Day 8 - Manchester, CA to Mendocino, CA

Day Total - 33.2 miles
Trip Total - 319.1 miles

Kevin wanted to take our rest day a day early, but I mixed that idea in view of the exposed campsite, meager facilities, wind, and gophers. We only had about 30 miles to go to the town if Mendocino, which, as a tourist destination, would have quite a bit more for us than sleepy Manchester.

We started the cold, foggy day into a headwind, and perhaps as a result of the temperature, my legs seemed to take forever to warm up. It took 7 or 8 miles of riding to get comfortable. We dropped down a switchbacking grade not long afterward - fortunately, there were none of the lumber trucks that would be passing us all day. The uphill was long, but I have gotten much better at gear selection, so it wasn't much of a problem to get up in one go.

I told you it was foggy.

A few miles later, we entered the town of Elk, where we made a quick snack stop. Just past town, there was an excellent view to our rear, which we probably would have missed had it not been pointed out to us by a clerk at the Elk Store. Traffic was light on the next stretch of road, but we knew it wouldn't last all day. We were not far from the junction with Highway 128, the main road from Fort Bragg to inland Sonoma County and the Bay Area.

This is not the view he was talking about.

This is.

After a very long drop down to the intersection at the Navarro River, we turned back uphill and passed through the town of Albion. We could tell this section of road wad busier just from the way it is constructed. All through Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, the road had been cutting downhill and inland to cross streams on low bridges at very sharp corners. Now, we were crossing on long, high bridges. Tourism was definitely picking up as well - the highway was lined with bed and breakfasts, and there were a great many RVs parked at the various overnight RV lots (I refuse to call them campgrounds).

Soon enough, we passed through the village of Little River, a couple miles short of Mendocino. After yet another drop and climb, we turned into Mendo itself. We still had about 2 miles to go until camp, but we stopped at a coffee shop (Moody's) that had WiFi and plugs to charge my phone, in addition to great coffee. After that, we stocked up at the excellent grocery store in town, then we pedaled an easy last couple miles to Russian Gulch State Park, where we would spend our next two nights. We were finally at our first rest stop.

Mendocino. Not pictured: hippies offering to trade us gas cans.

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