Tuesday May 19, 2015

Although this photo was taken a few days ago (Samuel State Park), and last night was not as cold as this night, we are often dressed like this when we are in the tent, it is cool and damp on the Northern Californian coastline.

A cool damp night at Salt Point, but we woke up to blue skies. It was a little chilly to start the day, but it was a lovely ride.

The profile on the ACA maps indicated rolling hills. Of course by the time you have gone up and down a few dozen times, it tends to take its toll on the legs, even if they are not steep hills.

We cycled through the pretty Town of Gualala, lots of little shops and restaurants. I wish we had managed to get here yesterday. However, beware if you visit this  Town there are dinosaurs about.

Along the route we saw a few cyclists, we thought it odd to have a club ride on a Tuesday. By the time we got to Point Arena we had seen over 50 riders and a couple of support vans. This was the Climate Ride. These cyclists have to raise $2800 and $100 registration to take part in this ride. The Climate not for profit organization hosts three rides and two hikes a year. You can choose from a variety of charities that it supports to donate the money you raise for these rides. The Climate Ride that these guys were taking part in was a three night, four day ride, that equates to spending $1,000 a day, Wow. That would keep us on the road for at least a month. There were approximately 160 cyclists. I got a big energy surge from them, as we were peddling up the hills with our loaded bikes, they would be cheering us on and shouting encouragement. We did the same to them when we were hurtling down the hills and they were struggling up them.

We stopped in Point Arena for lunch and to go into the library for the free internet. I was wondering whether to stop to update the blog or get to the campsite to get some laundry done. Fortunately, I had everything ready for the blog – photos sized etc. it took me about 45 minutes to update the blog and check on warmshowers. No warmshowers for a while.

There was a short, sharp hill out of Point Arena and few more hills to get to Manchester.

Tonight’s stop is at a KOA, which are usually expensive. This one has a biker/hiker rate $10.00 each. The camp site is excellent, flat and grassy with excellent facilities including a camp kitchen like in New Zealand/Australia.

As we arrived at the KOA we saw a young man cycling from the State Park, we told him that the KOA had biker/hiker rates, he opted to stop for the night. He was not very chatty, and stayed in his tent for most of the time. We didn’t even get to exchange names.

As we were having dinner another touring cyclist showed up – Neil. Neil is cycling from Seattle to San Francisco visiting craft breweries along the way. He was very chatty and sociable. I wonder who is having the most fun on their trip? Different strokes for different folks.

Part of the enjoyment of our trip has been meeting and chatting to people along the way. Neil, Ralf and I chatted to two brothers who had been coming to this camp-site with their Dad for the past 30 years. Now they were bringing their sons with them.

I had a look in the camp shop for something I could wear at night while camping. I found a pair of kids sweat pants for $7.50. They are light enough to carry in the pannier, but warm enough to wear in camp and to the restrooms. The only problem was I couldn’t get the elasticated cuff over my large calf muscles, I had to cut the elasticated cuff so they would fit.