Dave rides his bike to school

Above: Just before heading up the mountain to Leggett. This is the last ocean view until Eureka, CA.

Above: Tori actually took this pic while she was visiting me in Mendocino (I should have added it to that posting…). As we used to say in high school “Check ya later, nits”. Whatever that means.

Tuesday, 5/30 7am
Location: Leggett, CA
Coordinates:
39.8459 N
123.6940 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 56
Today’s destination: Stafford, CA

I’m at a loss for words right now. Tori left at about 6am to drive back to San Francisco. Today is going to be hard. I miss her already.

We had the most incredible weekend in Mendocino. Everything was perfect. For the most part, we just relaxed and took in the views in and around Mendocino. We ate some great meals, walked around town, and napped alot.

Yesterday (Monday), it was time to get back on my bike. According to the map, the route yesterday included the biggest ascent on the whole Pacific Coast Highway. Since Monday was Memorial Day, Tori didn’t have to work.

You would not believe how supportive Tori was throughout all of yesterday. To start off, she offered to do my laundry in town while I headed off on my bike. She also went to Longs and bought some supplies to make my life easier, like smaller bottles for my detergent and shampoo (the ones I had weighed a lot), a mini roll of TP (to save space), and a nylon wallet (so that I could leave my nice leather wallet at home). On top of that, she got lunch food, so that I wouldn’t have to carry it on my bike. When Tori caught up with me in her car after doing all of those errands, she stopped at EVERY pulloff to cheer me on. She would yell “Woohoo!! You’re doing GREAT, Dave-o!”, everytime that I rode by. I felt like I was doing my first triathlon with Team in Training again. She even drove behind me to block the cars that were zipping around the winding mountain road. When you’re trying to ride you bike across the country, it doesn’t get any better than that…

The day capped off with a climb from sea level to almost 1,800 ft., over the course of the last 15 miles. For about 2 hours straight, it was continuously uphill. Needless to say, it was a challenging ride, but with Tori’s support, I could have done it twice.

Thank you so much Tori.

Above: On the road to Mendocino, CA.

Above: the MacCallum House, which is the B&B in Mendocino that Tori and I are staying in for Memorial Day weekend

Above: Breakfast at the MacCallum House

Above: the view from the front porch of the MacCallum House.  Note the Pacific Ocean in the background.

Above: We found a bakery and an organic corner market, so we ate fresh bread and local cheeses for lunch…

Saturday, 5/27 10pm
Location:
Mendocino, CA
39.3070 N
123.7997 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 47
Today’s destination: I’m staying in Mendocino this weekend.

I almost got stuck in the middle of nowhere today on account of a severe mechanical failure, but I’ll get to that in a second.

I left the campsite at Anchor Bay at around 10am, after saying goodbye to the Stalcup’s and the Hiatt’s (the couple with Calton). Things started off perfectly: the weather was nice, and I was feeling good because I knew that I didn’t have to ride very far that day. I estimated that I should pull into Mendocino between 3pm and 4pm.

As I said, things were going well, and I was making good time. And then… disaster struck! I was reaching the top of a medium-sized hill, with beautiful green farmland on both sides of me, and the Pacific shoreline visible to my left. I tried to shift out of my granny gear, and to my incredible dismay, the chain got jammed between my front gears and the bike frame. The chain was so badly jammed that I could not move the pedals in either direction. In a word, the gears were hosed.

I coasted to the side of the road and leaned my bike over in the grass of the roadside ditch. My plan was to take the chain apart using something called a “master link”, as I had done the day before. The good news was that I was able to take the chain apart just fine, which should have solved the problem. The bad news was that, in the process, I accidentally dropped the master link into the grass. After searching for 10 minutes, I still couldn’t find the master link. Soon, another touring cyclist (a girl heading south) rode past me and offered to help. For the next 5 minutes, the two of us sifted through the grass looking for this stupid chain link. Then, a hitchhiker (hobo?) named Frank caught up to us, and he started looking too. It must have been a funny scene: two people in spandex with bikes, and a hitchhiker all on our hands and knees, by the side of the road searching around on the ground.

Anyway, eventually the girl (who is riding from Minneapolis to San Diego) suggested that we use her chainbreaker tool to attach the chain together. After about 30 minutes, we got the chain reattached, and Frank and the girl continued on their merry ways. Unfortunately, when we put the chain back together, WE DIDN’T PUT IT ON CORRECTLY! As a result, the chain got jammed in the deraileur, and I was stuck again! And the only was to un-jam the chain now was to take the deraileur apart, which required an Allen wrench, which, “just my luck”, I didn’t have. Now I was really worried, because I was again in the middle of nowhere with a useless bicycle, roughly 20 miles from my destination.

Before I started to panic, I walked down the road and knocked on the door of a farmer’s house. Long story short, the farmer happened to have the world’s most well stocked toolshed, and just happened to have an Allen wrench in the exact size that I needed. PHEW! I can’t believe how lucky I was. So, at about 4pm, I was back in business, about THREE HOURS after my original breakdown.

For the rest of the journey to Mendocino, I avoided switching in and out of my granny gear as much as possible, knowing that if my chain jammed again, I’d be up a certain creek without a paddle.

At about 6pm, just as it began raining, I pulled into the Macallum House, a B&B in Mendocino. At 10pm, Tori arrived from San Francisco to hang out with me for the weekend. My plan for the weekend is to relax (hopefully I won’t be sore anymore by Monday) and spend time with Tori. Sounds like a good weekend to me!

Above: on the way to Anchor Bay, CA

Above: Me eating breakfast, Anchor Bay, CA, 7:30am, 5/26 

Location:
Anchor Bay, CA
38.8030 N
123.5796 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 56
Destination today: Mendocino (to meet up with Tori!)

I didn’t leave until about 11am yesterday, on account of being so tired from the previous day. Once I did get on the road, I almost wanted to go back to the hotel! Here’s the problem: almost everyone who cycles along the Pacific Coast travels south, because the prevailing winds travel south. Well, Mother Nature slapped that meteorology lesson right across my face. The day started off just as hilly as the previous day, only now I had to deal with 20-30 mile/hour headwinds. Plus, the coast of California at this point heads kind of North/Northwest so you’re pretty much heading directly into the wind. As I looked at the ocean, I could see the whitecaps coming into the shore at a steep angle. Ugh!

After struggling with the wind for an hour or so, I basically just decided to relax and not worry about it. If I’m going to average 8 miles an hour, then so be it. I’ll just ride longer.

About the time that I decided to relax, the ride go easier! Imagine that. I don’t know if the conditions got better or if it was just my frame of mind, but the second half of the day was really pleasant. Nice and sunny, lots of wildflowers lining the road, fairly warm (by N.Cal. standards).

I pulled into a campground a little past 6pm. This campsite is awesome. We’re in a little grove with a small stream that empties out into the ocean. There’s a really nice beach with some rocks here and there, and a few huge boulders. At the campsite, I met a man from South Africa who has traveled all around the world, and he settled in Colfax, which is near Auburn, California. If I’m not mistaken, my cousin Tami lived in or right near Colfax for about a year. Very nice area. He does hydraulic systems for boats and yachts, and he just travels around to different places every few years. It seems to work for him; he’s smiling all the time.

I was pulling out my supplies to make dinner when the family who has their motorhome parked near me (the Stalcup’s) invited me over for dinner. They called me “Crazy Dave”, because they had passed by me when I was riding today, and they remembered me as the crazy guy on the bike. They cooked up enchiladas for dinner, with beans, rice and salad. Mmm, it was fantastic. I had two plates full. The Stalcup’s are from Vacaville, and they come to this spot to go diving for Abalone (in addition to just enjoying the scenery). Apparently, when you dive for Abalone, you don’t have an oxygen tank; you just hold your breath and go under. With this rocky coastline and the choppy surf, that’s got to be exciting.

As I started to fill up on granola and milk this morning, I looked at the back of the package to see how many calories I had eaten: about 1400 (not including the milk). Add in my OJ, and I’ve consumed enough for a whole day!

Last comment: my stupid bike chain continues to give me problems. It wasn’t as bad yesterday as the first day, but it still came off once (when I shifted to my granny gear), and became jammed once (when I shifted out of my granny gear). I’ll probably try to adjust the deraileur when I get to Mendocino.

Above: My first rest stop of the trip.  This store is in Lagunitas, CA, a little less than 30 miles from the Presidio in San Francisco.  I’ve actually been to this store before on training rides.  You can see my fully loaded rig in front of the store.

Above: Bodega Bay 

Thursday, 5/25 8am
Location:
38.3234 N
123.0376 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 71

Yesterday was quite a day! I stayed up until about 1:30am the night before, packing and trying to get my room cleaned up. Then, I work up at 6:30am in an effort to leave as early as possible.

At 8am, a camera crew from Tori’s TV station (Current TV) came over. They filmed me putting the last few things in my pack and hooking up the pack to my bike. Also, they interviewed me about my plans and how I was planning to keep in touch (I showed them my snazzy GPS phone and my foldable Bluetooth keyboard-which I’m using right now). Then, they filmed me riding towards the bridge, along Crissy Field. The weather was gorgeous, so I hope they got some nice footage.

Subsequently, I said my last goodbye to Tori, which was very difficult, as you can imagine. The ride across the Golden Gate Bridge was amazing, despite the fact that I’ve done it a thousand times before. San Francisco is beautiful.

Skip forward about 5 hours: I was starting to get REALLY tired, after traveling over all of the hilly terrain. My bike trailer is barely noticable ON FLAT GROUND, but on hills, it’s brutal. Well, of course, Northern California is full of hills. Anyway, at 3pm, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to make it to my planned destination of Bodega Bay, given that I had about 25 miles to go, and it was getting late. So, I decided to suck up my pride and look for a motel in the next town, Tomales. My maps indicated that there was one motel in town. As fate would have it, that one motel was closed down. ARGH! My only option was to keep going.

The next town was Valley Ford, about 7 miles away. After about 50 minutes, I reached Valley Ford (obviously I wasn’t moving very fast). Ahh! Guess what I found there… The only hotel was closed! Once again, my only option was to keep going.

The next town was Bodega Bay. Ironically, as I mentioned above, Bodega Bay was my original destination. However, given that I was exhausted, it was past 7pm, and the heavy fog was rolling in, I decided to check into an Inn, even though there are campgrounds nearby. A little disappointing, but under the cirmcumstances, I just wanted a warm bed to sleep in.

That brings me to today. The weather is again gorgeous. I took full advantage of the Breakfast Buffet (1 waffle, 2 bowls of oatmeal, 1 English muffin, and an apple for later). Today my planned destination is Anchor Bay, about 55 miles from here. My future entries aren’t likely to be this long because I’ll be running on battery power (I’m plugged in right now), but then again, I do have a solar panel, so we’ll see.

Best Wishes!

Hey everyone! You wouldn’t believe how much effort I’ve put into buying, preparing and packing all of the gear and clothing that I’m taking with me on my trip. All told, I’ve spent several weeks getting everything ready. Because there such a large number of things to keep track of, I’ve kept a pretty detailed list of everything that I’m taking. Here it is:

GEAR

Camping Stuff:
tent
tent footprint
sleeping bag
speeping pad
camping stool
first aid kit
towel
matches
camping stove
2 pots w/lid
1 potholder (pliers)
1 fuel canister (with 1 liter of gasoline for the camping stove)
1 cup
1 fork/knife/spoon
1 Leatherman
1 buckknife
1 small bottle of bug spray
1 small bottle of detergent
1 small bottle of dish soap
1 sponge

Bike Gear:
1 lock & chain
1 bottle of Tri-flow lube
1 patch kit
1 set of tire forks
1 hex wrench multitool
Adventure Cycling Association bicycle maps
2 pair reflective leg bands (for riding at night, if necessary)
2 spare bike tubes
3 water bottles
1 headlight
1 taillight
1 handlebar bag
1 saddle bag
1 B.O.B. trailer
1 helmet

Clothes:
2 short sleeve cycling jerseys
1 sleeveless cycling jersey
2 cycling shorts
1 cycling bib
1 pair cycling arm warmers
1 pair leg warmers
1 pair cycling rain pants
1 rain jacket
4 pairs of synthetic cycling socks
1 pair of cycling shoes
1 pair of waterproof cycling shoe covers
1 pair of cycling gloves
1 long sleeve synthetic wicking shirt
1 short sleeve synthetic wicking shirt
1 pair of cargo pants
1 pair long johns
1 hat
3 pairs of synthetic underwear
1 pair cotton socks
2 T-shirts
1 pair of running shoes
1 wool sweater
1 pair of flip flops

Personal Items:
1 toothbrush
1 tube of toothpaste
1 shaving razor
1 roll of floss
1 pair of scissors
nail clippers
1 chapstick
1 deodorant
1 bottle of sunblock
1 hand mirror

Electronics:
1 solar panel (12inches x 36inches)
4 AA batteries
1 digital camera (with extra battery and chargers)
1 mini camera tripod
1 cell phone (with extra battery and chargers)
1 foldable bluetooth keyboard (for writing on cell phone)

STILL NEED (as of 5/22):
spare BOB tire (16×1.75) — need to replace BOB spare tube… i got the wrong size
spare bike tire (700×28)
spare AAA batteries
bar soap
fuel

WEIGHT
me: 215 lb.
Novara Randonee bicycle (with 3 full water bottles, packed handlebar bag, and packed saddle bag): 43 lb.
packed B.O.B. trailer: 50 lb.

Total: 310 lb.
All weights are 5+-.

Hey everyone!  Welcome to my travel blog.  Over the next several weeks, I will use this blog to keep you up-to-date on my progress, as I ride my bicycle from San Francisco to school at the Kellogg School of Management (at Northwestern University) in Evanston, Illinois, which is just north of Chicago. 

I’m planning to ship my car and my things, and then hop on my bicycle and ride.  In concept, I’ll ride north across the Golden Gate Bridge, turn right when I get to Portland, Oregon, and then head east to Chicago, camping along the way.  I will pass through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Seems pretty straightforward, right?  I guess we’ll find out…

dave