Trip Total - 356.6 miles
Tomorrow is the biggest climb of the trip and the end of Highway 1.
We pulled out of camp at 9:30, fortunately without having to pull any more banana slugs out of our food locker, and were once again on our way northward. Today wasn't going to be strenuous though - after the first 8 miles into Fort Bragg, we stopped for a few hours to do laundry. While there, Kevin called his friends Dylan and Katie, who happened to be in town. They drove down to the laundromat, and once our clothes were dry, they had lunch with us at the Mexican restaurant next door. Kevin and I both had massive and delicious burritos before we left to do a bit of shopping.
After grabbing food at Safeway and more stove fuel at The Outdoor Store, we turned off Highway 1 at the north end of town. The ACA route put us on a bike path called the Ten Mile Beach Trail, which turned out to be the worst bike path I've ever seen. We got tossed around by potholes within potholes for 3 miles, and I had to stop a couple of times to keep my front rack from falling off the bike. I can't imagine that dealing with the much-diminished traffic on Highway 1 would have been worse. The path ended at an unsigned drop back onto the road. We only figured it out because the next bridge was demolished.
Oh, and did I mention that our friend Mr. Headwind was back? It was a really sunny day, but the northwesterly wind was gusting well past 20 mph. Given the infrequent trees, riding was difficult. Traffic was minimal though, other than through construction in Cleone where we had to follow a pilot car.
The terrain features just kept getting bigger too. I was feeling strong after the rest day, which was fortunate because the long hill climbs just kept coming one after the other over the second half of the day. That being said, the views of the desolate landscape were beautiful. There wasn't much obvious evidence of human settlement through this area apart from the road.
With the headwind, we didn't make particularly good time. We reached the small village of Westport at around 4:15, with only a slight delay due to my chain dropping at the bottom of the last major climb. After a stop at the store to wash the grease off my hands, we set out to ride the last couple miles to Westport-Union Landing State Beach to spend the night.
When we got there though, there were a couple of problems. First, the "beach" (really cliffs dropping straight into the water) was closed and gated. Second, the campground, which we still could have gotten to without too much trouble, was one if the windiest places we had been all day with a single tree to provide protection. We had passed a KOA about a mile back, and although we didn't want to pay the $40 they charge for a tent site, there wasn't any other public land to put our tents on. So we turned around and pulled up to the Westport Beach KOA expecting to pay quadruple what we normally do for camping.
We were in luck though - I don't know if it's KOA policy or just this campground, but when we pulled up on bikes, the woman at the check in desk said she would only charge us $5. We got a nice, sheltered spot next to the creek and out of the wind. So good on you, KOA, you really saved the day.
After dinner, I walked to the beach to watch the sunset. It was actually the first time I've seen the sunset over the ocean this trip, since we're usually either not in view of the water or blanketed by fog. We will be leaving the ocean behind tomorrow as we climb to almost 1800 feet over the infamous Leggett Hill, the highest climb on the entire Pacific Coast route.
View Day 10 - Mendocino, CA-Westport, CA in a larger map
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