Marc writes:

Carl and Tom mentioned during breakfast at Duarte’s that they were going to go camping the following weekend as a replacement for the Northern River Ride canceled due to the fires. I had the weekend free and there would likely be room for one more tent (there was, barely) so decided to join them. I’d never been to Patrick’s Point State Park and didn’t even know that the annual ride that has turned into the River Ride originated as a simple camp-out there. Another reason to go.

Yes, I’m over packed. I did not use everything I brought. That’s OK, there was plenty of room on the bike.

We took off from Burlingame about 7 and had breakfast in Novato. We stayed on 101 until Cloverdale where we took 128 toward the coast. Our first rest stop was on 128. I removed a layer as it was beginning to get a bit warm. On the other hand, we were heading toward the coast.

The second rest stop was on the coast just above Westport-Union. I took a few snapshots of the original coast highway while Carl and Tom enjoyed a snack.

My thermometer is in the sun so it wasn’t quite as hot as it indicates. However, the thermometer on Carl’s bike read 104. None of us expected it to be quite that hot. The amazing thing is that 30 miles up the road it was 30 degrees cooler.

We arrived in camp about 5:45 after stopping for a late lunch in Fortuna and then stopping again for supplies (campsite beer and snacks) in Trinidad. Soon the tents were up, the Kermit chairs unpacked and the beer opened. Life is good.

Sunday morning we broke camp, rode to Arcata for breakfast, then stayed on 101 for the ride home. The last stop was in Santa Rosa. That pretty much ended the pleasurable part of the ride for me. It took over two hours to get the 75 miles from Santa Rosa to San Mateo, splitting lanes much of the way. Oh well… I guess that was pay-back for the nice weather (meaning no pea-soup fog) at the campground. I was home before 6 PM.

Carl’s pictures