Summer 1997 - Yukon to California
Journals - 5 September 1997
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.
![[Bike]](./only2500b.gif)
