Current Location: Manchester State Beach Park
Daily Mileage: 33.44 mi
Daily Climb: 5505'
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...
Fun seeing you guys..... glad you made it back safely... see you in a few days
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