Pacific Coast Cycling Tour - Day 11

Garberville to Fort Bragg – 71 Miles (114km) http://t.co/nrIabbvZ

Cycling the pacific coast is the hardest thing I've ever done. I had to dig deep today. I left Garberville this morning at about 9:15. The next town is Leggett, about 40km away, and then the notorious Hwy no 1 to the coast. Coming off a 140km day, then a 120km day yesterday, I was starting to worry if I could pull another 120km day to Fort Bragg. It's not just the distance, highway 1 is a very narrow, and windy road, with a straight climb to 1800 ft elevation. Leggett is a climb too.

As I was making my way up to Leggett, I started thinking about stopping in Leggett, after 40km, just to rest the legs a little, and be healthier for the coastal leg tomorrow. I was already tired, and my legs and knees were sore, and I was dreading the highway 1 climb. I arrived in Leggett, and realized there's nothing there. It's not even a town, more like a village. I wasn't sure I could spend all whole day there, so I checked my map, and saw I can stay in Westport, 25 km before Fort Bragg for a manageable 90km day. So I carried on.

What I didn't realize, is there is NOTHING between Leggett and Westport, which is 50km away. Not even a store, or campsite, nothing. The highway 1 road climbs up the edge of a mountain side, with no shoulder to speak of on either side. At times, you come around a corner, with your shoulder up against the side of the cliff. Meanwhile, a car pulls up behind you, wanting to pass. There is an occasional pull out where cars can pass, but that's it.

Nevermind all that, I checked my water, and realized I only had less than one water bottle left, the other was completely empty. I started up the climb, and was sweating my ass off. 50km and 3 hours to the next store. I fucked up badly.

I began to ration my water. Only small sips every 10 minutes. I could have guzzled the whole bottle. My lips were constantly dry, I just kept pedaling, but all I could think about, is how am I going to make this water last? I crested the mountain and checked my elevation map. From here, it goes all the way down the mountain to the bottom, and climbs back up another 800 feet, before coming back down into Westport. Wow, another hill. I had about a quarter bottle of water left, but I had to save it. When I got to the bottom, it goes flat for a while, where I saw a bit of a campsite looking place. I pulled over to see if there was any running water, there wasn't. There was a camper parked in the parking lot, so I approached them and asked if there was any water available anywhere, to which they looked puzzled, and replied no. Do you need any? Oh, music to my ears. They loaded up both my bottles, thank goodness. I drank one immediately, and the other I rationed till Westport. Even if I had both bottles full from Leggett, it's still not enough water to make it to the next available store. Crazy. This needs to be mentioned somewhere lol.

After the second hill climb and descent, at roughly 3:00, I could smell the ocean. About 5 minutes later, and I came around a corner, and lo and behold, I was back on the coast, and I had my third, and most intense emotional breakdown of my trip. These usually start as uncontrollable laughter, to something I'll spare you the details of, but I spent about 20 minutes there on the shoulder of the road trying to regain my emotions. It was so beautiful, and the sky was blue, and the ocean was blue, it was amazing. So happy to be on the coast again, and it wasn't foggy. :)

I got to Westport at about 3:30 and like Leggett, there's basically nothing there. I stopped at a store for a coffee and nuts and refueled my water and Gatorade, and said fuckit, and carried on to Fort Bragg. Whats another hour and 23km more.

I'm in Fort Bragg now, and other shitty $50 room, and tired beyond belief. I clocked another 110km again, but this one took a lot out of me. California is not like Oregon. In Oregon, there's a town all the time. In California, they are few and far between. The other thing about riding these long days, is you arrive so late. I liked arriving at 3:30, with time to unwind and relax. I feel like I'm racing through this a bit, and not having time to recover fully everyday.

There are no cities between here and San Fran, so small hick towns it is. I will shoot for Port Arena tomorrow, which looks like about 90km. Sounds about right. We'll see if I can stick to that...