Monday night the evacuation orders for Bodega Bay and Sebastopol were lifted; the fire was under control. We prepared to leave Mendocino, even as the electricity was still out. We'd have no reliable way to recharge our phones and had not been able to contact private campgrounds to find out if they were open. As far as we knew the public campgrounds were closed.
Tuesday's riding was 46 miles of hills, narrow, winding roads and more stunning coastal scenery. Rob complained that he seems to be a magnet for asshole drivers who yell at him to get off the f...cking road. Mostly they leave me alone. They've probably gotten it out of their system by the time they get to me. Or they have better manners around a woman.
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| The view from the bridge in Albion. |
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| Two more photos from the day's ride. |
We stopped for the night at the Anchor Bay Campground. No hot showers, but they did have running water and wifi. It was located in a cove with a small beach just below the tiny town of Anchor Bay.
Wednesday, October 30, turned out to be a longer, harder day than we expected.
We had a ride waiting for us in Jenner, about 40 miles away. I had sent an email request to my cousin Eric and his wife Amy, asking them to pick us up as I couldn't confirm that the state campground in Bodega Bay would be open. Amy agreed to meet us in Jenner and, when we were on the road by 8:30, I told her we could be there by 3:30. Forty miles in seven hours would be no problem. So I thought.
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| The splendid views made up for the challenging terrain. |
Along this part of the coast the narrow road twists and turns down to a cove and back up again, down to a bridge over a river flowing into the ocean, and back up. Over and over again. As I'd drop down into a cove and come back up a hill and see the road winding in front of me, upwards towards the ocean, I'd think, "I've been here before."
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| There was no way I could stop to take a picture as I was riding down and then back up around a cove but maybe this gives you some idea. You can see the road across the way. Picture it dropping down almost to the level of the water and then immediately climbing again. |
We took a leisurely lunch. Looking at our elevation profile map, I said to Rob, “I think we have one more big climb, then it should be pretty easy.” We stopped at a fancy resort, Timber Cove. After parking our bikes we walked down a path to the waterfront where chairs were set up for a wedding. (We found out as we were leaving that the wedding happened on Saturday and all the guests were evacuated at 11 p.m. because of the fire.)
I was in the middle of a good book, The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom. I took it out and read for a while. Rob finished the cheddar cheese and crackers; I ate the rest of the swiss cheese slices with bread and dried mangoes. We had a couple pieces of Lindt 78% dark chocolate and Rob said, “I prefer the 63%.” All the food we buy is a compromise.
The afternoon was not at all what we expected. The hills kept coming, one after another. We had some hills that were so steep a couple times I just got off my bike and walked. So did Rob. At our age we have nothing to prove.
And Rob had not only his pulmonary hypertension to slow him down. He had a mechanical problem. His rear brake rotor somehow got bent and, with every turn of the wheel let out a squeaking noise letting him know that the wheel wasn't spinning freely. I tried to fix it, couldn’t, and Rob said, “I’ll be fine.” I stopped more often than usual to wait, make sure he was doing okay. He never complained. I don't know how he did it.
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| I kept thinking, Jenner is just around that next bend. |
We weren’t going to make it to Jenner by 3:30. We came to a one-lane road construction stop with a traffic light. I always worry that the timing for the light won’t give us enough time to get through before the cars start coming in the other direction. This was a narrow, winding stretch of road. I couldn’t see the end of the one-lane stretch and I couldn’t ride fast because it was slightly uphill. Then cars started coming at me. Fortunately they were going slow; they saw me; and there was enough room for them to pass safely. Rob was behind me. I figured he’d be fine and kept going all the way to Jenner, thinking I’d find Amy and we could come back for Rob.
When I got to the cafe in Jenner at four o'clock, Amy wasn’t there. But I didn’t have to wait too long before she pulled in, with Rob in the truck. She’d gone after us, passed me and before finding a place to turn around, found Rob.
The power was still out at her house when Amy had left to pick us up. As we arrived in Sebastopol, we saw traffic lights working. As we drove up her street, we saw lights on in houses. We pulled into her driveway and went into the house. The power was back on. My cousin Eric came home from work, cooked up some hamburgers, and we sat down to enjoy the final game of the World Series.
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