[Bike]
The Bike Touring Pages of
Chris X. Edwards

Summer 1997 - Yukon to California
Journals - 1 September 1997

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Day 53

1 September 1997 (cloudy; mostly sunny; mileage = 31.5; Half Moon Bay SB) -- A - We all managed to get up soon after the alarm went off at 7:00! I had a really hard time sleeping, possibly because of the Pepsi or possibly because of being rather annoyed by the person next to me. The lack of sleep didn't seem to make it hard to get up this morning, though. I (and Chris) was anxious to get moving. We had breakfast and chatted a while and finally everyone was ready to go. We went through the park to the ocean and then south. Somewhere around Pacifica, we had to change course because we weren't allowed on Highway 1. The detour wasn't too horrible, although I think we had to do an extra hill. There weren't any really bad hills today, but they all seemed very long because we were going so slow. I was actually impressed at how well Nancy rode, but I guess Chris was right about how much I've improved, because she did seem incredibly slow on hills. It was an enlightening experience. I realized what it's been like for Chris to go slower than he needs to for me. I have to admit it was a great feeling to wait at the top of a hill because someone was slower than me! I would very much like to go back to the Swiss-style of riding where we just met at the campground. We could have been here by noon and instead we got here at 4:00 AND Nancy wasn't too happy today. I think she's afraid of what she's gotten herself into. We'll see. We had a yummy grilled cheese dinner and as the sun set, the clouds were a surreal pink purple and looked like a Maxfield Parrish painting. Very neat! Oh. We stopped at a beach overlook for lunch and watched bad surfers and stupid swimmers. X - There were two climbs today that, by our standards, were really light and should have gone fast and smooth. But our L.C.D. was dragging it out for us, which is OK and understandable, but we were getting antsy crawling up the major climbs, since the traffic was REALLY heavy and there was zero shoulder. Quite frightening really. I felt that our big peleton was making more trouble than it was worth. When a guy on a racing bike flashed by, I jumped the pack and gave chase. I didn't catch him, but it was fun and I waited a long time for April and then we waited a long time. Tough call, but it was best to leave them. Nancy's doing great, but we're just distractions, not facilitators. We had "Dave Scott Syndrome" today -- "Gee, it must be tough to climb a hill like that for so long."
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Chris X. Edwards ~ October 2000