After San Francisco, we continued along the Pacific coast with destination Seattle. However, there was still the rest of California first.<\/p>\n
San Francisco – Bodega Bay – Mendocino<\/strong><\/p>\n After spending a few days in San Francisco, we crossed the almost 75 year old Golden Gate Bridge, which had it’s anniversary just a few days later. We weren’t the only tourist on this famous bridge of course but it was still great to cross it by bike. Our destination for the day was the Taylor State Park and there we had an encounter of the not so nice kind. A lot of state campgrounds offer special group campgrounds for hikers and cyclists (hiker\/biker). Those are cheaper and can’t be reserved. We arrived on this campground and started to build up our tents, when another guy walked towards us and saying angry, that he had reserved this site in the morning and now just came back with his bike. I explained him that those sites can’t be reserved. He didn’t really listen, just told me that I should go back to France and walked away. I’m actually Swiss but it looks like for him all foreigner he doesn’t like are coming from France… Later, a ranger told him the same and gave him, as a courtesy, another site a bit further away. However, we heard him shouting around the rest of the day. One of the reasons was probably too, that he had a lot of beer with him… Mendocino – Avenue of the Giants – Eureka<\/strong><\/p>\n After Mendocino or more exact Fort Bragg, the highest hill on this part was waiting for us. We heard from a lot of people that it is hard but some also told us, that it is over rated. And actually it is. The hill before the main hill is much steeper but both can be done pretty easy. It just takes time. We finally reached Legget, where you can drive through a Redwood tree (and two cyclist pay more than one car with up to six people…). Afterwards. we continued through the “Avenue of the Giants” where the street crosses forest of very old and high Coastal Redwood trees. Very impressive!<\/p>\n
\nWe continued the next day along the Tomales Bay (part of the San Andrew Fault), emptied the great bakery in Tomales Bay and camped in Bodega Bay. There, we met a whole group of cyclists and had a great evening with them.They were cycling south (of course) and we continued north on the next day.
\nHowever, we didn’t get that far because there was a great Cafe Aquatica in Jenner where we stayed for a bit before continuing. It was very windy (from the north…) and the street was very hilly. Therefore, we didn’t get as far as planned that day…<\/p>\n