Day 57 Bodega Dunes to Samuel P Taylor Park: Another Long Day!

August 29, 2017

So, when we looked at the map for this day, we noticed that early on it was sort of flatish, and we assumed that we would make some good time in this portion whereas later in the day there were some hills where we would slow down. For us, this was going to be a long day, but we did have options to bail out earlier if necessary. We now had a Warmshowers host lined up in Oakland, having had no luck with the requests we sent out for San Francisco – I guess everyone was either away or just too busy, but many of the requests we sent out went unanswered. We had been a little worried about this, so Jim asked about on the Pacific Coast Facebook page and we got a recommendation for a woman in Oakland who responded right away, so we were super happy about that. By now, we knew we would be in San Francisco in a few days, and realized that the Seattle Seahawks would be playing their last preseason game in Oakland on Thursday, so we had something to shoot for, making this long day necessary in order to make it for the game – oh the things that motivate us!

more cows who look at us like they've never seen Canadians before - what is it with these guys?

We were heading inland and stopped for second breakfast at the little town of Valley Ford before heading off for the “easy” part of our day.

not a bad place - they had coffee and food - what more can you ask for?

Ha! The joke was on us! We came around a turn after Valley Ford, and although the road was flat, we were riding into the teeth of a very intense headwind coming down the valley – ugh! Once we pushed through the valley, we came to some short but very sharp hills that did not show up on our map. Now, I have gotten used to hills and they are all ok, but I like to know when to expect them and these were unexpected and unwelcome by us. It was also getting much hotter as we moved more inland, which added to the difficulty. We knew we were tired when we passed by a road construction sign which was sideways, making it look as if the guy was laying down on the job, and did not even stop to take a picture – bad move! However, we did stop as needed to drink water and eat snacks so as not to have a repeat of my epic meltdown the other day.

saw this cool yard along the way - someone has a lot of time on his/her hands!

Eventually we came upon the town of Marshall, in which there was supposedly a store and a restaurant. The only place in town turned out to be an oyster bar (we both hate oysters). Arriving at the end of the town, we were disappointed, but then came upon a lovely closed restaurant right on the water. They had some picnic tables complete with umbrellas outside, so we parked the bikes, took out our own food and had a lovely picnic lunch by the water.

closed, but they provided us with the perfect spot for a picnic - thanks, Tony's!

After our very satisfying PB&J sandwiches, the day got better. What was supposed to be the harder part turned out to be not so hard at all, and we actually enjoyed the hill climbing and views that we had along the way.

We rolled into the town of Point Reyes Station, not knowing what to expect. What we found was a charming little town with lots of shops, and interesting things to look at. We stopped for some iced coffee and were sorely tempted to find a hotel, but the lure of football kept us from doing so. We finished our coffees, grabbed a few groceries and headed out of town, but this is a place that I would love to return to one day!

Out on the road we had one long, long, hill to climb before a delightful downhill and a quick turn onto the trail that would lead us to Samuel P Taylor Park. The trail was a welcome respite from the hot road as it had a canopy of trees for much of it. As well, it was fairly flat (for real!), so we slowed down to enjoy this last part of a really long day.

what a nice trail to find at the end of a long day!

As we came into the park, a couple of guys passed by, also on bikes with gear. We asked if this was they right way to the hiker/biker site and they assured us we were going in the right direction. Eventually we made it and found not only the two fellows we had met, but Pat, who had been at Bodega Dunes last night! We enjoyed chatting with these guys while we made up our dinner. It was then time for a shower and off to play some cards before bed. The end of a long, but ultimately satisfying day. Tomorrow we are booked to camp at a spot above the Golden Gate Bridge. It doesn’t have a view of the bridge as we had hoped, and it is a very primitive site – no running water, so we’ll see how that goes.

Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 2,033 km (1,262 miles)

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