PC_Day20

Day 20

Friday, 18 June 2004
Fort Bragg, CA to Salt Point State Park, CA
84.8 miles, 7h06m, 11.9 mph
Elapsed Time: 11h01m, Max speed: 36.8mph
Total Climbing: 5026ft, Max elevation: 460ft
Total mileage: 1166.0

If yesterday was arduous, then today was...more arduous. There were no big climbs but there were lots of little ones. Just look at that profile. We actually did more climbing today than we did yesterday, even though we never cracked 500 feet in elevation.

We wanted to get an early start, but the Best Western in Fort Bragg didn't serve breakfast until 7am, so we didn't get started until eight. The first few miles were easy, even with heavy traffic. The highway was of good quality.

A few miles down the road we stopped in to see the famous hippie town of Mendocino. We had a cup of coffee and observed some actual neo-hippies in their natural environment. Then we rode around town. It looks like Mendocino is in transition between run-down hippie town and trendy tourist spot.

Mendocino from across the bay.

The sky was overcast and the weather was a little bit cooler today. I expected the sun to come out in the afternoon like it did yesterday, but it stayed cloudy all day. It was strictly a coastal weather pattern though. We could see the sun shining a few miles away over the inland hills.

This photo needs no explanation.

At Elk we stopped to call Linda, who should have arrived in San Jose by this time. Of course, there was no cell signal out here on the edge of nowhere so I had to use a pay phone. I had to leave a message. I also had a cup of coffee. This idea of stopping for coffee during a ride is starting to resonate with me. I give all the credit to Barney from Eureka.

It was kind of like this all day.

Most of the traffic disappeared before we reached Elk. After that the road got narrower, but it was still good quality and since traffic was light it wasn't too bad. What was bad was the constant up and down. Every couple of miles the road would curve sharply inland into a gulch and then we'd have to climb out. Then the road might slowly climb for a while until the next gulch. This happens over and over. It starts to wear on you after a while.

I don't remember where this is.

This is across the street from...I can't remember.

There's a bridge on one lane, but not for the other one.

We had excellent turkey sandwiches at Point Arena for lunch. Then we rode on to Gualala, which was crowded and unfriendly. I called Linda and left another message. At Stewarts Point we stopped for food to take to camp and met a new couple riding south. They were trying to get to Bodega Dunes by nightfall. I doubt that they got there. We saw them stopped a few miles down the road with a problem that turned out to be a loose chainring.

At some point I got ahold of Linda and told her where we were staying. She was going to drive up and meet us on the route tomorrow and get our bags.

We reached Salt Point at about 6pm and set up camp. There are no showers there so we had to make do with the sink in the men's room, but we had the whole place to ourselves. I'm looking forward to getting away from the coast for a couple of days and seeing the sun.

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