We Made It!
First a note to the potentially concerned follower: Due to a lack of wifi or mobile network at all of the campgrounds after Monday night, we were unable to make daily reports as planned. So, here's the final story now.
On Tuesday morning, everyone woke up with a significant amount of pain in knees, legs, necks, posteriors, ankles, etc. We have gotten into the habit of jokingly referring to padded biker shorts as "diapers." Those who did not wear their diapers on Monday, quickly came to the realization of the value of a padded posterior upon recounting the bikes on Tuesday morning. Others who did wear their diapers on Monday quickly discovered that diapers really aren’t for them. Enough said about that.
So, on Tuesday, we did the Eureka to Humboldt Redwood State Park leg. It involved some beautiful scenery through California Redwood groves including the famous Avenue of the Giants.
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| The rig. |
About halfway along the Avenue of the Giants is where we stopped to camp at a state park campground.
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| All the kids and Jerry then went for a swim in the remarkably warm Eel River. |
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| We went for a walk on a 0.5 mile nature trail across from the campground we were in and Jerry helped us take a lovely family picture, complete with bad color coordination and matching! :) |
Levi, Jerry, and Dad were the only ones who did all seventy-ish miles of Tuesday. Everyone else was too damaged from Monday.
On Wednesday morning, we got a decently early start and all the boys headed out early for the first leg and the girls took some time in our trusty sag wagon. Wednesday was a big climb day- lots of hills. Eventually, the girls all got on bikes and enjoyed tearing down some really big hills on winding, steep roads. Tess even earned a reputation with Jerry of being a bomber jet speeding down the biggest hill.
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| This picture isn't actually from Wednesday, but it is of Levi, our speedy, fearless, front-of-the-pack-the-whole-time leader. We love this kid, who wants "to be in assisted living by the time [he's] 30" (Levi after a long day of biking, as Marta helped him finish his dinner). |
We ended the day at MacKerricher State Park and we got to go on a walk near the campsite on the beach and see the colony of harbour seals there. It was pretty cool. Everyone was exhausted after a long day of biking though and we all decided that bed sounded pretty good very shortly after dessert.
Thursday was a nice day. (*Note, we had near perfect weather the entire trip). Biking down Highway 1 was gorgeous! The tough ones made it out all the way from MacKerricher to the small town of Gualala. We then all got in the car and went back to camp at the Manchester Beach KOA. We had already had lunch and set up camp there. Each night, different family members had responsibilities for meals. Thursday was the British classic Toad-in-a-hole which turned out a bit differently in a Dutch oven when made by Luke, Mom, and Tess than it would have been if made by a proper British person. It was delicious anyway, which may have been due to our almost-starving state.
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| Thursday morning was gorgeous! |
Friday, we started in Gualala and the hard-core, most committed people (Levi and Jerry) made it out all the way to Point Reyes. Everyone else did portions as per usual.
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| Ready for some action! Dad: "I've got this." Levi: "No. I am too cool for this picture." Marta: "I just ate a handful of Red Vines! I have so much energy! Let's go!" |
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| In Gualala getting ready to go! |
We realized that the campsite we'd selected for Friday night was only a few miles past Gualala and so attempted to get a different spot at another campground. Luckily, the rangers were helpful and we managed to find a spot at Bodega Dunes near Bodega Bay despite the sign saying “Campsite FULL” in multiple places near the entrance.
On Saturday morning we woke up early to head out to Point Reyes and then from there in bikes to the Golden Gate Bridge. Most of us at this point had major pain all over our lower bodies as though we had been biking all week- isn’t that curious. So the final leg began. Levi led the pack as usual. It was a bit dicey getting through the North Bay suburbs. There were thousands of intense looking bikers mostly going the opposite direction to us (we later discovered that their was a bike parade in one of the towns we were riding through). Also, navigating in a city with a trail of seven bikers is a bit more complicated than with a small group in a long coastal highway with little traffic. Levi commented that though all the bikes we saw were decked out with nice gear, he was definitely faster than them going up the hills.
Miraculously, we made it to Sausalito where Dad joined us after parking the sag wagon (we first recognized him by him extremely squeaky brakes). He had tried to be sneaky but was instead rather squeaky. Pun intended.
We made It across the bridge despite strong, cold winds and the fact that the whole ride across and back was combination of a duck and weave maneuver through the flocks of tourists on rental mountain bikes taking selfies while blocking the path and going really slowly on the one hand and playing chicken with the real bikers who, like us were trying to pass them. Quite an experience in itself.
So, we took some pictures and raced to the car to head back to Soulsbyville (of course stopping at In-N-Out on the way).
Some additional tidbits:
The theme song for the entire trip (or at least the chorus everyone had in their heads and were singing) was "Cows With Guns" from a YouTube video of the same name.
Jerry said it was the best camp food he'd ever had. Props to our amazing mom!
Levi and Jerry finished the entire trip. Others took various amounts of time in the sag wagon. "The only thing harder than riding a bike is getting back on a bike when your bum is sore and you've been in the sag wagon." -Marta
No major injuries or bike issues needed to be addressed. Just a couple of flats and some scrapes. Oh, and Tess tried to feature her finger into the Dutch oven pizza using the cheese grater but it didn't really work.
Jerry is a beast. He finished at 68 and Levi at 15. Oldest and youngest.
Our ingenious homemade bike rack was awesome.
- Some of us have some really interesting tan lines. For example, Dad has brown mesh pattern and an oval on each hand along with a well-defined color-change line on his wrist. For real.
One more thing: each person and bike had a special name. Big Diz (Jerry) rode Lil' Diz, Mountain Mama rode the Brain, Bad Dad rode Ol' Blue, Elkazina (Eliza) rode the Patriot, Lucky Duck (Luke) rode the White Rocket, Max (Marta) rode the Red Giant, Tessalon (Tess) rode Turley, and Yoci (I have no idea where that name came from, but that's Levi) rode the Dark Knight. Oh, and our 15-passenger van is Babe the Big Blue Ox. Yeah, we're pretty cool.
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| Babe and her twin. |
This post was mostly written by Luke, but edited (a lot) and finished by Tess. We hope you like hearing about our crazy adventures, and in case you were worried, this is not the last one. On our way home from San Francisco we started brainstorming ideas for next year...
Your Favorite Adventuring Family,
The Houghtons from the Mountains
#houghtonsinthemountains #werooc
