Two little mice fell into a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned, but the second mouse, he struggled so hard that he eventually churned that cream into butter and he walked out.
San Francisco, CA –> Fort Bragg, CA (184 Miles) <– Click for map
After a few weeks I finally have my bike back and it’s time to head out on my solo road trip. This is the part of my trip that I’m most excited for because I think this is when I’ll grow and learn the most about myself. I have hours to talk to myself in my helmet while I bask in the glory of the U.S. landscape.
It’s been a rough time getting ready. I had decided to get new tires before I head out but on my way to the shop I realized I had a stripped bolt on my rear sprocket. Before leaving for Europe, I had ordered a new sprocket so it’d be here when I got back. Unfortunately, after bringing it to the shop they found out that multiple bolts were stripped and it’d be more economical to order a whole rear wheel assembly kit than drilling out the bolts. It took another two weeks for those additional parts to come in. Then, the night before I was supposed to leave I was trying to add my new saddle bags and ended up stripping the bolts. At this point, I was about ready to give up. It felt like it just wasn’t meant to be. Shelley and I headed to her dad’s place and he was able to them off after a half our of work.
I spent the morning of my first day putting on my new saddle bags and packing my bike. By 1pm I was ready to go and was debating waiting to leave until the next morning, but I knew I had certain dates I wanted to meet up with friends in Portland, Seattle, and Anchorage so I decided to head out.
After crossing the Golden Gate bridge I stopped in Marin for some gas and this random hippy lady started talking to me. She was so excited when I told her I was taking my bike to Alaska and started to reminisce about her trips with her husband. She kept saying everything was “weird,” like how long it stayed light out. Then she mention how she was tripping on acid most of the time which made all the “weird” comments make sense.
For most of the day I rode up along the coast and there was nobody on the road. The weather was cold but I just double layered my jacket and used some warm gloves. I didn’t stop too much along the way because I had seen the coast line previously when I had driven to Santa Barbara and I needed to get as far north as possible.
One of the rules I had set for myself was to not eat out at any fast food or national chains. Once I got to Fort Bragg I saw a burger stand on the side of the road called Jenny’s Giant Burgers and decided to try it out. After riding for 4 hours it definitely hit the spot.
While I was eat dinner I did some research about where to camp nearby. I read that there was some campgrounds just north of me at MacKerricher State Park. When I turned off the highway I saw signs outside that the campground was full and my stomach dropped. I had been riding all day and just wanted get my my tent set up and relax.
I decided to go in and ask the ranger if they could direct me to an open campsite, but they were already gone. At the ranger stand it said that the site was full but sites 27 and 143 may still be open. There was a couple behind me that was trying to figure out where to camp as well so we decided to split up and check the potentially open campsites. When I got to 143 it was already taken and so were all the walk up spots. As I was heading out I saw the couple from before pulling into a campsite. It was only reserved for the next two days, not that night. Todd and Linda kindly invited me to join them for the night.
Once I got all set up I felt like I could finally relax. The campsite was less than 100 yards from the ocean and I was there just in time to enjoy the sunset. When it finally got dark at 10pm I crawled into my tent and was lulled to sleep by the crashing waves.
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