Leaving Bodega Bay after our coffee and pastry breakfast, we heard barking sea lions as we passed by the fish house.

With the very low tide we thought we could see him, but he must have been under the pilings. A few miles outside of Bodega Bay, we were stopped for awhile for a road paving job. While the lead pickup truck passed through the ending checkpoint, we didn’t make it through and evidently the lady holding the stop and go sign didn’t notify the fellow on the far end. So we’re cycling through with traffic coming at us. Construction workers had us cycle on the wrong side of the road that had not been paved yet, to avoid the oncoming traffic. We made it safely to the open road and the rest of the trip was uneventful.

We left the ocean cliff riding for a day of rolling ranch country.

It is amazing to see this beautiful ranch country just on the other side of the rocky, coastal region. We can see why the pioneers fell in love with this part of the country – except for droughts – oh and earthquakes and tsunamis, on second thought…

After passing through Tomales, the road widened a little and followed Keys Creek through the hillsides, arriving at the edge of Tomales Bay.

We followed the Bay for the rest of the ride into Point Reyes Station. Tomales Bay is bordered by the Point Reyes National Seashore.

With the cloud cover and the fog hanging on the mountains to the west, we could have been in Scotland. In fact, across the bay the town was called Inverness. Guess others thought the same of the topography.

As we were climbing the last hill into Point Reyes Station, I heard a funny noise and felt a sliding of my seat. I stopped, Bill checked the saddle and the rail had broken.

He managed a temporary repair until we could find a bike shop. Luckily, there was a shop in Point Reyes Station.

And, double luck, they had a similar bike seat. Bill is complaining to the bike seat company. I’m just happy to have a seat that works. Riding that bike seat-less would be unacceptable.

Since our lodging was a few miles outside of town, we decided to have lunch after the bike shop stop. We brought a light dinner back with us to the B and B. Tomorrow we have a short ride to Mill Valley and then the next day, The Golden Gate!

We departed Gualala this morning early as we knew we had many miles to cycle today to reach Bodega Bay. Breakfast was not served until 8:30 at the motel so we cycled over to Trinks Bakery and picked up a cheap breakfast and some scones to go. We were “on the road” by 7:30. Ten miles south of Gualala, we cycled past Sea Ranch, an unusual planned community from 1963 that was the impetus for the development of the California Coastal Commission. The community is built along 10 miles of the California coastline and citizens wanted to have access to the beach. The homes are simple timber-framed structures,which “draw on the local agricultural buildings for inspiration, in the way that those buildings are designed to deal with prevailing weather and topography.” A herd of sheep is used in the summer to keep the grass cut. Pictured below is the Sea Ranch Chapel.

Past Sea Ranch, we came to an interesting “General Store” that had just re-opened a week ago. Inside are the old-fashioned floor to ceiling shelves with some antiques and some great food selections. In the back was the coffee shop and pastries from the Two Fish bakery. Naturally, we had to sample the Sticky Bun – scrumptious. The outdoor restrooms are decorated with an eye-catching bicycle on the roof to let folks know they are cycle-friendly.

Our route continued along the coast and past several ranches. We referred to the cows as Tumbledown cows – hoping they knew where the edge of the cliff was.

The edge of the cliffs was on my right most of the day, with the rolling hills again and patient drivers.

We did pull off at one point as a semi was coming one way, and one was coming the other way, meeting at the curve. Thank goodness we were off the road as one of them had to pull off to make the pass.

We passed by Fort Ross, site of a Russian settlement on the coast during the 1800’s.

We stopped in Jenner for a rest break and lunch at the Cafe – it was a nice break after 38 miles and a nice spot to bask in the sun.

One of the ladies who stopped to talk with us had just completed a bicycle race in Guerneville – where our kids had competed in a triathlon a few years back, swimming in the Russian River (see photo below).

We have stopped for the evening in Bodega Bay at the beautiful Bodega Bay Inn and will continue on tomorrow to Point Reyes Station.

Similar to our stay at the Westport Hotel a few days ago, we had a “first breakfast” delivered to our cottage room at 8:00 (coffee, ) and the second breakfast at 8:30. This little cottage (Sacred Rock Resort) is so nice it is hard to pack up and leave but leave we must as we have made reservations for the next four days down the coast.

Within a few miles and a downhill run outside of Elk, we were climbing our first hill on switchbacks up the hillside, tight curves and steep roadway, close to the cliff.

We met a unicyclist from Montreal named Vince. He is working on his Masters in Physics – and is taking time to cycle from Vancouver to Mexico – with a short break to fly to Calgary to present at a conference then he will travel to Miami to cycle up the Eastern coast to return home to Montreal. Quite a balance act when he cycles!

Our route today was totally on Route 1 and had those rollers up 300-400 ft than back down to the coast with a few curves thrown in.

At the stop pictured above, there were at least 60 sports cars that headed north and within an hour they must have turned around as they passed by us a few at a time. Along with the motorcycles and these sports cars apparently on a rally, it was like Thunder Road.

We are settled in Gualala for tonight and I was able to visit the local bookstore called the Four-eyed Frog. The owner’s dog was snoozing and the coffee was brewing. I love these small, independent bookstores.

Tomorrow we have a long ride, close to 50 miles to reach Bodega Bay. We’ll be staying in an inn run by the son of the woman who rented us the Rose Cottage in Guerneville, CA when our kids did a Triathlon there.

Rain today but we have places to go and things to do. We’re heading towards Mendocino with the hopes of visiting the Botanical Garden.

As it turned out, the Garden looked more like a nursery and so we traveled on 12 more miles to the coastal village of Mendocino, the rain had stopped for a little while and we stopped for a coffee and pastry at the Good Life Bakery and Cafe.

We talked with a lady who had just moved to Mendocino from  Palos Altos, she was so glad she made the move. Life is much slower and calmer is this little coastal village. Many of the buildings still remain from the 1850’s when it was a logging community. With the decline of logging during the 1950’s, an art community was established and is still going strong.

After our stop in Mendocino, we continued on Route 1 towards Elk. The coastal vistas are just beautiful and Bill had to stop every few miles to take photos.

Again, the climbs were of the rolling nature, not too steep and once you were at the top of a hill, you started down again.

We are staying in Elk tonight at the Sacred Rock Resort.

It is just a few cottages taken over and financed by the Miwuk Indians. Their plan is to refurbish many of the older homes near these cottages to make a coastal resort.

Once we unloaded our pannier bags, we walked down the road to the Greenwood State Park Visitor Center, in a building that used to house several families of “back to the landers” or “hippies” in the 1970’s. The Visitor Center has some of the crafts and products of the skills that these young families had to learn to survive in this backwoods community.  I was impressed with the stitchery – in fact – it rivals what my 93-year-old mother-in-law creates.

After leaving the Visitor Center, we walked along the coastal cliffs, admiring the Sacred Rocks after which this resort was named.

There were many times on our ride today where we said, “This reminds me of Ireland.” With the rain, the fog and then the mist, and the rocky coast, we could have been cycling the Ring of Kerry or Wicklow Gap.

We were delayed from leaving early this morning as the Westport Hotel doesn’t serve their first round of breakfast(coffee, fresh baked scones, jellies, butter, and a fruit dish- all delivered to your room) until 8:00 AM. Second breakfast is served downstairs at 9:00, a delicious sausage fritatta, fried potatoes and french bread toast with another selection of fresh jams.  Since our trip today is only about 20 miles, it’s not a problem. We just hope traffic won’t be too bad.

We left Westport around 10:00 AM, a far cry from our departure time yesterday. Route 1 was not too busy and all the vehicles were cautious in passing us.

The local folks say that the local drivers, truck drivers incuded, know that cyclists will be on the road and prepare for passing them. The ones we have to worry about are the old folks from out of state driving around in their big — RV’s . Lots of roller hills today, quick up and downs and not real steep made the ride fun.

After 12 miles on Route 1, we turned off to pick up a multi-use trail

that was called the Haul Road for the former lumber/logging company that operated out of Fort Bragg (now closed as of 2002 ) started as a family lumber company -sold to Union Lumber Co., then Boise Cascade, then Georgia Pacific – the 437 acre closed mill site in Fort Bragg is still owned by the Koch brothers and is still in remediation for toxic wastes, etc.  However, the city of Fort Bragg was able to create parklands and the multi-use trail along the coast (about 100 acres)(where the Glass Beach is located). Bill took some zoomed in photos from the top of the cliff to the beach below.

In the early 20th century, the beach was used as a dump site and years of wave action have created the tiny bits of sea glass – folks are asked to leave the glass but there were “pickers” when we cycled by today.

We stopped at Eggheads for lunch – great sandwiches, then on to two used bookstores, and now we are settled at the Best Western mapping out our route for the next few days. Hope to be in Bodega Bay by Monday.

This morning we “hit the road” bright and early as our host at the motel explained that traffic on our route wouldn’t be as busy as we tackled Route 1 with its thin shoulders and narrow, windy roadway. We lucked out and conquered the major part of the climb (1000 ft to the summit at 1900) by 9:00 AM and then a sweeeet downhill run for about 7 miles

n the meadow at the bottom of this climb, we were greeted by these beautiful elk and striking wildflowers (wild hollyhocks).

I should have looked closer at the map. I was so psyched out by the highest hill that I didn’t look any farther… so we got to the bottom of the first hill only to find we had another steep  700 ft. climb and then another few miles downhill-and then the glorious, powerful Pacific Ocean again. I have missed you, mighty ocean.

While I have enjoyed parts of the inland sections of Northern California (the Redwoods, the dairy farms, the Victorian village of Ferndale) , I was expecting the cycle ride to be on the coast, since it is called the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route. I can ride in Virginia and see similar scenery to the inland section of Northern California – but I sure can’t see this amazing Pacific coastline in VA.

Today’s ride was even better with temperatures 20 degrees cooler than the past two days. It is much easier to do those climbs in cooler weather. Once we conquered those two hills and reached the coast again, we had about 5 miles along the coast before we reached our destination for today, Westport. We are staying in a refurbished “hotel” from the 1920’s with a view of the ocean.

I’m enjoying the beautiful gardens and the warm sun.

We’ve taken a walk around this coastal village, can’t believe they actually brought ships in here in the late 1800’s. Powerful waves.

We stopped by an AirBnB house, Whale House, and Derrick, a local artist, showed us around, quite a quaint property. His artwork is in the following photos.

We’ll also be able to dine here this evening as the Abalone Pub is part of the hotel.

Tomorrow we head to Fort Bragg and hope our packages have arrived at General Delivery. Thanks, Kate Grass, for teaching us the intricacies of using the US Mail system when you are on the road.(And thanks, Kristi, for taking care of our forwarded mail.)

We left Garberville behind and spent the rest of the day climbing.

We would no sooner get up to 700 ft. and down we would go for a couple hundred feet. We did manage to stay off the 101 for about 1/2 of the ride today.

The section of the 101 that we had to travel had recently been asphalted and still did not have the white lines on the shoulder. We were extra cautious and so were the drivers, especially the truck drivers.

Since the ride was short today, only 27 miles, we are relaxing in the garden of the Stonegate Villas

– a small family-owned motel. It has great wifi so I could finally post the photos/blog from yesterday. The motel is about 6 miles from the closest open restaurant so they shuttle folks in and out for evening meals. We did stock up on food and drinks before we arrived as we weren’t sure when the next meal would be. The small markets here carry all kinds of pre-made sandwiches and breakfast biscuits. We were set, just in case we didn’t get back into town.

The owner also did our laundry – that’s what you see hanging of the bicycles. Today’s ride followed the south fork of the Eel River as we headed up to Leggett. Tomorrow we take off on Route 1, a “steep, twisting climb and descent on a narrow roadway that is hemmed in by forest cover”, as defined by the Adventure Cycling map. At least it will be cool The climb tomorrow is to 1850 ft, but heck, we’re starting off at 900!(Sign says- Leggettt Elevation 952).That climb will be the last high climb  until after San Francisco. We will end our travels tomorrow on the coast again at Westport where it will also be cooler.

As we cycled out of Arcata, we passed Humboldt State University, the scene of yesterday’s graduation which was the reason for our high-priced hotel room last night. It is a beautiful campus and an interesting college town. We cycled around Arcata Bay for about 5 miles on the wide shoulder of the 101, arriving in Eureka in time for a pastry-coffee stop in the Old Town section of town.

While Bill finished up his pastries and coffees, I walked over to the bookstore and browsed. Okay, I bought a cool book for the grandkids about a boat from a high school in Japan that made its way to Crescent City, CA after the tsunami in 2011. It was restored by high school students in Crescent City and returned to Japan. The Extraordinary Voyage of Kamome; A Tsunami Boat Comes Home.
Cycling out of Eureka, we passed by the College of the Redwoods, which also graduated students yesterday and caused hotel rooms in Eureka to be expensive as well.
Once more we were in the agricultural area of Northern CA, dairy farms are everywhere.

We stopped in Loleta for a short visit to the Loleta Cheese Factory,

which was across the street from a defunct creamery – can’t tear the building down because it’s a historical building.

The new creamery is located about 5 miles down the road. Loleta was an interesting “town”, not sure what keeps it running.
More country roads took us to Ferndale

where we have stopped for the day, staying in the Francis Creek Inn,

right off the main street of this interesting Victorian town. After checking in, we took a walk through town,

ending up at the cemetery with fantastic views over the town. Yes, we walked to the top of the hill since we didn’t climb many hills today on the bicycles, have to keep the calves in shape. (This town is also referred to as Cowtown).

We stopped for dinner at the Ferndale Pizza Company

and Bill struck up a conversation with the owner of the old green Chevrolet we saw parked out front.

Turns out the guy owns the old Ford Motor Company building and had many old vehicles inside – the building is his “hobby shop”.

He invited Bill to visit after dinner and Bill couldn’t resist. (Another 7th heaven moment).