More headwinds...

Saturday May 19, 2012 - Day 3

We rode along Hwy 1 along the coast and battled the headwinds.  There were times the wind was so strong it felt like we weren't even moving.  I remember looking down at my speed and it said 6 miles per hours and we were pedaling pretty hard.  It was so bad that we had to pedal on the descents just to keep moving.

James' comment was he really didn't think that the prevailing winds were this strong...we kept thinking that this must be a front that was moving through but it had last a long time and were thinking we had a long trip ahead of us.

Even though the wind was torture, we had blue skies, ample sunshine and the scenery was gorgeous.  We both agreed that this was one of the most beautiful roads we had ridden in all of the cycling we have done over the years.

There were a few steep "punchers" as James likes to call them.  Steep, short climbs along a relatively flat road.  Those are killer especially when loaded.  Just when you think you are done with the downhill you go back up and it seems steeper than the first time.

One of those steep climbs was Point Arena -- man that was a steep climb!  We had stopped for lunch and a rest break and that was a mistake.  In fact there was a guy who had stopped at a cross road as we were climbing and he yelled out words of encouragement as we slowly climbed up it with our 40 to 50 pounds of extra weight. If I did it over again I would have pick up lunch, kept riding out of town and then stopped once we climbed out of town.  I can't find a picture but I think it had to be at least a 18% grade.

That has been one thing I noticed so far.  People have been exceptionally friendly and have offered a lot of encouragement as we are cruising along -- especially on the climbs.  Yesterday we were going up a big climb and a car passed, honked, and gave us a big thumbs up.

We made a lunch stop at Elk, CA so I could grab a sandwich and a Coke.  When I was purchasing the sandwich the lady asked me what direction we were going and told her south to north and her comment "oh, that isn't how most people do it, the prevailing winds are awful.". I'm thinking, no kidding!

There was a nice little park across the street and James did a little exploring and took a path that went to the right and found some picnic tables and sunshine with a magnificent view of the ocean.  We also saw sea lions popping their heads out of the water!

We finished our picnic and kept rolling until we reached Van Damme State Park.  They had hiker/bicycle camping which meant we had another night that cost $5.00 for each of us.  They also had hot showers but you had to pay 50 cents for 3 minutes.  It is amazing how long 3 minutes can last and the hot shower was welcomed.   I wish Pennsylvania and Virginia State Parks would add this amenity to their state parks.  Bicyclists don't take up much space and we definitely don't bring in the amount of stuff that people who drive bring.  Who knows, it might actually motivate people to ride their bicycles to state parks.

We had a big meal of spaghetti and french bread and set up camp.  James took his bike out and did a little bit of exploring and I laid down. 

Our game plan for the next day was an early departure so we could get most of our miles in before 12 pm since that is when it seemed like the winds began to pick up.

We ended this day with 203 miles.