Generally Shawn and I wake up around 6:30-7:00am. If my little watch alarm doesn’t do it, then the many calls of nature (ground hogs burrowing under the tent, racoons, bladder) do.
If we’re efficient we’ll have the tent collapsed and our gear packed in under an hour and be on the road by 8am. We switch carrying the tent every other day.
There’s a mandatory coffee stop in the first half hour, then we’ll usually put in a solid 50km before brunch, check out a sight if available on the route, and generally keep a good pace, sharing the pulls in the wind every ten minutes.
On the whole these kilometres are cold, foggy ones. Seriously: we’ve been in winter riding conditions for over two weeks now. There’ve been a few scorchers in the high 30s when the scenic routes venture inland, but it seems the entire west coast of the United States is under perpetual fog so thick you can–as Shawn put it–hear it on the tent flap in the morning.
So other than having to wear two jerseys, arm and leg warmers for over half the trip, and freezing around the campsite for dinner, it’s been good. We generally finish our 80-150 km between 1 and 4 pm and immediatley set up the tent to dry out. And dry out our towels, and helmets, and clothes and everything else that’s perpetually damp.
After the tent out top priority is always food. We only buy enough each afternoon at a grocery store to get us through the next 24 hours. It’s mostly deli food like bagels, sliced beef, potatoe salads, yogurt, and a donut or similar. Multiplied by three times each.
Four to five hours of riding everyday, plus the cold and sometimes lack of sightseeing (see fog above) puts us to sleep by 8 or 9 pm every night.
But I must say, there’s some damn good riding along this route. Some highlights:
- Ave. of the Giants, the Redwood forest in Northern California. Gentle curves and hills, thick foliage, few cars, giant trees.
- This one portion about 200km north of San Francisco: climb a hella windy narrow Highway 1 to 2000 feet (above the cursed fog!) with a picture-perfect decent right out of Europe
- So many tight ravines to pass through in Northern Cali, with sa-weet right-hand banking
- Fat Tire beer
- Cheep beer, cheep wine
All’s well, no bike troubles but a few flats (and some new creaking in my fork). Brand new tires may only last the trip. Pack light if you do something like this, it makes such a difference.
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