Don’t miss: Pacific Coast Bike Tour Day 25: Manchester to Bodega Bay!
This morning I woke up at 7:30 AM and walked out to see the children’s bell tower located right behind our camp site here at Bodega Dunes Campground. The Children’s Bell Tower is a memorial for a 7 year old child that lost his life to highway robbers in Italy back in 1994. The parents of the child donated his organs to 7 Italians after his death and the Italians sent over bells to hang for this memorial. For more info click here.
Our first stop of the day was to Tides Wharf & Bar for breakfast. I went with the pancakes, eggs and bacon.
After breakfast we hit the road. Once again, we ran into lots an lots of climbing. My legs haven’t been sore since the first few days of the trip, but today they’re really feeling it.
We pushed through a few really small towns and rode through some very hilly farmland for 20 miles. We encountered our first swarm of bees of the trip and it was one of the most bizarre situations I’ve ever been in. Get this, I’m riding in front and Will is trailing behind me. We both have our headphones in and we’re cruising somewhere around the 12-15 mph range. All of a sudden I see this haze in the road up ahead. It almost looked like a shadow covering the right side of the road in front of me. By the time I reached what I thought was a shadow, I rode straight through a cloud of bees. No exaggeration there must have been thousands. I’m talking so many bees that it formed a cloud over the entire right lane of the road.
I was waving my arms around with my eyes closed and ended up weaving across the yellow lines and on to the other side of the road. Thankfully there were no cars behind us or on the other side of the road. We have had some serious scares on this trip and this ranks in the top five for sure. The last thing you want to do is get hit by a car while trying to swat bees out of your helmet, your shirt and your shorts!
When we arrived in a beautiful little town called Point Reyes, we stopped to grab a milkshake and a coffee. We needed a break from the blazing sun and to be honest we just didn’t feel like riding today.
After spending an hour hanging in Point Reyes, it was time for us to hit the road and get to camp. We took an alternate route (Francis Drake) out to Samuel P Taylor State Park. Just two miles into the last stretch, I got a flat. Will headed to camp to setup the tent while I changed my flat. After fixing the flat, I rode about 25 feet before my chain fell off. At this point I was beyond frustrated! I just wanted to get to camp and finish this day.
On one of the downhills to Samuel P Taylor Campground, I hit a small pot hole and noticed my wheel was now wobbling from side to side. What do you know? I just broke a spoke! I rode the rest of the way at a much slower pace and finally made it to camp about an hour after Will.
When I arrived at camp, I found Will up in the hiker/biker area of the campground. He had chosen the best camp site in the entire park and set up our tent smack dab in the middle of six giant Redwood trees. What a guy!
On my way over to the bathroom, I met a really nice guy named Vince that said he would drive me to the local bike shop in the morning to get my spoke fixed. I have to say that the people I’ve met in California so far have been extremely friendly and helpful.
Overall today was a beautiful day with a pretty rough ending. Oh, and did I mention that today we officially hit the 1,000 mile mark? Woohoo!
Only 700 more miles to go til’ Mexico.
Today’s Mileage: 42 mi