The Tandooris Bike Across America

Whew, we’ve started this trip for real since our last post!! Sausalito to Santa Rosa seems like the glory days and Evan is starting to call 30 miles whimpy!

We took one of the routes from Ukiah on the Mendocino Transit Authority to Port Arena on the West Coast of California. There we biked the coast on Highway 1 for a day/two nights, which was wonderful and challenging at the same time.  It was pretty much exclusively hills with very little room for bikers, but the views were amazing (sometimes terrifying!!!) and we’re totally glad to have spent some time there. 

We headed back to Santa Rosa from the coast next. Gualala through Jenner and into the city, which was almost 70 miles and totally kicked our butts.  We spent the night with wonderful hosts John and Wendy, who took us in on very short notice, fed us breakfast, and sent us on our way with newly greased bikes. 

We split the 80 mile ride to our next destination, Davis, into two days.  We sampled some wine in Napa Valley and camped in a pretty nice field on the way, but it was next to a kennel and the dogs seemed to do more barking than sleeping. 

We got into Davis around noon on Monday, which was great because we got to explore the city a bit before going to our hosts house.  It is definitely the most bike-friendly area we’ve ever experienced, with paths on nearly every street, complete with bicycle roundabouts. The neighborhood we stayed in was even built around bike paths!  And we found a bikers-dream for lunch: the sushi buffet.  We left so stuffed we had to take a nap in the park.  We then headed to our hosts Peggy and John’s house, who shared their extensive touring knowledge gained while riding a tandem bike from Portland, OR to Portland, ME. 

Peggy and John told us about a great way to get to our next destination, Auburn.  From Sacramento, there is a bike path that goes along the American River and ends at Folsom lake, about 22 miles from Auburn.  It was a lovely, flat, shaded way to travel by bicycle. 

The next leg of the trip, from Folsom to Auburn was pretty challenging though. Auburn calls itself “The Gateway to The Sierras” , and advertises itself as “the endurance capital of the world”.  We can see why.  Let’s just say we made it to our hosts house, Chris and Linda, but kind of just barely.  Seventy miles on a bike is a long way.  Chris and Linda have been wonderful, and have even offered to let us rest up here an extra day, which we are happy to do!  On to South Lake Tahoe next and out of California by the weeks end!