Day Five

Mileage: 39.5 miles
Total: 295.3 miles

I cannot believe I am already on day five of this trip. I still have a long way to pedal, but it already feels like the trip is flying by. After two long days I decided to make today a shorter day. In part because going further today would only mean a short day tomorrow based on campground locations between here and San Francisco. And let me tell you being off the bike by 2pm was great, but not as great as the hot shower at the campground. Biking makes you a special dirty and I was happy to wash off the road grime.

I could bore you with a narrative of how BEAUTIFUL the ride was today, but instead I will bore you about something else. Road signs. While biking road signs take on a whole new meaning. This post is a bit more pertinent to the earlier days along 101, than it is to highway 1, but I wanted to share now anyway. Examples:

"Passing Lane 1000 ft": This means get ready because in 1000 feet a hill is about to start.

"Lane Ends Merge Left": Praise be! I am almost at the top of that hill.

Mileage signs: By this I mean the signs that tell you how far to the next town. In a car you zip past them, and when you want to see one there isn't one. While biking they seem to be spaced perfectly and give an idea of the distance to the next milestone. Reaching these signs is a treat, showing your progress.

Other fantastic signs are those warning trucks of the steepgrades below. Basically, any sign informing you a long climb has ended is a wondrous one.

Now back to today. Although short, today was listed in the guidebook as strenuous. Including the steepest hill of the entire route. I hope they don't get steeper, because this was steep! For you Santa Barbarans think Old San Marcos. I'm not going to lie I had to push my bike up the steepest switchback. In fact I didn't try riding it because with the road gearing on my bike plus the trailer I was pretty sure my options were to push the bike or try to ride, fall over and then push the bike. It seemed better to skip the falling and just start pushing.

For those of you that are wondering the mexican coke and pizza was my breakfast. The pizza was leftover from Piacis a tasty pizzeria in Fort Bragg. Also, if you enjoyed today's post on road signs, you will also enjoy a future post I have planned on types of pavement!

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