Day 9 – White Knuckles, Burning Thighs and Sea Lions (in no particular order)

Beverly Beach State Park to Jessie M. Honeyman State Park

The shower at the end of the day was great. Did we tell you how wonderful the State Parks were? The hot water was all included in the price! As we sit here reflecting on the 101 km day, we realize how ambitious we really were in trying to do this 28 times in a row, unsupported. It’s really hard to do 100km a day down this highway because every day, no matter what the book says, you have about a 1000m to climb. Depending on the day, you focus on problem areas – a mental game of ‘head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, knees and toes…AND don’t forget the crotch’.

It was a beautiful sunny day that ranged between 15 – 19 degrees…and we’re quite sure that we’ll have our hideous bike tans for the rest of the summer. The stretch of highway was phenomenal…it was the most beautiful thing I’ve (Merryl) seen in my life. West Coast Trail on steroids.

So you may be wondering...white knuckles? Well, Lee has a little issue with heights. This was accelerated by the fact that we rode along a few Capes that had very little in the way of barriers between us and the ocean hundreds of meters below. Merryl kept shouting “look at the view to your right!” and Lee would stolidly respond “I can’t! If I look, I’ll wobble and fall!” So we took frequent breaks, and on one of those, managed to get a good view of a heard of sea lions lounging on the rocks below (see pictures).

The trees along the coast are all windswept and dwarfed, and when you’re not distracted by them, you look around and see the wild rhododendrons growing along the highway, and in between them, the wild iris. During a rest stop, Lee found an osprey nest and we both watched in wonder as the pair traded off nest time. This is juxtaposed to the Stellar Jays and crows that scream at us as we cycle along.
On a side note, we ran into an overly friendly young man who turned our short lunch break into something close to an hour. Merryl thinks he was far too interested in Lee for his own good, and was thankful when Lee dropped the “I have a husband” bomb. He did however, give us a few good tips about cycling south of Florence.