Kiki Bikes Across America

Sunday, August 16th – Burlington Campground, CA to Westport Union Landing State Park, CA

I got up about 6:15 in the morning and packed up – and didn’t have to pack up in the wet, which was nice. I rolled out around 7:30 in the morning into the cold again all bundled up with everything on including pants this time. I started shedding layers about 5-7 miles into the ride and continued riding through the Redwoods thru Myers Flat and further. I continued on to Garberville, about 22 miles from the start this morning. There I stopped in at Treats, a shop that has ice cream, sandwiches, breakfast burritos, and such. They also have wireless internet but require a $3/hour purchase, so I got a breakfast burrito and tried to start updating my site a bit. I was having problems with the GPS track uploading, so none of that is up to date and probably won’t be now for a while since I can’t get anything uploaded. I added all my journal entries that I’d written to that point and wasted way too much time trying to do all of that. I also downloaded photos onto the computer since my cards were getting full on me.

Another large Redwood

I rolled out from the little cafe about 12 noon and ran into Wayne on the street. He had bike problems – his wheel (from 2001 or so) finally gave out and he had to get a new 26″ wheel, which he was lucky enough to find in this town. I went down to Getti Up, a burger and coffee  place where Roy and Tom were waiting for Wayne and eating lunch. I grabbed a burger, fries, and lemonade there and chatted with them for a bit and then went to Ray’s grocery store to try and find some food since I didn’t have any ‘real’ food. I picked up some ramen and another bag of penne pasta hoping I’d have someway to cook it tonight. I also bought a bottle of rubbing alcohol (70%) and hope I can burn that for my cooking. I guess we’ll see. I left the town of Garberville about 1:30pm and headed on to do the major climb before and after Leggett. I’d have a 2,000 foot climb that was pretty steep. I climbed the first 1,000 feet without noticing much of a climb – it was fairly gradual, I thought. I stopped in at the campground there to refill on water and saw another cyclist who’s also heading to San Francisco, but he’s got tons of time so is doing super short days of 20-30 miles. We chatted briefly and then I left to continue up the big hill and try and conquer it before it got dark and cold. I climbed 2,000 feet, 7% grade, and 4 miles up the hill. I rewarded myself at the top with a cliff bar and some gatorade and then headed on down the hill which was less steep than I had hoped – I had to work for my ride down the hill and actually do a lot of pedaling. I passed two more cyclists climbing up the other way (one who didn’t have gear, and the other who did but looked like a homeless guy on a ride somewhere).

Sun going down on the coastline of California

Once the sun was gone, it got really cold in the woods and I was freezing. I decided not to bundle up so that I could keep my orange shirt on for visibility instead of putting a long-sleeve shirt on top. I eventually had to pull out my rain jacket to wear on top for wind protection from the hill and to keep warm. I climbed another hill, again another fairly steep one, but only 800 feet or so in elevation gain. I had a nice downhill from that one at least and then I had another 6 miles or so until I hit the coast and then shortly later I pulled into Westport Union Landing Beach State Park to set up camp.

Sunset from Westport Union Beach Landing State Park

At the camp, I met an older couple (Rosie and Dave and their dog “Scooter) in their 70s out camping (RV style) and asked if I could sit with them around their fire and they were cool with that and we chatted for a bit and I cooked my dinner over the fire. I finished off my pesto and had another round of penne pesto pasta with parmesan cheese which was delicious! I washed up and called it a night by 10pm or so.

GPS Stats:
70.3 miles
06:41 moving time
10.5 avg speed
44.2 max speed

Computer Stats:
72.96 miles
06:46:41 moving time
10.7 avg speed
45.0 max speed

Snake count: 2