We were not sure why but it was very cold this morning. Perhaps it had something to do with the clear skies. We’ve heard that sunny weather usually means cooler temperatures in the fall and winter with the northwesterly winds here on the coast.
We quickly warmed up as we cycled down highway 1 in the sun through the town of Fort Bragg. We stopped for a snack at Jug Handle State Reserve and its ‘ecological staircase’. We wanted to hike the 3 hour, 8km loop trail to a Pygmy forest but decided we would save it for another day, and visit the Pygmy forest accessible by road further south. At 11Am we stopped for a moment of silence for Remembrance Day as cars continued to drive on by.
We stopped in the very touristy town of Mendocino for lunch. This town has been beautifully maintained since its inception back in the 19th century (according to our guidebook).
After lunch we parted ways with Rob temporarily as Katherine and I headed towards the Pygmy forest in Van Damme State Park (a slight detour with a 400ft climb). The Pygmy forest is where the trees are extremely stunted due to the unique acidic soil. We read a sign about California Huckleberries and had a few samples. They were similar to blueberries in look and taste.
We had spectacular cycling as we headed towards our destination of Manchester State Park. We didn’t make too many stops as we knew sunset was nearing. We rolled into the hiker/biker site with 40min of daylight left. It was a spectacular spot. There was hardly anyone at the campground, except for a few rabbits and some deer. We were surprised to not find Rob there, but he arrived moments later as we set up camp. The temperature dropped drastically so we layered up. We quickly made dinner and enjoyed it as the sunset and the moon and the stars appeared over us. We noticed the outside of our tents and everything else outside became soaked in dew. It happened so quickly it was incredible! During dinner the camp host came by to collect our fee (we were on a mission to setup camp and eat before dark we hadn’t had a chance to drop off our fee in the collection box). Of our entire time on the coast we had never been checked to see if we had paid, except for the last 3 nights in California state parks. They seem to have it together to make sure people have paid!
After dinner we decided to call it an evening and forgo a camp fire for the night as it was already very dark. Over dinner we made plans with Rob to meet up in San Francisco, as he planned to be there in the next couple of days where as we planned to putts along slowly. San Francisco is Rob’s final destination, and he is expecting to be there for the next 3 weeks until his flight back to the UK. We are planning on visiting Alcatraz Island with Rob when we get to San Francisco.
According to our guidebook, there are only 14 more days of riding until San Diego! We will likely take it much slower now that we are not trying to beat the weather, and expect to take some time off in San Francisco. Our best guess right now is we’ll be there in about 3 and a half weeks!
Trip Around The World 
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