impact

What a journey!

I have just returned from my "mini" quest to Petaluma. A quick check with god (google) tells me the whole trip was about 525 miles. In one week, it was quite an intense journey.

Last Tuesday I spent the night at Burlington in the Humboldt Redwoods along the Avenue of the Giants, a fairly mellow ride. I loaded up the borrowed bike with minimal gear; two panniers with a tent and sleeping bag. Since I had places to stay lined up for the rest of the way down I left my camping gear at Burlington to lighten my load.

One great lesson I learned from this trip is to always travel with camping gear :)

As I look back on last Wednesday's ride, I wonder if I either didn't know how long it was going to be, or I just thought I was invincible & immune to 108C weather. I left Burlington around 10am, in a mediocre mood (I hadn't slept very well, but I was still stoked to be on the road), and arrived at my couchsurfing destination of Ukiah at ~ 11:45pm. Most - Brutal - Ride - Ever ~ Last Wednesday was probably the hottest so far this summer for the inland Mendocino area, and sure I could just stop if it really became too difficult, but I left my gear in Humboldt! I was going through liquids at an alarming rate, and although I drank plenty of water, I did a really meager job of replenishing electrolytes and ended up totally dehydrated. In my delirium I made the final stretch down into Ukiah on the 101 in the darkness with no front lights, pretty crazy but hey ~ I'm alive. My host Renee was so wonderful, she was ready to offer me another night to stay after I showed up in such a state. I'm really lucky my body is so wonderful, it bounced back after enough sleep and nutrition and I was able to stay on schedule to reach Petaluma on Friday.

Simply put ~ I've had some pretty epic rides on this trek after last Wednesday, but they all seem soo easy now :)

Thursday brought me to Healdsburg, which is a quiet town in Sonoma wine country. My mind was in a good place on Thursday, having made it through the ordeal of the prior day. Meeting my host Taya elevated my mind to a far more zen state, which is what I truly crave :) We spoke much of philosophies and adventure, and I learned a great deal about losing my ego.

Friday morning I met Taya and her cycling friend Richard for breakfast, we all chatted a bit and Richard offered to ride with me part of the way to Petaluma. Riding with Richard was the first time during all of my trekking that I have had a companion on the road, it was incredible! Richard knew the route well, so I didn't have to worry about navigation, and the miles flew by with tales of epic quests. Being the adventurous kook he is, Richard actually rode with me all the way to Petaluma, and then to my final destination of Sebastopol.
Notable Exciting Moments;
~ Richard tipping over due to a stuck clip-in
~ First flat tire since SLO
and at one point I did get those bike components that this whole trip was for in the first place... :)
but seriously they look epic and I'm really excited to get my bike up and running!

In Sebastopol I had a nice stay with Amy and Jeff of warmshowers. I really liked the town, it is quite unfortunate that it has a highway running right through the center :(
At this point I didn't have any plan for making my way back up to Arcata, so I spent some good time using the resources offered by my hosts and started plotting out some places I could stay.

After my brutal experience coming down the 101, I opted for the coastal route to bring me back to Humboldt. I found a warmshowers host in Elk (15 miles South of Mendocino) who responded yes to either of the two possible days I requested. With a relaxed time frame to make it to Elk, I decided to take my day off to shorten the overall ride and spend the night in Healdsburg with Taya. I wasn't wiped out this time around, and there was a lot of daylight left so we had a nice cruise around town and had some more extra wonderful conversation.

I left Healdsburg with a solid route; follow the 101 to Cloverdale, and then hop on the 128 all of the way to the coast. Most of the ride was on the 128, which was decent for traffic, but unfortunately there were a lot more drivers grazing by than usual, it's ok ~ I lived. Around 25 miles form the coast I stopped in Boonville and met a fellow adventurer, we chatted a bit about our journeys and of possible routes North. With some good food in my tummy, I left Boonville, tucked into a nice aero position, and let the energy of the ocean pull me west. As the coast came closer and closer, I understandably became more and more excited to see it. Coming into the final mile of the 128 I started acting really silly, stoking out on the ocean and it's energy. In my super aero position, charging west, I glanced backwards to check the road for safety and as my vision swept back to the frontal area I realized I was now biking on a new route, one headed right for the shrubs on the side of the road. I honestly can't remember the last time I crashed, but wow it was exciting, such a rush! The shrubs must have been just the right thickness because I was fairly unscathed, my knee has been a little stiff, but nothing worrisome :)

As I hit the coast, there was one last small climb up towards Elk, so I got off to walk and give my knee a break, but just as I did I noticed some cyclists up the way and and couldn't pass up meeting traveling spirits :) They were looking pretty exhausted, and I had a good vibe about the place I was staying so I encouraged them to come to the door and ask about setting up camp. Good call :) Judy, my host, along with her family and friends, was super nice. Their land was unbelievable, lovely house, lovely vegetation, and a lovely barn (where we slept).

Monday morning I was hoping for a short ride to Fort Bragg followed by a nice stay with Pat who I met on my previous trek through the area, but she wasn't around when I stopped in and I was in a riding mood. Twenty miles after Fort Bragg is one of the biggest climbs of the entire coastal route, which for some odd reason I decided I should do twice in two weeks. The universe being as unpredictable as it usually is, I actually found a great deal of enjoyment in my climb. I rocked the ups and downs with a really solid pace and before I knew it I was in Legget where the 1 meets the 101. Since I hadn't set up a place to stay along the way, my only real option was to make it back to Burlington, the ride in went fairly smooth. My only trouble came when I made it to the Avenue of the Giants, at this point there is only about 18 miles to Burlington and I was feeling great, but it was around 9:30 and the forest gets really thick on the avenue, so not much light hits the road. At first the darkness was giving me some creepy chills but after a while I my thoughts of forest monsters faded because I had to focus all of my attention on what I thought was the white line marking the side of the road and making sure I was in between it and what appeared to be the yellow line in the middle. Some of the patches of road were in near pitch black and my eyes played some crazy tricks on me, but I found the campground just before 11pm and set up camp, and munched some yum yums :)

Today's ride (Tuesday) was a wet one. I woke up along with a huge group of hiker~bikers to thunder and lightning, which subsided after a short while leaving behind a nice sprinkle of rain. The rain was exciting to ride in, but most of the excitement centered around making it back to me home base of Arcata. A flat tube just outside of Eureka slowed me down a little, but as I reached my exit off of the 101 into town I was sooo stoked! I love this place, there is so much good food and so many good vibe people :)

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So ya, it was quite an intense journey, and a pretty long blog, but all in all it went fantastically well. Now I am here in Arcata, chilling to the maximum, eating lots of incredible food, and anticipating a wonderful nights sleep. Once my bike is road ready I will be packing up and heading North, I don't have any idea of the route I'll take but I'm eager to see some more coast :)

Thank you so much for sending me your energy during my journey, it keeps me going day after day, and it keeps me safe through all of these ridiculous events.

Stay connected, I love hearing from all you beautiful people :)

More artsy, less dense posts to follow ~_~

be love!