We Made It!

Current Location: San Francisco
Daily Mileage: 73.13
Daily Climb: 7064'

Bodega Dunes SP to Nick's Crispy TacosShare your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Total Mileage: 817.4
Total Climb: 95425'


So 12 days and 800+ miles later we are in San Francisco.  The last day was definitely no cake walk however.  I had some trouble sleeping the night before, partly because of the cramped conditions (Charlie stole my sleeping bag) and partly because of nervous anticipation.  Right when we got on the road my hamstring started acting up.  I was legitimately worried Todd was going to have to pull me the last leg, but after an hour or so of riding the pain had eased.  Perhaps it was just the adrenaline of being so close to home.

Here we are about to embark on our grand finale.

Once through the quaint Bodega Bay the road bends out alongside the town's namesake.

Then turns immediately inland through Valley Ford.

As you can imagine, the temperature is much higher when you're not along the water.  It wasn't too bad at this point in the day, but later on we were definitely missing the cool ocean breeze.  Over two mid size hills was the town of Tomales, where we stopped for a break.  Todd remarked on how he liked the old western style towns much better than the newer developments.

Outside of down the road descends back to a creek/river.

Before opening up into Tomales Bay.

The road along the bay is an endless series of rolling hills.  I was really hating life at points in this section of the ride.  We passed by the Hog Island Oyster Co., which is supposed to be good.

I've only been to the Tomales Bay Oyster farm, but may try to make it back here at some point this summer.

We stopped for lunch in Point Reyes Station.  There wasn't a whole lot going on, though we did hear some locals complaining about all the oyster tourists.  I guess technically we may have fallen into that category.  Just a ways down the road lay Samuel P. Taylor State Park.  After a short climb and descent we found ourselves on a bike trail.

It was at time spotty, but the shade was a welcome respite from the now intense sun.  For the second time that day we passed a curious bike sign.

Notice some clever tourer/graffito has added panniers, bottles, and what seems to be a horn.  On what we thought was the last hill that remained between us and home Todd experienced our first chain derailing.  When we stopped in Fairfax for milkshakes he was still bearing signs of the ordeal.

I must not have been watching close enough to see how he go the chain back on using his face.

The next section of the ride was quite nice.  Quiet Marin streets with bike lanes.  It looked like there's even a numbered bike highway system around the area.  We somewhat regrettably followed the map rather than the book through Corte Madera, which had us go over an unexpected hill.  Though at the top we got our first glimpse of our goal.

After a quick pit stop in Sausalito we found ourselves at the foot of the Golden Gate.

Decent view of Baker Beach on the way over, despite the gale force winds.

And finally, feet on solid ground in San Francisco.

I had planned for us to ride down along Crissy Field, but there was no access from the North.  We ended up meandering through the Presidio.

Until at least, we found ourselves at The Finish!

A small crowd of friends and family awaited us with noisemakers and confetti poppers.

Sara had planned a little get together for us at Nick Crispy Tacos, just down the street from our house.

We had plenty of stories to share over beer and mexican.

My guess is Todd is explaining how Terrifying descending out of Fort Ross was.

Our Dad and stepmom Mary showed up towards the tail end.

Todd and I were ear to ear all night.  There really is no place like home.

As Promised, Day 11 pics

Day 11 was one of, if not the toughest day we had.  Long, tall, and hazardous, it was exhausting on multiple levels.

It started out great, a nice tailwind and some interesting tree trimming in Manchester.

That person in the shade is some creepy statue.  Would be weird to go by that at night.

Here's a typical section of road on this part of the coast.

Notice the disappearing shoulder.

Looking for funny signs becomes a habit while on tour.  We liked this road we passed.

And this one in a rest area stop.

Sea Ranch looked like a nice little beach community.  The 1 is lined by these fences for miles.

Lunch at the Sea Ranch Lodge was the classiest affair of the trip.

They even made me put away my laptop in the dining area.  Found this outside.

Perhaps this will be the next evolution of unridable hipster bikes.  Who needs carbon fiber when you can ride on stone.

When the road bent back to the water the wind really picked up.  We both remarked the ocean looked like it was CGI'd rather than reality.

The picture doesn't do it justice.

Entering Fort Ross you get into cattle country.

Complete with cattle guards that require crossing.

After a hairy climb along very steep bluffs, we hit one of the steepest and scariest descents of the trip.

I was too mentally draining to keep snapping pics after this.  It was another 20 or so miles down the coast getting blown back and forth.  Not a very pleasant afternoon, but Charlie and Sara did meet us in camp, which was a welcome addition to the evening.

We were both happy to making camp for the last time, excited for the final day of the trip.

The Home Stretch

Current Location: Bodega Dunes State Park
Daily Mileage: 68.9
Daily Climb: 8786'

Manchester SB to Bodega Dunes SPShare your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Total Mileage: 744.27
Total Climb: 88361'

So here we are, just a day's ride outside of San Francisco.  It's pretty crazy to think back on all the miles we've put out and the scenery we've experienced.  I almost don't want to get back on the bike this morning, knowing this will be the last day we break camp.

Quick reminder that we'll be at Nick's Crispy Tacos (Polk and Broadway) tonight starting around 7.  Come check out our rigs and our newly sculpted Cristiano Ronaldo Quads.

I'll do a full post on yesterday's ride tomorrow, but suffice it to say it was one of the toughest days we've had.  For the first half of the day we had a strong tailwind, but once we started climbing past Fort Ross it was gusting every which way.  Add to that the absence of a shoulder, a sheer 500' cliff with no guard rails, and busy traffic.  The ride was physically demanding, but even more so mentally.  I'd say it was my least favorite stretch of road of the entire coast.

We had a good night in camp however.   Sara and Charlie made the drive up from SF to meet us, and we had a feast of BBQ chicken and steak.  The tent did accomodate all four of us, but I sure am looking forward to a nice warm bed.

Hope to see everyone tonight!

Keepin' it Rollin'

(Another delayed post)

Current Location: Manchester State Beach Park
Daily Mileage: 33.44 mi
Daily Climb: 5505'

Russian Gulch SP to Manchester State BeachShare your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Total Mileage: 675.37
Total Climb: 79575'

The terrain really has been rolling, literally up and down the entire time.  It was a short day for us today, only 33 miles from Russian Gulch to Manchester Beach.  We were due for a break, plus we had a decently hard night out with my buddy from college Ryan.  After riding to camp, he picked us (Todd, Sterling, and myself) up and we headed back to Fort Bragg for the North Coast Brewery for round two.  We had dinner and watched the basketball; I also tried every beer on the menu.

This morning we didn't have much for breakfast supplies, so we headed a short ways down the road to Mendocino.  More picturesque views on the way in.

We stopped at a little bakery to get fueled up for the day.

The wind was really howling, but luckily this time mostly from behind.  Here's a shot in Little River, just a stone's throw from Big River.

We had heard the bend right before Elk had a great view of the coast, so we stopped for a pic.

Elk is where Ryan is living while building a new bridge on the 1.  He told us to just go behind the store.

And there he was outside of his office/house.

After lunch we spotted Sterling waiting for his brother to pick him up.

Elk marks the end of his tour.  Pretty impressive he made it all that way on a fixed gear with no tent.  It was cool camping with him for the past few nights.  He said he's planning on moving down to Santa Cruz soon, so maybe we'll catch him around the bay sometime.

Just a few hundred yards down the road was the bridge site.

Ryan gave us a tour and explained some of the in and outs of bridge building.  As you can see, there's a lot of heavy machinery involved.

He sent us off with two brand new Golden State Bridge orange reflector vests.  They may make an appearance Friday.  After Elk lies the steepest climb on the coastal route.  Here's what the book has to say, "shift to your lowest gear, and wish for a lower one."  It was indeed quite steep, with a few hairpin turns and no shoulder.  The route finally levels off and stays on the coast, but strangely there is grazing land on either side of the highway.

The wind was pumping at our backs, which made the miles fly by.

We made it to camp before four, by far our earliest finish.  We took a trip down to Manchester Beach, which was pretty, but had really rough surf.

Interestingly, I learned from the camp host that Manchester Beach is the closest point in the continental US to Hawaii.  This explains the giant barbed wire AT&T installation just outside of camp; It's the hub for all the trans Pacific under sea communication cables.

At camp we met another German couple, as well as a couple from Portland I don't really know how to describe.  They rolled in dressed in hot pink pirate looking garb.  The guy was on a tandem bike pulling a trailer, and the girl on roller skates, sporting some sort of fur tail.  Apparently their plan was to skate coast to coast, but after some mishaps they are headed back to Portland.  

I had my first real scare on the road today, and it wasn't for myself.  A PG&E trucking whizzed by me, then started to swerve into the shoulder right behind Todd.  He barely made it back, with what looked like inches to spare.  The shoulder here is skinny to non-existent; I'm really hoping for better road tomorrow.  I think we may consider the ride-in-the-middle-of-the-road-to-get-traffic-to-slow-down approach.  

Two days and 130 miles to go...

Getting High in Mendocino

(Arg, tried to post this yesterday but it must not have gone through!)

Super high, almost 20k feet in the last two days.

This is the combined post for days 8 and 9 since last night I had neither service nor power.

Day 8 finish: Standish Hickey Recreation Area
Day 8 Mileage: 42.63 mi
Day 8 Climb: 9918'

Hidden Springs CG to Standish Hickey Recreation AreaShare your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Current Location: Fort Bragg
Daily Mileage: 55.56 mi
Daily Climb: 9980'

Standish Hickey RA to Russian Gulch SPShare your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Total Mileage: 641.93
Total Climb: 74070

Both of the last two days were short mile wise, but grueling due to the elevation gain.  However, it really feels like we're on the home stretch at this point.  We've got three days for 160 relatively flat miles.

Yesterday saw then end of Avenue of the Giants.  We really started to miss the calm and shade of the redwoods.  Here's one last fallen giant.

Back on 101 things were much worse.  It was now a wide open road with traffic flying by.  The shoulder varied from decent to non-existent.  The first chance we got we took one of the "alternate routes" listed in the book to avoid the dangerous traffic.  Though it adds miles to the day, and the roads are generally shoddy, it sure beats getting buzzed by cars going 80 mph.  Here's an example of one of the side roads.

We stopped for lunch in Garberville, which was a big town by the standards we're used to at this point.

Down the road in Richardson Grove State Park we saw some interesting wood carvings.

And I guess Bigfoot lives in the area.

We haven't seen him yet.  We did check out the One Log House however.

Felt like a submarine inside.

Next novelty stop was Confusion Hill.  The shop keepers didn't do a good enough job selling us on either of the attractions, a sideways house and a train ride, so we just headed on down the road.

We thought it was supposed to be an easy day, due to the 40 miles, but the hills and the heat were brutal on us.  By the time we were getting close to Standish Hickey we were both pretty spent.  To our dismay, here's what greeted us on arrival.

According to the map, the next campground was over The Big One.  We still had some daylight left, so we started to muster up reserves we had left to make the push, but when we stopped in the store across the street the guy behind the counter told us to ignore the closed sign and go on in.  He also started selling us on the burger "Best on the West Coast according to Sunset Magazine".  Once in the campsite (which was closed) we found a sign that said 4 of the sites were still open for hiker bikers (Thanks Gods!)  We set up shop then headed back across the street for the burger.  The place was pretty hilarious; they had a fake cop car to slow people down, as well as a raised up South Park bus.

The burger was pretty good, as were the gimungous bbq'd oysters.

After dinner we went down to the South Fork Eel River, which we've been following for the last three days, and finally dipped our toes.

We still had enough daylight for some chain maintenance, gotta keep it clean.

Sterling rolled up a little while after us.  We had some beers then turned in early in anticipation of the next day's hill.

We set out bright and early with the hope of avoiding the heat during our ascent.  Just a mile or so down the road we finally departed the 101 for the 1.

Apparently, the "World Famous Drive-Thru Tree", as opposed to the drive-thru tree in Myers Flat, is in Legget.  Still $3 per bike though.

Then up the hill we went.  We must have timed it right, since it was cool and only one car passed us on the way up.  The summit is 1950', the highest along the pacific coast route.  More road notes greeted us at the top.

The descent sure was nice, 2000' ft is much nicer on the way down.

One more big hill and we were back on the coast.

Found this on the railing.

We just had to add our mark.

Beautiful coastal scenery once again.

We stopped in the coastal town of Westport for lunch.

They had Caddyshack Arnold Palmer!

Got a little cloudy on the way in to Fort Bragg.  We took the Old Haul Road, which was a bit sandy in parts.

But arrived safely at the North Coast Brewery.

Very glad to see the hills in our rearview, it's all coastal riding from here on out.  Crazy to think we've climbed 2.5 X the height of Mt. Everest, that's super high.