Fort Bragg to San Francisco, California: If you're going, to San Francisco ...

January 4, 2013

We peeked out the motel door and confirmed that we were still in California. We could tell by the tropical looking plants and the sunshine. So clearly we had not retreated North. It remained, though, to finalize our retreat South. We saddled up and put in our 1 km of cycling for today, down to the U-Haul place.

At U-Haul we were helped by Eileen. If there was any pain in doing this "retreat", Eileen eased it by understanding what we were trying to do with the cycle trip and with the truck rental. She went through all the options with patience and an infectious good humour. We were glad she was there for this chore, and glad to have met such a nice person overall.

Eileen explains the options at the U-Haul

Once in the truck, we buzzed down to just beyond Moindocino, and snapped a photo of the place that we now view with such mixed feelings. Then we continued down the road, taking careful note of the hills and distances, and the places where there were or more likely were not accommodations. Over the terrain that would have been our first two or three days on the bikes, we judged that the trip would have been tough and costly, but possible.

The Point Arena lighthouse. Closest point on the continent to Hawaii!

Two temporarily bike free tourists at the lighthouse.

But then we came to the minimum 16 km stretch just before the town of Jenner. For this area, Spring and Kirkendahl eloquently and accurately say "The highway becomes a bare etching across the steep, unstable cliffs ahead. Caltrans has installed a gate that will be closed when the road or hillsides ahead are deemed unstable." They refer to the ride, though, with staggering understatement - calling it "strenuous". If strenuous means that I might just be barely able to push the darn thing slowly over portions of the road, then yeah, it's strenuuous. But I would also add terrifying and bloody darn dangerous.

If this road looks like aroller coaster, that's because it is!

There is no shoulder, the road is narrow, and over the side is a cliff. In the truck, I tried to keep my eyes riveted on the center yellow line. If I looked up a bit, I would see only blue - blue sky or blue sea, depending at what wild angle we were travelling. I haven't checked other blogs about this, so maybe I'll feel silly for overreacting, but this is a road I do not want to cycle ever, not in any season, not in any weather. I am glad we went through it in the truck, and I am glad the truck is not in the sea!

After Jenner we cut away form the coast and passed through part of Sonoma county, headed for 101, which runs inland. Here we saw vines, part of the famous Sonoma wine industry. Soon we joined 101, and noted the sign that prohibited bikes. Hmpph, we thought, better this traffic with a wide shoulder than clinging to the cliff on the coast with no shoulder. But soon the traffic became high spped bumper to bumper, and a constant flow of cars was using the on and off ramps. In spots, the shoulder disappeared, and throughout it was four lanes in each direction. So I am not reallysure how a cyclist can reasonably expect to safely negotiate any roads north of San Francisco. Again, the UHaul was looking pretty good.

Once in the city we pullerd into a motel with room to park the truck. Their earlier $70 quote became $90 because now it is Friday, which is defined as the weekend. Across the street was a romantic Italian restaurant. Romantic means the lights are too dim to really read the tourist maps we brought or even the menu! However my high tech camera reveals that the menu writers need a lesson in punctuation. What really comes with that roast beef? No matter, I can report that it was super good.

Now that we have also been able to read the maps, we see we are well positioned to check out a bit more of San Francisco tomorrow. Here are all those famous neighborhoods: Fishermans Wharf, Telegraph Hill, Russian Hill, Tenderloin, Mission, Castro, Haight-Ashbury, etc. This time, it will just be a brief stroll for us, but at least we will target Ghiardelli Square (chocolate!), and of course the Boudin Bakery (sourdough!).

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