Breakfast in bodega bay. B has decided to head home after SF so I cancelled plane ticket and we made call to amtrak to try to figure the timing (starlight sold out for several days ahead but not today) and the bike issue.
It was deemed possible if difficult to make the 10 pm train at emeryville and so it turned out to be.
Long day's journey into night.
Got to have been 70 miles. Barren hills, li valley backroads through Sonoma and Mendocino and Marin counties, shady residential streets in the wealthy enclaves north of San Francisco, cold hard wind over the big bridge, crazy BART station search ripping through crowds on the waterfront and finally on to market in downtown and into the embarcadero station up and down stairs with heavy bikes, now amtrak and their weirdness (amtrak won't put B's bike on the train at this moment cause the box bulges), but it was sort of epical.
B at BART
Mr. 14 at MacArthur station At East Bay.
Counted 9 people who we asked for directions between SF end of Golden Gate and Emeryville train station.
B out first. Me making special coffee on tent. Miles of the Sea Ranch development. B bike parked at sea ranch lodge. Go in for nice breakfast in elegant setting; change of scene is fun. Freshened up and applied whiteout in elegant restroom.
Crushed the 25 miles to Fort Ross. Arrived just on time in the open area inside the walls for a wonderful presentation about the place partly in Russian for the Russian family at the next picnic table. Demonstration of the atlatal throwing stick, description of the 4 or 5 cultural communities surrounding the fort,moved inside the warehouse full of skins and incredible array of commodities of the time period. The speaker had spent 15 years as a park ranger near lake baikal in Russia sort of by accident. Very cool hour break from the pedal.
Jenner market for calzone and other items for dinner at bodega bay dunes camp.
Set up and slipped into village of bodega bay for a cold beer and was tempted by the frying seafood but just got some fries.
Queen's at mile 10 from camp at Albion for breakfast, village of Elk.
33 miles to camp at Gaulala on tidal river mouth among the tall strange Bay trees. Quick swim in River with bike short suit; perfect. One hiker biker spot for $5 and a whole stretch of walk in sites for $32
B was misled by the map and arrived later; I asked a teenager and got the skinny but too late to catch B heading back the way we had come.
Went into Gaulala later for a beer and brought a big bottle of that Boont stuff back but B was in bag and said he had already brushed his teeth so I offered some of the big bottle to a guy who had biked in In the meantime and he said no he had already brushed his teeth so I drank my beer and ate my nice salted peanuts alone in the dark.
Shower and slumber then.
Traditional house posts from Siberia in acknowledgement of early contract sea hunters during Russian era on this coast.
Out of Abalone at 7:30. Stopped at the store in Westport for coffee and oranges and restroom. Owner lady mentioned by future blood tech the day before as having too much overhead was at counter seemed distracted probably by business issues.
Very pleasant ride to Cleone and Fort Bragg, I thought it was the army town but it clearly was not. Great breakfast at the Cafe 1, the Hippie Scramble.
Thence to Fort Bragg library and the computer to write this and the clock is running out on this machine after a productive hour.
Thence to Mendocino and the shoe store and unfortunately Dick's Bar.
Mendo kind of a bust so off to Albion which was a repeat of Abalone for crowded funky camp this time private.
And expensive.
Checked adjacent private camp further up river - better.
Long haul down the 101 from Benbow to Leggett for break, but Leggett hardly exists. Took side road past closed cafe and working service station hoping for town; no town. At top of climb adjacent to 101 found decent Redwood Merchantile. Two microwave breakfast burritos - very nice. Bought luncheon items; B. rolls up, no cell service.
Headed toward coast on Hwy 1. 28 miles to Westport. Hard, hot up first few miles, long down cruise into creek valley could feel the chill of the ocean but one more good climb and around a corner and pacific fog forced more clothes suddenly.
Westport-Union state park a series of primitive camps along bluff above water. Very crowded and undefined layout.
Lay in at Abalone site next to fee kiosk. Chatted with a couple of good old boys with a hot oak fire and cheap beer. Info on what is what in village of Westport a mile or two south. Sounded good but took nap.
Awoke and into Westport. Gen store only establishment open and doing a raging business. Young woman clearly channeling Paris Hilton in line with poodle in arms and a muffin.
Had beer and chips on the store porch, chilly but nice table and climbing nasturtiums.
Returned to Abalone and had another beer with George and friend the pipe fitter. Very good fire. Both guys camped free because of Pomo tribal membership. Pipefitter bemoaning the fact that after 40 years of camping here his posse was sick or dead and his kids didn't get it.Companion George was mellower, had a nice situation as custodian with a college in Ukiah and social security. Both were still working; the pipe fitter had a steady job with some outfit called The City of Ten Thousand Buddhists; fixing pipes.
Some fireworks; sleep.
Super high speed and efficient break of camp myself. B only just stirring as I cranked out on the small road to Trinidad, 5.3 miles south.
Signs were good for a more classy village than say Orick or Elma; no busted and abandoned mobiles, mad dogs, etc.
And it turned out to be so.
Took a chance and descended to the pier and the excellent Seascape cafe, to wait the arrival B, in some style although since it was at least an hour I should have ordered a muffin with my coffee.
Very nice sourdough short stack with the poached egg browns etc.
Put the pedal down at 10:30 - 11:00 to rise from the pier to the secondary road along the cliff and a touch the 101 and spent at least an hour on a paved trail called Hammond all the way to Arcata and a laundromat and deli adjacent to Humboldt State University.
Couple hours later push out of the Hammond onto 101 and lots of fresh asphalt into Eureka. Lunch on the park lawn across from the marina on Samoa Island.
Chatted for a while with a guy on a recumbent who knew Brian McKenna from Langley in the mid 70's.
Off the 101 into Loleta and on to Tompkins Hill Road, over the Eel on a long crazy bridge, across miles of flat farmland and finally onto the Humboldt state fairgrounds camping area. Paid the cat ladies in charge the $5 fee and buzzed into Victorian Fermdale for groceries and beers at the old inn and the Ivanhoe across the street.
Near dark on return to fairgrounds.
Don of Reno already in his tent next to his monster Suzuki moto which he plans to ride south on the continental divide trail.
Shower & slumber.
Blue Moon pint at old watering hole - Ferndale Inn
Patrick's Point hike bike camp - yes that green lump is B early Wednesday morning.
Lay into Patrick's Point SP in the early evening yesterday. Hiker biker area empty but well appointed.
Considered bar run to village well spoken of by Jeremy the contract logger at Mill Creek the previous night but couldn't find the gas.
Showers at PP tepid but near to hand.
Walked about on some of the confusion of trails in park; rocky fog bound shore where ever I went.
So we retired after soup at about nine.
Pier and cafe at T.
Trinidad light
B rolls in to the cafe at 9 giving me a good amount of time to coffee and compose and assure the waitress that yes eventually I plan to purchase something more than their slightly better than average coffee.
It's six miles to camp mills creek but since was all up it took long and when we got the to the turn off 101, it was 2.5 miles down another road, down and down and was low, small and buggie.
Up naturally in the morning we must haul back up the two and a half miles.
Once up and out on 1zero1 it's a beautiful excursion for much of the rest of the day through huge slightly tapered gray furred columns of red wood trees.
Breakfast was a diner in klamath which was pretty good.
Side roads through the giants proved satisfying. Stopped next food store in orick produced mostly poor choices except for the cheesecake.
Later in the afternoon a jipo lumber truck seemed to willfully come close to hitting and later B reported same incident with same truck. Also his load of boards had shifted indicative of reckless driving. Got to pis and never saw him again.
Visited park headquarters and watched a video about the trees (did you know they drink dog?
Good serious push to Patrick's Point sp.
biker spots far out on a rocky promontory and empty. New shower/restroom nearby. Water temp tepid.
Prolly go backroads to Trinidad for bkft if looks good otherwise push on to arcata
Very good fish tacos at the Barnacle Bistro in Gold Beach.
Put air in low back tire; better ride now.
In truth from Gold to Brookings best of show. By ocean with strong north breeze.
Rolled into Harris Beach sp had some fruits down front on bench.
Recon the town - had a pint down at the old timers restaurant at the port listening to the stylings of Gil Kirk on vocals and keyboard even while watching American classic muscle car auction on screen.
Hit Zola's pizza for the younger scene and slice. Apparently they deliver to state park but we were in the neighborhood.
Spoke with man from Quebec - good accent - Rene levec, Pierre Trudeau , FLQ, etc. prolly see him at del Norte redwoods this evening.
Trouble is have no good tubes and the
only bike shop (which is just a sporting goods store with bikes) I don't think is open Mondays. Search for bike shop in cresent city results in only one and the owner died last year and they are or we're just dumping the inventory.
So...
Have two tubes but both have tiny holes that we can't find (even took one down to the creek at humbug to submerge but no bubbles
Finally left Bandon and first warmshowers experience.
Rolled fairly hard into port orford sky becoming blue and blue.
Rolled into Humbug Mountain sp on softening tire.
Spent not much time actually putting tube and emptying two co2 cartridges and quite a while trying reinflate with pump (that because I started messing with things when should have not). Best showers of all.
No big storm last night. Bit of rain, small wind. Continental breakfast in tent. 20 mile ride to Bandon on backroad atop high ridge in fog. Stop to buy lube for bike at south coast cycles (the first of many visits to this rather nice bike shop with a novice woman and cranky know it all boss).
Old town Bandon for lunch with 4 recent college grads from South Dakota. They scored a warmshowers.com spot for the evening from cafe. I found low pressure front tire and decided to head back 1/2 mile to bike shop for fix and quick lesson in the ways of flats. 4 grads show up with broken tandem at same time; shop starts to hop, boss gets short with Nels over pressa valve issue. Get very interesting blow by blow on tire tech from boss, assistant warned repeatedly to watch the floor. B says he has to get out; too tense. I stick for a while and am told my front brake caliper is misaligned and since it is apparently mine to figure out I go outside and work on front brake.
Meanwhile B has gone to library and signed up for warmshowers.com and gets a place a couple of miles out of town with a fellow named Brian Kraynik and family.
We kill a couple of hours at high-end eatery overlooking the water - two glasses of tempranio and a plate of gnocchi.
We head out for Brian's place but he wanted some beer (Deschutes Summer Twilight) and hamburger buns so we stop at Ray's Food Place for those items.
Arrive at home of Kraynik and are greeted by Mr. Peepers who may bite according to Kraynik but he will not break skin. Mr. Peepers is a push-over and soon whole family arrives from How to Train Your Dragon in Coos Bay.
The little boy of the family hails us with the phrase his daddy taught him to say to all bike tour people who come for the night (500 and counting) and it is, "Pay some taxes!"
Brian is a true believer, is 6' 5" and requires a history reading of the building and effects of the Erie Canal on Google Docs and a subsequent comment on the goodness of a dedicated bike lane on 101 down the Oregon coast.
Then hamburgers and beer are consumed.
Nicole Kraynik is starting full time teaching at Bandon school district in the fall and Brian continues to develop his portable basketball hoop system called the Drive-by-Shooter.
Watched a bit of Frozen and then all to bed.
Said Goodbye and thanks to Brian in the morning and back to the same restaurant in which the process had started the day before; the cheap lunch place not the high-end gnocchi joint.
Yaquina Lighthouse - Gray Whale feeding just out to sea from here
Wednesday June 25
Rain concern drives b to head to Yachats in rather a hurry
Bucket girl passes me ( see last pic from day 9)
Msg from b swing in to alder restaurant and bistro
Bucket stops in to say hello and moves on - doesn't do this kind of food
Veggie Benedict ordered
Regular Benedict delivered
Sad
No asparagus no portobello
Oh well
fog at Beachside state park hiker biker spot
Light mist/drizzle gets heavier approaching Florence. B stops at laundromat on hwy into town. Turns out to be one of the best such institutions on the planet.
