Day 13 : Jenner, CA - Mill Valley, CA
Bike: Specialized Roubaix
Miles ridden: 75.8
Total elapsed mileage: 826.7
Time in saddle: 5:58
Average speed for day: 12.6
Maximum speed for day: 36.1
Today we lost Sean's company. Bob and I arrived back in Jenner at 8:30 after a pleasant drive from Santa Rosa and shortly found Sean. He had spent an overpriced and not particularly comfortable night in a B&B, had not had breakfast and was still feeling pretty beaten up from the previous day's marathon. After some discussion between the two of us and a reassessment of Sean's motives and goals, he said he would ride the 43 miles to Point Reyes Station, then reclaim his panniers and other gear from Bob at noon, take a long rest, then make his way to San Francisco for the rest of the 4th of July weekend.
But it was not to be quite like that. Sean was flagging before the day really began, and by the time we reached Tomales, at 11:30 and still 16 miles from Point Reyes Station, he insisted I go on and said he would catch up when he could. I did so, but at 12:00 I called Bob and asked him to head back north until he met Sean and bring him in, and we arrived in the boutique- and Saturday farmers' market-rich crossroads of Point Reyes Station at about the same time, 12:40. A grateful Sean bought us lunch and readily accepted our offer for Bob to drive him to Sausalito, our chosen day's end point, so he could ride across the Golden Gate and enter San Francisco, one of the cherished life goals of this Colorado-born and -raised 41 year-old, who had never seen the sea until his first day out of Astoria. We exchanged emails and promised to keep in touch. He also promised to follow this blog.
Rather than try to replicate my 1961 day's run and end in Stinson beach, I followed Adventure Cycling's map advice to take a more inland route to enter Marin County from the northwest. After a challenging, sometimes hot (low 90s) and highly varied ride that took me from 3.5 miles of paved forest trail through rural and then suburban communities to fast, four-lane highways, and after wasting about five miles and 25 minutes on a wrong turn and a missed turn, I arrived in Mill Valley, a few miles short of Sausalito but where we were to spend the night with a cousin of Bob, at 4:40, and he arrived with cousin at about 5:00 and brought me in. A shower and glass of wine never felt or tasted better, and our hostess's spare ribs and corn on the cob truly hit the spot.
Bob assured me that I had made a good choice in following Adventure Cycling's advice rather than replicating my 1961 route through Stinson Beach and over the Coast Range to Sausalito. Fourth of July weekend being upon us, traffic was heavy all the way, there was no place to stop, much less to park, in Stinson Beach, and the road over the top was harrowing, poorly maintained and clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic.
With today's greater-than-anticipated mileage we are again ahead of what I programmed. If I add ten miles to my planned day's run tomorrow and again on Monday, we can shuttle to Morro Bay Monday afternoon-evening rather than Tuesday and, I hope, arrive in Long Beach/Newport Beach as early as lunchtime Saturday, July 9th, day 20 of the Half-Century Ride.
Didn't speak to any other riders today, but saw or crossed paths with many. Our day's itinerary, at least from Bodega Bay (where Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds was filmed, if memory serves me), is apparently very popular with riders from the Bay area. Point Reyes Station is clearly a popular rendezvous place for men and women in lycra and on high-end bikes.
Until tomorrow,
The Phantom Cyclist
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