View from my window ...
End of the ride - and I'm already missing the West Coast ...
Hi, All,
My 65-day journey is over and I'm back in Manhattan suffering the usual withdrawal symptoms, surrounded once again by steel, glass, and concrete, with the far-off echoes of jackhammers in the distance. I'll be spending the year trying to churn out a novel about two middle-aged characters' search for meaning and purpose in life, following the age-old advice to write what you know. But before I immerse myself, here's a last blog entry for 2008, covering the final days of the Big Ride Pacific Coast, which ended in San Francisco, and wrapping up my journey as a whole.
Thursday, 9/25 (day 13) - 91 miles from Ft. Bragg to Stillwater Cove Regional Campground (near Ft. Ross, CA). A long, hard day that to me, coming after a day off and being so close to the end, felt a bit grueling. It began early, as I arranged a wakeup call at my motel for 6:00 a.m. in order to ride to the campground at first light and help with breakfast cleanup, this being my day for K.P. duty. It was a chilly 46 degrees; the morning sky was clear, but south of Ft. Bragg, as we approached Mendocino, a fog rolled in, cutting our views of the coastline for much of the morning. Except for one short but very steep climb, the riding was easy, the terrain was less hilly than it had been on previous days (and would be again), so I rolled along comfortably, just feeling a bit blah and trying to recall the lyrics to Traffic's "(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired." The fog did allow for a few interesting photos, adding a somber, gray backdrop (see below), but overall I was glad when the fog finally lifted near Anchor Bay, after 60 miles or so of riding.
A bit Dali-esque, eh?
I call this one "You Can't Go Home Again"
The afternoon then featured bright sunshine and a northerly tailwind helped push us along, but traffic also picked up once we reached Gualala and entered Sonoma County. We were now within 100 miles of San Francisco, and the area was more upscale, featuring some very attractive houses poised on coastal cliffs with long wooden stairways descending to otherwise inaccessible coves.
I rode hard over these final miles, grinding it out, and reaching the campground at 4:30 p.m. Nevertheless by the time I'd pitched my tent and showered, it was time to help prepare dinner, and my group was still washing pots by flashlight after darkness fell. The shorter days and long distances we've been traveling just don't allow for a lot of down time.
Friday, 9/26 (day 14) - 68 miles from Ft. Ross to Samuel Tayor State Park (near Olema, CA). After a good night's sleep, interrupted only once by terrorizing racoons (more on that later), I had a lot more energy and enthusiasm this day. It helped that the mileage was significantly shorter and that we rode beneath clear blue skies nearly all day. There were many beautiful coastal views, often framed by pink-tinted pampas grass growing along the roadside amid the steep, treeless cliffs. I particularly liked the sandy beach near Jenner, CA, a popular surfing spot at the mouth of the Russian River. The route was much hillier, but I enjoyed the tougher challenge and rode throughout the day near the front of the pack of riders. After 25 miles I took a short break in Bodega Bay, the setting of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. Then, while I almost always have ridden alone on the ride, preferring to go at my own pace, stopping for photos, etc., I rode close to two other riders, Shannon Krig (aka "Yurt") of Seattle and Ken Lieb ("Hurricane") of Golden, Colorado, long enough to take some action shots with the bare hills of north Marin County in the background as Route 1 left the coast.
Entering Marin County
South of the town of Tomales the terrain became more varied as the road ran through thick eucalyptus groves and paralleled Tomales Bay.
Eucalyptus trees south of Tomales on Route 1
Fog was visible across the bay, clinging to the western ridge of hills, but on our more inland route we remained in bright sunshine, and temperature climbed to the high-70s for the first time since western Washington. The big disappointment was the end of the day wasn't more relaxing. I reached the campground at 2:30 p.m. and was looking forward to several hours of down time, but the truck was missing and therefore everyone's gear. As a result I sat around, less relaxed without a shower and without my book to read or journal to update. The situation lasted for 2-1/2 hours, as it wasn't until 5:00 p.m. that the mystery of the missing truck was solved. It turned out that everyone - all the riders as well as David Van Doorne, the ride director - had followed the cue sheet to the wrong camping spot. The only person who was in the spot where we were supposed to be camping, a mile or so away, was Linda McKoryk, the staffer in charge of cooking and driving the truck. In the end, the "right" camping spot proved to be preferable, except for the fact that it was overrun by racoons. As a light sleeper, the racket of racoons bothered me throughout the trip, beginning on our second night, in Cape Disappointment State Park, WA, when I caught a racoon with its paws in my sports bag, just outside my tent, digging for my cache of Powerbars. The next night, in Nehalem, OR, they woke me at 4:00 a.m., having gotten at a stash of trail mix in the seat pack of a nearby bicycle. Riding in Spetember, I enjoyed the complete absense of mosquitoes throughout the trip, but the racoons more than compensated, maintaining the nuisance factor. On this last night of camping, they raised a racket that lasted until the wee hours, even later and louder than our own end-of-the ride celebrating.
One of the nonhuman rowdies ...
Clockwise from top left: Wild Bill, Dad(!), Chile, Auntie Kim, and Crazy Cousin Alan.
Final morning meeting, no worse for wear.
Saturday, 9/27 (day 15) - 32 miles from Samuel Tayor State Park to downtown San Francisco. The final miles were uneventful - a slow slog over bad pavement on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, which led us over a forested ridge and delivered us into suburbia - the towns of Fairfax, San Anselmo, Larkspur, etc., to Sausalito and the Golden Gate Bridge. The route was trafficked and overrun with weekend bicyclists, who whizzed passed me with obnoxious regularity, making me question what exactly I'd gained after nearly 4,000 miles of cycling. Certainly not speed.
Seriously, though, it has been a wonderful journey. I really enjoyed the company of my fellow Big Riders over these past two weeks, even if, still in the mindset of the 30-day solo journey that preceded it, I kept to myself alot - riding alone and doing my own thing in the evenings - going for jogs, ocean dips, and views of the sunset before curling up in my tent with The Brothers Karamazov (hence, I think, came my nickname, "The Professor"). At times on the Big Ride I was reminded of the quote from Lord Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, which I taught excerpts of to my juniors last spring: "I stood/ Among them but not of them; in a shroud/ Of thoughts which were not their thoughts ..." But at other times I had a lot of fun laughing along, commiserating, celebrating, and sharing thoughts with all of them as we rode on our bicycles on a challenging route, testing our mettle and relishing the experience, pedaling amid such spectacular scenery. Life is simple on a bike trip: you get up in the morning and know that there's nothing else to do that day but ride, eat, try to stay uninjured and to pitch in when needed for the good of fellow travelers. For me it was a time of serious reflection while at the same time a celebration. As Frank Zappa once said (Fillmore East, June 1971), "It's great to be alive."
2008 Pacific Coast Big Riders
End of the road ...
Final statistics:
Total days away from New York: 65
Biking days/non-biking days: 57/8
Miles biked: 3800
Flats: 0
Maintenance and repairs: Nothing a rubber strap, duct tape, or chain lube couldn't fix.
Books read: 6
the second half of The Confessions (Jean Jacques Rousseau), E=MC(2) (David Bodanis), Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast (Lewis Wolpert), A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle), Slowness (Milan Kundera) Wonderful Tonight (Patty Boyd), and the first half of The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky).
Animals sighted:
Black bear (cub) - 1
Elk - several herds
Deer - dozens, especially near Mazama, Washington
Coyote - 1
Racoons (too many! terrorizing coastal campgrounds from Washington to California)
Rattlesnake - 1
Otters - a pair
Sea otters
Elephant seals
Harbor seals
Sea lions
Dolphins
Pelicans
Cormorants
Bald eagles - 2
Osprey
Roadrunner - 1
Hawks
Vultures
Egrets
Blue herons
Turkeys
Quail
Pileated woodpecker - 1
and domestic animals: horses, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, ostriches and llamas.
