Central California

Between 5-6pm is my favourite time to ride. Sun is just setting.
And the main graft for the day is over.

And at last the sun came out in Central California. From SF south I was promised blue skies and that is indeed what was delivered. This section from SF, through Big Sur and on to Santa Barbara has been a feast of company. Below is a picture of Herbie from Galway, the first Irish cycle tourer I think I have ever met. He and his girlfriend Laura are doing a big Vancouver to Patagonia trip. It's amazing how an Irish accent feels on the ear after not hearing one for six weeks. They are largely going in the same direction albeit at a faster pace, but hopefully we will meet often and share random camping nights along the way.

Delighted to meet an Irish cyclist.

Kerri (AUS), Laura (UK) and Herbie (IRL).

I had bumped into Kerri from Melbourne a week earlier at the hostel north of SF, so it was great to bump into her randomly again here at the Half Moon Bay campsite. A funny thing happened that night which was to lead to a merging of 2 cycling groups. Us four (above pic) were cooking dinner in the dark at a picnic table when two other cyclists approached us asking if they could build their campfire in our fire pit. To which I replied, of course as long as 'us four' are invited to the campfire.

Herbie from LA then proceeded to introduce herself to Herbie from Ireland. Both not quite believing that the other persons name was Herbie. It was like a comedy act to listen to. 'Hi I'm Herbie. No I'm Herbie. Did you say Herbie? Is your name Herbie? Oh my name is Herbie. Are you sure your name is Herbie? Yes, I'm Herbie. Neither Herbies really know any other Herbies. Just hilarious. As it transpired I ended up cycling with both Herbies for the next week.

The lot of us including both Herbies.

This is Herbie from LA.

Herbie from LA was riding with four friends from various parts of California. Two of the friends rode with plastic buckets on the back of their bikes. They seem to be waterproof, super cheap, durable and best of all - with the lid on they make great seats around a campfire. Jackie from Toronto but originally from Mexico, is also riding with buckets. She also built her own bike with the help of the Bike Coop in Victoria, BC.

Plastic buckets as panniers. 

Jackie also rides with buckets on her back rack.

Santa Cruz was one of those towns that you could hang out for a week. But as usual I arrived late and left early. However I did get to watch 'salsa on the prom' for about an hour. Just lovely. A random local hooked up his laptop to a speaker and possibly 100 people danced salsa. I was so impressed by the 'all shapes and sizes' easy vibe.

Salsa dancing on the pier in Santa Cruz. Had I known any
steps I would have joined in.

Castroville is seemingly the artichoke capital of the world.
I was informed by some customers that yes, it would be possible
to cook an artichoke in a pot on a camp stove.

In Monterey all I had to do was follow the smell and the barking
to find hordes of sea lions.

For two days in a road cycling issues made the
front page of the SF Chronicle. Imagine that happening at home?

The town of Carmel was the first place I actually felt like swimming
or walking along the beach. The Pacific, up until now, has been so aggressive.

I thought this was a creative way of warning
the public against drink/driving.

On a random day on a random part of the route a car stopped up ahead of me. An arm was sticking out the window of the passenger seat holding a slice of watermelon. So I stopped to say hello. The couple from Hawaii just saw me climbing a hill and thought I might like some watermelon. A random act of kindness.

A random couple give me watermelon.

The five lassies from California became my new best buddies for the next 3-4 days. They had pre-booked a camp space (75$) in private campgrounds along the way through Big Sur so each night I just camped for free with them. And each night we lit a campfire. And each night we feasted on smores. For those of you, like me, who have never heard of a smore, it is an American camping delight. You squish a toasted marshmallow on top of a piece of chocolate and squash it all between two crackers/biscuits so that the chocolate starts to melt. The girls made me smores and watched and laughed as I tried to eat them without melted chocolate dribbling down my face. They are called smores because you always want some more.... get it?

Sitting on pannier buckets around the campfire.

My first smore.

I'm very fond of this pic. Saying goodbye for now to great travelling companions.

The 5 Californian ladies, Herbie & Laura and Jackie.

A good friend and Navan neighbour and follower of this blog is Fergus. He is an avid cyclist and used to live in California and had kindly connected me with various American angels on my bike route. I was never so happy to be rescued in the pouring rain at a random highway junction as I was when his friends of old Anne and Glen found me in the dark and threw me and Sherpa into the back of their truck. They put me up for the night in their mobile home in Moro Bay and I soon turned it into a Chinese laundry, hanging up every item on a chair, door etc. The next morning I set out in the rain to buy some breakfast. You can't quite believe the delight of going to a store, buying some eggs and bread and coming home to cook breakfast. Such a simple action. But after 6 weeks of camp porridge, I was loving the kitchen.

Arriving back to the mobile home with eggs, milk and bread.

The lovely Anne cooking me pancakes the following morning.

Thanks Anne and Glen for the wonder hospitality.

San Francisco

A beautiful mural along 'The Wiggle' in SF. The wiggle is a famous
section of bike route which saves your climbing impossibly steep hills.

Where does one start when writing about San Francisco. It was my first time there and I just loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Ellen's brother Martin had lived there for 10 years so sent me this fantastic email full of ideas and things to do and see. By far the best piece of advice I took was to join some of the free walking tours. They were organised by the public library and staffed by volunteers, usually retired knowledgeable folk who just loved SF. You could give a donation at the end of the 1-2 hour walk if you wanted. A gem.

A newly designed zebra crossing in the Castro area.

Our fantastic tour guide for the Castro tour.

Our tour guide explained how the original rainbow symbol contained eight colours. Both the pink and one of the blues were then eliminated mainly because mass-producing flag makers didn't stock pink fabric. No flags of the world contain pink seemingly. So the rainbow symbol that now represents gay pride has only six colours.

A plague in the Harvey Milk Plaza to remember the much loved activist.

Harvey Milk's bookstore in the Castro district.

You may have seen the movie Milk. If not I think it's worth a watch. I saw it years ago, but need a refresh. I watched the movie Jobs last night as Apple was founded in Palo Alto just a stones throw from here... so Milk might be on the menu tonight. (I have rare access just at the moment to electricity, wifi AND a sofa - quite the luxury). He was not just an activist for the gay community in San Francisco but also for lots of other minority groups. He was truly loved it seems but was assassinated in his early 50s.

The famous Castro theatre, built by Syrians in the 1920s.

I knew nothing about the Castro theatre before I stumbled across a queue outside its door at 17.20 one sunny day. When I asked what was playing someone said a 1930s German thriller (it turned out to be M) with English subtitles. I bought a ticket and went to the movies. And yes, when the movie was over an organist playing the organ was lifted out of the orchestra pit in the theatre and played for 10 minutes. It's an iconic structure in the Castro district... famous for its sing-a-long movie nights. Sing-a-long to Annie was playing that weekend. Would have loved to see that. Me thinks there is a niche in Ireland for a sing-a-long cinema. Anyone agree?

Beautiful and poignant words I thought. In case you can't read it says..
'when I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men
and a discharge for loving one'

My favourite tour was that of the Castro. When I asked a shop keeper at an intersection of two roads, if 'this was it?' i.e. 'is this the main drag of the Castro' he say 'it sure is, welcome to the gayest corner in the world. There was such a great vibe and the streets were lined with rainbow flags.

The other major highlight of SF was my warm showers host. Mary Ann. She lived over the river from downtown near the city of Oakland and was a total and utter bike nerd. She is one of the founders of Bike East Bay. She had hosted many touring cyclists and was just such a gem. Just so kind. On the night I arrived she ran a bath for me, filled it up with bubbles and Radox (good old Radox) and even played some French Cafe music for me on her computer. She introduced me to Pandora and great online music radio. I've tried to log on but failed so I think it may only be accessible to US computers. Below is a picture of the lunch she sent me off with to discover SF.

Home made fritata, yogurt and hummus and chips. 

Mary Ann is an artist (and a retired nurse) and has painted her own
mural on the wooden fence which surrounds her house.

Zee cat.

Mary Ann paints pictures depicting peopele on bikes.
This particular painting had a real chain and lock.

A Mary Ann bike painting

As I said, the lovely lady is a bike nerd.

She also took me for a days cycle up to Golden Gate Park which literally links the city to the ocean. She knew all the best bike routes and showed me how to bring the bike on the BART (as opposed to the DART). It stands for the Bay Area Rapid Transport.

That's Mary Anne ahead of me on a lovely SF bike lane.

Sherpa, fully loaded on the BART.

Every BART carriage has its own priority area for bikes.

That beautiful mural has the 'victorians' in the background, (wooden houses built in the Victorian style
the GG bridge and a cyclist wearing earphones while riding. You have to love California.

And then came the San Jose Bike Party. Mary Ann asked if I wanted to join, San Jose is about a one hour drive south of Oakland. To be honest, just being driven in a car is luxury enough at the moment to drive to San Jose. We packed up the two bikes in her van and headed south on the freeway to this...

Some great bikes altogether.

Me, Mary Ann and roughly 2000 other bikes.

Bikes of every shape and size join San Jose's Bike Party on the 3rd Friday of every month.

An example of one of the music trailers.

Young and old.

Anything that lights you up will do.

In California you can go to a Bike Party every single Friday night. Four cities in California have a monthly Bike Party. It was an idea which started in Sacramento, the capital of the state of California. The idea is the cyclists come along, dress themselves and their bikes up with lights and ride off chatting and laughing and drinking beer. The Bike Party I took part in in San Jose, has been running for nine years. On the night I joined they had roughly 2000 riders.

The ride began at 20.00 and as we rode, with speakers on trailers towed behind bikes blaring with music, along the 20 mile route, cars honked their horns, kids waved from the gardens of houses and shouted 'San Jose Bike Party'. We all then roared back 'San Jose Bike Party'. Cars pulled in, rolled down their windows and shouted 'San Jose Bike Party'. It was one of the most euphoric atmospheres I have ever experienced. There was so many of us and we were travelling so slowly and all other traffic just had to stop and get out of our way. Many people stood out in their gardens with their kids waving and taking pictures and videos.

Anything that lights up the bike will also do.

As someone who believes strongly in bikes taking their rightful place again on our roads - I was of course, in my element. There were two stops along the 20 mile route. These stops were basically massive open air discos. People danced and bought hot dogs and beer and partied and blue bubbles. As you do. The ride ended back in the original car park where it had started at about midnight. What an experience. Amazing. Thanks Mary Ann.

Some stats of the tour:
Miles cycled: 1710 (2813 kms)
Nights spent camping: 23
Night spent with Warm Showers hosts: 14
Average daily spend: €11.97
Punctures: 2
Bike replacements: Cassette, chain, housing for gear cable

Listening to:
This American Life podcast. This particular show brought a tear to my eye. If anyone reading has lost someone close to them, has a spare 30 mins and wants to hear a beautiful piece of radio have a listen here. Click on the link for the audio.

My friend Tania B also gave me a few tips on new podcasts. So I'm now fully loaded up on a whole host of podcasts from BBC 4, The Irish Times Women's Podcast, 99% invisible, The New Yorker Radio Hour and thanks to Niamh McN for suggesting Guardian Books.

Reading:
Blogs by solo female cycle tourers Emily Chappell and Anna. And Alastair Humphreys' 'Thunder and Sunshine'. I'm trying to read this one as slowly as possible. I usually keep it to savour for when I'm alone in my tent and wild camping somewhere random, where I'm feeling a little vulnerable. He gives me a kind of courage to say I shouldn't be afraid of the dark. And I relax and fall asleep.

Approaching San Francisco (SF)

The Golden Gate bridge. A real highlight of the trip.

Cycling over the Golden Gate bridge was a real highlight of the trip so far. I had finally arrived in San Francisco. I had never been before. My friend Janey asked what song was I singing as I crossed. To be honest it was really windy so I was actually hanging on for dear life. And trying not to knock down some of the hundreds of tourists with their selfie sticks. After a lot of rain, me and my wet tent parked ourselves at a lovely old hostel on the Marin Headlands. It's off season, so the hostel was quiet and I totally took over the whole basement with my tent, sleeping bags, soaking shoes, mats, dry bags etc. Heaven.

A random grocery store on route to SF with a piano,
just tucked in between the crisps and cokes.

My stove died in one of the campsites approaching SF. So I borrowed one
of these fancy new Jet Boil thingys. The trowel/spoon is a good fit don't you think?

You have to cycle through a long tunnel to get to the lovely Marin Headlands.
Like load of other tunnel along the route, cyclists just press the button before entering the tunnel, so the cars
know there are cyclists inside. 

I was very very fortunate to bump into as close as thing as you'll get on the road to a guardian angel in a hostel on the Marin Headlands. Her name is Sarah Burch. She blogs under honoringmycompass.com. When I met her she was working for the ACA and in the middle of guiding about 10 paying guests along the route I was riding, on a supported basis i.e. they have a van and accommodation is booked each night. The ACA is a pretty important part of bike touring life in the US. It stands for Adventure Cycling Association. It has mapped 45,000 miles of bike routes in the US. If anyone reading this wants their next holiday to involve biking in the US (would highly recommend) then this is your man. Most cyclists I meet are using ACA maps to guide them down the Pacific Coast route.

Once Sarah heard what mischief I was up to she immediately contacted her friend Jill in Santa Barbara. She emailed Jill and suggested Jill host me when I passed through SB. Within about five milliseconds the pair of them had arranged for me to stay with Jill and also to give Sarah a bag of 'stuff' that I didn't particularly need over the next two weeks. So off Sarah drove in her van the following morning with about 6kgs of 'stuff' including my laptop. They said I'd really notice the difference climbing up the Big Sur, a national park a couple of hundred miles south of SF. As I said, an angel. And I did.

This is Sarah. 

Alex was also staying at the hostel. He is from Germany and has just rode in from Alaska. On a titanium bike. Bike nerds reading this (i.e. Fergus/Julian) should zoom in. He has a Rohlhoff hub like gadget in between his pedals... and a the axis of his back wheel. He is blogging under boundlessbiker.com and he a great photographer!

This is Alex. 

And last but not least I met these two lovely ladies in the hostel. Suzanne (middle) is a writer and big fan of Ireland and John O'Donoghue's writing in particular. She blogs under creativitygoeswild.com. She was so convincing that I actually downloaded Anam Cara onto my Kindle. Kerri (left) well let's just say she's a pretty hardcore athlete from Melbourne who came to the US to ride the Sierra Cascades route... a much tougher route than the one I'm on. It also goes from north to south, border to border, just slightly more inland. If interested have a look here. I had met Kerri a few days previously at a campsite so it was lovely to meet a somewhat familiar face. The 3 generations of travelling ladies got on like a house on fire. And we spent hours putting the world to rights.

Keri Anne McKenna from Melbourne and Suzanne Murray from San Francisco.

Things were getting a little scarce this particular day.
I didn't realise corn tortillas need to be toasted.
Popping out the gas stove at lunch, sure it's no problem

Orla H are you impressed? I have not looked back since discovering the wonders
of the hard boiled egg.

So much rain approaching SF that the bike path had almost disappeared.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere.