Day 16- Real Food! (Christi)

September 24th, 2020

    We moseyed around the motel in the morning, taking our time packing up and getting ready for the day. This resulted in a 1030 start time for our 36 mile day. We were excited to have a short day finally, and crossed our fingers there wouldn’t be too many hills. This section of Highway 1 continues to have great views, but the first 10 miles or so had construction. This resulted in uneven road waiting for a fresh layer of asphalt; what a bumpy ride! A few vehicles got a little too close for comfort and didn’t bother slowing down. I cursed them under my breath and continued on. 

    We hit our lunch break in Gualala around noon and were excited to find an open restaurant! It had been about four days since we had an actual lunch with real food, not typical camping garb you cook over a Jetboil. It had also been since Trinidad, CA that we have sat at a restaurant in outdoor seating; everything we have found has been takeout only. We met a nice gentleman named Gray, who had lived in Gualala for the past 40 years. He was very interested in our journey and BS’d with us for about 30 minutes. Below is what I ordered for lunch; had to go with an avocado BLT with fried coconut prawns for an appetizer. The food did not disappoint!

    It was a short 20 miles to our campground, so we were eager to get back on the road after our bellies were full. About 10 miles in we found a great pullout on the side of the road to chill, drink a beer, and attempt to see some whales. It took a few minutes, but Brandon spotted some whales spouting off in the distance. I was super stoked, since I’ve never seen a whale in the wild before. Super cool experience!

    Since we have been back on the coast we have noticed a trend in California; there are coves everywhere and the road typically does a hair pin turn after a steep downgrade, to then journey right back up the other side. So much for an easy, short mileage day! Stillwater Cove Campground was located on one of these coves. After setting up camp, I met the camp host to see if there was WiFi (surprise there wasn’t and we had no cell reception). Her name was Heidi and she was from Seattle originally. Super cool chick and she would be our neighbor for the night. After sharing our blog site, Brandon and I jaunted down to the trail, which would lead us into the cove to check out the waves and sunset. To Brandon’s disappointment and my amusement, the water was not safe to swim in due to large waves and a strong rip current. No trying to conquer my fear of water today! The views were as perfect as it gets!

    Don’t set your chairs too close to the waters edge, a giant wave will come up and get you soaked while spilling your drinks.

Sun was almost set, left early cause this dummy didn’t bring a jacket

    For fun we timed ourselves to see how long it would take to set up our tent with the rain fly and nothing inside. We accomplished this in 2 minutes flat, I would say we have had lots of practice!

Ride stats: 36.96 miles and 2,231 feet elevation gain

Road kill: 1 eagle

Weird things on the shoulder, red solo cup and 3 masks (this section of road was relatively clean besides a few pieces of garbage).