Back to the coast

7/31 Day 20 - That morning we got up and were dreading the two very big hills. The first was 2000ft in elevation so we had to climb 1200 ft on the first (we were already at 800ft). Then the second hill was 800ft, but there were about 14 miles between them. Before we got to the hill we were planning on getting food in Leggett (this is where we got on highway 1! Yay!). But the only store was 1 mile uphill. I decided we had to go. We got ramen noodles and a snickers bar for when we reached the top of the hill. We probably shouldn't have used extra energy going there, but that snickers tasted really good.

It took a long time to get uphill, but we did it and didn't have to walk. It was really high up but it wasn't very steep. We had our victory snickers bar at the top and then it was 14 miles down hill.

We stopped on the 2nd hill for lunch so we had some extra energy. It didn't end up helping all that much because we walked up the last part. It was much steeper than the first hill. On the way down though we could see the ocean and it got about 15 degrees cooler.

Along the coast at last! It was very hilly as the road follows the inlets instead of having bridges over them. It adds a lot of hills and some miles, but mostly it's just annoying. We stopped in Westport for food at another super tiny and overly expensive market. It was only 9 more miles to camp, but it was really hilly so it took us a while. We also stopped a few times to take in the views. The Cali coast is beautiful.

We got there and didn't see Shawn so we set up camp with some people from Vancouver. We had seen them before at various campsites, but never really talked to them. We ate dinner and then decided to walk to another spot where the lady at the booth said other bikers were staying. She put us with the Vancouver people because this other place was full. So we walked over there and Shawn was there with burgers for us as a "wedding present." We felt dumb for not checking there for him when we got in, but we were still hungry anyway.

He made a fire and some really great burgers with avocado. We still had s'mores stuff from the night before so we made those too. There was a couple there who were driving up the coast who decided they didn't want to pay $35 for a tent site. So they parked their car somewhere down the road and pretended they were hikers. It was awesome and we didn't blame them for doing it. Anyway we hung out there with them and Shawn the rest of the night.

We stayed up a little late, but we only had another 40 or so miles the next day so we decided it was worth it.