Safe Return Doubtful

54 miles (87 km) – Total so far: 1,532 miles (2,465 km)

Distance 54 miles (87 km) Time riding 4 hours 47 minutes Max speed 34.0 mph Average speed 11.2 mph Left at 8:15 am Arrived at 1:15 pm

The Gualala Hotel was fine for beers and food. Two very posing and useless barmen though. One of them was showing off a ‘San Francisco Giants’ tattoo on his arm (the baseball side). I asked him how the game finished last night as I had left it mid way through. He didn’t know.

The site was busy with the girls and a couple of solo guys also. One (Michael, a student) had ridden across the country on the Northern Tier having left in May (by far the smelliest guy I have come across, though I guess his gear rather than him). The other, Adam, from Toronto down the coast to San Diego, then on to the tip of South America.

It is weekend again, and the last one of the school holiday, so busier than ever at the campgrounds and on the roads.

Today’s ride would be one of the greats in North America if it wasn’t for the traffic. By the time I hit the best bit the traffic had started to get busy, although most was coming from the city for an afternoon at the beach or lunch out. The county now is Sonoma and the ride over the cliffs is spectacular. The road climbs to about 250 meters and then undulates around for 5 miles also before descending. Both ascent and descent are steep. In many places there is nothing between the road and the drop down the cliff to the ocean. With traffic and little shoulder often times the space is only half a metre. There were a fair few road cyclists out for the morning also and I rode with 3 of them for a while. Incredibly there were RVs and huge caravan trailers on the route. One of those caravans grounded out on one of the hairpins which was quite funny, and stopped the traffic for 10 minutes giving us a free run down.

The rest of the day, before and after, was similar to yesterday, ups and down, several gentle, and several steep to little bays.

Reaching Jenner the traffic became much heavier. There is a run of beaches between Jenner and Bodega Bay and every one was packed, not even any parking available. Goes with that the problem of cars not indicating pulling in and out of partings. It’s almost like city riding, you need a lot of shouting and be prepared to bang on some roofs.

The site is good though. By chance it’s just reopened today (the hiker biker area) after a yellow hornet infestation. It’s good to have space definitely available when to cars all around is full. Two of the girls have hitch-hiked here. The adventure cycling map warns it is a tough day, across the cliffs. without the traffic it would be a sensational ride, even with it, it was quite tremendous.

The village of Ocean Grove on a quiet Saturday morning

More little bays, steeply down and steeply up each time

Chance for a few minutes rest – chat with the flagman

The Sonoma Cliffs road

The downhill into Jenner from the cliffs road

Sea-Lions playing in the harbour at Jenner

Drinks stop in Jenner with the Saturday morning cyclists I was riding with

From Jenner onward the road was exceptionally busy – Saturday lunchtime – not even a parking place available – some very badly behaved motorists also…