A Windy Day at Point Reyes

July 2, 2016

Weather = Windy, cold and foggy.

Part 2 of this trip was to drive down to the Point Reyes National Seashore and bike out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse from the town of Inverness. About a 30 mile round trip.

We left early on Saturday morning as it is quite a drive out there. During the trip out I noticed the closer we got the harder the wind was blowing. We arrived at Inverness about 10:15 a.m. and the wind was quite strong. As the first part of the ride involved a steep hill we decided to drive a bit further and then park and ride. The further we got out onto the peninsula the harder the wind, the temperature was dropping and then the fog rolled in.

At one point we stopped at a reasonable place to park the car, got out, looked at each other and decided we were quite mad.

After driving quite a ways, I looked at the map and decided we were in striking distance of our goal. We found a spot halfway up a hill, parked and loaded the bikes up. Off we went straight uphill into a fierce headwind. This sucked. We finally reached the turn off to the lighthouse and Cameron had had enough. Not to denied I talked him into continuing and he suggested he wouldn't ride back and the plan was for me to ride back and pick him up with the car. The road turned somewhat west which finally put the wind at our side and after another hill we could see the road led us down to the lighthouse visitor center. Once we reached our goal, we rested out of the wind inside the visitors center for awhile.

Decisions, decisions. Would we venture out into the wind and tackle the 300 plus stairs down to the lighthouse in the fog. In the end we made the decision to hop on the bikes and head home. I have visited the lighthouse previously on a nice day so will admit defeat today.

The ride back wasn't as bad, the wind was behind us and most of the trip was downhill.