Day 11: Ft Bragg to Cloverdale

Today’s Highlights:

Today’s ride had a lot of variety.  We started along the coast for 19 miles, through the towns of Ft Bragg, Mendocino, Little River and Albion.  It was foggy, but we had occasional views of the ocean or the rivers flowing into it.   We then headed east on Rt 128, out of the fog and into the forest, and enjoyed more miles among the tall redwoods.  It was a flat and peaceful ride, and cool under the canopy.  After 33 miles, we left the forest and entered farmlands of mostly vineyard and wineries.  The landscape opened up with fields of grapes and orchards of apples and other fruits, with a backdrop of rolling hills under bright blue skies.  And from there, we climbed higher into those hills among the oaks in fields of golden dry grasses.  Every phase of the ride was beautiful.

The last half of our ride gained over 1100 feet with many ups and downs, but eventually hitting the peak around 67 miles.  At the 70 mile mark we had a great fast winding descent for four miles.  It was as fun as yesterday’s.  We ran out of water on the big climb around 60 miles, so we made up for that by stopping at a frozen yogurt stand in the town of Cloverdale just a couple miles from our hotel for tonight.  It was very refreshing.

It was quite hot in the afternoon, which was welcome after our very cool visit along the coast over the past ten days.  According to our bike computers, the temperature hit over 100, but I think that was when we were riding along side freshly paved road.  There were certainly some hot climbs, but it was all enjoyable with the beautiful scenery and sunny blue skies.

We are half way done with the 1400-mile trip as of mid day today.  Every day brings another challenge to conquer and we seem to be getting stronger.  And every day treats us with great scenery and new experiences.  What a great vacation!

Our Glass Is Half Full
Half way done already? It feels like we only left yesterday… and I feel like I’ve been riding for a month. What an awesome trip. We’ve seen so many things and today was a little of everything. Dad did a good recap. And today’s terrain had a little of everything, too. We started with some nice 2-3% inclines. Just what I love. Just like shooting wamp rats back home. Then we hit some rolling hills and ended with a bigger climb. The climb was tougher than I thought, after riding all day and climbing so much yesterday. But we were rewarded with another awesome curvy downhill into town… and rewarded with frozen yogurt! At mile 70 we crossed into Sonoma. Tomorrow should be tasting day 😉

My bike is all grown up now. It started as a little boy bike which was too small for me. Then it grew into awkward, uncoordinated adolescence as the seat grew up. Today it reached adulthood as the handle bars grew up and now the bike finally feels great. It only took half the trip. I’m a genius.

Tree Houses
Yesterday: We didn’t get any pics so I forgot to mention the tree houses that we saw. One was a house built into an upright tree. I wonder how many floors it had. The other was built into a giant log. It looks so cute. From the front it looks like a hobbit house. It has an official website: http://www.oneloghouse.com/ You can see more pictures by Googling ‘the famous one log house.’ I wonder what the rent is.

It’s Medicinal!
We’re in Cali and it’s legal. It’s odd to see the shops and the dudes who hang outside. In Garberville our hotel was right next to Hemp Connection. There was a group of white boys with dreads sitting on the curb with the munchies so bad they were begging for a dollar to buy cereal. On the way out today we past Herban Legends. Seems unreal.

Chris

Pictures Of The Day:

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Statistics:
Zoom and pan the map to explore the route. Click the name or ‘View Detail’ to view more information at Garmin Connect.

Chris: