NorCal Coast


From Trinidad we had over 6 hours of driving to get to our next desired campground. However, that is well above our normal driving time, so we split up the trip to Olema, CA by stopping for an overnight in Fort Bragg. We continued our journey south on US Hwy 101 for a little over 100 miles to the northern terminus of California State Route 1. Our goal was to drive as much of SR 1 as possible all the way down to Paso Robles, CA. We knew from the beginning that parts of the road were closed near Big Sur due to land/mud slides and we expected that we might run into other issues.


It was a rainy day and Jeff was still recovering, so it would have been wise for me to be on my best behavior, but... I do get really anxious when driving on the side of a mountain with seemingly a thousand foot drop off to the Pacific Ocean a couple feet from my side of the car. To make matters worse, there were several sections of the road that were under reconstruction due to slides, forcing us to travel in a single lane on very sketchy looking pavement. My only solace was the fact that the giant excavating equipment hadn't (yet) fallen off into the ocean, so Sally and Betty and their precious cargo, were logically safe.


However, logic is not what seems to matter at times like these! It was a couple of days later, when my right wrist was killing me for the second time on our travels, that I realized that I was giving myself carpel tunnel syndrome by gripping/braking so hard against my armrest!

The overnight in Fort Bragg was not at all memorable. We found another brew pub, browsed the used book store, Jeff bought some albums, blah blah blah.


The next day we were headed down to Olema RV Park which is within the Point Reyes National Seashore. There will be more about Point Reyes and Marin County later.


Near the beginning of SR 1 is where we started to see a distinct change in the coastal landscape. The tall trees gave way to smaller trees and brush and then eventually almost naked grassy hills. There were still large (probably volcanic) rock formations running just off the shoreline and the land's end was more cliff than beach, but inland from the cliffs was a totally different landscape. I suppose this explains the mud slides...


Beautiful fall colors on the headlands








In Olema, Jeff and I were feeling better (Jeff) and behaving better (me). By the time we got to Bodega Bay, we both felt great.



We stayed 4 relaxing nights and 3 beautifully sunny days in Bodega Bay. We were thankful that there really wasn't much to do in Bodega Bay which meant we were free to do our walk/runs each of the four days we were there. Jeff ran over 20 miles while we were there and I actually ran intervals and really enjoyed it.

The Children's Bell Tower

On our last day, we were fogged in, so visited the local coffee shop and then gave up on the sunshine and did a different trail/road walk/run in the afternoon. Along the trail we stopped at the children's bell tower. When I heard there was a bell tower, I guess I was expecting something like the liberty bell, but this was entirely different. A local boy was killed in Italy in 1994, but with the donation of his organs, seven Italians lived. The bells were all donated by families, schools and churches in Italy. The central bell was blessed by Pope John Paul II and is inscribed with the boy's name and all 7 Italians who received his organ donations. A good story...


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