1300 miles later

I woke up really early this time, around 6:30AM. I woke Brendan up and got things ready to head into Bodega Bay. For the first time in the trip I wanted to have a proper breakfast to start the day. Brendan and I stopped at this nice restaurant where we filled up on coffee, fish, eggs, and potatoes. All full, we headed out on the last day of our trip.

It was going to be a long day, around 70 miles. I was already feeling pretty tired after 15 but I had a mission. We stopped for lunch in front of an oyster farm. Then Gabe and another cyclist from the camp rolled in too, I forgot his name :( We had a small lunch and talked a bit before heading out to Point Reyes Station.

At Point Reyes we made another stop to eat. Brendan, Gabe, and I were biking together when we got into town, but the other cyclist came in too and we had a proper lunch in front of a bakery. There I saw John and Laura again.

We took our time in that town and left with high spirits. We rode to Samual P Taylor State Park when we realized we had lost Gabe. He was camping there for the night so we assumed he had taken the camping turn a few miles back. We started moving again until my wheel caught a nice nail that took up so much time I felt bad for having Brendan wait. But if he wasn't there I wouldn't been able to get to SF because I ran out of patches and tubes.

We rode down into the town of Lagunitis. Had a small meal and went towards the city. There was a big hill that took me forever to climb. When I got over it Brendan was gone, I had no idea where he went. I just took the route and kept going, thinking he may have just went on ahead, I didn't see him again :(

In the town of Fairfax, I bought some tubes. I was on the side of the road where I was munching on some cookies when a couple on their bikes asked if I was lost. I was so they led me around town to get to the bridge. Their profession dealt with Chinese medicine and they talked to me a lot about the state of medicine. Their names were Michael and Luise.

I got through the rest of the trip fine until I made the final climb to the bridge. It was tough, not a few feet before I was at sea level and I had to make a tremendous climb to get up. I called my brother to come pick me up from the end of the bridge because I was done biking and especially with city biking.

On the way up I ran into John and Laura again. They had already finished the bridge and was heading back to their car.

When I was finally at the bridge entrance I had to stop and swallow some tears, yeah I admit it. The trip is the biggest accomplishment in my life. The distance, the will, everything that went into this trip was wonderful. The that made it really special was the fact that I never traveled or camped before this trip. I just jumped headfirst into it and it was wonderful. Then I made myself go over the bridge.

I must've stopped so many times to take pictures. It took awhile to get across because of the wind but I was taking my time. Just a bit more on the bike didn't matter so much.

I got to the end and my brother, the person that really made this trip possible for me, was waiting. He took me to his place and we had dinner and he had me catching up on the real world.

Who has the time?

Camping alone was a bit lonely until Brendan came in. It was nice to have someone to talk with because everyone around me was with their families and did not want to associate with a dirty biker. I found out that he was heading to San Francisco in two days so I decided to travel, well somewhat travel, with him.

The ride started with a small detour to a lighthouse located on the most western part of the continent to Hawaii. The day had a few climbs but nothing too major.

It was great riding alone, no offense to George and Heidi. I was able to stop anywhere I wanted, have lunch anywhere, do anything I wanted basically. For instance I stopped in the town of Gualala and made a detour to get to the beach from Gualala State Park. I sat there and enjoyed the view and just took a small afternoon nap. I got up and went on my way.

Riding down around a turn I'd be smiling when looking at the ocean. This re-emergance of bicycle touring in me was great and for that moment I was so glad I was still on the road.

I ran into two other tourers that were heading to SF. John and Laura were very nice and for the next few days I'd run into them randomly on the road.

The last big climb for my trip showed me the wonder of Highway 1. The winding narrow road were etched into the mountain and right off to the side was the drop to the beach. It was terrifying going downhill into a turn because there wasn't the assurance of hitting a tree if I wasn't able to make the turn. It would just be a great dive into the ocean rocks.

At a construction zone, Brendan caught up with me and we travelled towards our last campsite. The campsite was wonderful because of all the characters we met. It was a very interesting group of people because of them were scholars. I was not able to keep up with the conversation because I wasn't too environmentally knowledgeable like they were.

All of them, well most of them were heading to SF the next day. A whole group, like six were about to take over the road to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Delicious calories

Food was always a big concern. There were some stretches where food was scarce and sometimes very expensive. We had to make do with our pathetic budget and keep enough calories in us to survive.

Our usual stash of food consists of bread, nutella, nature valley breakfast bars, and clif bars. We ate that for dinner, lunch, and on breaks. Bread was the miracle worker there, because it filled us up and gave us that rocket power to pedal.

If we ran out of food for lunch, McDonald's would rise from the horizon and feed us for a good $4. But McDonald's were rare on the coast. Fast food restaurants were rare in general.

Dinner was a combination of instant boil-in-a-bag rice or pasta. We would usually use alfredo sauce, or in dire times red sauce. The meat of choice was usually SPAM. Delicious SPAM. Sometimes it would be chicken, beef, or--even better--hot dogs. Then we'd jsut mix everything in a big pot and chow down.

We always had to eat a bit more than we were able to handle. We needed to get as much carbs, calories, and protein we could for the next day. We had some arguements because we'd always force Heidi to eat her 4th bowl of food. Oh fun times.

So what are we?

A lot of the time I spent trying to figure out exactly what we were. The common term was bicycle tourist. But of course no one wants to be a tourist so I tried to really get down to the heart of things.

Steven called us bicycle adventurers. That was a bit too romantic for me. I decided on the phrase bicycle travelers.

We weren't realy tourist because we never paid admission for any tourist traps, except that damned sea lion cave that I blame George for. We really didn't have money to spend; we are poor college students to begin with. Looking around was basically all we did. Our clothes were disgusting and everyone gave us, especially me, weird looks when I went into a store. The reason for that was because me eyes were windburned so they always were red. Red eyes... you can figure out what those people thought.

The main goal, well for me after awhile, was to get home. I guess thats when I became just a traveller.

The split

The day started very well, we got up early, ate, and headed out. I had to stop in Fort Bragg to get some cash at the bank and when I came back our trip had changed.

Heidi wanted to go to Yukiah to visit a monastery she had seen years before. That would entail taking a train there because it was about 50 miles east. She decided and got on the train in like 15 minutes, George and I were dumbfounded and had no idea what to do. I tried to figure out a list of things we should give her in case of something but all I could think of was tools. George gave her his multitool.

I didn't stop her because I knew she could take care of herself. She was more able then both George and I combined. She had to go there for a reason that I do not want to talk about so I understood her decision to go. I just wished she gave us a better heads up than 15 minutes. I barely was able to get a hand wave before she left.

George and I rode on, it felt weird with only the two of us. We got to Mendocino State Park to see the best coast I've seen on this trip. I saw that something was eating up George.

We headed up further and he stopped me. He wanted to go back. About 5 miles back there was a highway heading to Yukiah. He was going to go back and try and find Heidi. He was worried about her, I think he thinks it is his fault she left. Well we traded gear really quick on the side of the highway and he was off. We shook hands, looked eachother in the eye. He went back.

So why didn't I go. One of the biggest regret I have with this trip is not doing it solo. But that wasn't the case at this moment. For me heading to Yukiah meant another day away from home. I can't explain it, I really want to get home. It is not the comfort, or the lack of responsibility, I really can't explain it. I need to get back and finish my med school application. I need to get back because I miss my girlfriend dearly.

This trip has brought a lot of light into me. And I feel like I'm finally ready to go back to the real world.

So folks, I'll be home in about 2-3 days. I'll be pushing myself fairly hard to get the miles in to get back home. Only 135 more miles baby and I'll be at home watching the Tour de France.

The climb

Leggett Hill is supposedly the highest hill on the pacific coast route, a wee bit under 2000 ft. The thing is, we had done Mt. Constitution which was 2500 ft. We weren't intimidated at all. Not in the least bit.

It was a good 50 minute climb but the disappointing thing was that there was not viewpoint at the top. George and I hiked up a bit further and still, nothing. We got down that mountain fast and ran right into another hill. Same story, no view point. Boy we had worked hard for nothing.

The rest off the day was on Highway 1. Yeah, that highway. It was so curvy and hilly that it beat us down worse than the big hills. We got to Mackerriker beach really early because it was the shortest day in the book, 40 miles.

We met lots of people that day, Bob, Jeremy, Gordon. They were all cool cats that rode around and we all sat up talking amongst the fire.

It was a good day, well for me.

Adventure!

It was a short day of small tough steep hills. We were all excited for a short day. We, intentionally this time, started a bit later than usual because it was only a 45 miles day. Boy... did we regret that decision.

The day got hot. Oh man did it get hot. I can't even explain how hot it was. For the first time this trip I was worried about our water supply, heat stroke, and atomic sunburn. It was a good thing we stopped at a market for an hour, or two?, to get food and water.

I was worried about water because the camelbacks that George and I had brought started to mold pretty bad. Disgusting too. George tossed his away. I kept mine and while waiting for the day to lose some heat, I decided to clean it. I put toilet paper into the tube, grabbed the bike pump, and shot out some disgusting moldy spit balls. It did the job and I was finally able to use my camelback again.

To make things even worse, I got a flat tire on the side of the highway. I couldn't patch it up so I asked Heidi for a spare tube. Everything fixed, we kept going.

We met Brenden on the road again near this place called Confusion Hill—the equivalent of The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. Then we went. We climbed some ridiculous hills and got to the park when we realized... where was Heidi. Then Brenden told us that she had gotten a flat around Confusion Hill. She had sent him off because she said she got everything to fix it. We waited for 20 minutes and she never showed up. George lost a of game of roshambo and he shed all of his packs and went back down the hills to help Heidi—remember it was a 6 mile ride back to Confusion Hill. I waited for an hour, no show. Then it was my turn. I couldn't leave George stuff so I just took all of his packs, strapped them onto my bike, which was already pretty loaded, and headed down the hill. About halfway I saw them coming up. Whew, good thing too because my legs were killing me with all the weight.

At the campsite, George and I went to go swim in the river. It was a nice change of pace and we slept well that night. We had to get up early to beat the heat and we also had a nice 2000 ft. mountain to climb first thing in the morning.

So close

The signs for San Francisco were coming up every 10-20 miles. It made things worse, especially for me. It was about 250 more miles till we got back home. It made me want to get home even quicker, seeing how close it was.

This was the point of the trip where I realized I was basically done. I just wanted to get home. I hate to admit it but I was starting to feel homesick. Those signs didn't help much.

The day's ride was easy, real easy. It was so easy I started to learn French with Coffee Break French podcasts that I downloaded months ago. I figured that I'm on a bicycle for 6 hours a day, I might as well try and pick up a skill while doing it. Believe me, cycling gets old after 3 hours straight.

We took the long scenic route called the Avenue of the Giants. Pretty good stuff but it was not candle to what we saw earlier. We went through that and got to the campsite where we met Josh, Gus, and Brenden again.

Cold cold

Boy it was cold when we got up. We got our things together quick and got the hell out of there.

Nothing much to say about this day. Nothing happened, except those darn cars getting really close. We were riding down Highway 101 and the entrances and exits were crazy. There really is no other way to get down the state.

We got to the campsite and were buying snacks when our old friend Josh came in with a buddy, Gus. We had thought we missed Josh by a few days but he had taken a break too. Gus was an awesome guy too, he lived in the Sunset district just like George and Heidi back in SF. He was heading back home, so maybe we'll be riding with him in the near future.

Oh and the campsite was the worse. It was basically a backyard with a table. Oh and it was right next to the highway.