Bike Tour: Day Zero (Getting up to Westport)
July 2, 2010
After deciding that my summer was wasting away without me doing anything exciting, I decided to take some vacation time and give bike touring a very short trial run. At first I was going to do a ride from mi casa to Big Sur or San Simeon, but, upon reflection, realized that I’ve already biked from here to Monterey… so it wouldn’t be very “new.” Plus, the ride from Santa Cruz to Monterey is long and pretty much totally boring. So, given all that and the fact that Chris offered to drive me to my starting point, I decided I’d bike from Westport (about 20 miles North of Fort Bragg) down to Point Reyes in two days.
Day one: Westport to Gualala
Day two: Gualala to Point Reyes
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
Tuesday afternoon Chris and I left for the long drive up to Westport, and after about four and a half hours we arrived at the Howard Creek Ranch Hotel. Now I know some of you are already judging me — “you stayed at hotels and motels during your trip? Why not camp out and become one with nature and oatmeal?!”
Well, a few reasons
1) I don’t even have a proper rack with panniers, which would just logistically make carrying a tent, sleeping bag, etc. pretty much impossible. I ended up carrying everything for this ride in a backpack (more on the wisdom of that later.)
2) I’m doing this ride alone and while I am confident tons of women have biked solo up and down the coast with no problems, I just feel a little less freaked out by myself in the land-of-no-cellphone-reception when I can lock a motel room behind me!
3) I like sleeping in a bed after biking all day. (This is the “princess” reason)
4) I don’t like oatmeal
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
So anyway, we arrived! The hotel is a bit, in Chris’ words, “kooky,” It’s seriously in the middle of nowhere and basically consists of two big buildings that are across a swinging bridge from each other. The room we stayed in was a tiny little thing in a converted barn. In the living area on the second floor was an indoor jacuzzi (wish I would have realized that before arriving!), a zillion plants pushed up against the windows, and just a hodgepodge of antique(ish) Victorian furniture with trinkets on every empty space. In sum, I loved it. It’s the sort of place you’d go, stay a few days, and basically just get away from everything.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
That night Chris and I went into Fort Bragg for dinner and, thanks to Yelp, had some truly fantastic pizza (and I’m told beer) at Piaci Pub and Pizza. Not Delfina good, but really good. In fact, you know it’s good because outside in downtown Fort Bragg everything was super quiet… but then you open the door of this pizza place and it was totally packed.
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
After that we got dessert at Cowlick’s Ice Cream. I totally recommend it! I actually sampled the mushroom flavor - totally delicious! More like maple syrup taste than mushroom, but the coolest part is they don’t add any extra sugar outside what’s already in the milk and cream. But it’s super sweet!
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
So after eating all that, bemoaning my lack of self control, and heading back to the hotel, I was ready for the ride to begin!
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| From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes |
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Mmmm, that sundae was delicious! That was a fun night, even if I had to leave at 4am the next day to get to work for a meeting! <3