I got a super late start because 1) I hadn’t slept well so slept in and 2) I need to re-organize all my stuff so it made sense as it was taking me like 10 mins of riffling through all my bags to find anything. The people who’d helped me last night drove by and threw peace signs and said happy travels, and i waved back and was like maybe i should put a shirt on. A bit later a park ranger rolled by and i was like ok i gotta explain why i’m here without a horse but he just waved and smiled as i packed up my tent.
Went the wrong way when i set off and realized it when i passed the “Entering Samuel P park” sign I had passed on the way in, so fired up google maps and it sent me down one of the most beautiful trails I’ve ever biked on. It went on for a while and I was like yeah this is Sigur Ros as fuck.
Eventually got back on Sir Francis Drake Blvd (the same road I was on for a lot of yesterday) and immediately had to climb up a huge ass god damn hill of doom again. It was an unusually hot day so my body was running way too hot. I had to keep stopping and taking water and a breather. There were some bikers halfway up it on the other side getting ready for a ride and they waved and said some stuff to me so I had to power up a bunch of it without a break until I was out of there view because of my ego and that sucked.
I get to the top of this hill after what feels like about 8 months of peddling and then see the road down on the other side. Shit was steep as hell and terrifying. Carrying so much weight its hard to stop, and you can’t really just hold on the breaks the whole time because it heats up the wheels and you can pop your tire, and its bad to run through your brake pads anyway.
I eventually get down this hill and it was actually pretty sweet and adrenal-y, and it ends at this intersection with a campsite and a little cool looking bar and food place. I think ‘you know what — fuck this, I need to actually plan something’ and get a place in the campsite, in Olma. Once I got settled it was sort of late so I decided to sleep there for 2 nights so I can have the whole next day in the town close by to explore a bit and plan the rest of my trip out.
I go to this local bar and get food and end up getting way too drunk and talking to some guys, we start talking about alcoholism and Amy Winehouse for some reason and it got really dark but in a funny way and then we all left. Oh yeah also as I was walking to the bar someone honks at me, pulls up right next to me, says “there’s gonna be an earthquake on Friday at 8:02pm” and then drove off — super random.
