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’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!