HHMC 2010. DAY 6 of 10

166 great miles.


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So, we wake up and thank our gracious host and we all head down to main street St Helena for breakfast. Scuba Steve showed up right on time. Sorry folks, no report as to whether he struck out or whether he even went to bat last night. I had a killer breakfast burrito though. We all exchanged stories from our mini solo adventures and we headed out of St Helena... on the back road.



I didn't get any video or pictures of this road, but it was awesome. The trees had grown to create a canopy over the road and there were so many turns, tight turns, that you couldn't relax for a second. It was better than any coffee to get your blood flowing. It was so dark that I had to take my sunglasses off just to see the road surface and look out for debris.

After a little while we hit a T junction and were talking about the road. Monkey loved it, I loved it, Scuba was not a fan. Keep in mind that Scuba had gone from riding a dirt bike in High School to this trip 15 years later. He had actually done an amazing job of keeping up and handling the long hours on the bike, so far.

We kept heading due west trying to avoid freeways and keeping to side roads. Eventually we came over a hill and rolled into the town of Bodega! What a cool little town. It seemed a little eerie, but otherwise cool. Part of it was this pretty, but also pretty creepy old church on the hill.


We almost didn't stop, but I'm glad we turned around and checked out this little bar.




The owner was the coolest old lady. She had owned the place since she bought it from a family member nearly 50 years ago. This town of Bodega was also were the Hitchcock thriller "The Birds" was shot. She had some prop birds and signed movie posters hanging in the bar.

Something about this old ladies smiling face and attitude made it a good morning for me. Can't explain it. Within miles we saw the Pacific.


In Norcal along the coast it's usually thick fog so we knew how lucky we were to have it sunny and clear.




Monkey.


timtim


The views!!! Great stretch of road.




We stopped a lot and enjoyed the sites and the empty road. Thankfully it wasn't Labor day weekend yet so the road and the beach was empty.


SCUBA!


Layering up as it get's cold!


So we kept cruising along. The turns on this road are great. Every mile or so the road cuts in hard and then back out with a nice sweeper as it follows the contour of the coast. We weren't making good time, but no one cared. The feeling of looking out a cliff to the beach one second and then being under a canopy of trees the next was great.
We stopped in Fort Bragg to meet some locals and see where a good place to camp was. One guy, a really enthusiastic guy, told us to head north and look for a KOA campground. Apparently it was the only place you could camp ON the beach and not just near it.

We headed north and stopped at a little town, really just 2 buldings and a couple houses, along PCH. Westport. The girl at the register made us some sandwiches that were a great dinner. Really, in the right location anything can be a great dinner.



Now this was a GOOD DAY. String a few of these together and you liable to never set foot in an office again.




I think we were almost in a surreal state at this point. Life is just damn good.


We found the KOA about a mile down the road. Scuba Steve gives the Adventurerider salute as we head down to the campsites.



Steve really wanted to be ON the beach so he hiked out and set up his tent. We decided to have our fire out there too.


We ran back up to the store to get a couple bottles of wine and settled into our home for the night.




Looking north


And south.


Music, check. Wine, check.
We actually neglected to bring a wine opener so we said hello to our neighbors who ended up being really cool. They felt bad that we only had sandwiches so they brought over to us a ton of nice cheese, crackers, nuts and another bottle of wine. How cool is that.




Life was truly rough as Scuba was letting us know. I had to take some video so you too can know what rough lifestyle we were living.