Day 17 - Avocado Toast (Brandon)

 

Another day, another incredible stretch of Pacific coastline. This would be our last day along the coast as we head back inland and then south to San Francisco in the morning. Today the drop offs were pretty noticeable, as were the lack of guardrails. They did have what appeared to be ramps on the side of the road, so if you had enough speed you might be able to clear the rocks below, but landing in the ocean from 400ft up would probably not end well. We did have several stretches of road where we were specifically allowed to take the lane, which was nice, although we took the lane plenty anyways, especially on the downhills.

Love this sign 😍

It was a short ride today, so we started pretty late, in hopes that we could find a restaurant open around lunchtime. On this stretch of Hwy 1 finding open establishments to eat meals has been tricky. We were in luck today eating at a little coffee shop in Jenner that also served food. I got the avocado toast, because I’m technically a Millennial, and I’m in California, so why not? It was incredible!

😋😋😋

After lunch, with 11 miles to go, we started up a steep hill and Christi’s chain fell off... twice. She’s had a struggle every time she tries to shift down to go up hills, and it seems to be getting worse. She has started manually moving her chain before she starts going up a hill to avoid it slipping off and causing her to tip over. 😂 

Christi trying to get her chain in the right place

Shortly after making it over the hill Karma decided to pay me back for laughing at Christi’s chain woes. I was cruising along when all of the sudden my chain went completely slack and came dangerously close to catching on my spokes, while I was coasting at 30MPH downhill, it would have been a disaster! Assuming my failure to lube it up the last few days was the cause, I hit the chain with a bunch of oil, but that did not solve the problem. After looking closer, I realized that the chain protector on my rear cassette had broken free from the spokes, and was stopping the cassette from spinning freely. I didn’t have the tools to take the cassette off and remove the guard. 😩 Christi suggested using some of the electrical tape I brought along, and sure enough I was able to get it patched up, terribly.

The green stuff is electrical tape

With my bike patched up enough to make it through to our camp for the night, we made good time into Bodega bay. Aside from google taking us down a sandy horse trail, it was pretty uneventful. After getting camp set up we made out on the bikes to find a place to eat and blog. Fishetarian Fish Market was clearly the place to go. The line was crazy long, but it was worth it, some of the best fish and chips ever! With blogs posted, and bellies filled, it was time to retire to the tent, eat some saltwater taffy and fall asleep. The alarm was set for 5AM, we have 72 miles into San Francisco, and we’d like some sunlight left when we get to the Golden Gate Bridge.

-Cheers