Day 12, September 20, 2007
Fort Bragg, CA to Cloverdale, CA
49 miles, 12.9 mph, 3h 45m 22s
Up at 6:00, 6:50 load luggage, 7:00 breakfast at Denny's, 8:00 on the road. Today's forecast was for possible showers early, then clearing with temperatures starting out at 52F and dropping to 48F by late in the afternoon. What actually happened was partly cloudy skies early, clearing sunny skies by noon and temperatures rising to almost 60F.
This was the third consecutive day that we would travel through a portion of the National Redwood forest. Again, the temperature dropped about 10F and it was like we were riding on a winding road through an ancient, medieval forest. The feeling I got was of being so small and insignificant amongst these 1,000 year old trees. The road was quite narrow with no breakdown lane. There were many logging trucks going much too fast and not showing much concern for cars or cyclists. We had to be very careful with our photography stops. The situation got much worse after we came out of the forest and continued. Several cyclists experienced very close calls with these speeding logging trucks, but there were no accidents. I found myself sufficiently concerned so I chose to SAG in to the hotel. The ride ended with a long, winding and difficult climb.
I have two teeth that have loose filling and when I got in I sought out a dentist for an evaluation. The bottom line is that I will wait until I get home to tend to them.
Today represented the half way point of our ride. We ride 71 miles to Petaluma tomorrow and 48 miles on Saturday to San Francisco. The long range forecast is predicting head winds both days and that makes for long and strenuous days. Sunday will be a day off in Frisco.
The next 2 days we will be riding through many vineyards so I don't expect to be posting any pictures depicting any scenic ocean views. Other than grapes, I'm not quite sure what I'll be seeing.
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