DAY 9 - SAMUEL P. TAYLOR TO SAN FRANCISCO

Our very last day was a glorious ride. Great weather, great company and great riding.

We cut through Lagunitas, Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, Corte Madera, then over Almonte Boulevard to get into Sausalito. From our coffee and bacon stop we could see San Francisco glimmering in the distance.

 We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge rather tediously, dodging selfie-taking, oblivious tourists (only one side of the bridge was open to bicycles and people on foot).

Sarah took me on a guided tour of San Fran and then we cut through swaths of tourists and head along the water to the Ferry building to have a delicious butternut squash soup and sandwich at Il Cane Rosso.

Hurray for us, we did it! Nine fabulous days with my cycle sister. We're number one! No really, that was our number.

DAY 8 - BODEGA TO SAMUEL P. TAYLOR STATE PARK

Everything was soaking wet in the morning from the heavy fog. This was challenging.

After a big breakfast of (what else?) oatmeal and peanut butter (I get a gaggy sensation every time I write those two words) we set off on our way to Bodega Bay and beyond.

We rode and rode and rode along the coast encountering the ugliest of animals - the wild turkey. So many of them along the now desert-like landscape.

It was hot and we were hungry (hangry) and all we had was beef jerky and dried mango and we were running out of water. We needed civilization, stat!

During a little break we noticed a rather good-looking, tall, toned, tanned cyclist coming our way. It wasn't a mirage, it was Mike, the firefighter in all his spandex glory riding like a champ. He was doing a 150 mile ride that day, no big deal. He stopped and we chatted for a bit. In my delusional state I made it clear how hungry I was and he told us about a great bakery in Point Reyes only 10 more miles down the road. "You can do it! You're almost there!" Thanks, Mike!

We arrived in Point Reyes Station sweaty and tired and who do we see sitting and eating a slice of pizza - Mike! He was happy to see us and us happy to see him. We had a nice little chat and then sadly he had to be on his way, as he was going a lot further than we were at that point.

Sarah and I dreamily/drearily set off on our bikes and headed to OUR LAST CAMPGROUND at Samuel P. Taylor State Park.


This was a weird night to say the least. We pulled into camp to set up shop with three other cycle tenters and a nosey family of racoons. One of the tenters was a lovely man with Italian lineage who rode up and down the coast all year long, wandering from one campsite to the next. He had a very slow way about him, but he was very sweet.

Sarah and I cooked dinner of which I ate way too much and were then invited to eat chicken noodle soup with a group of Evangelicals with a roaring campfire. Too much food all the time.

Sleep that night was disrupted by some hungry racoons looking for a midnight snack, loud snoring from the tent near us and a group of vegetarian hipsters singing Disney tunes at the top of their lungs.

DAY 7 - MANCHESTER BEACH TO BODEGA

...or almost.

This was an oopsie day. Really should have done our research before taking it super easy...I guess by Day 7 we were getting too comfortable with our ride schedule.
We set off early enough thanks to peanut butter and oatmeal fuel.
Half an hour into the ride we hit Point Arena and I fell in love. We rolled down the hill into the little town shrouded by morning fog. Such a cute town; yoga studios, community billboards with quirky events and a super awesome whole foods grocery store and cafe. For real this place is awesome. We stopped for way too long to get a caffeine and wifi fix. Then I found these peanut butter ginger chews. The guy at the counter thought I was crazy because I bought handfuls of them. They were the most delicious sugar fix I could fathom. Anyway, Point Area, worth checking out.

We kept on riding. Maybe it was Day 7 fatigue or the lack of sleep from the crumby karaoke from the night before, but I was tired. Not a good day to be tired.

I then stumbled onto a grocery store and figured I should buy lunch. I got a bunch of picnicky things while Judi kept cycling like a champ. Sarah and I found a picnic table and slowly ate some crazy delicious corn chips and sipped on coconut water. I didn't want to keep on, but we managed.

Here's where the oopsie happened. Turns out the next part of the ride is ALL UPHILL along the ridge of a fantastical mountain. This was the most beautiful and most strenuous part of the whole trip. It was gorgeous. The light was golden as we rode up and up. The fog was rolling in below, covering the Pacific like a sheet, tucking it into bed for the night. The minutes were ticking and the sun was setting, casting the most delicious hue of orange I've ever seen.

Finally we descended into a valley behind the mountain and that's when things started getting decidedly dusky.

We were supposed to be meeting Sarah's parents that night at the Bodega Bay campsite so they could take us out for dinner. We were still ten miles away and it was pitch black by the time we hit the town of Jenner. The only thing in Jenner is a fancy pants restaurant with a parking lot that became Sarah and my changing room. We were exhausted. We were famished. We were done.
Sarah's delightful parents graciously drove all the way out to the fancy restaurant to meet us, even though it was late and they had to work the next day! So wonderful of them.
After some drinks at the bar we settled into a table where I proceeded to eat my body weight in bread and butter and a little plate of pasta and some fish. We had to apologize to the staff about our grubby appearance and our (my) ravenous appetite.
We then had to face the facts. It was night time and we were ten miles out of our destination for the day = we had no where to sleep. This is where things got interesting. Desperation (or liquid courage) prompted me to ask the attractive bartender if he wouldn't mind letting us crash in his backyard. This, as you can imagine, was not going to fly. Instead, Sarah's ultra supportive father loaded our bikes into his car and took five miles to the Sonoma Coast State Park which was completely full (it was crab season, y'all). We ended up camping on the edge of the campsite and had a not so decent sleep. It was loud and I was too full of bread.

DAY 6 - FORT BRAGG TO MANCHESTER BEACH

This was a short and strenuous ride. We left Phil's place later because of our slow and breakfast filled morning.
That morning, on the way to Mendocino we saw all these people in wetsuits coming out of the water. Turns out it was full abalone season and that they were diving for these coveted mollusks. I stopped a couple guys and asked them about it and took some photos. Turns out you can only pick up two per person per day.

We stopped in beautiful Mendocino for a photo shoot and lunch. We had food at the MOST delicious cafe. Unreal food, so good. I had a persimmon custard pastry for lunch. It was delish.

The plan was to ride to Manchester public campground which we realized in the end, wasn't open. Of course the KOA (so dumb, "Kamping" of America) site was open, but at such a high rate. Ridiculously expensive to camp in a field. Fine, they also had a hot tub and communal kitchen and horribly loud karaoke that went on for way too late at night.
The hot tub was perfect, no one in it but us and a Japanese cycle tourist who spoke little English and was a bit shy when he found Sarah and me in our underwear in the hot tub. Dinner was cooked over a real stove while listening to campers belt out country rock tunes.

DAY 5 - STANDISH HICKEY TO FORT BRAGG

After saying goodbye to happy Dave, we set off on the shoreline highway. Lots of ups and downs and twists and turns.

The most eventful part of this day five was what happened at the very end.

We pulled into our campground at Mackerricher Park at a decent hour. Being November the campsite had limited sites available with only one main bathroom area available. We circled around for a bit, realizing our only option for the night was near a couple of questionable looking people.

While pondering our predicament, Phil popped out of nowhere. Phil was riding his bike through the campsite on his nightly ride. We clearly looked puzzled and Phil told us to follow him, as there was another "secret" area he knew about...but he wasn't sure if those bathrooms were open, which would mean no running water. It was a lovely campsite indeed, right on the beach! Right before I went to go check on the bathrooms, Phil said, "If the bathrooms aren't open, you're more than welcome to camp out in my backyard." Be careful what you wish for, Phil...

Well, that sounded pretty good to us, plus we'd have access to a real live bathroom! As it turns out, the bathrooms were not open, so we hopped on our bikes and followed Phil along the water back to his humble abode. Phil is a high school teacher in Fort Bragg and an all around really great person. He also makes the best hummus I've ever tasted (he adds kalamata olive juice to it).

He let us into his home and we set up camp and showered (it felt so good). After some drinks, peanuts, hummus and chicken legs, we decided we were taking Phil out for fish and chips at the wharf. How we girls (actually, only me, I had already eaten all of Phil's food) managed to polish off a plate of fish and chips is astounding. On top of it all we went for ice cream. Full indulgence.
We hit the sleeping bags with full tummies and happy hearts.

In the morning we were ravenous as per usual and the oatmeal and peanut butter combo was admittedly getting a bit old. I hopped in the car with Phil while the girls did some bike maintenance, and headed to the supermarket. We loaded up on bacon, eggs, bread, yogurt, granola and fruit. We had a grand breakfast and we are so thankful once again to lovely Phil. Thank you, Phil! You made our time in Fort Bragg fun and memorable.

DAY 4 - BURLINGTON TO STANDISH HICKEY

CLIMBING DAY!
I was looking forward to this. I love the climbs and it was a serious ride.

We started out early as we had a busy highway section after the Avenue of the Giants. The highway section wasn't too bad, but they get rather monotonous and I get worried about flats from all the debris on the side of the highway.

We eventually left the 101 and headed up the 1 where the climbing adventure began. It was a long, hard slog with an impressive grade and it felt great to reach the top. After refuelling on snickers bars what goes up must come down so we had a good, long, curvy downhill ride.

The rest of the day was a blur of windy roads and tall trees, but let's not forget lunch. We spent lunch in the town of Garberville. Upon arrival we were a bit taken aback. The town was full of mangey looking dogs and their eclectic, barefoot and dreadlocked owners. We found a little cafe to have lunch and had the most delicious bagel sandwiches we've ever had (we were also starving). We spent lunch sitting on an patio with the stereotypical French couple who comes to North America to pick weed and discover America. They were arguing en français the entire time which added to the bizarre ambience of the town. When we finished lunch we were told by the waitress to leave town right away and the same way we came as there were men with rifles around guarding their plantations. Wonderful!

When we finally reached the campsite at dusk, we chose a little spot beside Roxanne, a woman spending the night by herself in the rather empty campsite. While we were fumbling around with our camping gear, along comes David, another cycle tourist who was camping out at the campsite for a good while because he was working...picking leaves. Needless to say he was a happy, friendly guy and welcomed us with a box of Cheez-its. He told us after he was finished work for the day, he would come visit us with more food and his guitar.

We set up camp, showered, went for a little walk and had a lovely campfire with our new friends. David's guitar was the smallest, flattest little guitar that he hooked up to an amplifying device that used any large empty object (he used a cardboard box). David and Sarah serenaded us with their tunes and it was such a lovely, fun evening.

DAY 3 - EUREKA TO BURLINGTON

This was a fun day.

We started off at the grocery store and loaded up on breakfast essentials. Thanks to our looted brekkie from the hotel that consisted of oatmeal packets and peanut butter, we had become addicted to this combination. That plus a scoop from a jar of Dick's honey (aaand not a great sentence, but delish! Thanks, Dick!).

We set off and found an alternate route through some fields and cattle farms. It was a glorious November day, not a cloud in the sky and a light breeze. We also found a fig tree right next to an apple tree, both loaded with fruit!! I was so excited and ate way too much. We also had a lunch adventure on the front steps of a total stranger's home while being entertained by her adorable four-year-old son. This is why bike touring is so amazing.

 Halfway through our lovely field ride I got a flat and with guide master Sarah's help we were back rolling in no time. But yours truly was in a rush and forgot to pop the front break back into place. Of course I was at the crest of a big hill and realized my mistake as I started my descent. I yelled pretty loud and luckily was able to stop before it became impossible. I learned my lesson.

We kept on in the fields until late afternoon when we hit the highway again and came into the Avenue of the Giants. What an incredible route. It was dusk (again! Why were we always amongst these giants during dusk!) and we had a couple more miles to pedal before reaching the Burlington campsite nestled under a canopy of Redwoods. Upon arrival into the campsite we met up with Judi, had dinner and quickly hit the sack. It was a beautiful camp spot and very quiet that night.