Category Archives: On the road

Day 34 – Fort Bragg to Manchester

79.6km out of 2164km so far

They say the pack moves as slow as the slowest member. That was the case with all five of us this morning, but that was ok as we stopped at Denny’s for a $4 breakfast with pancakes, eggs and other fried goods.

The crew in action

The crew in action

After all these calories I was feeling strong for a long ride, even though I knew we wouldn’t get that far, starting the day almost at noon. First short stop was at Mendocino, a very nice little town by the water.

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Mendocino

Mendocino

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We’ve gone through many road constructions along the way. There is usually a man with a sign regulating the traffic through the single lane road. Today there was a rather long section of construction, so there was a pilot car leading the traffic through the roadwork. They chose to put us right in front of all the other cars. I felt special!

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We picked up some food supplies and headed to one of the many public accessible beaches to have our lunch stop. The beach was almost empty.

Lunch spot

Lunch spot

The rest of the route took us through some breathtaking scenery right by the cliffs. At times we were cycling right next to them and the view of the drop on my side was adding to the whole excitement of the ride. The weather was just perfect, with a constant sunshine, but not that warm to get hot on the bike. All these together with a mild tailwind, created the perfect conditions for cycling.

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Radiating waves

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By that time we had lost Garry and Liz. It started getting darker, so we decided to call it a day at Manchester, at a very basic campground without showers. The location was nice though, close enough to the beach, but well protected behind the trees.

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Goodnight

Goodnight

Day 33 – Fort Bragg

32.7km out of 2084km so far

The campsite is at a very nice spot, so with such a nice weather today I decided to take yet another day off. Having an end date for the trip has been a bit of a problem. Some times I feel stressed that I don’t have enough time, other times I feel like I have plenty. I am now 3 days away from San Franscisco and from there I think I will need a couple of weeks to get to Los Angeles. That leaves me with several days off, so I’d rather use them in nice places like this one.

I did some laundry in the morning and took advantage of the hot sun to dry out my clothes. I then headed into town through a 6km coastal trail.

Heading to town

Heading to town

The bike trail that runs along an old rail track

The bike trail that runs along an old rail track

The old train station

The old train station

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I spend a couple of hours in an old mall, to access the internet. This mall hosts a Culinary Institute for vegan cousin, together with a vegan cafe. As I was getting hungry, I couldn’t resist from buying one of their sandwiches. I have nothing against vegan food, but it doesn’t seem enough when cycling all day long. What a disappointment to pay $10 for the smallest ever sample of sandwich. Calories not enough to even climb on my bike, let along push it. As I was leaving the place, I happened to see Eric and Charlie on the road. They were looking for a lunch place, so I joined them for a cheap, fat loaded burger.

Round 2

Round 2

Fort Bragg

Fort Bragg

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After lunch we went to the local supermarket for more food supplies and then we headed off to the near by beach. We spent the rest of the afternoon until sunset exploring the beach and its inhabitants.

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Alien tentacles

Alien tentacles

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Getting back to the campground, we met with Liz and Garry, who had just came back from the Lost Coast detour. They said it was very demanding, so I was kind of glad I took the 101 route. They got to the campground as it was getting dark and they didn’t notice that there is a cabinet to store food. Big mistake for Liz, as the racoons that visited us overnight loved her snacks. I had never seen them in action before and I have to say the noise they make as they fight for food is a much more terrifying than what they look like.

Raccoon party at Liz's bike.

Raccoon party at Liz’s bike.