Point Reyes, CA to Pacifica, CA
55.31 miles
5:45.00 hrs
36.4 max
9.6 avg
What a gorgeous day! I woke up with a layer of frost on my tent and was I frigid cold! I delayed riding out at 7:10am by stopping at a bakery until the sun cam up and it had a chance to warm the unusually cold air.
As can be seen with my slow pace, I had a crap ton of climbing to do today but it was all worth it due to the continued gorgeous cliff side scenery that I was experiencing.
Today I encountered my second wipe out of the trip. This was not much of a wipe out, as I was climbing a hill and was motionless at the time my bike was tipping over. The story goes like this: I looked behind me as a ascended a large climb. The view behind me overlooked a coastal bay with beaches and cliffs as far as the eye could see. There lay a lake in the back ground, behind a strip of houses that separated the two bodies of water. I thought to myself, I must capture this view. As I looked ahead I scoped out the point of which I wanted to capture this photo. My vista was no more than 30 feet ahead of me at the beginning of a guard rail protecting a blind corner. When I reached my destination I brought my bike to a halt, unclipped my right foot with ease and twisted my left leg in a similar fashion in an attempt to unclip my left foot so that I may place it down on the ground for stabilization, as I had thousands of times. That was all this action was though... and attempt.
The clip on the bottom of my cleat had come loose and did not allow the generation of enough torque to unclip. Moments later I found myself in a frenzy of thoughts, trying to fight the slight motion that my body had already made to lean the bike to the left; into traffic. As I slowly tip over and I try to counter act this motion, my mind focuses in on all the sounds around me. The sound of silence gave me reassurance that no cars were coming from behind, "ahhh... safety". Once defeated by the inevitable force of gravity, I gave into falling and started concentrating on relaxing my body in preparation for impact. The fall did not hurt physically but as I lifted my body from the ground, a cyclist appeared from behind me; my pride was dented.
The rest of the ride into SF was amazing. The saddest part of this day was when I climbed up a large hill, with one of the largest grades I have ascended, to take a near necessary amazingly beautiful photo of the golden gate bridge just to find my camera battery dead.
The rest of the jaunt into Pacifica, CA (where I have extended family and where I am staying a couple of days) was very hilly and I ended up exhausted by the time I found myself at my final destination.
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