Bike Tour: Day Two (Gualala to Point Reyes Station)

July 8, 2010

Stats of the Day
Distance: 76.2
Moving Time: 5:33
Elevation: 6,778 ft
(all stats and maps here)

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

Woke up a bit earlier than I expected this morning and ended up hitting the road by 6:40AM (would have been even earlier but I had to wait for Chris to call and wish me good luck on my last leg.)

Pre-ride breakfast = a banana
(knowing that I only had to go but 9 short miles until I’d come upon [drum roll please] Two Fish Bakery in Sea Ranch!)

I dream of the day when I know longer hear the siren call of bakeries, candy stores, and the like but, alas, that day is not today.

And so, I pedaled onwards to the bakery and, unlike yesterday, I did so without going through the thick pot-smoke-air that is the area directly above Fort Bragg. (Seriously, the air was so dense with the smell of pot I almost couldn’t breathe for a minute there!)

About 9 miles in I saw a sign for the left turnoff to the bakery. Bad part: the left was up a very VERY steep little hill (especially steep given my tired legs.) I think you climb like 300 feet in a very short space (like maybe half a mile). Not good for the legs!

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

After having my heart pump out of my chest I made it to Two Fish! And what a fantastic little stop. I was pretty much the only person in that tiny place that they didn’t know on a first name basis, but they were super friendly. In fact, when I was in line this guy just walked out and, upon seeing my bike, walked over to me and said “awesome bike.” At that I smiled and said “thanks” … and then after I got my snack (two pieces of banana bread [one for now, one for later] and a granola yogurt parfait thing), I realized he was still drooling over it. So, we ended up talking for 15 minutes. Best line from him, “you know, the word ‘beautiful’ is tossed around a lot where bikes are concerned, but I think it should really be reserved for titanium bikes like this. This is beautiful.”
Awesome.

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

Turns out he used to sell Moots and other bikes before he quit (no money in it unless you own the place) a few years back.

So after I got a little lesson in what makes my bike so great, I was told “happy riding” and “good luck” by a few more people leaving the bakery before I got back on my (much merrier) way.

The roads out of Gualala down the coast are definitely busier at times - more big trucks, not much shoulder at parts, and because of all the trees and turns, there’s an increased risk that people won’t see you. Thankfully, the only issue I ran into was a crazy pickup truck that was trying to pass a slower car in front of it (this is in oncoming traffic). He ended up going over the double yellow lines and was headed straight at me until he cut back in around the guy. I’m fairly sure he didn’t see me (and I’m fairly sure I peed a little), but it was ok. I ended up going way into the right side dirt and just waited for him to pass.

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

Other than that, the most memorable part of the ride was a climbing section filled with bugs and cattle guards about 30(ish) miles in. The climbing was long (at least it felt long with my backpack on), exposed, and hot. And, because I failed to look at any sort of elevation profile, I just didn’t know what to expect (and I’m not one of those people who likes not knowing what to expect on a ride.) But, putting all that aside, the views were absolutely unreal. The Northern California coast is just absolutely gorgeous - to the point where you are saying in your head, “is this really real?”

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

After that little trial, I hit Jenner and tried calling Chris. No dice. Continued on until I (thanks be to the gods) hit Bodega Bay. In Bodega I was hitting a bit of a low point (30 miles left and I just was feeling soooo slow), but luckily had cell phone reception. I got Chris and my mom on the phone and decided that my mom would continue up the one past Point Reyes station and instead get me before the rollers (which would save me about 9 miles).

With that new motivation I felt a bit better, that is, until the few miles going into Tomales Bay. So hot! All that climbing! No shade!
(ok it probably wasn’t that bad but I’m not in good shape right now! And my backpack is heavy!)

And as a side note, you can tell there’s a harder part of a ride when there are mysteriously no pictures for an hour or two.

After all that, I dropped down into little ole’ Tomales. And, per Chris’ recommendation, dropped by their bakery, too. I got some stuff to give to my mom as a thank you but took a quality assurance bite of each — very tasty!

Out of Tomales there were some massive headwinds getting into Point Reyes, but I survived! I also passed a couple who was biking down from Canada!

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

Eventually I made it to where Hog Island is (and where my mom and I were planning on meeting), but she wasn’t there yet so I just started my way down the rollers. I eventually decided to wait on top of one of the hills so I could easily see all the cars coming (so my mom wouldn’t unknowingly pass me!)

I saw her and, in her own words, “never had she seen me so happy to see her car.” I jumped up and down and my two-day tour was over! We went into Point Reyes for some delicious sandwiches at Cow Girl (where I highly recommend you stop on your own biking adventure) and another treat at the Bovine bakery (a must stop for cyclists.)

Overall the ride was beautiful, relatively safe, and a great experience. For all your wannabe cycling tourists, this would be a great two-day test run.

My only recommendation: get someone to go with you! It makes the hills less steep and the roads less lonely.

Happy riding!

Posted by Heather | Filed Under Outdoorsy-ness, ride reports, travel, weekend adventures | 2 Comments

Bike Tour: Day One (Westport to Gualala..lalala)

July 2, 2010

Stats of the Day
Distance: 78.3 miles
Moving Time: 5:20:27
Elevation: 6,410 feet
(all stats and maps here)

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

7:05AM and I was on my bike. The day before I got a nectarine and banana to eat for breakfast, knowing that about 20 miles in I could stop by the Fort Bragg Bakery for breakfast numero dos. Thankfully the weather was super cooperative - warm enough that my ear-covering headband, knee warmers, and hideous neon yellow jacket were enough.

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

20 miles in and I was in Fort Bragg. I rode up to the bakery and at first walked in and left my Moots right out the door. But, after realizing that I was having a mini panic attack as I stared at it from the other side of the glass, decided to just accept that I was freaked out that someone was going to steal it, so I went out and brought it in with me. The woman behind the counter smiled and asked me “so did you bring that in because you think someone is going to steal it?”
me: “Yeah, I just can’t handle it”
her: “Umm… nobody is going to steal your bike here”
me: “really?”
her: “Yeah”
[enter a guy who ended up being her husband]
her: “He and I are both big riders… [looks at him] she’s not going to get her bike stolen here, is she?!”
him: “Yeeaahhhh, no. But what if she did”
me: “Exactly! But what if I did! I’d die!!”
her: [laugh] “Yeah, true”

From there we talked a bit more about biking and my bike specifically. They were both super friendly and as I left with my bagel for now and a “savory pocket” (pastry thing filled with sun-dried tomatoes and feta) for later, some other random woman sitting in the corner yelled out “have a great ride!” How cool is that?

I rode down to eat my bagel on a bench when this homeless guy passed me and asked what day it was. And what did I say? “Thursday” … I said “Thursday.” It wasn’t until about an hour later that I realized it was actually Wednesday…

After finishing my bagel I pedaled over to the bike shop I saw on the main drag. Unfortunately, it was closed so I couldn’t actually buy a patch kit and extra tube. I just had to pray that my one tube would be enough. Ended up being ok but that’s not so smart!

The cool part about the stop was running into two other cyclists who were waiting for the shop to open. They were actually biking South to North, which is a much harder ride — in part because of the strong headwinds they’d no doubt been battling.

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

From there I just kept pedaling along…and along…and along. At one point there was some construction that required them to stop traffic and let one side go and then the other, which meant waiting for our turn for like 10 minutes. In the meantime a bunch of cyclists ended up chit-chatting. I was the only woman doing touring solo and the only other woman in the pack period (of like 8 riders) was doing it with her husband. I was a bit jealous… biking it great but it’s made so much better when you are with someone else - even if you aren’t talking that much at all! Just having someone to say “wow look at that” or talk with for a short break — those are nice. On the AIDS ride I did last year I was basically riding alone, but the diference was that I’d see people at all the rest stops and just randomly see people on the road from time to time. On this ride I barely saw anyone. At. All. …Ever

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

Anyway, I kept on riding and eventually made my way to Gualala. At first I was nervous I was going to miss it but, like the girl from the motel said on the phone, that’d be very difficult to do. And, in fact, she was right. Most of the “cities” down the 1 are, like, lierally on the 1. “Main street” is the section of the 1 that goes through their town. And that’d be the whole town. So, when I saw the signs for Gualala I realized pretty quickly that I’d better start looking for the motel because in about 30 seconds I’d have biked through city limits!

From Bike Touring: Westport to Point Reyes

Pulled up, showered, went to the grocery store next door to get a deli sandwich and chocolate bar for dinner, bumped into some cyclist dudes I saw earlier in the day (they were at that shop still in bike clothes getting lots of beer for their campsite down the road), and then called Chris from a pay phone.

The rest of the night was filled with talking on the phone, walking down to the beach, and watching junk TV.

Day One complete!

Posted by Heather | Filed Under Outdoorsy-ness, ride reports, travel, weekend adventures | 2 Comments

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

Posted by Heather | Filed Under Outdoorsy-ness, ride reports, travel, weekend adventures | 1 Comment

Bike to Monterey Weekend (I’m alive!)

April 5, 2010

I should really re-title this post “Galactic Justice” because that’s pretty much what happened. If you remember from my last post (about our double century), it was me who was going along without a care in the world while Chris wanted to scream out and curse the gods. Well, apparently I wasn’t humble enough about it because the gods condemned me to the slowest most painful 111 miles of my natural life. And while it wasn’t a cake walk for Chris either, he certainly wasn’t dying.

And I was dying.

Thankfully in the end Chris and I puled ourselves together and made it all the way without the need for rescue. And after that, the rest of the weekend was spent with Eric, Kevin, and Adrienne in Monterey and Carmel — hanging out, eating yummy things, and taking loads of pictures.

From Monterey Bike Weekend

So why was this ride so painful? I blame the hardcore leg, back, and ab workout we did the night before. Chris, being smarter than me, took it wwaaaayyy easy during the workout. But did I? No. And did I pay for it? Yes.

Going up Old La Honda (which is the major climb to get up to Skyline) was just painful. My heartrate at the start was 160! At the start! And pretty much the rest of the climb up consisted of me trying desperately (and in vain) to keep my heartrate out of the mid-high 160s. I was a bunny heart trapped inside a giant concrete body. You know how back in the day the power ranger would sit inside that giant mondo machine-dude to battle sometimes? It was like that. Except, instead of a (dare I say) kung-fu fighting warrior inside the machine it was a weak bunny trying to pull an impossibly heavy block of concrete up a mountain… with itsy bitsy levers.

In other words, pain!

Finally, after a freezing descent and moderately painful second climb, we made our way to Pescadero and had some much needed food. My stomach was actually growling by the time we got there, which doesn’t usually happen to me on rides (which tells me part of the pain probably came because I was so tired I wasn’t forcing myself to eat properly.) In Pescadero I ate a good 1/2 a loaf of garlic bread and 1/2 a coke and started feeling significantly better. Not 100% by any means but better to the point where I could at least imagine making it into Santa Cruz.

From there we went down Cloverdale, suffered, suffered, and then oh! A sign about chocolate dipped strawberries and coffee! At that point I took the lead, picked up the pace, and lead us into Swanton farms.

Oh.My.Gosh!! We parked our bikes next to the door and were delighted to find all sorts of sugary delights waiting for us inside! Baskets of strawberries, truffles of all sorts, chocolate dipped strawberries, jams, etc. and in the frige they had these awesome looking strawberry shortcakes and little crumble tart thingies. And last but not least coffee and strawberry hot apple cider!

After my little excited “new foods!” dance, we settled on coffee (for the caffeine), a chocolate dipped strawberry, and strawberry shortcake.

They were all perfect! I’d especially like to point out that the whipped cream on the shortcake was most definitely hand whipped and perfect. One of my favorite parts about biking is the freedom it gives you to explore and find awesome little places like this! Total score!

From Monterey Bike Weekend

After our most wonderful break we made our way (slowly but surely) into Santa Cruz. And, after calling Eric and realizing he wasn’t going to even be leaving his house for quite a while, we decided we’d suck it up and keep making our way to Monterey.

And so we did! I think the only other highlight of the ride was the bike path going into Monterey where these dumb cute little bunnies kept running in front of me wheel to cross the path. Solution? I started making a (loud) high pitched tone as I biked, hoping it would scare them off. And by-diggily — it worked!

If you want to see the nitty-gritty details of our ride (or copy our route in the future) you can see it here.

Once we arrived at our Days Inn (I can now say I prefer Motel 6), showered, and talked with the gang a bit, we headed out to Bubba Gump’s for dinner! We tried a few other places first but they were either busy or no longer the restaurants we thought they were.

I got steamed crab legs (which must be a new addition to the menu, since they did not use to have those at all!) and was quite satisfied. Especially because I ate a big bag of candy beforehand!

From Monterey Bike Weekend

Sunday consisted of a lazy breakfast with huge pancakes, doing 17-mile drive (you should really stop and check out the tide pools!), looking at adorable houses, walking around Carmel, and taking the long way back.

From Monterey Bike Weekend

All in all a great weekend!

From Monterey Bike Weekend

Posted by Heather | Filed Under Outdoorsy-ness, ride reports, travel | 6 Comments

Solvang Double Century (my first 200 mile ride!)

March 30, 2010

This past weekend Chris and I did something I thought, up until about 6 months ago, I’d never do in a million years — a double century. The idea of doing two hundred miles on a bike (that doesn’t have a motor) in one day seemed totally unpleasant and unnecessarily painful.

But it turns out that neither unpleasantness nor pain are required. Well…maybe a little pain, but once you’ve done a marathon with stress fractures, everything seems rosy!

From Solvang Spring Double Century

Long story short: for those of you reading this because you’re thinking about doing the Solvang as your first double century, you’ve made a very smart decision! Solvang is a fantastic first time double. There is absolutely no crazy climbing, there’s plenty of food, the riding is nice (minus one friggin horribly nasty descent), and the location is fantastic. Don’t believe me? See my data in serious detail here. Please note the mileage is a bit low because my annoyingly incompetent Garmin turned itself off for a good half an hour. And, because it was like 6AM, I couldn’t see that it was off (because it was dark!)

But now to the real ride report:

Total Mileage: I believe it’s technically 193 miles.
Total Climbing: ~7500 feet (a bit of climbing at the start, and a shorter steeper climb near the end [right after the last rest stop])
Average Heartrate (bmp): 136 (me), 148 (Chris)
Number of Rest Stops: 5 rest stops (4 normal ones plus 1 lunch stop)
Total Time (including stops and everything): 13 hours 45 minutes
Ride Time: 11 hours 56 minutes
Average Speed: 16.1 mph
Start Time: 5:15AM
End Time: 6:59PM

Overall I don’t have much to say about the ride… it’s sort of just a big blur! We originally wanted to start at 5AM but didn’t get going until 5:15. In the end it looks like this was to our advantage — Chris read on the bike forums that the guys checking people out where late, so there were like a hundred cyclists waiting at 5AM with nobody there. But, by 5:15, it was all cleared for us!

From Solvang Spring Double Century

We got lucky going into the first stop (mile 42ish) when two tandems zoomed up by us. We, like everyone else in the vicinity, made a dash for their back wheel and were lucky enough to catch on. Since my one and only crash, which landed me in the hospital (crying like a baby), I’ve been very reluctant to “really” draft… so I just sort of get near enough to the back wheel in front of me that I feel some benefit but not enough that if they put on the brakes my life would flash before my eyes.

From Solvang Spring Double Century

Ah… but speaking of drafting, here’s my one giant pet peeve of this event: Moochers. Or dare I say, Wheel Suckers. These are the people who, as you pass them, speed up and try and grab your wheel for dear life and then, once they’re there, stay behind you and draft FOR-EVER. And they don’t say a word! They don’t ask, they don’t announce their presence — they just sit there and friggin draft off you.

FOR-EVER.

There were multiple people throughout the day who would get right behind me and draft for literally over an hour. But this one dude took the cake. This guy, no shit, probably drafted off us for over 30 miles! Without even a word!

Eventually the injustice of it was too overwhelming so I pedaled up next to Chris and told him to slow down so this dude could take his turn (I was still hoping this guy just didn’t know how to get in front of us to offer). So Chris slowed down, I slowed down, and we just sort of looked at him.

And what did he do?

He slowed down too. (!)

Finally, after a long while he decided to step up, be a man, and take a turn. But for how long? Oh… maybe four minutes. Actually, probably less than that. I thought he was joking!

Eventually we just got sick of it and pulled over… at which point he slowed down and said, “So…I just keep going straight then?”
To which I replied “Oh yep!”
To which Chris replied (to me, when the guy was gone): “W.T.F!?”

So yes, these moochers are really really serious on double centuries. It was sort of too bad, really. It’s a cool opportunity to meet and work together to reach a goal (of making it to the next rest stop), but instead these people just make me feel used.

Now I have to be fair here. Later in the day (I think it was mile 120ish all the way through Pismo) Chris and I ran into a really nice woman with a Furnace Creek jersey on and I probably drafted off her for a good 15 miles.

From Solvang Spring Double Century

So how is this different? Well, we traded pulls in the beginning (until it was my turn and I went too fast up a mini-climb and accidentally dropped her) but it became pretty much overwhelmingly clear that she could kick both our asses and still make it back in time for tea. And once that was cleared up we all just chit-chatted and she led the way (with Chris confirming directions) for a nice chunk of the day. Eventually she saw some other faster sexier riders (who I’m telling myself she knew) and she dropped us like a bad habit.

But anyways, to future riders: Don’t be a bad person. If you’re going to draft, take your friggin turn! Or at least say “dude…I’m dying here, I can barely hold on… can I draft for a bit?” To which I’d say “ah, I feel your pain my friend — draft away”

And we’d be good.

But moving on!

The ride was definitely harder for Chris than it was for me and I think that was a nutrition thing. By mile 110 Chris was looking forward to a break and food (which would be lunch, mile 118) whereas I was just pedaling away. And for the rest of the day it was sort of like that… but getting worse. Chris would feel better leaving the rest stop but after a while would just be miserable. And this is in contrast to me who really has a hard time getting going after stopping (and thus is not a big fan of it!)

From Solvang Spring Double Century

So in the future Chris is going to drink two bottles of full dose (2.5 scoops/bottle) Perpetuum per ride segment (usually around 40ish miles) instead of one and a bottle of Gatorade Endurance. The Gatorade just doesn’t have the calories and nutritional benefits (we think) he needs. Oh, and we’ll get some endurolytes (basically salt pills.) At the end of the day I think doubles are really a test of willpower, patience, and proper nutritional planning and execution way more than a test of physical strength. If you can do a century comfortably, you can complete a double like Solvang — with the caveat that you figure out your nutrition and stick to it.

So for the last 90 miles we did our best to keep our speed “up” but definitely had to chill a little to make sure Chris didn’t break up with me. It was touch and go for a while.

The last stop was the best. My booty was ON FIRE and I was oh so happy to get off my little seat (Chris’ butt was just fine… so unfair). And what did we find at this rest stop? Cup o Noodle and our friend Ryan (Ryan also did the AIDS ride last year.) So we all talked and ate for a bit before doing the last 16 miles of the day.

From Solvang Spring Double Century

So…the final climb. It’s the thing you’re worried about (you future Solvang-ers, you!). And I’m here to tell you it’s really not that bad. No honestly, it’s not.

Granted, you’re going to be tired. Your legs won’t be baby-fresh. In fact, you may want to just fall over and go to sleep. But no matter what you can do this. It’s a bit steeper (it’s about 2.3 miles of 6% average but there are some parts that steeper than that [like 11 or 12%]) but it’s doable. And, whatever — take your time! Enjoy the sights! You’re a biking machine!

From Solvang Spring Double Century

But with all that said I would recommend you get your monster-self to that climb before nightfall because the road is horrible. Going up the climb isn’t so bad because you’re going so slow, but the descent is objectively awful! It’s way worse than Tunitas before it was repaved. We are talking seriously bumpy, seriously pot-hole-y, and just plain painful. My bike was rattling so bad down that thing… I just kept thinking “If I fall, at least it’ll be slightly more glorious doing it on a double than doing it back home!”