81 miles in 9 hrs (incl. 1 long food stop)
Total distance - 992 miles
Safely checked in here in Mendocino, a quaint and picturesque little town on the coast that is surprisingly populous given it was the setting for most of Jessica Fletcher's adventures in Murder She Wrote.
Much better day today but still worryingly tough. I could tell that I was flirting dangerously close to another monster blow up on more than a few occasions.
Starting off, the forecast was again for another warm day, though not as hot as yesterday. However, I hoped to avoid the worst of the heat as I would be crossing over the mountains out the valleys back to the, hopefully cooler, Pacific Coast by the afternoon.
The first 20ish miles into Leggett were mildly irritating with far too many 300ft climb/descent stints, making for a slow start. I was therefore, in a way quite happy to finally, after some 900 miles, turn off Highway 101 and set off at the very start of Highway 1 (see pic). Once in Leggett I took the short detour to cycle through the legendary 'drive-through-tree'. Yup, I know it sounds tacky but I actually thought it was a really impressive sight, especially considering said tree is still very much alive and well. So I sat there for quite a while eating lunch chuckling at the irony of folk tentatively inching their over sized SUVs through.
I was also in no rush to move on as it was warming up and I knew what lay ahead. It was the Legget Hill, probably the third-toughest climb on my whole route (behind two on the never-happened Mattole stage). Finally I rolled out of Leggett and began the ascent with the thermometer now around 27C. It was definitely tough, not insanely so (approx. 1300ft in 5 miles), but the really remarkable thing was that in those 5 miles I can't remember one single pedal-turn of downhill, or even flat, it was just continuous grind - strangely enjoyable though. But nowhere near as enjoyable as the descent down towards the Pacific again. 1,800ft and several miles of unadulterated cycling joy, sweeping and twisting through the shadows of the forest. One for the purists and easily up there in my top three downhills ever - and, yes, if you're wondering, I've got favourite climbs as well, cycling uphill can be fun in my book.
The descent back to the ocean also brought the temperature drop I was hoping for, and some. From 27C at the summit it was suddenly a relatively chilly 13C at sea level, despite still being under blue skies. Temperature inversion? Definitely.
The next 45 miles are a bit of a delightful blur of surf, beaches, sea lions and headlands. A blur that was, however, frequently punctuated by that temperature inversion. The boundary could only have been a hundred or so feet up but it made for the counter-intuitive concept of climbing into the 20C heat and then descending into the 13C cool. 7C doesn't sound much, but with it being the 'wrong-way-round' it caused some real issues with my thermoregulation.
Still, I made it here in one piece and hoping the forecast is right, being for things to cool back to civilized temps tomorrow as I begin the final 160 miles into San Fran.
..and, by the way, have you started humming the theme tune to Ms Fletcher's show yet? Cause it's been on repeat in my head since I arrived here 3 hrs ago.
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