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

Summer 1997 - Yukon to California
Journals - 5 September 1997

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Day 57

5 September 1997 (mileage = 44.2; Veterans Memorial Park, Monterey) -- X - We were up on schedule (~7:00). We packed quickly and were ready. We chatted with Mattais and Julianna while D&N finished up. We finally did get out at around 9 or 9:30. I did the navigating from the front of the pack and I decided to follow the colored arrows on the road. When this led to some mole hills (which mountains were made of), there was some perceived annoyance. The route I picked (without any map or guide) turned out to be scenic, direct and traffic-free. Dennis led for a bit on some flat farm land. He seemed to be going too fast, but Nancy stayed with him. Later when I took the lead, she seemed a bit fried. We got into some moderate 45-degree head winds, which is why I was leading. Usually, I just stay back with April to prevent ourselves from leaving them too much! We met a couple who I guessed to be Swiss from 500 M. They were -- we were resting and they caught us. He is Phillip, she Annick, both from Lucern. They had heard of Susan and HP, which April and I thought was very cool. They were 2 months into a 12-month trek. They seemed very cool. They, of course, had full Ortlieb. We amazingly caught them while they checked the map. I talked to them alone for a bit, which was cool. We stopped there at a fruit stand and bought some goodies (toffee peanuts). We took off again and it was soon time for a Nancy food emergency, or so it seemed to us. Even if we're hungry or tired or whatever, we just ignore it since our flexibility is so much greater (our tolerance for adversity). We got into Marina and found a nice little park and we found a tiny patch of shade to eat in. Back out on the trail, literally, since it was a very nice bike trail into Monterey. There, we found a visitor's info center. We then went to the grocery store. Wait ... before the tourist info, we stopped at a bike shop and I added a spoke guard to Nancy's wheel (which makes noises like it's made of wood). She is always in 1-1 on hills and her shifting is erratic enough to make it VERY prudent to have a spoke guard. That done, back to the grocery. Dennis filled his fuel bottle against the wishes of the gas station attendant. They had the idea to have exactly the same meal as us without knowing much about it (on the same night). They (D&N) got hit up for $ from a pro beggar. Biker clothes look too wealthy, whereas mine are literally falling apart. That done, we headed for the campground on the hill. For April and I, it wasn't a big deal. It was the first real sweat all day (as I was waiting at the top of our 1st climb, my pulse was 110 -- I had time to check). We chatted with the new Swiss, who had set up camp and were on their way out for a while. I said some German words to some German tourists (that I guessed were German) who surprisingly didn't speak any English. Wow! We set up nice and quick and ate our burritos with our shadows doing the same. We both took our showers and now we're done.
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Chris X. Edwards ~ October 2000