Day 25 – Ride Day Eighteen: Standish-Hickey State Park to Fort Bragg

Day 25 – Standish-Hickey State Park to Jughandle State Park

Good morning Sunshine! Literally, we had sunshine this morning, and thanks to our camp site farther from the sea than we had been yet, it was actually quite warm still. This thrilled me as we were heading for “Leggett” which according to all the myths we had heard to date, we were in for a challenge. None the  less, I decided to pack up my sleep mat, and sleeping bag before heading to the breakfast/lunch trail, which would soon be my demise.

A Ham and cheese sandwich, a turkey and cheese sandwich along with an apple and orange and some granola bars were packed and I got to consuming my delicious Granola and yoghurt parfait.

Tents packed, bags packed, let’s go!

We hit the road to Leggett and within a quarter of a mile we saw signs that suggested Leggett lie just around the corner, and it did indeed, about two miles down the road. Two miles of pure pleasure that led us to our “mountain”. I’ve been fantastic at starting any hills quite slowly, an attribute that I blame the stuffed up and coughing on, but once I tame my breathing and get into a rhythm I seem to kick these hills asses, and well, Leggett was no different. I got into a groove and after about a mile of “pain” I started taking back gears every chance I had. I managed to claw back 4 or 5 gears before pacing up to a steady 9MPH and found myself at the “top” of Leggett about 35 minutes after starting it. I must say, I felt quite accomplished because I hand failed to hear all of the “advice” about Leggett, and when I got to the bottom and met Julie, I had no desire of stopping, which was good. One of the key pieces I did not hear was that there were two mountains to Leggett. So lo-and-behold we hit hill number two. It hurt, much worse than hill one, but again getting into a groove proved to be a small challenge and then bliss ensued as the downhill finally led me back down to the Ocean.

We stopped for lunch/snacks and waited to catch up with the whole group. We waited for over an hour for Kiyo, whom thanks to passerby we heard that he was coming, albeit slowly. When he arrived however though he had a much different tale. He cut up, and scraped in several locations and gasped about how he nearly killed himself. Literally, nearly killed himself! Another Canadian couple had passed him as he was getting assistance from another Canadian couple. They told us a tale of the tress bouncing off of him and other things. Fortunately though, shaken he was alright and happy-ish to continue shortly after his arrival.

From here we road the most beautiful coastal road that contained – what I neglected to hear – some RIDICULOUS hairpins and steep grades. To the point that you’d get a hill going down at 30MPH and then hit a severe hairpin that reduced you to 10Mph and then face a hill up that was like 15% grade. We faced a LOT of these things before we finally got to some more consistent rolling hills.

We continued along at a great pace until we hit Fort Bragg, and realized that we had no clue where we were going, or even if our accommodations were confirmed.

After deciding that we needed to find a campground, we headed for the south and pedalled away. To my confusion Michal and I were all alone about 10 miles down the road when we got a call with our park. We were confused and couldn’t find the “park” for a good chunk of time until the group caught up to us.

We pulled into the park and everyone was in a funky mood and kind of spread out for a while. Michal, Sarah and I headed back into town about an hour and a half later to the Starbucks so that we could charge our electronics and check in with the peeps/family.  Once done Michal and I headed for glutinous hell – A “Chinese” buffet.

It was so good, but one of those goods that feels so terribly wrong. My favourite part of this restaurant though was the mens room. When you walk in there is a urinal to your direct left, a sink a few feet from it, and then a shower curtain that failed to span the two walls it was hung from. “Behind” this curtain was a toilet. So yes, it was a weird bathroom.

We then headed back to camp to find Phoebe tending the fire, and some new neighbours. I am off to talk to them now!

… Awesome night around the camp fire! There ended up being three couples hanging out round the fire with us. One couple was from Brussels in Belgium on a year-long work permit in Canada – Montreal – touring around North America on a 4 month road-trip. They stopped in this park on their way back up to Vancouver. Another couple were fairly local to this part of California, and then there was a couple from San Jose who were up here doing some thesis research in the redwoods!

Altogether a whole lot of hanging out and relaxing which was quite nice.

Bed time, so goodnight.