Day 6 - Sorry to my dermatologist
Day 6! And like the rest of the days of biking, it was beautifully (and brutally) sunny!
The day started at Kirk creek campground. There’s nothing that close to Kirk creek, so everyone had breakfast at the campground. Breakfast for Mike, Brittany, and I consisted of a large and delicious slice of coffee cake! It was just enough to get us into town for food, and was delicious.
We road to Gorda from camp, the closest town. Apparently it has the highest gas prices of anywhere in the U.S. It was $6.59 a gallon when we stopped by yesterday. It’s the last gas station for 40 miles if you’re traveling north, and they exploit that fact!
Along the way, Fred broke a spoke on his bike. This was the second spoke he broke, and worried about permanent damage to the rim, we stopped at a sight seeing parking area, and waited while Fred found a ride down south to a bike shop. We were all sad to see Fred go! We probably won’t see him again this trip, and he was fun to have as part of the group. A surfer named Jake gave Fred a ride down to Morro Bay, from which he’ll catch a bus to SLO and hopefully get his wheel repaired there. Miss you Fred!
When se arrived in Gorda, after saying hi to the local dog (Mieke) and hearing stories of the large landslide from the locals, we sat down at the restaurant for breakfast/lunch. The food was good, we all enjoyed the meal.
Coming out of Gorda we had a massive climb up. Probably our biggest climb of the trip. It was hot and sunny out, probably around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and being so high up meant no breeze from the ocean! It was brutal, and still absolutely beautiful.
Our day of climbing came to an end with a fun and fast decent into Ragged Point. There they had a restaurant, convenience store, gas station ($5.69/gallon) and ice cream! Unfortunately that ice cream was closed, but the convenience store had pints of Tillamook. Let’s just say I had 204% of my daily value of sugar. It was delicious.
The final part of the day ended with a nice tail wind pushing us along a flat and open coastline. We stopped to see some seals basking in the sunlight, and again when we got service so everyone could text/call whoever they needed.
Dinner was at El Chorlito, a fantastic Mexican restaurant with a nice backyard patio where we could leave our bikes. We had some margaritas, enchiladas, burritos, fajitas, and quesadillas. It was a fantastic (and fairly cheap!) meal.
Tonight we’re staying in Hearst San Simeon State Park. The hiker/biker site here costs $10/person, so the four of us just got a normal campsite, as that was actually cheaper. Aria is a veteran, so we got a half off discount! Not bad. We got fire wood, built a fire and showered. Mike went over to the hiker biker site and invited two French guys over who we had seen two days ago. These guys were coming to the end of a five month bike trip. They’d started in NYC, and biked across the country. They took their own route, trying to visit as many National Parks along the way! It sounded like an awesome trip. They had great stories of places they had stayed (once in a School because the campground was closed, but the nice people in Nebraska opened up the school for them). Another time with a warm showers host that had a funicular in their backyard! It sounded like quite the trip. They said they want to keep going! But their five month sabbatical is coming to a close (they’re 25 and 26, how they already got a five month sabbatical is incredible to me) and they’re flying back to France on the 24th!
This is likely the last night for camping for us. Tomorrow we will try to get an Airbnb or hotel, just to get showered and clean for the train. It’s been a really fun week though. We’re sorry that’s it’s coming to an end so soon!