Day One riding California Hwy #1

Sunday’s forecast called for sun in the morning, rain in the afternoon. With my rain-gear at the ready, I made my way down route #101 for the last time. Making the right onto famed California State Highway #1, I pulled over, ate some food and and pulled on the rain-pants and swapped the wind shell for the rain jacket. Just as I got the waterproof shells over the pannier bags, a light rain began to fall. But I shrugged, clipped in and began what would become six days of immensely rewarding cycling.

Immediately after throwing a leg over, the climb began. 7.5kms in length and 54mins in time; 342m in elevation gain with a 16% max grade; endless twisting turns and switchbacks; minimal traffic with only light and intermittent rain. With every turn of the cranks, I wanted to keep climbing, to keep them turning. The effort of climbing was calling me to ride harder, faster even; not for the sake of reaching the summit but, simply for the sake of the climb. And although I looked forward to the eventual descent being earned, all I wanted to do was keep climbing. I was stronger; the bike was lighter; maybe the cycle-computer was giving me wonky data. Nope, I was simply in my element and it was glorious.

Let’s recall a lesson we all learned when young; what goes up, must come down. Well, I was up, way up at the summit of this climb. Therefore, it is considered a miracle pill buy cheap tadalafil unica-web.com to treat erectile dysfunction. After a long term relationship levitra lowest price your sex life doesn’t remain the same. With order levitra without prescription ‘s help, your sex life will greatly improve. Did you know, for instance, that bananas, due to their high level contents of phosphorus, develop sex urge? Don’t laugh but bananas can be a potent online viagra store if consumed in large quantities and is changed into arginine, an amino acid that has a host of benefits for circulation. Which means, time to come down!

At this time of year, traffic is minimal and with gray skies, the head- and tail-lights on those few cars were easily visibly from quite a distance. Being a wooded area, the road ahead could be seem, at times, for several upcoming turns. For the next twenty kilometers, Irene and I cut straight lines through two, three, four corners at a time, riding high along the banks before driving into the shallowest inner line of each hairpin corner. The grin on my face was as wide as that descent was long. Exhilarating.

Just before a final two kilometre climb, a Subara wagon pulled up along side me with the window rolled down. “Everything okay?” a friendly face yelled in calm concern. “Yup, I’m good, thank you for asking.” She waved and drove off. A few kilometres later I spied that same woman stopped at the side of the road taking pictures. I pulled over and thanked her for her concern, joking that I hoped I didn’t look as though I needed help. We chatted for 10-15mins, realising that we’d been following the near identical routes from Spokane. Though she was driving and had started in her native state of Colorado, we may well have passed each other already. Saying our goodbyes and waving our best wishes for safe travels, I thought just how kind this person had been to make sure I was in good shape, had what I needed etc.

Finally setting up camp to a spectacular sunset [still on route #1, just south of Westport, CA], I quickly fell asleep, grinning widely, anxious for the next day’s adventure.