rfay's blog
California Redwoods
Bike tourists and the homeless
Of course, bike touring is just a case of almost-homeless. I often say it's the last acceptable form of homelessness in the U.S. But the wonderful and cheap facilities they've provided for us are attractive to others, including *real* homeless people, people who have no home to run back to and no credit card to bail them out if things get hard.
We bought a computer to use on the road
Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco
We rode over the bridge and into the city and immediately found our way across town to a dentist (Randy had a crown come off a few days ago). Then we crossed through downtown at rush hour, dodging the cars and having a grand old time, to find our friend Stuart and new friends Dave and Shelagh. It was a grand day.
The way into SF was a bit confusing, but along came Carlos and Monica, who were just out from the city for a weekend bike trip to the north. They led us all the way in through the towns to the north and we didn't have to follow the book turn-by-turn. It was a wonderful thing.
We're thinking we'll take a few rest days here and explore the city.
California Dreamin'
We haven't had much good solid internet access here in California, but we're having a fine time. In about 450 miles in California we've enjoyed many wonderful redwood forests (including a great day off hiking to Fern Canyon in the Prairie Creek Redwood State Park) and beaches and coastline galore. The coast is amazingly rough and the waves seem bigger here. Lots to watch.
It's amazing that we've ridden just almost 4000 miles on our journey - it should be over 5000 when we get home, and maybe 20,000 or more when we get to Patagonia. This ride down the Pacific Coast has been about 1200 miles of bike-touring ecstasy. Beautiful beaches, perfect weather, easy campsites, a warm shower every night. We'll have to get used to more primitive situations as we head east.
Tomorrow we ride over the Golden Gate bridge into San Francisco - it's a banner moment - the end of our southward motion for now. We'll head east from here to Sacramento and then over the Sierra Nevada and hoping to scurry home by the end of October. Wish us well with the weather in the Sierras and the high desert!
Oregon Coast is much too much fun
We're just having an amazing blast on the Oregon Coast. It has to be the most fun bike touring we've ever run into. Every day there's a new sight. Yesterday we went sandboarding on the dunes, and then Jason at Seaside Glass let Nancy help with the glassblowing and create a vase!
Every night there's another beautiful State Park, with quiet, natural hiker-biker areas, for which we pay $4 each. And that includes the unlimited hot shower. And we meet the (many) other cyclists headed our way.
We could spend a month on this coast, and the weather is just amazingly wonderful. We still have had only 1 rain in the last month, and it was one night at a rainforest in the Olympic National Park. We're getting mighty spoiled. The raingear has drifted to the bottom of the panniers.
We're also out of bear country and have gotten sloppy about our food management. Last night a raccoon got into my food pannier and made quite a mess. No harm done, though. We just have to reorganize and get more granola, bread, milk, and coffee. A wakeup call though - just because there's no bears doesn't mean you don't have to take better care of food and trash.
Olympic National Park
Wow, have we had a wonderful time in Washington! We spent 5 days at various places in Olympic National Park on the west side of the Olympic Penninsula. All gorgeous. Rainforest and Beach. Lakes and beautiful sunny swimming holes. We'll try to get some pictures up for you in the next few days.
The night before last it rained for the first time in 17 days! It hadn't rained since we left Prince Rupert, not for the whole length of Vancouver Island and Washington. And then it turned sunny again in the morning. Today we're at Ocean Shores, Washington on the beach taking a rest day. I hope to buy a kite and fly it on the beach. Nancy will be drawing the sunset.
Canada Route
