Day 25

The smell of San Francisco was fresh in the air. I could just feel that I was getting closer and I was very excited. There were more and more cyclists on the road and labelled city bike routes. It was also evident that I was nearing a more urban environment when the cyclists quit smiling or waving at me. Oh well.

I rode from Bodega Dunes State Park to Samuel P. Taylor State Park, not too far north of San Francisco. The day started out, going inland through hilly farm countries. The farms around here are very pretty I think.

I met a guy named Benjamin who was doing a tour from San Diego to Portland I think. Soon afterward I passed a French guy with a surfboard on the back of his bike, apparently touring the pacific coast for the sake of surfing all along the way. After lots of challenging short hills I made it out of the country and found myself in Tomales Bay and I was of course craving Tomales. Sadly there were none to be found.

However, there was coffee to be found, which is a very nice alternative to tomales. I was sitting down in a half-abandoned town called Marshall on the side of the road. I had bought a hearty lunch at an expensive supermarket that morning, so I stuffed myself to the brim which fruit, bread, and dairy products. While I was eating, a big old van pulled up. When I was just about to leave a lady came out of the van and asked me if I wanted some coffee. Being a sucker for free coffee and conversation, I accepted the offer. I didn't get their names, but the man and woman are from Holland originally, but the man lives in Canada. They were touring around the US, visiting all the parks. We talked for a while about travelling and the dutch language and other interesting things. It was also very delicious coffee.

A while later I arrived at my campground at Samuel P. Taylor State park and set up camp. A guy who looked like he was a couple years younger than me rode up to the site on his mountain bike with a big rucksack (backpack) on his back. I found out that his name was Kyle. He's originally from Colorado, from somewhere in the mountains, but has lived in Denver. He went to school in Montana for Civil Engineering. He and I were the only ones at the campground and we got along well, so we just talked around the picnic tables all evening about adventuring, biking, school, careers, etc. He was riding his bike around the bay area looking for fun mountain biking trails to ride. Sounded like a pretty fun thing to do. We exchanged contact info in the morning and will hopefully get together for a bike ride next time he's in Colorado.