Sept. 15 - Moseying along to Point Reyes

Bodega Bay to Olema

Wednesday - September 15
Morning brought a much sunnier view from our deck though the fog was not far away.

It was a very nice older motel and very quiet. Our room was the window on the right.

An hour later the fog was back. It made this standed boat look even more mysterious.

The Post Office

We stopped for breakfast #2 at a market/deli in Valley Ford and ended up in a delightful conversation with Ed. He is a charter boat captain and had the whole complicated story behind the sailboat grounded in Bodega Bay. It's been there 3 years and will likely be a landmark (baymark?) for many more years since it has a concrete hull. His wife and his boat are both named Anita and he is quite fond of both.

We did not see any of said frogs.

We did run into the 4 cyclists we had seen at the store last night when we all stopped at the top of this little steep hill. They looked to be students as well and are from Seattle. We are starting to see a trend - college students getting their last summer fun in before hitting the books again. It was nice of them to take our picture for us. 

At the bottom of the hill we reached the quite cute town of Tomales. We weren't hungry and the legs were warm so we kept pedaling. This is the Church of the Assumption of Mary.

Didn't see any of these either!

Our first view of Tomales Bay. We had fresh smooth pavement starting in Tomales but also had quite a little headwind blowing up the creek that the relatively flat road followed to reach the bay.

We played leap frog with the Seattle 4 all the way to lunch at Nick's Cove just north of  Marshall. We saw quite a few loaded cyclists go by while we lunched on tuna melt sandwich and crab cakes.

Seafood farming.

We are inland from the ocean enough that it stayed sunny the rest of  the day as we rolled up and down the short hills and bumps along Tomales Bay.

Looks like it is getting pretty shallow out there.

A handy fence just in time to repair a little shoe malfunction. 

We reached Point Reyes Station at 2:30. We ran into the Seattle 4 again and Doug ended up giving one of the girls the book about a group that cycled across Siberia. He had picked it up in Eureka and was done reading it, so it was  perfect time to pass it on. We bought groceries and had a frozen yogurt afternoon snack. While we were eating it, 2 guys on recumbents pulled up. No picture...too busy talking to them. They were from Switzerland and had started in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska 3 1/2 months ago. The one young man is planning to go all the way to Argentina. He definitely looked in good enough shape to be successful. When we asked him about Switzerland he had a hard time giving us his top area of the county.

It was a short ride to Olema where we chose to stay at this RV park. We figured that since we had seen so many loaded cyclists earlier that the hiker/biker sites would be pretty full at the park. It seemed quite nice and quiet.

About 10 minutes later this Bowling Green University van showed up and many tents and students followed in short order. We thought our quiet spot was gone. Turns out they are studying in a program called Geo-Journey. They are on the road for 8 weeks using National Parks as their classroom. It was a very quiet evening because they had a mid-term which they completed by headlamp as they sat in lawn chairs wrapped in blankets. We are sure this program is an experience that they will always treasure.

Doug cook dinner while Donna organized tomorrow's maps. The moon came out and the fog stayed away. Here's to hoping for sunshine over the Golden Gate tomorrow!

Today's miles = 35.9
Total miles = 406.7