Hi Folks, 

At 1.30 pm today (3rd) yours truly crossed the Golden Gate Bridge (built the year I was born, gee is it that old ?) into San Francisco.

 We have just completed 7 days riding without a break, and now have 2 days off before the final 9 days and 740 miles to the border with Mexico.

So I felt that I should use this short break to review this trip todate and
continue where I left off on the last report.

It has been for me a demanding but rewarding ride so far. From the Olympic Peninsula and rain forests of Washington State, which is one of the most productive commercial timberlands in the world, to the rocky and hilly coast of Oregon.
 
>From ocean beaches, to alpine meadows,
from lush river valleys, to rocky headlands, you get a mixture of all that when you travel on or near highway 101.

Then you have the world famous Avenue of the Giants and the Redwoods State Park, and finally the vineyards of Northern California.

However before covering those latter points of interest in detail, I will conclude with the information some of you requested on the logistics etc of this ride.

There are 15 participants on this ride and yours truly is the only one (as quoted by my 14 US companions) as having a funny accent, ie English.  

Funny accent or not, there was a big plus for me being the only Odyssey 2000 veteran. I was given a generous discount on the cost of this trip. That includes 2 meals per day, accommodation and the support team.

We average 70 miles per day with just 4 rest days over the 28 day trip. There are 3 support vehicles including a Rhyder Truck to carry luggage and spares the other vehicles act as a sag waggon in the event of illness / accident. The 4 staff include a mechanic and a massage therapist.

Whilst the longest day at 97 miles and the shortest is 53, there is no advance warning of the severity of each days ride. On day 9 we had a 57 mile ride along the coast of Oregon and the first 10 miles we had rain with the next 47 miles into a srong headwind. We were later informed that there had been a hurricane off the coast of Baja California over a 1000 miles away and that we had caught the edge of it.

 Highway 101 was originally constructed to provide a road link from Canada to Mexico and for the most part our route takes us on or close to that highway.

There are sections of Highway 101 which is now a freeway (motorway) in those areas we are using the old original road or some of the many bike trails, and back roads.

There are many fresh water rivers which run into the Pacific and it is only in the last 50 to 80 years that road bridges have been built to cross these rivers.

  You may recall my previous report indicating the length of the road bridge over the river Colombia separating Washington State from Oregon. So any traveller going south or north before those bridges were built would have had a long and dificult journey.

One thing I had not appreciated was that the temperature of the water running into the Pacific from these rivers is much higher than the Ocean temperature the effect of which is carried for hundreds of miles.

Once again the limitation of the pocketmail will require this report to be carried forward.

So I will close this report with the quote for today :-

Some folk live rich, while
Some folk die rich.