to the Loleta Market owner. But we also heard that Halloween III, was filmed there. Then we rode into the town of Ferndale. Simply wonderful little town, we stopped for lunch at the pizzaria and in the distance heard the sounds of a mariachi band playing. They were actually marching up the street playing and behind them came a young woman and some attendants in a Cinderella horse drawn carriage. We couldn't tell if it was a wedding or a Quinciera. Whatever it was it was pretty cool. Then we were off to Weott and the Burlington campground. A hilly ride at times but simply awe inspiring to look at the majestic trees as I rode by.

Day 5 - Sort of a rest day

So the plan was for two nights in a hotel in Arcata, but like I said before, that didn't quite happen, but we did get done relatively early in Friday, about 1:00 and we did spend the night at Motel 6. The ride to Arcata was my favorite ride so far as far as scenery goes. We were off of 101 most of the way on scenic bypasses. We even rode for quite sometime on an actual bike path! That was like heaven. We heard and saw sea lions, saw surfers and other cool stuff along the way.
We caught an Taxi (well most of us, Lee insists he will not get in a motor vehicle until we are done with the ride) from our motel to the Arcata square... center whatever they call it and hand dinner at a nice restaurant called Abruzzi's. Afterwards we played a few rounds of pool, had a few drinks and realized, HEY, we have to get up in the morning and ride. Well that's no fun, but we acted like adults and headed back to the motel, and promptly crashed. As I began to doze I heard Tom Bodett say, "We'll leave the light on".

Day 4 Another night in the woods

Well the best laid plans. You know when we mapped this trip out we were sitting around a big table, in a relatively dark room and having cocktails. So when someone said you realize that will be a "century ride, ride"? It didn't seem like such a big deal. But then we started to ride and realized our best laid plans would not come to fruition. That's the down side. The upside is we are spending the night in the Redwood National Forest, which is pretty cool....well except for the threat of bears 🐻, mountain lions and ticks!
As much as I would prefer sleeping in a nice warm bed, there is just know way, we... I could have made it to Arcata tonight. I was so tired going up one hill that I had to stop and rest....bad move, it's too hard to get going again, and I took a tumble, banging up my already bad knee. Oh well, supposed to get a new one soon anyway. We saw some beautiful views and will get into Arcata tomorrow and have half a rest day and get to sleep in a bed and take a shower!

Day 3 Complete -That was a Doozy

Four people one route, all with the same thought - that was a very long day. Arrived at our destination at 4 different times, but we all made it. 70 miles of hill after hill, setting up camp at Harris Beach State Park.  And I am too tired to say anything else.