San Francisco

A few photos from San Francisco and a trip out to Lake Tahoe.

Day 30: Fairfax to San Francisco - 24 miles

Felt a little strange taking out the bike for the last day with only one pannier loaded onto it, it was actually a little tough to get used to how responsive it was after what i had been lugging around for the last month but it felt a bit pointless to carry all my gear just for the sake of it considering i'd be heading straight back to Jim's place. Cycle was very different, just constant urban sprawl and constantly checking maps meant it was pretty slow going, and then a short and steep climb up to the golden gate bridge. It was a bit of an anti climax crossing it but i guess this trip was always about the journey rather than the destination. That said i had a good sense of achievement rolling down into San Francisco and was looking forward to getting back to some sort of normality for a while!

Day 29: Bodega Dunes to Point Reyes Station - 33 miles

No photos from this day as there wasn't much to see as the road turned inland. Cycled the 33 miles to Point Reyes Station where Kathy's uncle Jim kindly offered to pick me up, and i certainly had no problem with a little cheating especially since navigating the urban areas around San Francisco would be pretty tough without a gps. Loaded the bike onto the back of the truck and enjoyed a few beers in the town of Fairfax but a little sad that my camping days were now behind me. I would be staying in Fairfax for the next week with just the easy ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to go.

Day 28: Manchester KOA to Bodega Dunes - 66 miles

The toughest day of cycling was saved until almost the end of the trip, with similar terrain to the previous day but with much bigger climbs and a longer distance. The views were amazing and a lot of the descents were pretty fun with switchbacks lasting for miles. Some of the roads did seem extremely dangerous for cyclists though, with almost no shoulder and drops of hundreds of metres directly off the side of the road meaning that you really need to keep concentration up when you could be a bad wobble away from falling off the side of a cliff! The campsite that night was really cool, in the middle of some huge sand dunes, the wind was pretty crazy though making the entire area freezing cold which meant i couldn't go explore the park.

Day 27: MacKerricher Beach to Manchester KOA - 42 miles

Ok finally getting around to finishing the last few days of this. Since i'm doing them from memory the descriptions will probably be lacking but hopefully the photos make up for it!

Following the advice of the campsite host i took a back road to the nearest town of Fort Bragg. The road huggd the beach the whole way and it was a nice experience to be able to do a few miles on a path with no cars. Spend a good few hours in Fort Bragg until after lunchtime, it was the first large town (around 10,000 people) that i had gone through in a good few days so took advantage of the facilities knowing that it was going to be a short enough ride. The ride was pretty strenuous though, one of the toughest days with constant steep hills and pretty much no flat sections for the entire day. Unfortunately the one thing i really wanted to see on the day, the redwood museum, was closed due to the government shutdown. Decided to stay in the commercial campground beside Manchester state park since the park had no showers and sometimes no potable water either, and since i had no fuel for my stove i'd have nothing to drink until some point the next day. The campsite was pretty nice, got to use the hot tub which was much appreciated and two guys staying there invited me over to have a bbq with them, sharing all their food.

Day 26: Standish-Hickey recreation area to MacKerricher beach - 40 miles

To start the day off I had the prospect of the biggest climb of the trip, to 2000ft, which isn't ideal before having some time to warm up. I decided to go to the next town which was just a mile down the road for breakfast only to find that it was closed so I was faced with adding another 2 miles onto my day by backtracking to the shop beside the campground or taking on the climb on an empty stomach with the knowledge that the next store was 28 miles down the road. I probably stupidly chose the latter but the pints from last night must have kept me going because I didn't feel the hunger for another few hours. The hill was slow going but the 10 miles of downhill from the top were a lot of fun and then brought me to the bottom of another, 600ft hill, which actually ended up being a whole lot tougher as it was much steeper. At the bottom of this hill I reached the coast to a complete change of scenery, scorched grasslands, roads winding down and up into small bays with really tight hairpin turns and the wind at my back for the first time since probably northern Washington. When I got to the tiny town of Westport I was relieved to find that the only store in town also had Wi-Fi, I'd had no phone coverage or WiFi access for 24 hours so it was good to tell people that I was still alive. There was a guy from Greece at the campsite who told me that there's another Irish guy doing the same trip just a little behind so it'll be interesting to see if I bump into him over the next few days. Checked out some really cool tide pools beside the campground and there were also supposed to be seals that live there but it seemed as though they weren't home.

Day 25: Burlington campground to Standish-Hickey recreation area - 46 miles

Last night was by far the coldest night yet so I couldn't wait to get going. Because no sunlight was making it through the trees for the first while I had to cycle with one hand in my pockets at all times as they were so cold it was pretty painful. Continued through the redwoods for the first part of the day and then back onto the freeway. Had lunch in garberville with a guy from the area who had done some touring themselves. People in California seem a lot more enthusiastic about cycle touring and it's never long before someone comes over for a chat wherever I seem to stop lately which is great. Rest of the day was more of the same, through redwood forest and then back on the freeway repeating over and over. After some tough climbs which took me to nearly 1000 feet I made it to the campsite. Even though this was really in the middle of nowhere there happened to be a bar with outdoor live music just across the road so I took the chance to have a couple of pints and a proper cooked meal just before bed which is a luxury I haven't had in a while.

Day 24: Eureka to Burlington Campground - 53 miles

Went into Eureka in the morning which was just a couple of miles away and met up with Matt and Jack again for a couple of hours which also meant that I was way behind schedule for the day. Luckily the 101 was a freeway again so I just plugged in my earphones and pedaled 35 miles or so with nor much to see again. Then I turned off back into the redwoods on the avenue of the giants road and wow, it's probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen for the next 15 miles to the campsite. Photos can't do justice to the size of these trees and the feeling of cycling through a forest with them all around. Hard not to lose concentration as you look around you but luckily there was very few cars on this road. One problem is that the sun barely makes it to ground level apart from little slivers and the temperature drops so drastically that you can see your breath condense just a few hundred feet from a according hot sunny section. Made it to the campground just before dark which was in the middle of this forest, even with all the gorgeous state parks in Oregon this was by far the best place I've camped, really breathtaking.