Day 14: Just like that we back

Back to the coast! We started at the very northern end of highway 1 today (again in the rain) and it was absolutely beautiful! Up and over the hill, down to the coast, out to Fort Bragg, setup camp, then went to North Coast Brewery for dinnner! I’m going to keep this post short, because I had to bike about a mile to post it, but it was a really great day.

We’d been hearing about “Legget Hill” for awhile. But, it turned out to be an absolute blast. The ride up had almost no traffic, and wondered beautifully along the side of a mountain. Drake and Kendrick were blasting from Austen’s speaker, and we were both in the grove climbing the hill. (The picture at the top of this post is from the climb.)

Much more fun than the climb was the downhill. For those that ride motorcycles, I’d recommend the beginning of route 1. Maybe the turns are a bit slow for a motorcycle, but they’re perfect for a bike. I flew down the hill, leaning into each turn, with a huge grin on my way. I forgot to get the picture, but Austen has a great shot of me smiling ear to ear at the bottom.

The route goes through some of the most beautiful and peaceful wooded area I’ve seen. I’m not sure what made it so beautiful, and couldn’t capture it in a photo, but even though it was raining, I thought it was a fantastic ride.

At the bottom of the hill, we were on the coast! Just like that we back! And biking toward the town of Fort Bragg. We stopped at a few little convenience stores along the way. I’ve been very impressed with the food at convenience stores here. I got an excellent sandwich made from this place.

Some shots along the 1!

We’re camping right outside Fort Bragg. There’s a nice rail trail that takes you into town from the campsite, which is pretty awesome. For dinner, we went to the north coast brewery. We split a salad, a pizza, nachos, and a few beers, all of which were very good. Being in the center of the bar, we ended talking to about 10 people. I met a couple that lived in Chico, and were just traveling along the coast for the weekend, then another couple from Berkeley that was also traveling for the weekend (and the guy was oddly similar to me. He might be reading this tonight :). Austen ended up meeting a guy that lives on in Berkeley for awhile, then a girl traveling from the UK, who bought a van and outfitted it to sleep in it, and is then traveling around the U.S. for 6 months. How cool is that?

After dinner, it was back to camp for an evening fire, where we talked deeply about tax exempt statuses of churches, news outlets, and AP comparative government. Great conversations, and a really nice night. We were laughing all the way back to the campground.

Tomorrow Austen heads inland, and I stay along the cost. Sad day :(. But I’m only 3 or 4 days from SF now. I’m actually a bit sad, I don’t want this trip to end!

That’s all for now! Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get a longer post in. Not sure how far I’ll go, we’ll see tomorrow. Goodnight all!