And once I got out of that damn sandy campground with its greedy muffin stealing gulls (which I can laugh about now, by the way), things started looking more and more up all the time. I suddenly found myself with shoulder again today, both along highway 1 and also as I got off it for the second half of the day. It shrank and vanished from time to time, and sometimes I was on some badly maintained road too (notably a section of 1 where the opposite lane northbound had been completely redone recently and not yet the southbound), but generally the roads were vastly safer today. The traffic even seemed nicer too.
And I saw cyclists. My goodness did I see cyclists, everywhere I went. Mostly not tourists, but folks on road bikes zipping past me and my fat assed trailer. I feel like in one day today I saw more cyclists than an in the last week or more. It was incredible. The change today as I approached the San Francisco area just seemed so sudden and startling, with shoulder, and cyclists, and the sun shining down.
And oh, did that sun shine. This is the first day of the whole trip that really made me sweat. And while I slathered on sunscreen, I've got some fresh burns too. It's really hard to avoid when you're a pasty white guy out biking in the sun all day. At least I seem to burn to a more resistant tan and not just peel uselessly.
The climbs I dealt with today as it was, some of them surprisingly steep through farmland areas, were such that I'm glad I chose to stray from 1 past Tomales Bay, onto an advised bike route along a reservoir, some idyllic, hilly pastures, and even a little section of redwoods, rather than face the 1700 foot climb coming away from the coast on 1. Yes, I missed what were probably some cool beaches and I missed Muir Woods. But I've seen a lot of both beaches and redwoods, and I think this actually gave me the more varied scenery. As well as a long ride through outlying urban areas, let's not forget that. Thank goodness for Google maps helping guide my way. Though there were a lot of very good bike lanes, signs for the bike routes, and even some good trails. ...Also one section of not so great trail that had me squished between hedge on one side and gate on the other along a narrow passage hardly wide enough for my trailer, and where I was practically eatting hedge to allow anyone to pass.
But it was all good, a good full day. I made a stop at Safeway (yay chain stores and affordable prices) to restock on bars, and then arrived at my host's a good twenty minutes before 5. He showed me about and then left me to my own devices as he took off for the evening. After getting some real pressure in my tires with his floor pump, relaxing, and getting a much needed shower, I decided since I wasn't getting fed tonight, that I really wanted to make the ludicrous indulgence of ordering a pizza. I need to learn to splurge now and again, and I also have to make sure I stop losing weight. I ended up not actually going so far as to order in since Dominoes isn't far away, but I did get myself a damn pizza, ate most of it, and am going to enjoy the rest in the morning. I even got myself a soda, sweet, toxic sugar water. It's definitely not something to do all the time, but on the night before I ride into San Francisco, yeah, it felt right.
This whole day just felt right. I've had some bad days lately, but days like today, though they still obviously have struggle, sunburn, hills, time constraints, navigation, they have obstacles that feel good to overcome, and they just feel right, make the bad days melt away. Laying on this couch, in my sleeping bag, stuffed full of pizza, I am at total peace.
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