West Coast 2018

61 miles This was intended to be a short day so we could surf at Santa Cruz. In the end we didn’t get to surf – but still had a great day. The morning started exceptionally cold – I was wearing my winter jacket and was still cold! The sea mist here puts the temperature into single figures as well as being very wet (not raining just misty like being in cloud/fog). We stared the day at a very slow pace – yesterday’s hills and slow pace through town alongside the very cold temperature was taking its toll. We stopped after 18 miles at a small town just inland from the coast – 2 miles inland and we got away from the sea  mist. It was lovely to sit in the sun! By the time we had finished our coffee and danish we set off back to the coast prepared for more freezing temperatures – but the mist had cleared and better still the northerly wind had picked up – that’s right we spent the rest of the morning being pushed to Santa Cruz! We ended up ticking along at 20 miles an hour or so.

We made it to San Fransisco!! After another cold start and a dozen or so miles we entered the northern metropolis of San Fransisco- they don’t see it like that though. Instead each area is identified very differently. Fairfax was the first built up area we came to and the route through it was lovely – as with Vancouver it seems to take us through the nicest parts of town. Maybe it’s all like that in Fairfax…. After what seemed a very long way after over 30 miles and more hills than we had hoped for we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge. I knew that it was a tourist attraction in its own right but oh dear me what a lot of people! It seemed that everyone visiting San Fransisco was determined to ride over the bridge – whether they could ride a bike or not. And the proportion who could ride was definitely in the minority. We’d decided to wait for our usual breakfast until we had arrived at the San Fransisco side of the bridge – which actually meant around 12pm. By the time