Day 47, September 17th 2007 (Richardson Grove,CA to Manchester,CA)

The light hadn't even started to pour in as I set off for the road this morning. I started to ride for the first 30 minutes with all of my extra warm clothes on, but since it warmed up so quickly I was able to ride comfortably with shorts and a jersey for the remainder of the afternoon. The ride started with high traffic on highway 101, even though it was as early as it was. I was on a fairly flat road for the first time in awhile and it was nice to wake up to a good break. After riding for the first 15 miles of the morning I was off of 101 and this was a detour that was going to last awhile. I was able to head off on highway 1 and was able to get myself as close to the coast as possible. I started with a brutal awakening to what I was going to deal with for the remainder of the day. There was a significant mountain that I climbed that was just as difficult as it was beautiful. I was riding around some incredibly windy roads and going up and up to about 2,000 feet. It was an incredible climb and the downhill seemed just as phenomenal. I was constantly holding my brakes as I flew down each twist and turn. Anything over 15 mph around these turns and you would go down the mountain, but not on the road. It was a great wake up for the morning and it had me riding well aware of my surroundings in only a few seconds. There were hardly any cars on the road and that helped a substantial amount. The road was so narrow and full of all this new terrain that with a lot of traffic it might have been the last road of my trip. After spending a good 20 miles through the mountainous terrain I started to see the highway 1 that I had heard so much about. The road opened up to a beautiful vast ocean as soon as I escaped the mountains. I had been given such a ride for the day that I took about a half hour break overlooking the ocean at a nearby park. It was a perfect way to relax for a little while in the afternoon. The temperature was just perfect and it was great both off and on the bike. As I started to ride again I was along the coast and was closer than I had been on my entire trip along the ocean. The road was constructed in a way that was to be with the ocean always visible and with that came quite the demand, physically. For the entirety of the day I was on a road that would take me up and down and around turns left and right. It could be compared to riding a bicycle along a roller coast ride of a terrain. Nothing seemed like it stayed level for more than 10 feet. With that came a lot of shifting and working to get forward the extra miles. Needless to say, by the time I was able to get myself to where I wanted to be for the night it felt great. I had taken myself about half way down the coast of highway 1 and my legs could easily tell that this part of the trip made Oregon's coast, still difficult, seem like nothing at all. I could only think during my ride about some of the other riders that I had met along the way that were carrying about two or three times as much luggage as me. Not only were the other riders I had seen larger than me but with 80-90 lbs of luggage, some climbs almost seemed impossible. The grades were fairly tremendous on a few hills and with so many so often I knew that a lot of riders were going to have to take it easy in California. Although I had put in a fair amount of miles to get to set up camp for the evening, I knew that to be where I wanted to tomorrow it was going to take a few more miles. I didn't waste anytime at all to set up camp and prepare myself for the rest I needed because tomorrow was going to be a longer ride, but the beginning to a much longer vacation.
Daily mileage: 100.5 miles
Average Speed: 11.9 mph
Total mileage: 2,969.9 miles