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!

Today was even more beautiful than the last! With a lot more hills to climb, but the scenery was beautiful, and we had Fred and Aria join us!

Tuesday night I told Mike, let’s get out of bed early and get rolling! Well, we were on our way there, but needed to do our morning yoga routine. Right next to the campsite was a stream with a beautiful bridge across it, perfect for yoga class. Brittany started the session with the entire camp. Fred, Aria, Brettt (apparently his name has 3 ts) and David all joined! We had a lovely 20 minute session, but got a lot of laughs from people crossing the bridge.

Yoga was quickly followed by breakfast. Breakfast was in the same lodge where we had dinner. David, Brettt, Fred, and Aria all joined us! Fred told us about his plans to move to Hawaii after this trip, which was super interesting.

By the time breakfast was done and we were actually on the road it was 11:30. So much for an early morning rollout. But there were lots of laughs and yoga which made it all worth it.

The biking along the road in big Sur is absolutely stunning. I don’t have much to say about except the uphills are pretty gradual and the downhills are a blast. Fred and Aria biked with us for the day, while David and Brettt did their own thing but kept running into us along the way.

We all ended up at the same campground! Kirk Creek, a US Forest Service campground right on a cliff above the ocean. It’s absolutely beautiful. Mike, Brittany, and I walked down to the ocean to cook dinner and enjoy the sunset. Our dinner was less than spectacular, consisting of a somewhat old salad and Annie’s Mac and Cheese, but the sunset more than made up for it. The sky turned a dark orange all along the horizon. And the waves were exploding on the rocks 20 feet below where we were cooking. All of a sudden Mike yells, “Look! A whale!”. All day we had been seeing spurts of water shoot up in the air, there must have been a pod of whales out there, or maybe a few pods. This time however, we could see either the tail of the whale, or the whole whale jump out of the water. It was pretty fair away, but was as big as a boat. Very cool to see! We saw that a few more times, framed by tall rocks on either side, the glowing red sky behind, and the crashing waves in front. We all feel very fortunate to be here.

After dinner we went back up to hangout with our friends. They had met someone else in the campground, who turns out is an actress for NCIS New Orleans, so that was pretty cool. If you watch the show, she’s the lead detectives daughter. She was just out here for two days, and then headed back to LA.

Tonight was a pretty earlier night. Everyone turned in around 9. I’m writing this, enjoying the crash of the waves, watching the embers of the fire burn down, and chasing off the occasional raccoon (there’s a lot of them here.) Hopefully we get service and I’ll post this tomorrow!

Today we entered Big Sur. And what a beautiful beautiful day. With a 20 mph tail wind, and always very gentle ups and downs, we felt like we were flying towards our destination.

We forgot to do our morning yoga session this morning!! We packed up from camp pretty quickly, and as such left with out doing our yoga. We said bye to everyone we had met the night before, and rolled down the hill into town.

We had a recommendation from someone at the campsite to go to a certain cafe, but Mike spotted another one along the way, and we went there instead. Brittany asked about the history of the building, and it turned out it used to be a bakery, but then was turned into a general store. It just re-opened into a bakery! The food was absolutely delicious, and the people were super nice. They had a park/event space in the backyard, and we ended up there for our food.

After a lovely meal, Mike and Brittany went to the aquarium and Mark went to go get more fuel for the stove (I had little interest in the aquarium.) After time to explore the aquarium, and time for Mark to relax in the shade of a tree, we were ready to go!

The climb out of Monterey was uneventful, and nothing special. We passed many monetary’s along the way which all looked beautiful. Climbing out of Carmel we made it to point lobos. We did a brief circle there before continuing into Big Sur.

And that was beautiful!! It’s been super sunny all day, and with a 20mph tailwind, we made excellent time on the road. To our right was a continuous spectacle from MN. (Mother Nature). I wish the photo posting feature was working, because today the pictures are worth a lot more than the words today.

One of the highlights of today was Bixby Bridge. Bixby Bridge is this iconic old arch that supports highway 1 over a very deep ravine. (I believe Bixby creek). It’s amazing what civil engineers can build!

The biggest highlight of the day for me was the downhills. The hills were perfect, with very little need for brakes, and a fully loaded bike screaming down the hill. It was a blast. And the tailwind made the next uphill a breeze! (Pun intended). I would’ve bikes today over and over and over again.

When we made it to camp we saw David and Brett’s tent pitched!! So we were excited to see them there. We also knew that Fred and Aria were coming along behind us, so it should be a party in the camp tonight. Mike, Brittany, and I all wondered into the stream, and relaxed in the freezing cold water before showering and heading to dinner. Before we could, Brett and David showed up and said hi, and then Aria and Fred! So we got to say hi to all of them before going to shower.

For dinner, we went to the restaurant near the campground. Aria joined us for a drink, and we chatted about different experiences along the way. We picked up one more six pack for David and Brett, and headed back to camp to hang around the fire with them.

After a night of a lot of Ukulele and chatting (mostly about bikes) it was time to call it a night!

Tomorrow most people are going to Plaskett Ridge to camp. However, I want to go to Kirk Creek. A slightly more primitive site (no running water) but I hear it’s absolutely beautiful. Depending on the water situation we may or may not stay there.

Editors note: You’ll have to forgive the lack of photos on this blog. I’ve updated the blog since my last trip, but that broke my photo integration. Once I get back to San Francisco, I’ll fix the blog and re-add photo integration. You’ll just have to deal with my writing until then.

Monday! It’s now a real trip and not just a weekend :). We’ve named the trip “SLO ride”, which I think is appropriate on so many levels.

Monday was likely the least scenic day of the trip, bring mostly inland and flat, but we had a great time, and met quite a bit of a headwind along the way. It was mostly a heads down biking day, but the campsite we stayed in at the end was, well, interesting.

Monday started at a “hole in the wall” place (it was literally called hole in the wall), where we all, inspired by Darragh’s breakfast choice yesterday, got French toast and eggs!

We started our ride to Monterey after that! The ride from Santa Cruz to Monterey is mostly along a busy and loud section of highway 1. We stopped at a really cool art motorcycle that was made almost entirely from horseshoes and is about 10 feet tall and 15 feet in length. That was a pretty fun stop!

After the motorcycles, highway 1 turns into a freeway, and we took backroads along a farm! All the people working on the farm were very friendly, and waved and said hi as we went along. We were able to chat and play word games along the way, which was great!

After the farm, we made it to the trail along the coast in Monterey! That was likely the most beautiful part of the ride, although by then we were pretty tired! We bikes into town, stopped at the Joe’s at which the locals Trade, and picked up dinner (penne pasta, bell peppers, onion, seasoning, hot Italian sausage, and a side salad), some beers, and of course the triple ginger snap cookies and peanut butter cups!

Turns out the campsite in Monterey is at the top of the hill! So we had to climb 500 feet to get up there. However, we more than made it, and found a lot of people already up there!

The first person we ran into was Chris. He was the park ranger, and a great guy. He had just revamped the signs, and was very friendly helping us check in.

We then made it up to the hiker biker site. A guy, who we later learned to be named “Jimmy” yelled as we passed the site “you looking for the hiker biker”? Thank you Jimmy, we would’ve missed it otherwise! Jimmy is from SLO, and has been biking up the coast from Seattle! He’s had a great trip, but is missing home a bit. We chatted about his trip, the people he’s met, and the places he went. Like many people along the trip, he’s biked with a lot of people along the way!

Next was Ruth. I was surprised when we made it to the site to see so many tents, but so few bikes. But, like Ruth, it looks like there’s a good amount of people that live in town that are living in the campground. Ruth used to live in San Francisco, but now lives here, likely only in the campground. She was very chatty, and brought out a candle so we could all see each other! We had a nice chat with her for a good while.

After Ruth, we meet Fred and Aria. They were both biking from Seattle to San Diego or Mexico, and had met each other along the way. Fred was almost comical in how downtrodden he was. “My entire body is broken” and “how expensive is the bus?” He’ll make it just fine, but he was funny. Aria on the other hand was positive and convicted. They both rolled up to the campsite after dark, and I think we’re happy to be there!

Lastly, there was Brandon and his friend who’s name I don’t know. Brandon was in the army “101st Airborne” and proud of it. Since leaving the army he’s been back packing around the country. His pack weighs 80 pounds, and he had some great stories.

I’m not sure the background on Brandon’s friend, but he was in his early 50s and also backpacking around the country. They’re both southern boys, and were hilarious. Brandon’s friend was witty, very intelligent, and kind. Brandon was also smart, but strong and convicted. A conversation between the two of them might went:

Brandon: “So then the RV I was hitching in broke down, and we were in the middle of the desert you see, and it was hot as balls out. Well I didn’t think they’d be able to fix it, so I got out, and started walking. I was booking, probably making 10 mph.”

Brandon’s friend: “10 mph, you were not, no way”

Brandon: Yes I was, you ever heard of the airborne shuffle”

Brandon’s friend: “10 mph, that’s basically running. No way”

Brandon: “(inappropriate sentence) I was! I had two camelbacks on. Had both tubes in my mouth at the same time. Had all 80 lbs on my back too (Brandon’s friend: bullshit) I had sucked them dry when the RV gave me a call, and said they’d fixed it and could pick me up. Good thing too, I could’ve died out there.”

We had a great time listening to stories from the two of them. They both have just been traveling around the country for years. They were surprised by how many people were living in the hiker/biker campsite. I assured them that most in California were just hikers/bikers, not people living there, and they were relieved by that. But I gave them a heads up that the one in Santa Cruz is biker only. Brandon’s friend pointed out: “See, I told you, all these people living here is not good! They’re gonna start making more and more of these biker only of people start living here like this!” I hope not, for their sake, but think he’s write.

We were planning on staying two nights in Monterey, but because we didn’t feel comfortable leaving our gear in camp, we’re likely gonna go 20 miles to the next campground and stay there. Aria and Fred will be there too, which should be great! And it should be an easy day for us.

Tonight and tomorrow we may be out of cell service! So no promises on posting blog posts!

Mike, Brittany, and Mark!

Sunday started on a sad note. One of our intrepid bike tour members had to go back to SF to her students. Despite multiple options provided to Darragh from Brittany for substitute teachers (found on Craigslist of course), Darragh decided it best that she teach rather than “Joe from Tennessee.”

Lindsey gracefully drove down to Half Moon Bay with her mom who is visiting to pick Darragh up! They met up with us at a bakery in Halfmoon Bay, and we enjoyed a lovely (and very filling) meal of French toast, breakfast burritos, ham/cheese, and (of course) many baked goods.

After breakfast we said our goodbyes, helped pack Darragh in the car, and started on our way to Santa Cruz.

“So Mark, how far are we going today?” asked Brittany. Good question, I did not know the answer, and Brittany pointed out that neither did she. It turned out, we’d do around 63 miles, which makes this one of our longest days, which we started at noon! Oops.

(At this point I fell asleep writing this blog post, and apparently have about a days memory, so details get sparse)

Our first stop of the day was at a farm stand! You could say it was a fruitful stop, as we got strawberries and peaches and plums! We’ll stopped there, we saw Joey riding by on his motorcycle!! Highlight of the day!

We got lunch in Pescadero along the way, and picked up some excellent artichoke bread. In Pescadero we ran into some of the art that Joey used for his painting to Lindsey! We bikes out to the beach, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch of bread and sandwiches on the beach.

By this point I finally realized that we actually had a long day ahead of us, so we finished up lunch and started our bike to Santa Cruz.

The bike from Pescadero to Santa Cruz was, of course, gorgeous. Along the way we say about 100 kiteboarders and wind surfers at one beach! We stopped mesmerized by the sails and kites in the air. The wind was howling (we had a 20 mph tail wind almost all day) and the kiteboarders and windsurfers were excellent. We learned later that had we been two hours earlier, there was also a plane doing flips, twists, and other stunts above them!!

We stopped quickly in Davenport for ice cream (rule #3 of the safety is sexy guidelines: always stop for ice cream.) There we were able to get a few more percentages of charge on our phone (remember your ABCs, always be charging), and get a nice rest before coasting into Santa Cruz.

In Santa Cruz we went to natural bridges state park! Which is more aptly names natural bridge state park, as we only saw one, but it was a beautiful beach! We saw some young surfers surfing “the side wave.” The beach there is angled like a bathtub. Two rock walls narrowing to a beach. On the far wall. A wave would form that comes in at a 45 degree angle to the main wave hitting the beach. The surfers would ride the “side wave” and then usually got dumped and put through the washing machine when they collided with the main wave. But it was great to watch.

We went to dinner at a restaurant which name escapes me. It was a Mexican place (so far this trip has been a tour of Mexican restaurants), and the food was alright. The margaritas were good though!! And they were nice to allow us to wheel our bikes inside!

We made it to New Brighton Beach State Park just passed sundown. As we rolled into the biker site, we heard the strum of the Ukulele. It was Brett and David! Who we met from half moon bay! They were excited to see us! And chatted about there day with us. Brett taught Brittany some cords on the Ukulele! And we all sat around the fire and sang songs. All in all a fantastic day!

Today started like most trips, with someone forgetting something. Namely Mark forgetting the map. Luckily, Mike was kind enough to drive me back home, to get the map.

We rolled out of Mike’s driveway just before 9, after receiving personalized temporary tattoos from Brittany and wishing Joey good luck on his motorcycle trip, we started down the pacific coast highway!

Our route tools us through Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway, a beautiful road along the coast. From the great highway we traveled along highway 35 to Daly City, then started climbing up to cross into Pacifica.

On the way up we passed a LEGO stand!! How cool is that! A boy, maybe around 12-14, was selling a bunch of his legos. We all bought LEGO pieces for the trip. I’ll upload a picture in a second blog.

With our LEGO in hand, and Mark wishing he could buy all of it, we continued along are route south. To my great surprise, we made fantastic time. We could’ve been to Halfmoon Bay by noon if we had pushed it. But instead, we took plenty of breaks.

We bikes along the Devils Slide area, where we learned that during WWII, women used to fly planes dragging targets for men to shoot at for practice!! Also, Devils Slide is an area that used to be highway 1, but kept getting washed out, so a tunnel was built, and now the area is for hikers and bikers! It was a beautiful twisting road overlooking the ocean.

After Devils slide, we bikes to a lunch spot with sandwiches so big that no one could finish them in one sitting!! They were excellent though.

Fast forward through checking out Mavericks (beautiful) and stopping into art gallery (not as beautiful), we made it to the campground at half moon bay!

There we immediately met Brad and David. They’re two friends/dads biking the same route we are! We chatted for awhile, and heard some great stories. They met at a party where Brad was dressed in a shirt covered in meat. (He also mentioned he lost his job because of that party, as he called in sick, but didn’t know it was at his bosses house!). I assume we’ll see them plenty of this trip.

After our chat we setup camp, and headed to the beach. The campground here is right next to the beach! As I’m writing this you can hear the waves pound the beach. It’s a really nice campground. We stayed on the beach for an hour, watching the waves explode on the shore. And playing some euchre.

Dinner quickly followed with an excellent Mexican take out place, and to finish the night up we went to a Shakespeare in the Park showing! The were doing As You Like It, and it was awesome!! They did a great job, and we stayed for the entire thing! Very funny and witty play.

Running back to camp, we quickly went to bed! Its already late and we have an early wake up tomorrow. Darragh leaves us tomorrow to go back to school. We will miss her dearly. But looking forward to our riding to Santa Cruz!! More pictures to come!!

Finally back in San Francisco (writing this journal entry on a real computer instead of a phone)! Today was unlike the rest of my trip. I pushed hard on the pedals, making it back in record time, and only stopped twice for food. Not too many pictures, because my phone was about to die, but biking into the bay area was beautiful! And gave me sometime to reflect on my trip.

Mike, Joey, and I stopped in Lagunitas at the general store for some breakfast burritos, making sure Mike and Joey experienced a typical morning for the trip. The breakfast burritos were meh... But the company was great. Following our breakfast, Mike rode to work on his motorcycle, and Joey took his truck to get some errands done (he had the day off of work.) Once again, thanks guys for coming out to the woods with me! That made my day.

The ride back into the Bay Area was beautiful, but a bit complicated. I rode through downtown Fairfax, Kentfield, Corte Madera, and then finally the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a nice headwind most of the way, but I pushed all day. It was my last day, I had to push it.

In total, my route between the Best Western in Astoria and my house in San Francisco was 820 miles. My legs are in great shape :). But I also feel exhausted. I will definitely sleep in tomorrow. I'll miss the tent, the freedom of being on the road, the push of peddling the bike, and meeting random people.

In terms of lessons learned, I think this trip was a good one for me. First, as I mentioned earlier, I feel like I'm more confident talking with strangers. Just sitting at a bar and starting a converstation has been something that's always been hard for me. This trip forced me to do that. I think it'll be harder in SF, without the talking point of being on a bicycle, but the thought does not scare me anymore.

Secondly, I was nice to accomplish this trip. For me the scary part of this was not necessarily the biking (although that turned out to be harder then expected) but doing it solo. I realized pretty quickly, however, that biking solo would not at all be an issue. In some ways I enjoyed it, although I think I'll always prefer to have a buddy on trips. Maybe that's just part of being a twin :).

Finally, I'd say this trip helped restore some faith in humanity. I met so many different people on this trip. I stayed in small conservative towns, and small liberal towns. I met people from both of these areas, as well as people from all over the world. Almost everyone, with one exception, was polite and nice to me. I left my bike unlocked most of the trip, and only occasionally really worried about anyone taking anything.

Finally finally, for anyone considering a similar trip, do it! If you can ride a bicycle, you can do a bike touring trip. You may opt to stay in hotels instead of campgrounds, do only 10 miles a day, or have a support van. But I think there's not better way to see the sights if you have the time. It becomes so easy to just stop and check things out that you have to do it.

The pacific coast is a beautiful place. I'm always amazed at the power of the ocean, and the beauty that lies at it's edges. I will be back to many of the places I saw along the coast, to spend more time exploring the coast, and doing hikes in the area.

Thank you all for reading the blog! Hope you enjoyed it!

Today began not too great. The road turned in land, and there were lots of hills. Although the hills were beautiful, I wasn’t feeling too great (not sure why) and the rolling hills were a pain to keep enduring. Luckily, I ran into a few other bicycle tourists and chatting with them brightened my mood. And, finally, a visit from Mike and Joey at the end of the day made the day end on a very high note.

The trip out of Bodega Bay was nothing notable. There was a coffee shop in Bodega Bay, but it had just opened and I wouldn’t really recommend it. Maybe if you like super specialized coffee?

The road out of the campground.

Almost immediately out of Bodega Bay, the road turns inland and I rode over some beautiful California hills. I’m not sure why the road turns inland, but it does.

When the road finally makes it back out to the coast you’re on Tomales Bay. And it’s beautiful!

I stopped in the town of Tomales for an excellent breakfast burrito (it was incredible), and once again Point Reyes Station for an awesome sandwich.

The treat of the day was the campsite and everything that followed. I camped in Samuel P. Taylor State Park. Some of the closest camping to SF, but had never been before. The campground is beautiful! We got site 7, and I’m pretty convinced it’s the best site in the campground.

Mike was planning on meeting me that night to camp, but was having motorcycle issues, so I biked on the bike path into Lagunitas and bought firewood, fire starter, some cookies, and a milkshake. I must of looked pretty funny biking back to camp, strawberry milkshake in hand, with a ton of wood on the back of my bike.

Eventually Mike showed up, and then (to my surprise) Joey showed it up!! It was a really nice night hanging out with them around the fire. Of note, Joey cooked a hotdog in an used beer can. It worked pretty well.

That’s it for tonight. I’ll write a longer follow up tomorrow. It’s been a great trip! And a huge thanks to Mike and Joey hanging out with me tonight!! That was awesome. M

Today’s ride was incredible. With a 20 mph tail wind, there’s a odd sense of stillness when cruising down the road matching the speed of the wind. There’s only the hum of the tires on the pavement, the creek of a chain that badly needs to be oiled, and the occasional splat of sweat hitting the frame of the bike. An amazingly beautiful day.

Packing up and getting out of Anchor Bay was a breeze. Under 25 minutes from wake up to rolling out of camp, which I think is pretty good. On the way out of camp I started talking with one of the campers. He told me that route 1 is “without a doubt” the most dangerous road in America. ... Yeah, I doubt that, but it did inspire my next idea for a podcast: Local History. A podcast that gives the local history of an area as told by people I meet at the bar. Facts? Maybe. But interesting tidbits, always.

Of course I stopped at the first coffee shop I could find to grab a hot chocolate with whipped cream (I still feel like I’m 4 ordering that) and some baked goods. They didn’t have any eggs or more substantial meals, but I figured I’d just stop at the next cafe for that! Which I did, and got an amazing breakfast burrito. At this point, I’m getting with in a day trip driving distance of SF, so I’m stopping all the little stops I find to see where I should come back too.

Highway 1 today was gorgeous. It’s my last day where I’m truly along the coast, and it was a beautiful day to do so. Even though I’ve lived in SF for over 2 years, I’ve never been north of Bodega Bay on highway 1. And that’s a real bummer, because I now think just North of Bodega Bay is the most beautiful part. Starting from Anchor Bay, the coast is rocky and beautiful, but only about 20-50 feet above the water.

It maintains that until Salt Point State Park, where the road begins to twist and turn more, and drops down to the ocean before heading back up to its previous height. Then, before Jenner, the road climbs to a few hundred feet above the water, and twists and turns along the coast there. That part is amazingly beautiful. I didn’t stop for pictures because stopping was super windy, but it was gorgeous.

After Jenner the road drops down to about 20 feet from the coast, and hugs the coast. This part has wild flowers everywhere, and was absolutely beautiful.

(With the cute dogs in the back of the truck)

I was stopping left and right just to admire this section of highway 1. If anyone in SF is looking for a weekend trip, I’d highly recommend it. The wildflowers are out, and it’s absolutely beautiful.

I finally arrived at Bodega Bay Campground. I’ve been here once before, but it was cloudy and misty. Today is incredibly windy, but sunny, so it makes the campground much more beautiful. I’ll definitely come back, it’s a nice campground.

A quick recap on meals, for those interested. Lunch was in a Cafe in Jenner. The food was alright, but it didn’t think it was amazing. I got a quick pre-lunch snack from “Two-fish” bakery in Stewart’s Point. That’s a way from SF, but I’ll try to get back there. Dinner was at a wine bar in Bodega Bay. It was nice! Would recommend.

Also, an update on “Just Mercy.” The book is heart breaking. The author represents people on death roll, and juveniles that have been sentenced to life without parole. And is filled with story after story of clients the author tries to defend. The stories are incredibly sad. A 13 year old tried as an adult in Florida, sentenced to life in prison. He is clearly mentally disabled, but didn’t have a good lawyer to start with, and never gets an appeal. (Eventually he does. But not until he’s 30.) At one point, the author describes talking with a defendant who is scheduled to be executed that day. The defendant has a speech impediment made worse by stress, but is trying his hardest to thank the author for trying to hard to reduce the sentence to life in prison. After hanging up the phone, the author is about ready to give up. Everything is broken, he figures, why even try. Then, he had an insight that I liked. He thought, he too was broken. He too had made mistakes, and maybe making mistakes is part of what binds humans, as we all make mistakes from time to time. Recognizing our mistakes helps us humanize others that have made mistakes, and connect with them. Additionally, even stronger, the ability to forgive after that realization is an even stronger bond. It was very elegantly written.

With that life lesson, I’m off to bed. Tomorrow I’m biking to Samuel P. Taylor State Park, where I’ll hang out with Mike for the night!! (Looking forward to it!) Then one more day back into the city! I’m almost sad it’s ending, it’s been an awesome trip.

Bonus last lesson for those that made it to the end! Did you know that the Russians had a fort in California until the 1850’s? I learned that today. Fort Ross. I toured the Fort, along with a bunch of kids that were on a field trip. I think they got to sleep in the fort! (They also were all dressed from the period, so I’m glad I didn’t have to do that.)

Today was filled with beauty. Beautiful beaches, bridges, light houses, normal houses, and fields. The sky cleared, the wind blew from the north, and a big smile was put on my face.

The day started with rain though :(, but Austen and I were still laughing about some of the conversations we had last night. (I forgot to mention this, but one guys name we met was Vishnu Vishnu. That’s typed twice on purpose. What a name. He grew up in Berkeley, which explains the name a bit :). We biked into Fort Bragg and got dinner at an awesome diner, the Egghead. It was themed after the wizard of oz, and had amazing food. After breakfast Austen and I said our goodbyes, and parted ways. Austen was headed along the coast, and I had some business that needed to get taken care of while I still had service!

In a moment of refection, I think one thing this trip has taught me is I tend to be better at meeting new people/making new friends then I previously thought. I think I previously thought that because I never really had the need/felt the desire to make new friends. But, put on the road by myself, found it very easy and natural to talk with new people, and make new friends. I’ll be curious how that plays out when I’m back in SF.

After I got all my internet requirements out of the way, I headed to church in Fort Bragg. Turns out, the priest was a Carmelite (great) so mass was about 1.25 hours, but it was a nice mass with a full church.

After mass I started my route down highway 1. The sun came out, the sky cleared, and it’s hard to describe how beautiful it was. I’ll try to show with pictures.

A few special notes today. I stopped at the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse and ended talking with the volunteer host for what felt like an hour. (More like he talked to me, but it was pretty interesting.) The most interesting thing to me was how the light of the lighthouse moved before electricity. It was wound like a grandfather clock, and had to be rewound every 1.75 hours throughout the night. That requires a lot of waking up, yikes.

The food today was also delicious (minus dinner which was a bit disappointing.) Eggheads, as mentioned, had an awesome breakfast, and then it seems all the towns along the way have a cute little general store that have great sandwiches. I stopped at one of those stores, and a cafe/bakery to round out my 4 meals a day.

(At the bakery I got an excellent slice of cheesecake. It was expensive, but so so good.)

Dinner was at Pier Chowder House and Tap room. The view was gorgeous! (Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures) But the food was meh. Oh well, I’ll get something good tomorrow!

Unfortunately, many of California’s state parks are not yet opened. I was planning at staying at Manchester Beach Campground tonight, but it was closed. My back up plan was some BLM land near the dinner spot, but they have marked that BLM land as no camping, and have built a big fence that would be tricky to get a bike through.

So, I ended up at a private campground, ABC (Anchor Bay Campground.) Being Anchor Bay, a nice guy named Jerry pointed out I could setup on the grass and just pay $10 instead of $42 for a full site. Camping is a rip off. Much happier after being told that, I setup my tent and quickly hopped into bed. It was a short day, but because of the late start, a long one. I’m exhausted and ready for bed.

![image](/content/images/2018/04/A55788CA-CECD-42A3-9434-12CC19F0F2D6.jpeg

I’m loving the flower lined roads though!! Goodnight!

Well, it started to rain again, and that was a bummer. But today was a day filled with great food, good company, and a nice fire to end the day. The food was the highlight of the day, as we meandered up the South Fork of the Eel, getting ready for a big climb tomorrow.

Our tents in the redwoood camp.

Austen and I left the redwoods and perused the end of the Avenue of the Giants (honestly, the section South of Myers Flat isn’t really that great.) We then hopped on the 101 and followed that South towards the small town of Legget. Legget is notable only in that it’s where we get off the 101 and start going along highway 1. It is also the start of a major climb that both Austen and I have been talking about since the first day we met.

The first food stop of the day was at a diner in Miranda. I got a large omlette plus smoothie, and split a second main dish (French Toast) with Austen. We had a discussion last night about what makes a good diner a good diner, and this one qualifies. Typical diner food, but prepared very well. It was delicious, and the locals gave us lots of advice about the weather.

After the breakfast stop, our next food stop was about 20 miles later in Garbersville. There we stopped at a deli, and got some absolutely fantastic sandwiches. Because we were still pretty full from breakfast, we got the sandwiches to go, and confused the nice lady behind the counter by insisting they be wrapped in foil, and not have toothpicks (they need to fit in our panniers after all.) The deli was picture perfect. The town itself was not as nice, lots of transients hanging out with not much to do (we’re seeing a lot more of that as we head south).

The rest of the day was full of rain, so wasn’t that enjoyable to bike through. But Austen has music going, and the lushes green scenery was still beautiful, so we powered through. We stopped right outside a town called Legget, where we setup in the hiker biker camp for the night, and went across the road to the Peg House for dinner. Their motto is, “Never don’t stop” which is where I got inspiration for this title. There was ran into a group of kids backpacking. I asked them where they were from, and it turns out they are 10th graders that just hiked the lost coast! How cool is that. This high school brings their kids backpacking every year. This year they had a small class (5 kids), so the 5 kids and 3 teachers did something new and hiked the lost coast.

Also at the Peg House we got beers for the campsite, and some firewood. Normally we strap the firewood to the back of our bikes, but this time it was so much wood it was difficult. We finally got it, so here’s a still sunburned mark laughing as I’m holding jelly beans, a beer, and have firewood barely lashed to my bike.

Austen and I hung out that night, and chatted late into the night about everything. Then off to bed, and getting a good nights sleep for tomorrow’s climb to the coast!

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!

Today was a wickedly long ascent out of the lost coast, followed by a long cruise down a painfully maintained mountain road back into a serene road through the redwoods. Tonight I rejoined Austen in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and we’ll bike the next day or two together.

The day started early, waking up at 7am and on the road by 8. I said goodbye to Brandy and her dogs, and started making my way to my 2600’ climb.

I saw this on my way out, thought it was pretty funny.

Looking back toward the campground.

On the way, I stopped at another campground to fill water and ran into Jason. Jason lives in San Jose, and is taking 3 weeks off from his job to decompress and travel (by car) around California. He also has two beautiful dogs, Chelsea and Cooper, and works for SSI. There he works on satellite communications! How cool is that? Their office is right next to Google, and he was explaining they were having a hard time keeping their buildings with Google buying everything up. Oops. That stinks.

I said my goodbyes to Jason and started towards Honeydew, another small town with a general store. Stopping to get a snickers bar, and chatting with locals who offered a ride to the top (that would be cheating though) I was ready to do my ride.

The hill up was not as bad as expected. It was long, and I was pouring in sweat, but it was never too steep. I think I psyched myself up for the climb, but it was over before I expected. So I treated myself to that snickers bar :).

The road down was treacherous. Most of the time I had to go pretty slow because of the potholes. At one point, I saw someone had written this on the road (sorry for language) and I couldn’t agree more. This road could use some work.

However, the route down the terrible road paid off, as I was deposited into Humboldt Redwoods State Park. It’s incredibly hard to explain the beauty of the redwoods here, but they are magnificent. The road weaves in and out of seemingly endless forest of redwoods. The road has a slight downhill grade, and the pavement is perfectly smooth, so your bike makes almost no sound coming down the road. With very little traffic, surrounded by these towering giants, even saying it was serene seems like a severe understatement. It was humbling for sure. I tried to take some pictures, but I don’t think they do it justice.

The road deposits you onto the Avenue of the Giants, and I think I timed this just perfect. If you ever come here (and you should) do the road by bicycle. It’s incredible. Probably some of the best riding of the trip for me. Just huge redwood after huge redwoood everywhere you look. And a complete on udder silence surrounds you. Really makes you think about how small you are in this huge world. And how magnificent, strong, and almost brave a tree can be.

I also stopped at a few places along the way to look at the sights. This should give you some perspective of the magnitude of these trees.

This tree is on the ground. It’s diameter is still taller then me.

Also, as I mentioned, Austen and I met back up! We talked tonight about why he’s doing this trip, and why I’m doing this trip (maybe I’ll go more into that in a later post.) We’ll bike tomorrow together, and likely the day after that. Then he goes inland to see his family, and I meet up with Mike to go back to SF.

No sunset or tent picture tonight, sorry! But I assure you I’m camped in a beautiful campground in the redwoods. We’re surrounded on most sides by other campers, all of which are visible to us because the branches of the redwoods don’t start for many feet in the air. Our beautiful fire is just coals, and pitch black under the canopy of the redwoods, even though there’s definitely a moon out. Looking forward to tomorrow, should be a great day! Goodnight all!

Today I felt like I traveled to multiple different worlds. The day started overcast, with a great conversation with Herb at the diner in Ferndale. I then climbed through what looked like neverland, before broaching through the clouds and into sunny green pastures. Then back down through the clouds into a very vibrant small town before settling for the night listening to the waves.

The mornings breakfast, at Joe’s in downtown Ferndale, was recommended by someone at the pizza place last night, and boy am I glad they did. The food was delicious, I left totally stuffed, and I got to meet Herb. Herb is a painter, and very talkative. I imagine, back in his younger days, he was probably quite the lady’s man. He used to live in SF, but moved to Ferndale about 20 years ago. We talked for awhile about modern life in SF, and why he moved. Ferndale, it turns out, is a really nice town. It has a supermarket, hardware store, 3 bars, and 5 restaurants. Everything is walkable. And that’s what Herb likes about it. Not as much going on as SF (okay, really nothing going on), but a great place to live. Seems like it too.

After breakfast I began my ascent into the lost coast. It was pretty brutal, but also incredibly beautiful. There were long sections of road so steep I had to remain standing in order to peddle the bike up the hill. But the forest, with the morning haze, seemed magical. It was hard to capture as a picture, but it was really nice.

After getting to the top, I broke out of the forest and entered beautiful pastures. The cows must not see many bicycles, because they seemed terrified of me, but not of cars going by. The descent down to the lost coast was terrifying for me, the road is in terrible condition, with large potholes everywhere. I took my time going down, as fun as it would be to go fast.

The lost coast section of the road was absolutely beautiful! The road was lined with flowers, to my right was beautiful coastline, and to my left was gorgeous green hills. It was very pleasant to bike along (even with a slight head wind.)

The last section before camp goes up into the town of Petrolia. Petrolia (named as such because it was one of the first places in California they installed oil wells) is a bustling small town. There’s a Post Office and general store. And the general store literally has everything, from a hardware section to ice cream. The store was also packed. Seems like a pretty functional small town.

On my way down to camp I heard a “you made it” from some workers on the side of the road. I got talking to them, and it turns out they work for the USGS. They have a monitoring station that measures water volume at a certain place in the Bear River. They were measuring volume themselves to verify the stations accuracy. I won’t bore you with the details, but it was pretty cool to hear how it all worked. They also had a cool little remote control trimaran to do the measurement, which was cool.

Camp tonight is at the head of the lost coast trail, a 3 day hike along the coast. The campsite is fairly nice. It was windy all day, and you can hear the waves :). I got here around 2, so made lots of progress in the “Just Mercy” book. The book is really hard to read, because it brings to light many injustices faced by people on death row today. It is very well written, and hard to put down.

Around 5, a women named Brandy and her two dogs setup camp next to me. Brandy is 42 and recently retired from the navy. She just did a 3 day out and back on the lost coast. Apparently the weather on the coast was pretty bad, and travel was slow, so she’s going inland and hiking in the redwoods. Her two dogs are beautiful beautiful golden retrievers. We talked about her gear (she has opted to use a quilt to sleep with, I can’t remember which one, but she loves it), and has a really nice pillow. I’m sleeping on my puffy, but think I’ll invest in a pillow when I get back. She also has 3 kids, all of whom are different. And figuring out what to do with her life now that she’s retired.

Tomorrow should be a super tough day. Unfortunately, the dinner I made was not enough, so I’m going to bed a bit hungry. I’ll have to compensate with cliff bars tomorrow. #5000 calories a day. Goodnight!

Today’s story starts last night, with the story of John Keeffe, then meanders along the coast, before heading inland to the quaint town of Ferndale, a fairground, and an incredibly expensive laundromat.

After my gorgeous dinner last night, I headed back to camp to talk with John, and boy does he have quite the story. John was a adopted growing up, and ended up in a foster home. After turning 18 he went to the military and joined the 82nd airborne. (According to John, humans are maximally afraid of heights at 35 feet, so that’s how high all the jump towers are at jump school.) Apparently he did pretty well, because the army sent him to West Point to become an officer. After West Point he ended up becoming a journalist for some army newspaper and served his years in the army writing news articles. He was pretty stoked about the job.

After the army, John moved to San Francisco where he got paid $50 to repel from Skyscrapers to do miscellaneous work (that jump school paid off in the end after all!) After that, John retired at 65. After retirement John started thinking about his family. He had met his real brother when he was in his 20’s and decided to reach out. His brother invited John to his home in the middle of the desert in Texas, in a small town called Terlingua.

It’s important to know that Terlingua is totally off the grid. No water, no electricity, no gas. And dust storms are a major problem. According to John, no matter what you do, things get dusty. The nearest grocery store (or any store that’s not just a quick convenience store) is 80 miles away. And once a year they host the world championship (or so John said) in chili. But that’s where his brother lives, so he went to go meet him.

Upon arriving, and John swears this is true, his brother told him he had just the previous day read a fortune from a fortune cookie that said “You will soon be reacquainted with a long lost relative and it will bring you great fortune.” And that it did! John dug his brother a sceptic field, painted his entire house, and buried the batteries to keep them out of the sun! Now that’s good fortune if you ask me.

After visiting his brother, John decided to build his own house nearby, so he bought five acres of land, and built his house, where he now lives with his dog Maggie. Also, at the suggestion of his brother, he recently went to the VA after not going for years. The VA looked at him, and sent him to Medford, OR for surgery. John had a total knee replacement, got fake teeth, and had some eye surgery done. He was super impressed with their service, and says he feels so much better now after getting treatment. At the VA, someone was trying to get rid of a bike. John bought it off him for $100, and decided to bike back to his home in Texas. (Pretty ambitious for a guy just off knee surgery if you ask me.)

John is now retired, living paycheck to paycheck (he had to stay in his campsite one more day for his next paycheck to hit). He has until September to make it back to his house, so he’s taking his time, doing 20ish miles a day. And he’s taken up photography as his hobby. (He’s actually quite good. He posts some pictures on Facebook. You can look him up as “John Keeffe.”) It was nice talking with him for the night! I’m glad I got to hear all about his life.

(Morning at camp)

I left John at about 7:30am, and rolled into Trinidad to get some breakfast. At this point of the trip I feel like a hobbit, stopping all the time to eat more food. The cafe is Trinidad was nice, and they don’t allow people to take “to go” cups. Doing their part for the environment. Unfortunately, and I’m sure to the owners dismay, some local ... people with nothing to do ... where hanging out in the cafe. One trying to get a free coffee refill, the other coloring the firsts drumsticks. They were harmless, and nice, but boisterous and loud. I’m sure the owner wanted them out, but not much she could do.

After hot chocolate (drinking coffee would be super convenient) and a breakfast burrito I hit the road, and saw a beautiful morning. I stopped multiple times to watch people surf and enjoy the ocean.

After the beach came a long bike path! The first of the trip. Also, Karl rolled in (fog) and there were some absolutely gorgeous houses.

After stopping again for another breakfast, and getting some camping food for my trip into the Lost Coast, the scenery changed. The second half of my day reminded me of Switzerland, and biking through the cows!

I made it to Ferndale with one wrong turn, and one annoying road closure. (I hate biking on the 101 in California. Biking on a freeway is demoralizing and not at all scenic. It’s also hard to stop quickly for food. I avoid it as much as possible.) The county fairgrounds here are also a campsite, and for $12 I got a tent site. I also used the local laundromat mat (which costs $6 a load to was!!! That’s incredibly expensive), and so as I’m writing this I’m wearing all clean clothing. Happy Mark.

Tonight’s menu for dinner is pizza. I nearly ate a full medium pizza, but got stuffed by the last slice (get it?). I finally started reading the book, Just Mercy. So far it’s very good. It’s terrifying the amount of prejudice the author runs into in the modern day. That being sad, I’ve noticed that even on this trip I’ve definitely made some decisions based on preconceived notions. Like I thought John last night wasn’t trustworthy at first (after about 10 seconds of talking with him I realized I was wrong. I think I originally saw Home as one of the homeless of SF. Which draws even more questions about my snap decisions. But I digress)

After I finished pizza, I ended up chatting with a lady that is going to bike for AIDS prevention from SF to LA. After talking for awhile, she invited me to stay with her and her boyfriend in town. I would’ve taken her up on the offer, but my tent was setup, and I was ready for bed! Apparently I remind her a lot of her son, Errol Funk, who currently lives in Seattle working for the coast guard. Good luck to her on her ride!

Tomorrow is a long day. Lots of hills. I’m headed to Lost Coast Mattole Campground for the night, then off to Humboldt State Park the night after that. I’m almost certainly not going to have service tomorrow night, so no post tomorrow night, sorry! I’ll try to post something from the state park!

View from the tent. There are crickets in the background, and cows mooing. And one large mosquito buzzing around the fly.

Goodnight!

Today was a brutality of a day. The sun was bright, the hills were plentiful, and the shoulder was narrow. However, for my work I was rewarded with a beautiful beautiful dinner location. That cover photo is the view from my seat in the restaurant. It’s gonna be a painful 5 miles back to camp, but I think it’s worth it.

River near the campground.

The day started with me sleeping in, then enjoying the morning. (This would later be a mistake, because it got so hot.) I stopped at a local bakery for a nice large breakfast (I ordered around 10 things) then hit the road.

First stop was the Crescent City Lighthouse, which is interesting because it’s only accessible during low tide.

Access path (ugh, I had to push my bike.)

On the way back from the lighthouse I got talking with a lady who told my there had been a tsunami in the area in the 60’s! Who knew? Apparently the museum is worth seeing. Sometimes I think this trip is just generating tons of more trip ideas.

The road out of crescent city was pretty terrible. There’s a 3 inch shoulder, and a large hill. It was not pleasant. Also, it was really hot. However, it was basically continuous redwoods until 3pm, which was great. The entire way there were groves dedicated to people.

The road was brutal. All asphalt and long hills. I was not digging it.

I did get to see the “Big Tree” though. Not sure what makes it big?

My campsite for the night is “Patrick Point State Park” with a campmate John. John is a retired veteran, who must be 65 or older. He’s biking back to his house in Texas. (Apparently he bought 5 acres their for $1500. Wow, that’s cheap.) I’ll talk to him more when I get back to camp, but for now I’m enjoying a beautiful sunset in Trinidad, CA at the seascape.

The food was alright, I had the “fresh catch” which was Halibut. But the view is amazing. I’d definitely come back. Hopefully a short day tomorrow! Goodnight!

Watched and talked with some surfers here. They recommended the dinner location.

Note the standup paddle board. Hippie. I’m jealous.

Extra bonus post today, with just some pictures. I made it and got the tent setup just before sundown. Showers here are not free, and require quarters (ugh), so no shower tonight. But, the tent is nestled between three redwoods!

It’s warm here too! And the landscape is beautiful. I love biking in the late evening because the shadow of me biking I get to watch while I bike. Goodnight!!

I hear we got lots of friends out there. :) For those that don’t get the reference. Look up California by Hawk Nelson. That’s a throwback for sure. I’m writing this at “Public House” in Brookings. My goal is to push another 24 miles tonight into Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. That’s going to be ambitious, but I think I can do it! And it was an absolutely majestic day.

Beautiful field outside of the campground.

This morning was pretty earlier, but I made it out of camp in record time (50 minutes), and was on the road in my Sunday best (aka evening attire, aka what I wear when I’m not sweaty and biking) and on my way to church. It was about an hour to church, and hour in church, and then some donuts and hot chocolate to go, and I was on the road.

View outside of Port Oxford.

This section of the road is twisting and turning (and up and down) the coast, which is both a blessing and a curse. However, the sun is shining, and there’s a steady 15-20 mph wind on my back so it’s hard not to be smiling and happy. It’s funny, every biker I’ve biked with in this trip has made appeals to the weather. (I.e.: please stop the hail! Thank you! Or, please stop the wind! Thank you!)

Some views along the coast.

After passing Humbug Mountain (yes, that’s literally what that’s called), it was all smooth sailing.

After lunch, I stopped at Double D’s for lunch. It was a nice diner, where the clientele was all 55+, and the ceiling was built for people of that age. I had to duck all the way to my table. That gave everyone in the restaurant a good laugh.

Probably my second favorite part of the trip has been today. (Still the section after Yachats is my favorite.) I stopped all the time, making sure to soak in all the sights. If anyone comes back here, the Samuel H Boardman State Scenic Area is BEAUTIFUL! And I highly recommend it.

At one of the stops, after calling the folks, I walked down to “Indian Sands” beach as that was recommended to me by someone from the campground last night. On the way down I met Patricia. Patricia is a veterinarian visiting from Austria. Her English was very good, near perfect, and she was explaining that she was here for four weeks. But the main reason she was here was for a wedding. She had previously done “help-x” where she helps out on a farm, in Montana. In doing that, the farmer recommended she stay with some friends of his in California. After staying with them for a few weeks, she got invited back to their wedding a few years later! Wow!

I’m off from the bar to the California border! Think I’ll make the park! I’ll let you know tomorrow!

He rested... kinda. Today was another fun packed day. If I had to theme the day, it was learning from my elders. I think I learned more about US history today than any other day for the past few years. Did you know that the coastline of Oregon is designated a highway?

First and foremost, a HUGE shoutout to the Oregon State Park service! The hiker/biker camps are fantastic. I might of said this already, but it’s worth saying again. Lots of biking amenities. That it’s a bike stand with full tools in the cover photo of this post.

Today started slow. I got out of bed around 8:30, and cooked a slow breakfast. (For those wondering at home, on this trip I can do about 5 packets of instant oatmeal for breakfast. That’s about right calories wise.) Max rolled out of his tent a bit later, and I asked what his plan was. He said he was ready to get moving, so I gave him a bit of a teaser of what I had planned for the day and got moving. A bit later, he changed his mind and said he’d join me!

Our first stop of the day was the lighthouse at Cape Blanco. We were some of the only people there, so we got an extra long tour, which was great. I felt a bit bad for Max, because his English is not great, but he said he really enjoyed it too. Some fun facts about lighthouses, and this one in general. Being a lightkeeper was a bit of a sought after job back in the day. The coast guard would come and randomly inspect both the light house and the lightkeepers family quarters. If either failed inspection, you were fired. Lighthouses along the coast flash at different intervals, such that ships can know which lighthouse they’re looking at. For example, Cape Blanco flashes every 8 seconds where the lighthouse in Bandon flashes every 40. To this day, sailors still use that information. All the equipment for the lighthouse had to be made on sight, or brought up the coast at low tide! That includes a river crossing. The 800lbs. lenses of the lighthouse is turned by a 0.6 HP motor. This lighthouse was used by Japanese planes dropping bombs in the forest in WWII (trying to start a forest fire.)

After we spent a good amount of time at the lighthouse, it was time to go into town. Inspired by the lighthouse, I thought maybe we could try and walk along the beach into town. I asked a park volunteer about this and he said it shouldn’t be too difficult, it’s about 4 miles, just go at low tide. We were about to do that, bike I checked on my phone the direct distance: 7 miles. That’s too far, so we biked the 10 miles into town. So sad! It’s also possible to hike the Oregon Coast, and one of these days I’m gonna do that!

Our first stop in town was for lunch. We went to a really cool family run bakery and deli called Golden Harvest Herban Farm and Bakery. The food was good! And I picked up a vegan carrot cake for dessert. (Max has never had carrot cake before, so I had too.)

After lunch, we were off to the Port Orford Lifeboat station. This was a coast guard station where they’d launch rescue crews for shipwrecks. I think this was my favorite stop of the day. Did you know why “Jerry Cans” are called “Jerry Cans?” It’s because British/American gas cans in WWII would fall off a truck and break where German gas cans wouldn’t. The U.S. and Great Britain adopted the German design, and because the British called the German’s “Jerry” they were Jerry Cans.

For those that have seen the movie “The Deadliest Storm” (or something like that, the one about the Coast Guard on the east coast), there are scenes in the movie where the boat is totally submerged. Apparently that actually did happen! The boat is self righting in 14 seconds (although modern day coast guard boats right in 8 seconds). And... they had one of display. We didn’t get to go inside, but it was cool to see.

The reason we were even talking about Jerry Cans is the crew members had to haul two 5 gallon cans of gas down 542 steps to the boats whenever they went down (and you thought Lake Michigan was bad. That’s about 90 lbs (45 in each hand) down to the boat.

We walked down some of the steps, but not all. We still got to see this amazing view. I bet it’s not as nice when there’s a storm...

Our final stop in town was the grocery store, where we got food for our BBQ for the night! We bought enough in case Austen made it on his 95 mile day, but he stopped short, so sad! After a brutal bike back north into the wind (I’m glad I’m headed south) we took a shower, cracked a beer, and got a fire going.

It takes an embarrassingly long time to get a fire going in this wet climate. Today I spent more time prepping the fire, and only needed one match, but it’s constant minding of the fire to get it going. However, we soon enough had a roaring fire, and had brauts cooking. (And chili roasting!)

Dinner was very filling, and followed by the delicious vegan carrot cake. Unfortunately, the two of us couldn’t finish the entire cake, so I brought the remaining half over to a group of older campers that were out talking. They were more then glad to accept the cake, and we had a nice long chat about biking, places to visit, and the beach bill that made the Oregon Beach a highway. Apparently it’s only 90 words long! There names were Chris, Mike, and Tom. And they were all from around the area. Most come out at least twice a year to visit the coast. Sounds like it’s time to move to Oregon :)

From today I have two new trip ideas along the Oregon coast. Idea one, bike + surf. This requires me to get good at surfing, but I think it’d be awesome. There seems to be tons of good surfing here. The second is, as I mentioned, to hike the Oregon Coast. That would require a good amount of prep, and would be a slog through the sand, but I think would be a blast. Apparently you have to cross most rivers at low tide.

Finally, I as I said goodnight to Max, he gave me a really nice compliment. I think part of the reason he stayed was to practice his English with me, which I was more then happy to help with (it’s easier for me to understand him then him to understand me.). Anyway, very touching, and definitely nice to hear. Thank you Max! It was fun exploring Port Orford with you!

Hint, it very much was not a beautiful day, but the Oregon Coast is absolutely beautiful! And made the fact that I wore rain gear all day well well worth it. It was a packed day, filled with food, stunning views, rain (ugh), talks with lovely folks around here, and of course biking.

The day started as any day does, at 5am. That’s a bit of a lie, that’s when my dad woke up to drive back up to San Francisco. Hopefully he’s close to back by now and enjoying dinner somewhere in the Bay Area. Thank you again Dad!!

After getting three more hours of sleep, I embarrassed myself with an overloaded plate of food to carbo load for the day. I left with a full stomach, and a full bike!

The final rendition of my bike. I think I remembered everything!

Right out of the parking lot of the hotel was the first cool view, the bridge between Washington and Oregon. I’m very glad I didn’t have to bike over it.

Admittedly, I did have to cross a bridge immediately, but it wasn’t that one :). And, I saw a seal on the way across which was cool.

The road is great! Minus being passed at 55mph by semis, and a few F-150s that don’t move over even though there’s definitely room (jerks). One person blew their own own in what I think was support (I was cranking up a hill, and they were going the other way) but it was so loud that I still feel some ringing in that ear.

My first stop of the day was in Seaside at Dundee’s for some donut and hot cider. (It was not warm outside). It was a cute family owned bakery, and a great place to stop. After the donut, I went to view the beach. I think I could look at this shoreline forever (good thing too, because I’m going to be seeing a lot of it for the next three weeks.) It’s gorgeous! Large sandy beaches with huge rocks in the water. Apparently, those rocks are from an old shoreline that existed a long time ago. Bonus points if you can tell me what happened to that shoreline.

Additionally, I learned this is the route that Lewis and Clark took. The only difference is Lewis and Clark did it in December, so I think I need to stop complaining about the weather.

The Steed at the beach at Seaside. I love this bike.

Beach at Cannon Beach, just up the road from Seaside.

I won’t bore you with details of all the beaches I stopped at. Needless to say, it was a lot. At one point I stopped 5 times in a mile.

Cool rock cove at a beach. All the rocks on the beach are great too! They sound like a gigantic rain maker when the waves run over them, then pull back into the ocean!

My favorite beach! It was a 0.5 mile hike out, but there were people surfing out here!! Fun to watch, though I walked on the wrong side of the river. They’re hard to see in the photo below, but they’re out by the point in the picture.

There are so many state parks, county parks, and recreation areas it’s exhausting. But each one was slightly different, and really cool to stop at.

After what I’ll dub “the beach” portion of today was the cliffs portion. And that was beautiful as well!! It was a five mile or so section where the road meandered along the side of a cliff above the ocean. It was cool. At one point during this section, while stopped overlooking the ocean, a guy did a u-turn in his car to talk to me. Turns out, he grew up in Michigan, then moved to Tiburon, then finally moved to the Oregon Coast. He was a super nice guy. He recommended some cider mill in Michigan, not the Dexter Cider Mill, but somewhere else in southeast Michigan, but I don’t remember what.

A view from the “cliff” section of today. I have a few more, but none of them really do it justice. It’s breath taking. A jagged rugged coastline, with beautiful sandy beaches, and a beautiful fog/cloud mixture. A probably could’ve stayed up there and just watched for hours.

The second food stop of the trip was in Manzanita. It was probably the best food of the day. The turkey sandwich was excellent, I liked the beer, and everyone was super friendly. Right next door was a bookstore, so I stopped in and picked up a book called “Just Mercy.” The bookstore had a cool system where all the employees added sticky notes to books they’d recommend. This was one of them, so I picked it up. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Also, next door was the Manzanita library. I didn’t stop in, but it just looked beautiful so I took a picture.

The final section of today’s trip was the in between inland sections. I always forget just how full of water the Pacific Northwest is (although it did a great job of reminding me today.) The forests are flush with greenery, and there are beautiful waterfalls everywhere. The flatlands have some beautiful inland lakes, and nice to just cruise by.

Probably the lowest point of the day was biking through the tunnel. While the tunnel was cool, I was biking uphill through it, with no shoulder. The road is 55mph, and I was probably doing 5. Luckily, there’s a button to hit to warn motorists that there’s a bicycle in the tunnel, but I pushed through as hard as I could to get through the tunnel fast. Nothing gets the heart rate up like the deafening sound of a car coming through a tunnel when you’re on a bike.

Tonight I’m camping on a jetty! Which is pretty cool, basically my camp overlooks the ocean (yikes! Hopefully no tsunamis.) I’m writing most of this at “the Sand Dollar” Where I had an alright dinner with a bomb view of the waves and the ocean

Campsite jetty:

Right nextdoor is a Catholic Church that has an absolutely beautiful location right on the beach.

(Church and beach respectively)

All in all, a very happy Mark for the day.

I’m now snug in my evening attire, snuggled up in my sleeping bag listening to the rain patter (more like assault) my tent. The roar of the ocean should put me to sleep, being so close. What a cool campsite. Tomorrow, another 50ish miles, the Tillamook factory (I’m excited!!), deviating from the 101 to stay close to the coast!

Today was mixed with ups and downs (pun intended.) It rained (again) most of the day, and the views were not as spectacular, but I met a new friend along the way, and am writing this from a heated yurt.

The day started, as most days do, with me needing to pee. However, it was raining outside and I’m a wimp, so I waited for an hour for the rain to stop before rushing out of my tent and beating my 50 yard dash time to the bathroom. (It was worth it.) more relaxed, I tore down camp, with most things damp, and got everything on the bike. After a brief chat with my neighbor (an older gentlemen from Portland that was fishing along the coast in a pretty cool motor home) I was off back on the 101.

My bike in front of my camp? Looks like it might be a nice day, right?

My first stop was at Parkside, a restaurant recommended by the lady that checked me in at the campground the previous night. The food was delicious, and the restaurant host very talkative, which was nice. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a huge appetite, so I wasn’t able to finish almost half of the food.

Almost immediately after leaving Parkside I ran into Austin! Not the city, but a guy on his own bike trip. Austin is peddling down to L.A., across the south side of the country, back north along the east coast, and west again along the north side of the country. He used to be the lead brewer at Buoy Brewing (where Dad and I ate dinner the night before our trip). He’s using this trip as a chance to meet lots of brewers around the country, brew some beers, make some connections, and have a good time. He plans to open a brewery after he’s done with this trip (which I’ll definitely go check out! He seems pretty good at making beers.) You’ll hear more about him later, as we spent this rest of the day biking together, and will likely bike tomorrow together as well.

Austin and my first stop was, of course, the Tillamook Factory. It turned out to be a great stop, as we got tons of great food from it. That is, free cheese. I also got some ice cream (of course, how could I not) and we both got a beer. Austin bring a brewer, I asked him for suggestions which he humbly obliged. It may have only been 10:30am, but we drank down our beers (oops!)

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the day was spent inland. So I only have a few good Coast pictures. I should’ve taken more inland pictures, but didn’t today! Sorry! Needless to say, Oregon is beautifully green, and has plenty of water.

During the riding the weather was...poor.

I’m not sure if you can see from the above picture, but the road is covered in hail. Because it was hailing! Ow. My hand is raw, not from sunburn of windburn, but from being hit by hail while biking.

Both Austin and my final destination for the day was Lincoln City, so we hung out together for the entire day. Conversation ranged from politics to the mechanics of brewing, to life. And everything in between. In 45 miles of biking together you’ve got plenty of time to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about.

Upon arrival into Lincoln City Austin and I were both pooped. Austin had woken up at 4 to get started, and I’m just tired. The final ride into Lincoln City was hill after hill (thus the up and downs for the day) and it was exhausting. Luckily, we made it to camp by 5, and after and amphibious assault on the campground (the entrance road was totally flooded), we found the camp host and....reserved a yurt!! And I’m super pumped to be writing this from a yurt right now. All my gear is drying out.

After a beautiful shower, and changing into my even attire, Austin and I went out on the town. Which is to say we had an amazing dinner at a Thai place (it was delicious) and then had some beers at a bar. The bar was surprising progressive for the town.

After beer 6 for the day, it was time to hit the hay. We went back to the beautiful yurt, and went to bed. All in all, another great time. I was super thankful to hosts at the campground.

[

Apparently there’s still a blockbuster here.

I’m literally about to fall asleep, while I write this, so I’m signing off. Another 50-70 miles tomorrow! Some with Austin! Some not. Good night!

Today was a treat of a day, so I’ll try and write a treat of a journal entry. If you read any journal entry, today would probably be the day. Today’s journal will be less about my trip, and more about the people I met along the way. You’ll meet Eli, the fisherman who used to work out of Dutch Harbor (Alaska, if it’s ringing bells think deadliest catch), John Maier, the grandfather of brewing in the Pacific Northwest, Abby and Jeremiah, who work(?) at the brewery in Yachats, Nathan, who built (and owns?) Yachats Brewery, and finally we’ll close with my two day travel buddy Austen (I spelled his name wrong yesterday, sorry.) Austen’s story is quite amazing, so it’s worth waiting to the end!

But before we get into all the grandeur of the day, I need to set the scene and start with the beginning. The day began with a slow rise from a warm yurt at 8ish. Austen opted to take a shower, I did not, but shortly we were off the the Pacific Grind Cafe for breakfast. It was a rather eclectic cafe that was pretty particular about how to order, but the food was delicious. And the donuts to die for (maybe I was just hungry.)

The Yurt:

After breakfast came some of the most beautiful riding of the trip so far. Exhibit A:

It was quite stunning, lots of little rivers twisting through the sand towards the ocean.

But, enough about me. It’s time to meet Eli. Our lunch stop was at a pizza place in Newport, OR. By the time we made it we were both hungry, and got a nice large pie. Sitting down, I started up a conversation with this guy at the part about fishing. Turns out, he really fishes. Likes works on a fishing boat fishes. He goes out to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and fishes 6 months a year. (Or at least, he used to. You’ll learn why “used to” in a second.) According to Eli, the crab haulers have a very dangerous job. But it’s just as dangerous as the fishing he was doing. I also learned that even as you become a professional fisherman, your still tell stories about the amazing catches you made fishing. Eli was quite the interesting guy to talk with. And I was glad I ran into him.

After taking some pizza for road ‘za later, we headed farther into Newport to get our bikes cleaned at the Newport Bike Shop. After two days of biking in rain (and hail!) the bikes could use some cleaning he guys at the bike shop were super helpful and nice. They let us use their hose to spray the bikes down, the came out and greased our chains for use. Most importantly, Austen being a brewer, he told us to go meet up with John Maier at Rogue Brewing, so we did.

And what a treat that was! John is both an avid brewer and and avid bicycle tourist. As I understand it, he doesn’t need a car in Newport, OR. Instead he just bikes everywhere. Additionally, and this is the super cool part, he is somewhat of a legend in the Pacific brewing scene. And that’s super cool! He’s in charge of all brewing at Rogue, and is a very laid back guy. Funny enough, when we met him, he didn’t really want to talk about beers, he wanted to talk about bikes! Anyway, it was super cool to meet John and talk with him. He’s kinda a big deal. He also gave us a six pack for free, and brought us up to the tasting room and gave us a free beer there.

John’s bike, which was probably the coolest touring bike I’ve ever seen. All the parts are from all over the county.

Austen with John:

Barrels at Rogue (photo credit to Austen):

We finally left Newport around 4, crossing this beautiful bridge:

We continued down to Tillicum Beach Campground outside of Yachats, and setup camp there. The campground is beautiful!! It’s right next to the ocean, and we got an amazing site!

I’m loving Oregon camping. All the campgrounds so far are super nice, and have beautiful facilities!

To cap the night off, we went to Yachats Brewery for dinner. Yachats might be my favorite brewery I’ve ever been to. The beers was delicious, the food good, the art at the brewery both beautiful and with a cool story, and the company fantastic. The story starts with Abby and Jeremiah. They were the first two I talked with at the brewery. Both interesting to talk with, they had just gotten back from backpacking in Mexico (as in traveling around with everything they own on their backs and going city to city.) They discussed what made it dangerous and/or safe. The topic of conversation switched to talking more about the art at the brewery. Which, and I think this is super cool, was designed by Abby but painted by customers. Basically, Abby made a paint by numbers mural, and then as customers came in they could fill in the mural. What a cool idea! This is the final result:

After talking with Abby and Jeremiah, I started talking with Nathan. I’m not sure what Nathan’s role is, but he definitely help found the brewery. He maybe the owner, I’m not sure. How he started the brewery was quite amazing. He basically jack hammered into a cliff, 17’ long, and 10’ back, to form the cellar for the current brewery. And apparently that was quite the task! He ended up buying his own dump truck to move all the debris out of the way! (This guy Nathan also loved to talk, we heard lots of stories throughout the night.) Digging our that part of the brewery took almost two years! But now they have a beautiful brewery with some great beer! Go check it out!

Finally, we come back to Austen. Most of the people I met today are due to Austen. John, Jeremiah, Abby, and Nathan for sure. Austen is a brewer, and part of this trip is to build social capital to start his own brewery. He’s biking to LA, then over the Phoenix, then New Orleans, up the east coast, and back west. All in all he’ll spend 7 months of his bike. He and I just happened to start the same day. His goal is to meet someone in every town he goes through, to build out his network for his own brewery. He’s got a ton of experience as a brewer, and wants to start his own thing. It makes my reasons for going on this trip look insignificant when stacked next to his. Anyway, a really cool dude starting his own brewery. Best of luck Austen!! You can follow his journal here! https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=20798&v=Z

Picture of Austen and I biking together.

All in all, quite the amazing day. I think tomorrow I’ll take it easy, and only ride a few miles (20ish) to the Oregon Sand Dunes. I may just hangout there for a day, or rent an ATV and go explore the beach. My service tomorrow may be poor, so I’m not sure I’ll get a post out tomorrow night. But signing off for now, goodnight! I leave Austen tomorrow, as he’s staying in town to brew a beer. I’ll be sad to lose a travel partner, but happy to start going solo again! (Somewhat surprisingly, but going solo is very relaxing)

I sit writing this journal entry at the house of a “warm showers” host just outside of Florence, OR. I was planning on making it farther today, but ran into Christopher when eating lunch at Homegrown, a deli in Florence. But before I get to that story, we’ll have to cover the rest of the ride, because it was absolutely beautiful. If you only have one day to do a trip on the Oregon Coast, Yachats to Florence is the way to go!

In the morning I tore down camp and said goodbye to Austen. It was nice having a riding partner for the past two days, but I felt great being on the open road. I especially felt great today, because I knew I’d want to stop a ton. After a quick breakfast at the “Green Salmon” I was off! (Highly recommended. So far Yachats is my favorite city of the trip.)

A very typical beach for this section of the coast! Nice sandy beach with beautiful rock sections.

Cook’s Chasm. A very beautiful cut between the rocks. Waves cane straight into the cut, and got washed around. I could’ve watched for hours.

The blow hole near Cook’s Chasm. Honestly, not as good as the one we saw on Kauai.

This part of the coast was littered with arched bridges like this one. Very cool to bike over and look at.

One of my favorite stops was at the lighthouse seen in the cover photo and below. It was a gorgeous lighthouse, and the NPS volunteer took my picture a couple times. Additionally, I stopped and chatted with a couple (can’t remember their names now, sorry!) and they asked for the blog link. If you’re reading this, thank you! You made my day!

These next images are the bay in front of the lighthouse, which had people surfing in it! That was a blast to watch.

Here’s a happy Mark exploring every single pull off on the route.

And some pictures of a happy bike.

As a final option for a stop along the coast, there was the Sea Cave. A pretty built-up touristy place, it brings you down 200 feet into a sea cave where you can see lots of sea lions, and just be in the sea cave. It cost $14, and I don’t think it was worth it. It was very dark inside (obviously) and the views into space weren’t that great. But here’s some pictures regardless.

I just thought this was funny. It was plastered all over the elevator. I seriously hope jumping can’t damage this elevator.

Coming into Florence, I realized that was the end of probably the most beautiful section of my trip. I’d definitely come back. Each of those pull outs I could probably spend a day at! Unfortunately, I came into Florence pretty late, as I spent so much time looking at the ocean. (Totally worth it.)

On the way into Florence I saw this, and thought it’d be fun to try, but it was closed :(.

I found a deli in town, got a sandwich, and was looking for a place to eat it, when a voice cried out from the sidewalk “Hey, you on a bicycle tour?” And I met Christopher. Christopher and I chatted for awhile. He said he hosted Hot Showers guests all the time (I should probably get an account) and I’d be welcome to stay with him if I wanted. I thought why not, so took him up on the offer.

Christopher is an interesting guy. He’s ex-air force, and recently separated (although he didn’t seem to want to talk too much about it.) He has two beautiful dogs, one a big puppy the other full grown (Sorry I didn’t get pictures for you, trust me they’re adorable.) And has a very alpha male personality. We talked about politics and dating. His views were far right, and I disagreed with some of his more, what I would consider more conspiracy theory view points. But all in all, a nice chat.

We chatted for awhile while I ate my sandwich, then I went with him to run some chores in town, got dinner, then went to the beach to watch the sunset. And the sunset was magnificent.

Unfortunately, something Christopher ate upset his digestive system, so we had to race back to his house to deal with the issues that results from that, but it was a gorgeous sunset. Kinda like watching the sun disappear into Lake Superior or Lake Michigan.

Tomorrow I may try to push for a 100 mile day. I’m feeling good, and I think most of the riding is inland. Also, I should have a stiff tailwind. That means I’ll have to cut the ATVing :(, but I kinda want to see if I can do it. Tomorrow night again, I may not have service, so it’s totally normal if I don’t post tomorrow! Goodnight all!

I caved, and didn’t quite make the 100 miles today. I got side tracked by the ATV rental. That being said, still a blast of a day. Passed the 200 mile mark, ripped it up on the dunes, talked with lots of people along the way, got dinner at a super fancy golf course, and had a beautiful place to camp at a hiker biker site.

My bike in front of Christopher’s house.

200 miles!

Much of today was inland, and through some beautiful inland scenery (and some logging!)

My first stop of the day was for ATV rentals. (I caved, I know I said I wasn’t going to, but I did! And glad I did)

Probably would’ve been more fun with a larger group (or even a friend)! But, ATV’s can climb some surprisingly steep hills :) I only did an hour rental, then continued.

The Central Oregon Coast is much like the coast of Lake Michigan. Huge sand dunes, and beautiful coastline. The only difference is the waves are bigger!

Because I was trying to make quite a bit of distance, there aren’t a ton of pictures, but here’s some pictures of the Coos Bay Bridge! (Probably the scariest bridge I had to cross, so I just crossed in the center of the bridge.)

And a really cool looking house I passed.

One thing I’ve learned this trip is, if you think it might be worth to stop and luck, definitely give it a shot. I think I stop more often when biking then I would when driving! I should probably stop more often when driving :). But I’m more then happy to bike an extra 5-10 miles to see something. But not drive an extra 5-10 miles?

So, I stopped to look at Sunset Bay State Park, Shores Acre Park, and Cape Argo Park. The shoreline there is super interesting. There’s a large reef a ways off shore, and shipwrecks used to happen all the time. So a long time ago, someone bought the land, and made a business out of rescuing and returning lost cargo! Brilliant! Location, location, location. After awhile, the land got donated to the state to make it a park, and now people like me (and retirees) get to see it.

On my way out of the park I talked with a nice elderly couple about park. They come here often, and said I had to visit the gardens before I left. (Back to that thing about stopping for most everything.) On there advice, I stopped at the gardens. It wasn’t my favorite, but it was really peaceful. A nice place to sit and reflect.

After the garden, I pushed to my fancy dinner spot, the Bandon Dunes Gulf Course. Apparently, if you golf, you’ve heard of this place. It’s super nice, with lots of lodging, separate parking for caddy’s, and a nice bar called McKee’s. I had dinner in McKee’s, talked with the bartender for awhile about brewing beer (apparently a new brewery opens every 12 hours in the U.S., how often do they close?), and talked with some people at the bar. Then I was off to setup camp and catch the sunset.

All in all I did about 80 miles today, if you include all the side tours. Tomorrow (or today when I post this) I’ll do about 20 miles to Cape Blanco, and stay there a night or two. Then I’ll need to push hard south. I might be out of cell service for the next few days, I’m writing this from the Bandon brewery if you want to see where I am!

Today was a pretty relaxed day. I explored a lighthouse, caught up with some friends/family who are living in normal life, bike 20 miles, saw a beautiful sunset, and met a new friend Max in the campground.

First and foremost though, a huge shout out to the Oregon park system. The hiker biker sites include USB charging!! And everyone has been super nice.

I opted to sleep in today, so my day started late (8am.) First stop was a lighthouse. It was built in 1918, and outdated by 1935. Oops. Oh well, still nice to take pictures of!

Bandon was a nice town, and I spent some time in Bandon calling and talking with people. I stopped by the Bandon Brewery on the way out of town. Not recommended. It wasn’t great. Then started my short 26 mile day to Cape Blanco!

I thought this was funny! Saw this on the road to Cape Blanco. You’ve all heard of this town, right?

Cape Blanco is absolutely beautiful! It’s was settled originally by the Hughes, an Irish family, when it was totally isolated from everything. Eventually it became a huge farm. I went to visit the graveyard there as well.

This is the view from the coast.

Notice those rocks out there? Yeah, they’re probably at least half a mile out, but you can see the waves crashing up along the rocks. That was pretty cool to watch.

I got settled into the hiker biker camp, and ended up talking with the camp host for awhile about being a camp host. Sounds like a pretty nice gig :). Hopefully you can do so without driving an rv, because that seems stressful. (Although he said that he thought riding a bike on the 101 is stressful. Touché.)

After a quick shower I walked back to the hiker biker camp and ended up chatting with Max, another biker in the camp, for most of the night.

Max is from France, and his English is self taught, so I was pretty impressed we were able to continue a conversation for as long as we did, but we talked for a good 4 hours. Apparently, by law in France every 6 year you must be able to take 1 year unpaid leave. So that’s what Max is doing now. He was just in Peru, then flew into SFO, bought a bike and rack, strapped his backpack and tent (which he also bought) to it, and started going! How cool is that? Just goes to show anyone can do a bike touring trip.

Short day, and short write up today. Tomorrow I think I’ll stay here. I’ll have to ride 10 miles into town to get food, but I’ll try and buy some brauts and beer. Austen, from earlier, is trying to push a 95 mile day tomorrow and will end up here if he does. I’ll have some food and beers waiting for him if he makes it.

As always, a beautiful sunset on the coast!

Goodnight!

It’s T-1 (day) until the trip starts! And as I sit writing this in a warm hotel room, it’s raining outside, the window is shivering in the windy, and wouldn’t be described as nice. I’m definitely thinking twice about my decision to camp...

The drive up to Astoria was beautiful. I-5 was much prettier then I remembered it. At least once we got north of the Central Valley and into the Shasta wilderness area. The sun was out, the weather was beautiful, and we made excellent time. We arrived at our destination for that night pretty tired, but got dinner at “Stacy’s Covered Bridge”, (which was awesome! And recommended by the people at the hotel) then went to bed.

Apparently I’m a sucker for advertising!

The next day we finished the drive to Astoria, in the rain. And that would continue all day. (It’s still raining now) We visited lots of state parks along the coast.

Ecola State Park - It’s wicked windy, and still raining. However, the beach was beautiful!

After Ecola State Park, we visited Fort Stevens State Park, which was full of bunkers that dated back to the Civil War! We would’ve had an awesome game of hide and seek if we had more people.

Dad in front of an old shipwreck at Fort Stevens.

The Jetty that guards the entrance to the Columbia River

A gun installed at Fort Stevens for WWII

Fun fact, Fort Stevens was attacked during WWII by a Japanese submarine. Later, after the war, the captain was asked about the attack. He said had he known the guns located at the fort, he would not have attacked. However, during the attack the Fort did not have permission to return fire.

After exploring Fort Stevens State Park, Dad and I went to church. It was a very nice mass. The church was beautiful, with the side facing the Columbia river being almost all glass. At the end of mass, the priest asked if there were any visitors in attendance and both my dad and I introduced ourselves. Then, to my embarrassment, my dad told the congregation that I was biking back to SF and asked the congregation to pray for me. On the way out of church it was still raining, and Dad made a comment about the rain. The man behind us commented “what ugly weather, just glad we’re not biking to San Francisco. Smart Aleck.

After church we went to dinner at The Buoy Beer Company. Food, pretty good, decent beer, good service, but the best was the view. The restaurant was in an old cannery right on the Columbia River. We got to watch some ships go by and see some others parked waiting for a pilot.

We’re back in the hotel, watching TV and resting. Dad leaves tomorrow at 5 or 6 am, and I’ll get going around 8 or 9. I look forward to it! But hoping for better weather!!

New vest given to me by some loving (concerned) parents.

The days are speeding closer and closer to my bike trip! As a final pre-trip, to make sure all my gear is in working order and I’m in good enough shape to do this, I biked out to “Coast Camp” in Point Reyes. I had a gigantic burrito along the way, got my butt kicked by the final climb, and ended up cooking in the rain, but as I write this in the warmth of my tent, listening to the call of birds and the roar of the ocean, I think I’m ready for the trip, and happy with the day.

The day started the previous night, getting all my gear packed. I was easily able to fit all my gear into two panniers and one dry bag, so I took the front rack off my bike. (#ultralight #itsalifestyle) Thanks to Mike (DSR) Cristian, I opted for a rear rack instead of a front rack, after reading lots of reviews of people online about what they prefer.

The morning of the trip to Point Reyes I did what everyone does before a bike trip, get a haircut. (A lesson learned from last trip.) I think my hair is the shortest it’s ever been (the hairdresser used a two on the side, but he’s pretty opinionated about my hair, so I trust him just to make it look good.) Post haircut I loaded up the bike, and headed off!

(Me post haircut, and as always no idea what to do with my hands.)

You’ll notice from the picture above that the panniers are definitely not full. I have a two man tent in there, sleeping bag + pad, biking clothes, warm layers, evening attire (aka clean clothes to sleep in, or go into town in) stove + cook gear, food, head lamp, water, and some miscellaneous gear. I’m not sure why I needed all 4 panniers when we went to Europe, but maybe I just have better gear now?

I took the Golden Gate Bridge out of the city, and got my picture taken in front of my bike by a nice French guy. He asked “Where did you come from?” and I had to sheepishly point at the city and say “there.” He followed up with “Where are you going too?” and I couldn’t bring myself to say that I’d be back tomorrow, so I just said “Portland.” That’s mostly true, right? We chatted a bit more, and then I rode off again.

I quickly entered Mill Valley, and then started slowly climbing towards the panoramic highway. It would be my first of three major climbs of the day. The road had a pretty small shoulder, but only one car didn’t give me plenty of room. He got a yelling at. Everyone else was plenty nice. Even got a shocka (did I spell that right?) from one car and a “hang in there” from another. (I don’t think I was looking that gassed, but apparently I was.) I took the panoramic highway up a little farther, and then flew down to Highway 1. (The 1, if your s Californian) The downhill was a blast! Cornering a loaded touring bike is a bit of a chore, but definitely do able. Being that no cars ever caught up to me on the way down, I must of been doing pretty well.

After getting on the 1, I quickly entered Stinson Beach, and stopped for lunch. A picture of the restaurant is below.

The restaurant serves the biggest (and probably most expensive) burritos I have ever seen. The burrito was about 14 inches long, and had an oval diameter of 4 inches by 2 inches. It was huge. I finished it all though, guess I was pretty hungry, but my body was not too happy with me for the rest of the day.

From Stinson Beach I followed highway 1 too Point Reyes. I stopped at the visitor center to request a last minute campsite, and was given a site at “coast campground” which, as you might guess, is on the coast. Thinking I was almost there, I filled my water, used the restrooms (thanks to that burrito), bought a beer (oops!), and took off in high spirits. Unfortunately, I did not realize I had one more hill to do.

Being Point Reyes, you have to go up and over a ridge to get to the ocean. I did not remember that, but will in the future. I likely was just tired, but it was about a 4 mike climb that seemed to take forever. I thought a few times about just going back to the visitor center and asking for a closer campground. But, alas, making me very happy, the road started to level, and then go down, and I was able to fly downhill.

I pulled off at the Point Reyes Hostel (probably should’ve just stayed there, they had room, but oh well), filled up my water once again, and rode the last 3 miles on a gravel road into camp. Luckily, the rain held off just long enough for me to setup my tent, so all my sleeping area is dry. However, I ended up cooking in a down pour. It seems like a storm system just moved in off coast. After dinner the rain lightened, and I got some nice sunset pictures before headed to bed!

Tomorrow will be back to SF, drinks with some friends, and then getting thoughts of sleep to start my trip on Friday! I’m looking forward to it!

(Addendum) The ride back was much better! I’m having a hard time figuring out how to deal with the temperature, sweating bullets on the uphills and freezing on the downs, but I had a fantastic ride back to SF. On the way back I stopped at a place called “Sol Food.” They served Puerto Rican food, and it was absolutely amazing! I’ll definitely be going back! Here’s a few bonus pictures from the past two days:

Waves breaking from the campsite

View from the panoramic highway

San Francisco looking good!

Hey, you see that cow?...

Fort Bragg! I’ll be coming through there later

It's been a fun week since the last post! Lots of food, plenty of work, and sight seeing on the weekend. The weather this trip has been just about perfect for exploring the city. The leaves are changing colors, the sun is out most of the time, and the air is crisp and cool. All in all, I couldn't ask for more.

I started working in the Bucharest office on Monday. It is a very nice office building, but unfortunately I don't have any pictures. Luckily, the opening of the office got a good deal of press, and you can read an article about it.

On the week days, it's been hard to get out and do much exploring in the town. That's because the end of the work day in Romania is around 8 or 9am in San Francisco. So, just when you're ready to go home, people start coming on line and asking you questions. That's led to some late nights at the office, but that is the reason I'm here anyway.

Dinners in Romania are interesting. Normal dinner time is around 8-10pm, and when going out to dinner it's expected you'll stay awhile. For example, when trying to go to a restaurant at 6pm you may be told that all tables are reserved, even if that reservation is starting at 10pm.

The food has been a mixture of traditional Romanian food, as well as random suggested restaurants. (Ironically, burgers are very popular here. Much like the craft beer scene in the U.S., everyone is trying out different places burgers.) I've been out to different restaurants every night, some times with just Sam, other times with people from the Bucharest office. Overall, the food has been excellent.

Alright, to the fun stuff, the weekend. Saturday, we went to The Village Museum. The Village Museum is an outdoor museum of old houses in Romania.

It was very interesting to see. They had description (thankfully in English and Romanian) about the house, and how and why they were constructed. They also had old village churches and lots of exhibits on tools used in the 1800s and 1900s.

Pictured above is an old washing machine. You would place woolen garments in the cone (obviously without the leaves) and then redirect water from the river down the chute. That would cause a vortex, which would make your clothing spin. Similarly, there was also a dryer

which would be attached to a water wheel, that would turn the dryer.

It was fascinating. Below is a description of how the washing machine worked.

And another on how a press worked.

Below is a picture of the kitchen area in a home from the 1800s, look at the size of the chairs!

There was a good amount of time spent at the museum, exploring and looking a different buildings.

After the museum, we walked around a nearby Herăstrău Park, which was absolutely beautiful. The leaves were just finishing falling, so the colors lit up the sky. The picture at the top of this entry is from the park. There was a really nice skate park in the park, with kids on scooters trying to do tricks (I was very impressed with their effort, although I think my cousin Josh would've given them a run for their money), families walking through the park, and kids playing soccer in the open areas.

That picture is probably my favorite from the park. It was gorgeous.

After the park, we stopped for what I hoped would be a quick lunch, but nothing about food in Romania seems fast, so 2 hours later we walked out of the restaurant, and continued our day. We quickly saw the Arcul de Triumf, which was basically the same as what they have in Paris, but nothing too special.

With that down, and sleep deprivation coming up on me fast, it was back to the hotel for a quick nap before a late night dinner.

Saturday night, we met up with some co-workers from the Fitbit Bucharest office at Hunal cu Tei, (The Liden Inn), for dinner. We got ribs and some local Romanian beers! It was a fun night, and we learned lots of interesting facts about the country. I think I'm more up to date on Romanian politics at the moment the U.S. politics.

Sunday we started our day with a tour of the palace of the parliament. The palace of the parliament is the second largest office building in the world, second to the pentagon, so the tour was quite interesting. The building was built during the communist era of Romania, and today most of it goes unused. Apparently, the yearly maintenance cost of the building alone cost 50 million euros.

To give you a perspective on size, this is not the front of the building, it's the side. The tour was only an hour long, and consisted of only 4-5% of the building, but the inside was very ornate. Aside from the occasional bare wiring going up grand marble staircases, some cracking marble, and peeling paint, the place was incredibly beautiful.

This an a conference room in the palace that was original built as a theater. It would definitely be a beautiful theater if it were used as such.

That is the chandelier in the theater, which weighs five metric tons! Changing the light bulbs in that must be quite difficult.

One of the most interesting rooms in the building, to me, was the "human rights" room. It was original built for the communist party leaders to have discussions. A custom built circular table circles the room, with a speed camera in the middle to rotate to whom ever is talking. Unfortunately, the room is rarely used. The most prominent usage was for a NATO summit.

After the tour, we briefly stopped at the contemporary art museum which is in the palace of the parliament. I definitely enjoyed the artwork. Here are some pieces that I liked:

Following the contemporary art museum, we went to the Technological Museum, and this time were there well before they closed. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed to be taken inside the museum, but they had very cool exhibits. The entire museum was built on an old powerplant, which remnants have incorporated into the museum. There's all types of tools, from roman times to modern day. They have the whole history of electricity on display, as well as engines and motors. You can see the inside of the old electrical generated the used to be in the building. (It's gigantic!)

As a final stop for the day, we walked to some street vendors in Carol Park (which is right next to the technology museum) and I ended up buying a chess set for park home. At this point, we both went back to the hotel for a breather. Sam wasn't feeling great, so he stayed in the hotel, I wandered through the city.

Bucharest is an interesting city. It has some very nice areas, and some very run down areas. However, the city seems very safe. Apparently, a few years ago they had a problem with stray dogs in the city but we've only seen one or two since we got here. There's graffiti everywhere in the city though.

Those two pictures are taken in regular neighborhoods. Even their university buildings have it!

Then, back to the hotel for some more rest, and writing of this article. So far, I've been very impressed with Bucharest. Tonight, hopefully, I'll catch up on some lost sleep. Looking forward to the coming week!

Today was a whirlwind tour of Bucharest. We tried to see the remains of a sorcerer, turned Catholic saint, turned actually not a Catholic saint, but being Sunday, there was Mass and we didn't go. We ended making it to the National History Museum, however, as well as Carol Park and saw the outside of the Parliamentary building. We had lunch nowhere special, then tried to visit both the technological museum and the contemporary art museum, but both were closed. We went back to the hotel in shame for a brief nap, before going on what would have been an excellent date night. (Make sure you read to the end to see all the details!)

Step one of our day was to try and stop at a place where the remains of a "sorcerer" turned Saint, turned maybe not a Saint a few years ago, remained. But, those remains were in a Church, and it's Sunday morning, sooooo. (Actually, I'm kinda bummed I didn't go to church. I'd like to, so I can see a mass in the eastern tradition. I didn't think of that until it was too late. I'm still very jet lagged, and forget it was even Sunday!)

The history museum right next to the church, and it was kinda of bummer, but still pretty good. It only cost 10 Lei (like $2.50) to get in, and starts with a Roman exhibit.

Second, we went to go visit "Carol Park." On our way, we walked in front of the Parliament Building in Bucharest. The building is huge, the second largest office building in the world (after the pentagon)! That's the cover photo of this entry. We'll likely try to get a tour of it later. In the park there's a tomb of the unknown soldier equivalent.

It was very beautiful, and guarded at all times by Romanian soldiers that were standing perfectly still (with what was probably their commanding officer coming to check on them from time to time, it looks exhausting). The park was really nice, and it was nice to see so many people out an about. There were families walking through the park, kids playing soccer, other kids using the hills in the park as bike jumps, and some very wise in age folks just sitting on park benches. There was also a lake with row boats in it, which looked very romantic. But I think it was closed for the season.

After lunch (it was now around 4), we tried going to the technological museum, but that was closed. On the way we saw this beautiful old building. We weren't sure what it was, but it may be an old powerplant.

On our way to dinner, we noticed lots of police activity, people carrying Romanian flags, and some chanting. We'd find out later that there was a large protest about de-criminalizing corruption in Romania. Had we known, we'd of liked to go take a look. However, back to dinner.

The first place, "The Artist", was trying to be "hip and cool". They asked if we had reservations, we said no, and then they just "couldn't seat us". There was no wait time given, but there were definitely tables available.... We're going try going back again later, but now are not going to try and make a reservation. Instead, we went to "Upstairs Rooftop." (We've seen quite a few restaurants around here have English names. Maybe we're just going to very touristy areas, but it didn't seem like it.). The "Upstairs Rooftop" was very good, and the waiter helped me pronounce what I was ordering, which was nice. I ended up getting a salmon dish (I'm already pretty sick of meat + potatoes), and Sam got a chicken dish. The food was very good, the drinks we ordered not so much.

After a nice dinner, we walked back to the hotel. On the way back, I spotted a guy walking into some building that looked like an exhibit with a beer in hand. So, of course, we went to go check it out. It was a bit weird, we entered the building, and there was no one there, just a staircase up and some postcards. We walked up the stairs, and saw a table. A nice man working the table (probably a student) spoke excellent english and explained it was an exhibition of the history of discotech in Romania.

We exited the exhibition, and tried once again to go back to the hotel, but Sam noticed a craft brewery that we were walking by. Having a bit more time before we really needed to go to bed, we went into the brewery. Probably the best beer I've had so far this trip. And it's about three minutes from the hotel.

All in all, an excellent day! We've been loving Bucharest so far!

Today was rather uneventful, so I'll keep this brief. We woke up this morning at 8:30 at Michiel's and Maureen's with Matt saving us for oversleeping in the wonderful bed we had. We had a breakfast of bread, cheese, and juice, said our goodbyes and thank yous, and headed for the train. It was rush hour in Amsterdam (although we're informed that it's holiday season so most people are out of the city) and we were fearful for our lives that we were going to get hit by s bike.

The train was a little late, but we made it to Schiphol no problem and began the fun process of getting our bikes up to departures. The lift was broken, so we had haul our bikes up a little ways, then got carts and took the lift up to departures. We decided that we probably couldn't get out bikes through the maze at the aircanada desk, so we asked them what we should do, and they let us cut the line and just bring our boxes to the front.

Unfortunately, their computer system is terrible, and it took the three of us 40 minutes or so to check in. Luckily, the agent working with us was pretty cute, so we didn't mind. After we got all the baggage issues sorted out, we were clear and free, and boarded without any issues.

The flight to Toronto was uneventful, and we landed a little early. For the last time, we moved our boxes around in the Toronto airport through customs. We're now sitting in the Toronto airport waiting to board our plane. We can't wait to get home.

It was quite a trip. Some of our favorite things were: the mountain karts in Innsbruck, the lunch at the top of St. No ritz, and we're getting on the plane. It was fun.