Day Total - 41.5 miles
Trip Total - 285.9 miles
Today, we had a decision to make - we were desperately in need of a rest day, but we wanted to take it near a town, in this case Mendocino or Fort Bragg. However, they were still over 70 miles away. We could either do two 20 mile days and a 30 miler or cover the first 40 in a single day. The potential extra stop was just south of the town of Gualala, on the Sonoma-Mendocino County line. We agreed that making the decision on the road made sense, and with that we set off from Salt Point at about 10:30.
The first bit of the ride was easy - gently rolling terrain and calm wind meant that we averaged about 12 mph, a speed we would keep up for most of the day. The weather, which had started off cool and foggy, turned very clear by about 11:00, making the ocean on our left a brilliant, shimmering blue.
After passing through the gas station that is Stewarts Point and the 10 mile stretch of vacation homes in The Sea Ranch, we arrived in Gualala at noon. This was our decision point, and though we had kept an extremely fast pace, Kevin and I both agreed that we should go to Manchester. We stopped for about 45 minutes to get food at the largest grocery store we had seen since the Marin suburbs, then continued north.
Now that we were in Mendocino County, the landscape was again changing. The coastal bluffs, rocks, islands, and rivers were all bigger than in Sonoma County, with a corresponding increase in the size of the rollers on the road. At the same time, the views were spectacular, especially under the clear, blue sky. The higher cliffs meant that we were generally farther above the sea than we had been through most of Sonoma and Marin Counties, and with no haze over the water, we could see blue to the horizon.
About 15 miles after Gualala and after a challenging climb, we reached the town of Point Arena - all of the towns here seem to be well above their water sources. We stopped there, and I grabbed a sandwich from the deli in town. We only had 6 or 7 miles to go until camp, so we took a 20 minute break before heading on our way.
The highway flattened out once we got out of town, and we went through cattle pasture (it was obvious by smell alone) to the small village of Manchester. The combined grocery/hardware store was our last stop before we pulled into camp another mile to the north, so I bought a beer to celebrate a week on the road.
We pulled into Manchester State Park to find a nearly deserted campground. The usual ranger booth wasn't just unmanned - there wasn't one at all! We found the hiker/biker site in a field of tall grass with scattered trees. The sun was shining brightly, so I decided to test my solar charger again - finally, it worked! We sat in the sun eating for awhile and finished off a tub of hummus with tortillas, a can of ravioli, a can of pears, and more. Later, we were joined by a pair of French cyclists who had started in San Diego. They were going much faster than us, so we didn't expect to see them again. At about 7:00, the fog started to roll in and the wind picked up, so we retired to our tents. All was not quiet though, as a mole or gopher kept trying to surface under my head for a good half hour.
Trip Total - 285.9 miles
Today, we had a decision to make - we were desperately in need of a rest day, but we wanted to take it near a town, in this case Mendocino or Fort Bragg. However, they were still over 70 miles away. We could either do two 20 mile days and a 30 miler or cover the first 40 in a single day. The potential extra stop was just south of the town of Gualala, on the Sonoma-Mendocino County line. We agreed that making the decision on the road made sense, and with that we set off from Salt Point at about 10:30.
The first bit of the ride was easy - gently rolling terrain and calm wind meant that we averaged about 12 mph, a speed we would keep up for most of the day. The weather, which had started off cool and foggy, turned very clear by about 11:00, making the ocean on our left a brilliant, shimmering blue.
After passing through the gas station that is Stewarts Point and the 10 mile stretch of vacation homes in The Sea Ranch, we arrived in Gualala at noon. This was our decision point, and though we had kept an extremely fast pace, Kevin and I both agreed that we should go to Manchester. We stopped for about 45 minutes to get food at the largest grocery store we had seen since the Marin suburbs, then continued north.
 |
| Now this is a nice road |
Now that we were in Mendocino County, the landscape was again changing. The coastal bluffs, rocks, islands, and rivers were all bigger than in Sonoma County, with a corresponding increase in the size of the rollers on the road. At the same time, the views were spectacular, especially under the clear, blue sky. The higher cliffs meant that we were generally farther above the sea than we had been through most of Sonoma and Marin Counties, and with no haze over the water, we could see blue to the horizon.
About 15 miles after Gualala and after a challenging climb, we reached the town of Point Arena - all of the towns here seem to be well above their water sources. We stopped there, and I grabbed a sandwich from the deli in town. We only had 6 or 7 miles to go until camp, so we took a 20 minute break before heading on our way.
The highway flattened out once we got out of town, and we went through cattle pasture (it was obvious by smell alone) to the small village of Manchester. The combined grocery/hardware store was our last stop before we pulled into camp another mile to the north, so I bought a beer to celebrate a week on the road.
We pulled into Manchester State Park to find a nearly deserted campground. The usual ranger booth wasn't just unmanned - there wasn't one at all! We found the hiker/biker site in a field of tall grass with scattered trees. The sun was shining brightly, so I decided to test my solar charger again - finally, it worked! We sat in the sun eating for awhile and finished off a tub of hummus with tortillas, a can of ravioli, a can of pears, and more. Later, we were joined by a pair of French cyclists who had started in San Diego. They were going much faster than us, so we didn't expect to see them again. At about 7:00, the fog started to roll in and the wind picked up, so we retired to our tents. All was not quiet though, as a mole or gopher kept trying to surface under my head for a good half hour.
View Day 7 - Fort Ross, CA-Manchester, CA in a larger map
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