Day 55 Stillwater Cove Park to Bodega Dunes Park: Don't forget to eat!

August 27, 2017

We knew today was going to be a long and challenging one – probably not going to be taking a lot of pictures on this day! However, we did stop to check out Fort Ross, which contained a Russian village many years ago. Apparently the Russians were making their way down the West Coast and claiming land while the Americans were moving up. This Russian settlement was meant to grow wheat to support villages up in Alaska. It even had the first windmill west of the Mississippi. However, due to some problems (including gophers digging holes and messing things up) the windmill and town were abandoned to the Americans. It was really interesting to stop and look, and I was glad that we did.

A very interesting interlude - glad we stopped to have a look

this is the only actual original building on the site - the rest are replicas. What I found most interesting was the size of the timber used to build it - each piece must have been 2 feet wide!

how the bedrooms would have looked at the time

a little information about the Russian family who lived here.

a replica of the original windmill. This one was built in Russia and sent over in pieces - not sure why they didn't just build it here.

Just after leaving Fort Ross, we came upon Jamie, who is walking from the Mexican border to the Canadian border! What a cheerful young man, and very dedicated to what he is doing – good luck on your journey, Jamie!

Jamie - quite the ambition to walk the whole way!

Jamie's cart. He pushes this thing along and amazingly to us, does about the same distance each day as we do!

I was thinking as we left Fort Ross that we should stop and eat, but knowing we had a lot of distance to cover, I shrugged it off. Bad idea – very very bad idea! We came to a fairly big climb (520 ft) which was along a stretch of road that was very busy with no shoulder. In addition, there were no guard rails along much of the road, so if you made a mistake, goodbye to you!

lots of road with no shoulder and a really really long way down! Don't look as you are riding, that's my advice!

All of this led to a very stressful few hours as we made our way along the hot dusty road, stopping as often as we could to allow traffic to go by. We hadn’t really given the day of week any thought, but now realized that it truly was an error trying to ride here on a Sunday when everyone from down south was heading home. They are not the most patient drivers we have seen, that’s for sure!

We climbed up an enormous hill and then began the most amazing downhill ride – a great long switchback that took us back down to sea level. It was really fun on the bikes, probably not so fun in a car as the turns were pretty tight and cars had to be very careful to maneuver around them.

At the bottom, my body was screaming for me to stop and eat, but I ignored the warning signs and began the climb back out of the gully. Hot, tired and now very very hangry, I had to stop near the top for a break. It was everything I could do not to just sit down and cry. I really really did not want to be here and this was the first time on the whole trip that I felt this way. Jim patiently waited for me to calm down (and wisely didn’t say anything – smart guy that Jim!) and regain my composure so we could finish the climb and ride down into the town of Jenner. There we went into the tiny grocery store but by then I was so overwhelmed I had to give Jim the money and tell him to buy whatever – I just had to get out. I walked across the street and sat by the water to try and get past this moment. Along the way, a guy stopped me to congratulate me on climbing out of the gully. Too bad I was in such a state, I couldn’t even appreciate the compliment! Jim soon came back with blessed food and I attacked my muffin with gusto. It was then that another couple approached and asked about our trip. I ate and Jim talked. They were on a motorcycle trip and maybe a few years younger than us, but the woman said that we were living her dream and she wished she could do something like this. Hmmm…right at that moment I didn’t want to say that I was feeling like it was a nightmare. Luckily, I kept eating and soon felt better. Lesson learned – eat when you need to eat! Do not push your body past what it can do!

Once I was feeling better, we continued on our way to Bodega Dunes. The rest of the ride was a continuation of the morning – busy busy roads, not very patient drivers and narrow shoulders. By the time we arrived, we were pooped! Good thing we have planned to stay two days here to finalize our new plan!

The hiker/biker site at Bodega Dunes was a funny one. It was a sandy area and up a hill so you had to push your fully loaded bike up a sand dune – now who's idea was that? We managed to get ourselves settled and before bed had a little visit with with English couple who were also camped there this night, Josh and Caroline. Josh has been on the road for over a year and Caroline, who is a teacher, had joined him for the summer to tour from Calgary to San Francisco where she would fly back home for the beginning of the school year. Josh has gained funding from an athletic clothing company to post videos and pics while he tours – smart man!

Exhausted after our long long day, we went to bed, looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow and riding into town without all our gear – bliss!

Today's ride: 47 km (29 miles)
Total: 1,971 km (1,224 miles)

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