May 17, 2023 – Samuel P Taylor State Park to Pacifica
I realized I didn’t note the Swiss couple’s names yesterday. I’m sure the spelling is going to be wrong, but they were Sveena and Birk. I realize that the names don’t matter much to you all, but I like having them in here because it will help me remember my experiences years down the road.
In the book I’m using as a guide, today was supposed to be a 58.1 mile day straight to Half Moon Bay. But based on how my body was doing for the first few days I had planned to split this day given the elevation gain between the two parks and all the cycling through city streets we had to do for most of the day.
The map had showed some pretty good elevation gain coming out of Samuel P Taylor and based off yesterday we were expecting a pretty hard start to the day as we reached the summit. So we were pleasantly surprised when it ended up being a very long, but gradual, uphill to the summit. Turns out yesterday was the worst of the climb. This made for a great start to the day as we were able to make good time for the first 10 miles into Fairfax. That town was clean, had plenty of local restaurants, and for the most part had great bike lanes. We also came across a bicycle shop, so Isaac was able to replace his chain that he had repaired on the side of the road a few days ago (had been rigged together with 3 quick-links) and I bought a mirror as I was wishing I had one on busy highways since I started the trip back up. We added the new parts to our bikes right outside of the store, so we ended up hanging in Fairfax a little longer than planned.
After Fairfax, we went through Sausalito which was another beautiful town that I definitely want to go back to with the family to walk around and hit the bay, restaurants, and shops. In terms of riding a bike through it, there were a good amount of short, but very steep hills that we had to get past. All the same, it was a nice sunny ride through these towns to the Golden Gate Bridge. Once we hit the bridge it immediately got very foggy and a bit windy, but it was a great landmark to hit. In terms of the trip down the entire coast, I’d have to say that it’s the most iconic item and it felt good to head over the bridge and into the city of San Francisco. We went through San Francisco without really stopping until the southernmost limits to eat some great Mexican food. We had gone over 30 miles at this point without really eating since breakfast, so the meal was particularly good.
Afterwards, we rode out of the city and started another steep and long uphill towards Devil’s slide. We turned off into Daly City after a false summit and made our way into Pacifica from there to end our day at an inn; we’ll tackle Devil’s slide first thing tomorrow morning. Even after only 5 days of riding, it’s great to have a soft bed and a chance to do laundry. We ordered a pizza to the room, pigged out and started planning the next few days of the trip.
On that point, the trip has become increasingly difficult over the years because a lot of the hiker biker sites have closed down south of San Francisco because of the homeless population (sorry if I already mentioned this in a previous post). On top of that, one of the main stops on our route near Santa Barbara is apparently closed down because of damages from the rainy season we had this year (Gaviota State Park). So with that being said, we’re going to do our best to find alternate campsites to stay at, but worst case scenario we’ll have to rent more rooms to keep going when we hit one of these areas.
Overall, I feel really good about today. The trip started out pretty rough as I definitely didn’t train enough and its been plenty wet and cold. But when I woke up this morning and got on my bike, I actually felt pretty good. Likewise, as I went up some incredibly steep hills today, I was plenty tired, but my body was able to keep pushing on. I’m cautiously optimistic about the upcoming days despite our lodging issues.
-Chris
