No Pain, No Gain: Overcoming Some Serious Hills

"It's not a matter of ambition, babe. That's definitely... not... the problem," I huffed slamming my pedals down as we ascended yet another hill.

I remember sitting halfway up a hill as Hunter waited at the top, hearing my phone tell me it's battery was low and all I could think was, Me too, Phone.

We had our bikes in full gall-up as we rode up and down the rollercoaster that is California's coast. We were playing on expert when we should've been using easy. But,the human body can do incredible things. Somehow, after a harrowing previous day, I managed to push myself even harder on Day Two. With Hunter constantly reminding me that we were almost at the top of every hill we came across, I was surprisingly more motivated than annoyed. There were times when I asked him to stop but for the most part I really needed the encouragement.
"I can see cars going down" became the best phrase you could hear during the day. This meant if you just pushed yourself a little harder. If you just used a little more of yourself. If you could get to the top no matter what it took. You'd have an extremely rewarding descent coasting past some of the most beautiful scenery you've ever seen. 

As much I regret not being able to film the ride, I'm glad my GoPro was dead. The faces I made going up some of those mountains looked like I was evacuating my intestines. (And that's exactly how it felt.) Seriously, my ass still feels like it got stabbed repeatedly.

Before we left the state park, we met a few other cyclists heading in all different directions. There was an odd sense of community between the other bicycle tourists. We were all instant friends, sharing our breakfasts at the camp's picnic table and sharing stories of our trips. 

Halfway through the day, I ditched the trailer and put Bambi in my basket. We were both much happier. The trailer was broken, hitting the spokes on my back wheel and much too heavy to attempt carrying it up mountains. 

We made it to Bodega Bay at 7 pm. It was a small fishing town apparently a common place for weddings and romantic getaways. We checked ourselves into an inn for the night in order to reward ourselves for the night prior and the insane biking we had been doing.
I put Hook on and took a shower.
The dirty water circling the drain reminded me of the movie Psycho. I used an entire bar of motel soap.
In the morning, as I wrote my previous entry I pulled a tick out of the back of my head that apparently got a free ride for the day. 

Day Three:  

I kept saying I wanted an easy day the night before to recover. It turned out heading towards the 101 (towards civilization aka phone signal and grocery stores) was all downhill and flat. We made it to Santa Rosa mid-day and kept riding to Healdsburg with energy to spare.
The only problem we found was where we were going to sleep for the night.
We opted for a public park along the Russian River.
We didn't sleep too well due to paranoia of getting kicked out, but it turns out Healdsburg is super lax.
At one point, a couple of drunk guys stumbled into the park talking loudly.
"Dude, shut up, there's people trying to sleep."
"Oh, sorry."
They slunk away.

And here we go again.

Thank the universe for coffee,
Nik