November 30, 2011

In San Fran.

We’ve had a bit of a hard time of it since I last wrote, as the Golden State has not held up its promise of sunshine.  The first 5-6 days in Cali were very rainy, and the smell of mildew has started to permeate all our belongings.  We passed through some beautiful country though, with the hands down highlight being the Avenue of the Giants, a small windy section of road through the Redwood forests in Humboldt.  We celebrated Thanksgiving in Orick, where we stumbled on a community thanksgiving dinner.  We were several hours early, so we went around to see if we could shelter inside from the rain. Turns out they were desperately understaffed, so we were able to help prepare and serve the meal, then take huge amounts of leftovers on the way. Also, Tracy, who was running the show, was able to find accommodations for us in Arcata (Thank you John and Brenda!).

Due to numerous warnings about the perilous nature of Highway 1, we opted to take the inland route, staying on  Highway 101.  South of Laytonville, the rain finally let up, and our last three days into SF were beautiful.  As we entered Sonoma County, we learned that bikes were prohibited on the highway, but we continued undeterred.  We were quickly accosted by a highway patrolman, but he just directed us to a back road to Santa Rosa, which was vastly preferable to the highway.  From Santa Rosa we cut over to the coast and took Highway 1 into the Bay Area.  That last day was fabulous. We rode 70 miles through quite hilly country, surrounded by hordes of other cyclists.  At one point a motorcycle blasted by us going 80-100 mph.  We marvelled at his recklessness, considering how curvy the road was.  Within the hour, we were gingerly biking around the delay his crash had caused.  Amazingly, he’d survived.

We had some of our best views of the coast to date once we got on 1, coupled with the strongest winds we’ve seen.  We would struggle to bike downhill into the wind, then turn and be pushed back up the other side.  We had a couple long climbs into the wind, but such was my eagerness to reach the city that I hardly noticed.  I was all goosepimply at the thought of crossing the Golden Gate bridge.  The first sight of the bridge was amazing, and we rolled across it as the sun set.

Since then we’ve been taking in the city, though due to the hills I’ve stayed off my bike.  We leave today for Palo Alto to stay with Joe’s family, then to Santa Cruz and down the coast.  San Diego and the splitting of the fellowship is close on the horizon now.