Fighting the Headwinds

Friday, May 18, 2012 - Day 2

We left Samuel P. Taylor with the goal of reaching Sea Ranch State Park but unfortunately the strong headwinds prevented us from getting that far.  At one point we were on a flat section, working really hard, and only going 6 mph.  Typically we average 13-15 mph to help understand just how strong the headwinds were.  Regardless, it was during this ride that we were introduced to the coastline along Pacific Coast Hwy 1 and the stunning views helped make the headwinds tolerable.




We passed through a small town called Tomales where we stopped at a convenience store so I could get a Coke and buy my notebook so I could record our day's events.  There wasn't much to it - just a few buildings.  We continued on rolling hills and the scenery was beautiful.  If you look at a map you'll see that we had been traveling along Tomales Bay and then Pacific Coast Hwy 1 turns inland for a bit and then goes back to the coast.   So at this point, we still had not seen the Pacific Ocean.

The traffic started to get pretty heavy along Hwy 1 - my guess people were heading to their campsites for the weekend since a lot of the traffic was RVs.  James found an alternate route to get away from the traffic called Bay Hill Road.  It was a rough road, it had some climbing, and had some beautiful scenery.  We bypassed  the Doran area but I don't think we missed much.  We ascended the final climb and got our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean and it was awesome. 

We continued to Bodega Bay State Park and took a rest to eat some bread and Peanut Butter.  James was feeling sluggish but I convinced him to continue a little further.  The views along Hwy 1 were just like you see in the brochures of Hwy 1.  Later we were told that the section of Hwy 1 we rode is a favorite spot for car companies to tape commercials.  I can see why.














An interesting aspect of Hwy 1 were the "gully's" that were along the coast.  We would ride along and then the road would take a sharp turn to the right with a descent, have a sharp left (almost a U shape), and then climb to take us back to the coastline.  Although it wasn't steep or long, over a long distance the elevation climbed added up.  At times there were some steep climbs that were about 1 mile long.  We saw a school bus on one of the steep climbs we did (see the photo below) and we decided to wait for it to go by us before we started the climb.

Our resting place for the evening was Salt Point State Park.  We had ridden 66 miles for the day.  I was pretty tired.  We stopped at the State Park Entrance and the ranger told us there were no camp sites available...and then she told us she was joking.  I was so glad she was joking.   I was so tired.  The hike/bike area for this campsite was basically in a meadow and they had no showers.  We had purchased food at one of the grocery stores we passed by and so we were able to cook a decent meal.  We purchased some quinoa and realized we had no way to season it.   We decided to buy some salt and pepper at the next grocery stop.  It was chilly and so I was grateful to have my wool leggings, wool socks, long pants, wool long-sleeved baselayer and the heavy rain jacket James told me to bring.  I meant to bring my stocking cap and forgot to pack it.  Next time it will be in my bag.

 Total miles for the trip = 136

Leaving San Francisco and the Masked Bandit

Note:  I wasn't able to get to a computer to post on this blog during the trip so I kept a written diary and am now going to post my experiences after the fact.

Thursday, May 17, 2012 - Day 1

Leaving San Fran was a "little" unnerving for me.  It was strange to be riding and maneuvering a bike with an extra 40-45 pounds on the back of it.  Add that on top of riding up and down the steep hills of San Fran with traffic and I was definitely stressed out.




















We finally made it out of center city to the area along the "Wharf" where we bought some sour dough bread from Boudin bread shop to take with us for our first night camping.  We road the bike path along the bay into a major headwind.  It was actually cold from the wind.  We stopped at the Sports Basement outdoor store to pick up some fuel for our camp stove.  It was a really cool store - a converted grocery store that still had all of the "headings" for the separate food departments like the "Bakery", "Meat", etc.  The staff was super helpful, in fact one lady tracked down one of the guys in the store who had ridden on some the roads we are going to ride on and he talked with us about the routes and told us about the terrain, the towns, etc.  We also picked up another map that focused on cycle touring Northern CA.  It was a great little map that James ended up using more than the Cycling Adventures map.  It was a little dated but worked well for us.  It is made by Krebs Cycle Products and we both recommend using one if you ever do a cycle tour and they have a map for your route.   They are really nice for those who like to explore alternate routes and use roads that don't have as much traffic.  While we were at the store we decided to buy a couple of packets of "camp ready" food.  It turned out that that was a good decision on our part.


It was really cool to cross the Bay Bridge as the "starting" point of our big tour.  It is the 75th year since it was built and so they only had one lane open for the pedestrians and bikers.  That made things a little crowded at first and once we reached the halfway point there weren't as many people.  I have to admit that the scariest part of crossing the bridge were the people on the "rent-a-bikes".  They were swerving all over the place and it was hard to know where they were going and I was afraid they were going to hit me.












 

We rode through Saulsalito, CA about one mile after we got off the bridge.  It is a charming little town and we decided to stop to get a bite to eat.   James saw a line out of one little restaurant called "Hamburgers" and he said this is the place to eat.  They had a great set up for grilling hamburgers.  The grill rotated over a fire and I have to admit that it was one of the best burgers I've ever eaten.  I'm trying to get James to build rotating grill for me on our back deck :)


We rode along the bike path out of Sausilito through several adjoining towns.  The bike path eventually ended and we stayed on the bike route riding with traffic most of the time.  Since it was my first day and I really wasn't used the bike, I found it pretty stressful to ride in traffic and dealing with a loaded bike.  I was amazed at the number of people riding bikes, without helmets, in dark clothing with traffic and they didn't seemed phased by it at all.  The people driving their cars seemed used to cyclists and were pretty good at working with us.   Although I have to admit the drivers in OR were much better.

James decided to take an alternate route to the designed route on the Cycling Adventure map called "Bolinas-Fairfax" road.  It definitely involved some climbing.  I think he said we climbed to 2200 feet (keep in mind we started at sea level in San Fran), then dropped about 900-1000 feet, and then climbed again.  It was a gorgeous road with a lake on part of it.  It was very popular with the road cyclists.  We saw several on their nightly ride.  The descent would have been a blast on my road bike and unloaded.  However, I was a little nervous descending on a loaded bike.  I made it down slowly but surely and my shoulders were definitely starting to hurt.  We met a cyclist at the end of the descent and his comment was "wow, you descended that on loaded bikes?"

Climbing Bolinas-Fairfax Road

After finishing Bolinas-Fairfax road we headed towards Point Reyes, CA into a head wind.  Our plan was to camp at a campground near there.  We got to a cross-roads about 10 miles South of Point Reyes and it was 7 pm.  We happened to meet 2 cyclists touring north to south at the crossroads and chatted with them.  Ian was from Cheshire, England and been touring for the past 3 months.  He started in Florida, worked his way to Texas, then up to Portland, OR and then was going to San Fran.  Ronnie was touring from Portland to San Fran and lives in Portland.  Because we had about 1.5 hours left to get to Point Reyes and we were tired from our first day we decided join them at Samuel P Taylor State Park and camp with them for the night rather than head to Point Reyes.







I have to admit that this was the first campground that I've seen that has a machine that accepts major credit cards for a campground reservation.  We all were a little surprised and weren't sure what to do at first.  But, we plugged our cards in, paid for our campsites and were good to go.  One thing neither James nor I knew about California or Oregon is their State Parks have sections for bikers and hikers at a reduced rate.  So, if you roll in on a bike it only costs $5-$6 per person to camp.  They usually put all of the bikers/hikers in one area of the campground and I liked that because we were able to meet a lot of neat people and share stories, advice, and good food spots with the people we met.  Because most were heading South, we had the advantage them telling us of all of the good spots as we headed North.

Since we didn't make it to Point Reyes, we didn't have the opportunity to go grocery shopping for food.  Fortunately we had bought the camp food from the Sports Basement and we ate that with our Sour Dough bread.  We shared our loaf with Ian and Ronnie and Ronnie shared his dark chocolate with us.  We had 1/3 of a loaf left.  James took all of our food except the bread to the "box" to keep raccoons away from it and I was left to clean up some other items.  I turned my back on the bread to put one item in the tent.  When I turned around the bread was gone!  James came back and he told me he saw a raccoon running down the trail with the loaf of bread in his mouth.  We then shined our headlamps on the edge of our campsite and saw about 30 eyes looking at us.  One coon even came into our campground and we had to yell at it to get it to leave.  Ian said that a coon ate a hole in his bag at the last camp site he was in.  Ronnie woke up in the middle of the night and saw a coon on James panniers and so he brought them into his tent so the coons wouldn't eat holes in them.  The coons out in CA are not shy and I definitely recommend putting all of your food in a box if the State Park provides it!

In San Francisco

We made it to San Francisco, CA after a brief stop in Denver.  I'm not sure what happened but supposedly the flight attendant on our plane was sick and we had to land in Denver to exchange flight attendants and then we were off to San Fran.

We road the trolley from Market Street to Powell St and then walked to our hostel.  The Green Tortoise.  I highly recommend this place. It is located in the heart of the activity at the merger of Little Italy and China town.  They had a place to store our bikes and space for us to build our bikes, it was clean, and everyone was very friendly.  The free breakfast and dinner Wednesday night was definitely extra credit.

We had to make a stop at a local bike shop to get a part before we began our trip.  Thanks to Citizen Chain Cyclerly for the bike part and the free tube since James was able to answer the question of the day correctly.  The bike shop guy asked us where we are touring and we told him.  His comment:  oh, you are riding against the wind.  LOL.  Indeed we are.

Now we are packing our gear and getting ready to load the bikes.  I guess the adventure will truly begin and the hard part of pedaling will start.

Getting ready

"The bicycle is a curious vehicle.  Its passenger is its engine." ~John Howard

There is something that is simplistic about using a bicycle to get from point A to point B.  There isn't much to it--wheels, pedals, a chain, gears if desired.   And it is fun!   The more I ride the more I want to use the bicycle to get from point A to point B and to increase the distance between the two.   Fortunately my husband has that same desire and I would argue that he is the one that has helped turn that inner desire that I have had since I was a kid into reality.

We will begin our first major self-supported tour as a couple on Wednesday, May 16.  We will fly out to San Fransisco, CA and ride north to Portland, OR.  If time allows, we may take a detour once in Oregon over to Crater Lake as we have both heard that it is stunning.

I must give all of the planning, route determination, bicycle set-up and other logistics kudos to my husband, James.   He has been working really hard to make sure this dream becomes a reality.

I'm writing this blog for a couple of reasons:  1) to document what worked for us and what didn't work for us; 2) and to provide a diary of our experiences during this trip.  This will be the first major vacation we have taken as a couple since we were married 5.75 years ago.

Our equipment list:

• Bikes, obviously.  James converted both of our mountain bikes into touring bikes.   His frame is a VooDoo while mine is a Specialized frame.  We have mountain bike gearing to help us get up and over some of the major climbs we will encounter during our trip.  This is essential especially since we'll have an extra 40-50 pounds to carry on our bikes.
• He put on touring tires that are very robust.  They were Schwalbe tires.  I had the Marathon (the standard touring tire) while James bought Marathon Plus tires which were thicker, softer, and can be ridden on trails.  The limiting factor for his tires were they were slow.  Mine were definitely faster than his.
• We are using standard SPD pedals.  Nothing fancy.
• Gear for hauling our stuff:
• For me, waterproof Ortlieb panniers.  They hold 2600 cu in total (not including the handle bar bag).  These are awesome and they are bright yellow for visibility.  A huge thanks goes to Freeze Thaw Cycles for hooking us up with these awesome bags!
• James is using his panniers he bought 7 years ago.  They aren't water proof but have a nice rain cover to protect his belongings when we encounter wet weather.
• Gear we are hauling:
• Sleeping bags, thermarest sleeping pads, a medium thermarest pillow for me, 2 person tent, cooking stove, packtowels, and a GSI personal Java Press.  Yes, good coffee is a must for this trip.  James made fun of my pillow but he kept stealing it from me.
• Bike tools. Spare tubes. Bike pump. Chain lube. Zip ties.  Lights for the front and backs of our bikes.
• Basic medical supplies, emergency poncho and blanket.
• Maps.  We ordered several from the Adventure Cycling Association.  This website is a valuable resource for bike touring.
• Clothes:  for me a pair of convertible hiking pants, 3 pairs of wool socks, 2 pair of bike shorts, one sleeveless jersey and one with short sleeves, arm and knee warmers, biking shoes, lightweight sandals, tennis shoes, a long nylon dress, a short sleeve short, a wool pullover, and wool leggings.   I also have biking gloves, a helmet, sunglasses, rain pants, a windbreaker that can be converted into a vest, and my favorite Endura Rain jacket.  Not only is it waterproof, it is highly visible (mine is high-vis yellow) and reflective.  The goal is to take items that take little space and will dry quickly when washed or rinsed out.
• We'll spend most nights camping in our tent but James has promised me an overnight stay in a hotel at least 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the trip.  I'm hoping there is a hot tub at the hotel we stay in.
• Food -- we'll carry some food with us but we plan to stop at grocery stores in the towns we roll into so we don't have to carry a lot of extra weight.
• Shipping our Bikes out to San Francisco
• We used BikeFlights, a company owned by a friend of ours, Bill Alcorn.  He ships bikes where ever people need them to go at a much cheaper rate than flying the bikes and most other bike shipping companies.   It cost us $120 to ship both bikes from PA to CA plus we put most of our gear, food, and clothing we would need for our trip in the bike box.  We filled out the form and within 30 minutes we had the mailing labels in our inbox, we printed them out, set the bike boxes on our front porch and Fed Ex picked up our bikes and took them to our hostel.

We did a practice run using our equipment 2 weeks ago and everything went pretty well.  I've added a few pictures of our test run to this post.