Bodega Bay Ride

Riki and TL's Grand adventure part four

As part of my continuing bicycling vacation, my travels now took me to Rohnert Park, Ca. where I met up with ThisLife again for several more trips in beautiful Northern California. We decided to choose a route that was similar to last year's, just to extend it a bit further to include Bodega Bay, and return on a different route.
We left early in the morning, although not quite early enough to miss the morning rush hour. Early enough to make it damp and foggy however.

Soon we were able to get out of town and into the beautiful Northern Cal countryside. Here we have TL rounding a curve coming up a little rise. I spotted a rather nice pastoral scene coming through a small valley.



I spotted a couple of Scottish Highland cattle just off the road.....a breed one sees little of in this country. This cow was very typical of the breed.



As I suspected, there was going to be a significant number of hills to climb. TL called them a few little hills, compared to what she had been up on previous rides, but any hill that I have to get down in my lowest gear and grunt to get up the thing is at least to me, a tough hill. I found a couple of these on this ride. I'm getting ahead of myself here however. We traversed several small and picturesque valleys on our journey and managed to find a couple of deer close to the road, this one was confident it was completely hidden from me, so it stayed put while I dug out my camera.



A pretty farmstead.....



Long and steep (at least in this flatlanders judgement), at least the one going into Tomales ended in a lunch break. They have a most delightful little Deli in the town of Tomales that is normally crowded with bicyclists, but not on Friday, so we had it to ourselves. After lunch we left Tomales...up yet another hill, headed for Bodega. Many,many more hills later, we came upon a particulary steep downhill, one that TL had gone up on a previous ride...... I plunged down the thing,and waited on TL at the bottom where I caught her at speed looking very intense and flying........



We rode on through the little community of Valley Ford on our way to Bodega. For those who are old enough to remember Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" you may remember these buildings, as both played key roles in the movie........ First, the schoolhouse....



Then the Church......



We enjoyed a coffee with a friendly pooch on the Main drag of Bodega....he knew it was closing time and was looking for his treats.

 He wasn't too picky about who he begged them from either. Deciding that it was getting later and later, we decided it was time to start heading back. Back through the town of Valley Ford once again and on to the Bloomfield cutoff (Yes, Teesiea they have one in California too) where we turned off to follow the Breathe Easy Metric route back. This had a couple of more (why am I not surprised here) hills..... one of which had me breathing not so easy near the summit. I thought I was going to have to stop, but I had the summit in sight, so I went for it. Topped out, heart beating too fast, gasping for breath, but at the top......and time to rest a bit. After this one, we had a couple more shallow hills....



Still a very scenic area. I just love the smell of these eucalyptus lines roads.  I was starting to get very tired about this time, and suggested a rest stop about fifteen miles from home, I felt a bonk coming on, even after the large lunch, so I decided to munch on a Larabar, and drink a little electrolite and I must have needed it, 'cause I ate the whole thing. We turned on a very busy highway, then back into the country again and a return to the town of Rohnert Park and our starting place. 86.93 miles of tough (for me anyway) riding. Got back, and enjoyed a much needed dinner. I was very tired after the ride today, and I doubt if I could have gone much further. Ah, but tomorrow's another day, and the Alexander Valley awaits

Bicyclin' The Central Coast

Bicyclin' the Central Coast

Now comes a different phase to my bicycling vacation.....A ride up the Central Coast with SportyGal. Morro Bay was a wonderful destination, I remember it well when we lived there for about 3 years when I was a child. It's changed much since the early 50's, but some things just seem timeless. One of the things I remember so well was the fishing fleet there....the boats are still there, but the fishing is gone. Still, they supply a great photo opportunity however.



Morro Rock of course is timeless



As are the birds.



These seemed much friendlier than Alfred Hitchcocks "Birds" however.
During a get aquainted dinner, we decided to ride up the coast north as far as Elephant Seal Beach, past the town of San Simeon in the morning. It was my request that we leave early because the winds were supposed to pick up and blow strongly from off shore later in the day. She agreed, although getting up early wasn't one of her favorite things to do. We left around 7:30am and headed north out of Morro Bay, providing many wonderful photo ops.



We passed through the very picturesque town of Cambria on our way north, the winds were holding at bay for the time being.



As we worked our way north, traffic lightened up a bit and I noticed many examples of flora and fauna.



We worked our way up and down several hills, and this is the view I got of SportyGal most often.



Working our way up the coast, we came upon the little community of San Simeon, which is the home of Hearst Castle, situated high on a hill top and bicycles aren't allowed to travel the road....camera's are however, so I got as close as I could considering the slight haze in the air.



The pier at San Simeon....



In the town of San Simeon is a very old store, and warehouses for materials to build the castle on the hilltop, back in the 1800's. The Sebastion Store is a National Landmark.



Finally, after struggling against a strong headwind for the last eight or ten miles, we arrived at our destination......elephant seal beach. There were still many juvenile seals left on the beach, enough to make the stop an interesting one.



Turning around and heading with the wind was pure joy! As chilly as it was going up into the wind, we now found times when we were warm. Back down through all the towns, this time on the ocean side of the road allowing much better views.



Stopping for lunch, we found this statue and SportyGal was nice enough to take my photo standing in front of it.



Slipping down the coast feeling like I was floating on the tailwind, we soon had Morro Bay in sight again. It seemed that the return trip took no time at all. Finishing up, I found I had 67 miles on for the ride. SportyGal had ridden from her home to meet up with me, so she had a few more. It is such a wonderful experience to be able to meet aquaintences from Eons that seem like old friends when you meet up. I really hated for the day to end, but like all good things, the day comes to an end.



Tomorrow, however is another day. A ride with SportyGal's club from San Luis Obisbo was in store for me...... but that's another story.

Home trail

Once again, I've had a little time, and a little money at the same time to work on my trail through the "40 acre woods"........ and no......I didn't see Christopher Robin, Eor, or Pooh. What I did see however, was this........ do you see the trail here?

I do.........

This sort of gives you the idea of what I've been cutting through to make this trail through my woods. It's been fun though, and rewarding in it's own way. It's actually only a ten acre woods, but I couldn't help compare with the imagination of A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie The Pooh. So far, it's been going pretty well, with about a half mile of established trail so far. I decided the other day that I've worked so hard that I needed a place to rest, so I built a trail bench......

And what do I enjoy from this bench, you might ask? Why this, of course........

Admittedly, still in it's winter color scheme, but there has been some green popping up now and then. So, who enjoys all the fruits of my labor, besides me.........

She not only enjoys going for a walk on this trail, but actually begs me to take her around. She won't go by herself, too far out of sight of the house I guess, but she can't wait to go along. If she see's me heading that way, she comes on the run.
I've been clearing more, and concentrating on trimming back trees and other brush from around the trail. In some places, there are vines from the trees that Tarzan would be proud of, some as big around as my thigh. These things will choke the life from a tree, so I cut them off when I get to them. I'll pull them out of the tree if they're not too entwined in the upper branches, but if I can't get them down, I just cut them off, and when they die off, the Oklahoma wind'll take care of bringing them down. A week or so ago, it snowed, so I had a lot of fun with my mountain bike in the snow here......

It's not been all work and no play. I have a full loop and part of another to play on now, and it gives me something to do, as well as gets me out in nature and away from reality for a bit. Wait.......isn't that Tigger????  ..............

An addition, Feb. 28th,........ my simple little trail bench has "Evolved"..........

  
So, as you can see, my "Nature Trail" is very much a work in progress.

Mount Scott Ride

Much ado has been written about climbing Mt Scott in the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, but I will offer you a little different view here. First of all,  the rest of the group I went with, all mostly 30's and 40's type individuals the talk afterwards was all about how fast, how quick, who got there first. Well.....I went too..... and while I wasn't the fastest, nor the first to the top,(actually I was because I cheated and started earlier)...... but the point that I need to address here is that I Made It! All the way to the top! And back down! And in one piece! And I am happy with that. One of the group bragged that he hit 51.6mph top speed (speed limit 25) coming down off that mountain top with gusty 20-30mph winds coming at us from all directions. Good for him. I hit 37 mph and felt very uncomfortable at speeds higher than that, mostly because of the gusty winds. The youngsters regrouped at the stop sign at the bottom and were just leaving the stop sign as I pulled up behind them. SO???? The one statement I'll make here is that I made it to the top, and back down to the bottom. I still have all my skin in place, and all my teeth where they belong. One of these days luck will run out for people who push the envelope, and believe me, a crash at 51 mph on that winding steep mountain road won't be fun. I guess with age comes caution, but for good reason. Old bones take a long time to heal.
For a little background....Mt Scott is in the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Preserve close to Fort Sill, Ok. It is not the highest, nor the most prominent, but does boast the highest paved auto road in the State. It is 2484 feet above sea level which doesn't sound like much until you take into consideration that the mean elevation at ground level is around 500 feet, then it becomes a bit more impressive. It is a very impressive looking mountain anyway, without being built up with any hype. .......

The road winds around the mountain twice and ends up at the very top. The views from there are impressive, and the entire preserve is a thing of beauty. The road climbs up the mountain at a steady 8% with occasional short sections that exceed 12% in a few places. It is a tough climb on a bicycle. Looking up the road on any section would look like this.......

And looking back down from there looked like this.......

Just so you can tell that it is one steep mother-mountain road. You can already tell that the view from the top will be amazing. And, it was. Mount Scott is a jumbled mass of boulders and rocks and is hailed in the local area as a rock climbers mecca. You'll find climbers from all over testing their skills on these rocks. I also noticed several of the soldiers from Fort Sill running up this road and back down. Now that would take some moxie. This a view of Mt Scott from the Medicine Park area where I left my car.

And a little Artistic view of a couple of dead trees on the way up

And then there is this...... I really don't know what to say about this...... A Boulderlanch?

Anyway, I did struggle in places on this hill on the way up, took my time, kept my breathing sustainable, and my heart rate within reason, and made it to the top. Again, I really don't see the reasoning behind the need to race up a hill like this, just making it to the top was enough for me. There was a small group of youngsters that pulled up to the summit parking lot while we were all there and I got one of them to take this group picture of us at the summit. He looked at all of us (he was probably all of 25) and exclaimed.... "You guys rode those bicycles all the way up here...... AWESOME!" I felt the need to agree with him, as I, for one, felt awesome indeed.

There were a few scraggly wind-blown cedars that manage to survive up at the summit, but mostly just rock.

Again, the view from the top (near the top here) was truly outstanding... you can look down and see the ribbon of road we started up from......

Winter just does not do this area justice, as in the summer, all is so very green here. After our quick descent down, we travelled west to the visitor center. I wanted to take in the center, but the rest were eager to get on down the road. So, we parted company here, they going south toward Cache and back to Lawton, and me to the west end of the preserve. On the way, here is some they missed.

There is a sizable wild bison herd in the preserve, there are no fences and the bison are allowed to wander where they want. One must use caution around these creatures as they are not pets, but wild animals in their native settings. They can be dangerous, they are very large and strong, as well as much faster than you might think looking at their bulk.
A little bit down the road is a remnant of better days. The ruins of an old gas station and trading post.

There were many beautiful scenes that people in cars never knew existed, but I noticed them on a bike right away.

And the old homesteaders rock cabin that people were driving on by without even seeing.

And so it went, 38 miles of history and scenic wonders went by as I rode along on my bicycle. I was thoroughly enjoying the things that obivilous car drivers ignored. This is why I like to ride my bicycle. Not to see how fast, nor how quick, nor even how many miles I can do in one day, but to enjoy what is there and see things that others fly by and miss completely. Time is endless while you are on a bike, so you can borrow a bit of it and explore what is there to see.

I even managed to see things on the way back that I missed on the way out. So you see, for me anyway, bicycling is a nivana thing, not just something to add stress to an already overstressed world. Kick back and enjoy what is offered, look, see, and take your camera with you so you'll always have memories. I've been wanting to do this ride for a long time now, not so much to test my mettle, but to see what I might have missed. Turned out, a lot! I may have to go back again to find some other things I missed on this trip. But one thing for certain, if I never climb to the summit of Mt Scott again in this life, I've done it once....... and that was awesome!