Northern California to San Francisco/Berkeley

We're currently staying with Louise, a friend of Ariel's, in Berkeley, CA. She's a pretty fantastic host, feeding us and providing laundry and advice for what to see the rest of the trip. After navigating the insane pedestrian and rental bike traffic of the Golden Gate Bridge, finding our way through downtown San Francisco, and getting our fully loaded bicycles onto the BART train yesterday, we spent a down day slowly wandering around Berkeley, exploring bookshops, eating everything in sight and buying a ton of bulk food and produce at the Berkeley Bowl. It was a good down day. Tomorrow morning we leave and continue down the coast to Half Moon Bay and then to Santa Cruz to stay with a friend we met along the way. HUGE salad in my stomach.
HUGE salad and sandwich in Berkeley.

Our first view of San Francisco.
Redwoods near Sausalito they couldn't bear to part with.
Eucalyptus buttons.
Biking along this was exciting.
Our sketchy hammock setup in the tree filled campground. The rain fly turned out to be unnecessary because it was the first campground were we didn't wake up shrouded in mist.
View for lunch.

Eating lunch on a cliff.
What we found at the top of the really steep hill.
We climbed up this, it might not look it, but it was steep. And this was only halfway up...
The coast
Mac n Cheese with farmer's market broccoli.
Flowers that attracted multiple humming birds.
Solar house on Judy's farm. Our second Warm Shower's experience. We pitched our tent next to a windmill between the volunteer fire department, the emus, and the sheep.
View from the top of our tallest climb yet. Unfortunately there were some trees in the way.
One Log House.

Biking over the Eel River after Benbow State Recreation Area.
Biking through Avenue of the Giants. We skipped biking through the drive through tree because it cost $3.00 that we'd rather spend on a campsite.
Produce stand in the middle of Avenue of the Giants. Blackberry Popsicles were delicious.
Goats across the driveway from Sharon's garden.
A kind lady named Sharon stopped her car as we were eating lunch on the side of a road and offered us her yard to camp in. She'd had a good experience with cyclists staying with her before and felt she should offer. We cut our day short and took her up on it and were very glad we did. She and her family were incredibly hospitable and shared the goods of the garden. We pitched our tent right in the middle and woke up among snap peas and beautiful flowers.

Cooking dinner in the garden.

Smelling Sharon's flowers.

Some more pictures.

Lunch on top of a big climb after Gold Coast. Cody and Walker helped us make it up this one.

Not every day was clear. But the ocean is still cool.

Most of the pictures were taken with a clear sky.

It was deemed good luck to add a rock to the stacks. So Cody and I each added a couple rocks.

The early morning fog.

Look at us. First lunch on the road.

So fresh and clean. It only got better.

View over the Colombia River Gorge.

This was on the ferry from Washington to Oregon.

I liked this. I found it in the Olympic National Forest on one of my hikes before the bike trip started.

Hey Guys, here's some pictures.

There are blackberries everywhere! Walker and Lindsey seem to have an eye for good patches along the road.

They were everywhere!

Big indeed.

Lindsey gets her first flat. I think this is somewhere in California.

The incredible view in Southern Oregon. This was at the bottom of a really chilly descent. I think the hill was a little over 800 feet. It gets really cold coming down into the ocean air.

There are many pictures of Lindsey from behind. You can guess who has the camera in their handlebar bag.

Another incredible view at the top of one of our many climbs. It is always worth it.

The Octopus Tree.

The Cliffs of Insanity! or the Oregon Coastline.

Lindsey at the Tillamook Cheese factory.

You can see what we thought of it.

A fabric store in Wheeler, OR. This was the only thing open on a Sunday when we rolled through.

This was the first Hiker/Biker site we came to in Oregon. The state parks will never turn a biker away, and they have free hot showers. It's pretty incredible. The staff is always really nice.

Another view of the Oregon coast. This was the top of our first 800 foot climb.

We made it to the beach. Holding our bikes up over our heads was the only logical thing to do. It was a hike down, worth it.

Our sleeping spot on the beach.

The view.

Lindsey cooking one of her fantastic rice, chicken and corn combos.

The yard where we stayed in Washington. We were having trouble finding a campsite our second night out and Randy pulled up next to us and offered his yard for free. He had a great lawn next to a nice creek.

Randy's home, and Bandit.

Mmmmm... I love eating.

Bandit protected our food while we slept.

The ferry out of Seattle, WA. I look sick, I wasn't.

Getting ready to leave Kashena's house in Seattle. She gave us a base in the city and was willing to watch our car for the summer in order to make this whole trip possible.