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Yesterday was a bit crazzzzy. For days we feared a 1950-foot mountain that stood in our path… the highest elevation of our whole trip. But today, I say, ehhh not too bad. I could do it again… But I won’t.
Our day started in Benbow at a campground that was located right next to the freeway, yet the entrance was a mile and a half gravel driveway away from the road we wanted to be on. Stef had a flat from the night before, and I (Lindsey) got one yesterday morning from that damn gravel path…. no way we were going back on that. Instead of biking around to the real entrance of the campground, we threw our panniers, sleeping bags, bikes and backpacks over a fence and walked up to the highway. I almost ate crap jumping over the fence.
We had a bunch of rolling hills, which are fun, but really take it out of you. Then we had the mountain of doom to go over and more rolling hills on the coast, along with a no-big-deal-I-just-did-a-1950-footer hill with an elevation of 650 feet.
Before the mountain of doom, Linsey and I stopped at Standish-Hickey for a quick bathroom break… little did we know the quick little break set us back 1 hour. A tub of peanut butter burst in Linsey’s pannier and PB was everywhere. I’m not one to waste any food, so Linsey and I started eating it off her sleeping bag and bags. After the PB was all cleaned up, we’d find it on the sides of our faces.After a shot of espresso and a chat with some other sewper kewl bikers, Linsey and I headed up 1950 feet. Should I be saying one thousand nine hundred fifty feet just to emphasize how big this mother was? We stopped twice in the blistering sun to rest our little legs. We found Stef at the bottom with sardines on her breath and a sore stomach. Vegans aren’t really supposed to have sardines for lunch.
We biked about 65 miles yesterday to Fort Brag, where we met up with our buddies Mark and David ONCE AGAIN! We had a fabulous night at the campground with Mark, David, Ed the crazy cyclist, Yolo from Germany, pous pous shorts Max that we met in Yachats on the 4th of July, and 50 teenagers attending a Russian Christian camp.
Today we have rolling hills along the beautiful coast of CALI… we just ate at a little cafe in Fort Brag (very tasty omelets) and we are headed to the bike shop and then to Gualala for a little R&R.
We hope to jam the next couple of days to make a short ride into San Fran on Saturday. Then we will have a well-deserved day off in Carmel Valley with my aunt and her warm bath towels and tea. I’m very excited for that.
Guess what else I’m excited for? DANIELLE PERRECONE is going to meet us in Monterey for the last leg of the trip!! This will definitely spice up our trip and make it even more enjoyable.
Oh! I forgot to tell you! WE WERE ON THE NEWS YESTERDAY MORNING!!! We were biking through the Avenue of the Giants (a beautiful 30 mile highway through the redwoods), and a video camera and a news van began taping Linsey and I riding. We gave shoutouts to our Mamas and Papas and told them we were riding to San Diego. They were doing a story about northern California and the trees, etc. About a mile after they passed us, we turned to meet Stef at the drive-thru tree, and guess who was there? The news crew! They shot us biking through the tree and asked us a little about it. We’re famous now.
(Sorry pictures are taking so long… not all the computers have accessible USB cords.)
