We had fried oatmeal for breakfast then hiked to the coast and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We got back on our bikes and headed south along highway 1, following the coast very closely. Since it was Sunday we were expecting traffic to get heavy throughout the day as people head back to the city, so we only had a short 25 mile day planned.
In the end it turned out to be one of the most scenic rides we have ever done. The road hugged the cliff, and the views were astounding. We had some climbs, but exhilarating descents through switchbacks. Cars could hardly go much faster than us. At one point we had to stop as there were cattle on the road! We saw several day cyclists going up and down the road. There was also a section where we passed a really beat up old RV going up hill. The RV was quite the sight. It was only able to go 10km/h or so. While behind the RV we had a nice chat with another cyclist who was about to pass the RV as well.
Highway 1 had a real mixture of traffic today. Convertibles, RVs, many hybrid cars again, occasional trucks, many pick-up trucks, motorcycles, day cyclists, touring cyclists and I guess even some cows. The weekend changes everything!
At the top of a hill we decided to head over to a vista point trail for a quick snack before the town of Jenner. While enjoying the magnificent view from a picnic table, we met a couple walking who was interested in our trip. We had a great chat and they had many encouraging words for us.
We stopped at the town of Jenner to grab a snack. Jenner was located at the mouth of Russian River. It was a gorgeous spot, and further down the river we could see it dramatically empty into the Pacific Ocean. There were many people kayaking in the quiet slow moving river.
We continued on towards Bodega State Park. The scenery was still spectacular as we passed many beaches right below us. Traffic started to get quite heavy, but they were still courteous, and the slower speed limit was a help. However we were starting to get eager to get off the road.
We went passed the state park so we could get groceries in the town of Bodega Bay. After groceries we stopped at a cafe to use the internet so we could plan for our entry into San Francisco. We were able to download the San Francisco Bike Map (one of the best we have seen on our entire trip), reserve a camp site at the Golden Gate National Recreational Area (you can only stay with reservations), and booked a couple nights in a hotel right downtown San Francisco through Priceline. When all was said and done we only had an hour of day light left, so we quickly headed back to the State Park.
We found our hiker biker site to be in a beautiful spot surrounded by sandy dunes. We could have pitched our tent right on the soft sand but decided to put it under a tree where there was a little bit of grass growing through the sand, hoping to keep sand from getting into the tent as much as possible. We wanted to hike to the beach to catch the sunset, but the beach was more than a 15min walk away and we didn’t have enough time. We decided we would save the hike for the morning.
We had a bit of an eventful dinner as our pasta sauce had “natural flavourings” which had soy hidden in it despite it not being listed in the ingredient list. Luckily Katherine was able to tell right away, so we also made one of our backup freeze-dried meals and scrambled eggs and all was well. We fell asleep to the sound of the crashing waves, coyotes in the distance, and a strange periodic fog horn sound from afar.
Trip Around The World 
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