a cycling adventure: day twenty six

July 5th

Manchester KOA to Wrights Beach Campground

65 miles

Up at 5:45AM. Made coffee at the KOA kitchen. Broke camp, no dew at all. That makes me happy. Planned to have breakfast 1/2 mile down the road at the market.

Hit the road around 9AM. Got to the market, cereal for breakfast in the parking lot. Caren and Bernd there, too. Haven't had cereal with milk in well over 2 years, so this was a real treat. Ended up eating 4 or 5 bowls, way too much, but so good.

Hit the road again. Mark riding slower today, says he's feeling low on energy. This threw us off a bit, since he leads and sets the pace. We need to go almost 70 miles to Bodega Bay, over many hills.

Rode through Point Arena, cool little town. Mark and Chip talked to same hippy lady that directed us toward the KOA last night, she kept insisting that we have some carrot juice from the local market. We never did get any juice. (**Mark and Chip have a priceless picture of her and her boyfriend that I will post up after I ask their permission. Their blog is here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1r4vFZo&doc_id=8886&v=EN)

Arrived in Gualala, Mark and Chip got sandwiches for lunch, I opted for my bagels and PB. Ended up doing grocery shopping while we were there. We had only ridden 20 miles, and it was close to 3PM. Starting to worry about making it to Bodega Bay.

Stopped at Fort Ross just to take some pictures, closed since it was close to 5:30PM. We all decided to stop at the next campground. Our maps showed 3 before Bodega Bay.

Very scenic ride, tons of huge hills. Mark and I were climbing one and a guy taking pictures of the ocean started taking pictures of us. He handed Mark his card while we rode by and said he would email the pictures. Passed some cows grazing along the road.

Reach the top of large bluff just outside Jenner, looked down and saw the most ridiculous downhill I've ever seen. Looking down, we saw so many switchbacks we couldn't tell which was was up or down. (**Later learned this stretch of road is nicknamed "Dramamine Drive").

Came up to first campground - shut down. Fuck. Sun getting lower, stopped to put on jackets. Arrived in Jenner around 7:30PM. People flocking to beach to watch sunset, fog has rolled in. Seals on beach. No campsite in Jenner, map wrong again. Passed Jenner and another closed campground. SHIT! Sun just about down, riding with all lights on. Came up on Wrights Campground, no hiker/biker sites but the host let us use the open handicap space and still pay the $5 rate. Thank god. No showers though.

Mark cooked dinner in the dark, turkey cheeseburgers. Another fine meal, Mark is an awesome cook. Feels so good to be in camp and get this long, shitty day over with. About 140 miles to San Fran, decided to split it into 3 days rather than do two 70 mile days. 40 or so tomorrow, looking forward to an easier day.