MacKerricher (5)

That was another great stay in Fort Bragg. We opened the adventure with a stop in the day use area where we installed the MaxxAir vent cover. We had arrived too early to check into our site, so we made use of the time with this little project. I can confidently say that it was pretty easy to do using the extendable ladder. There are four little clips that attach through the plastic and into metal brackets mounted on the roof. The purpose of this is to allow us to run the fan and keep the top open, even in rain and wind. Dory can’t go into the garage with the added height, so that is the purpose of bringing along a ladder. My expectation is that this will just stay on until we get home. Unless it blows off, of course.

After that, we got our bikes out and rode up to check out our site. We immediately noticed that our reserved site was a double with another one. This wasn’t a deal breaker, but not optimal, as my window view would have been all about the neighbors. Rather than just roll with it, we instead rolled over to the kiosk to see if maybe there was another site available. As luck would have it, 64 was open for three nights and it is a much more private site. At that point, we were close to one thirty and the rangers said we could go ahead and move in. Sweet!

Our afternoon consisted of riding the incredibly beautiful multi-use trail together. This is the main attraction of Fort Bragg. It is almost nonstop ocean for over five miles. There are places where you can cut in to go to town, which we did so that we could enjoy dinner and ice cream at Cowlicks. For our first night, we ate at the Northcoast Brewing Company and had a Santa Fe Chicken Sandwich with chips and an IPA on tap. Then it was a short walk to Black Raspberry Chocolate Chunk and Black Forest on cake cones.

We woke to rain the next morning, so I blogged and Richard worked until the drizzle settled into just a dense fog. We ventured out and walked the Ten Mile Beach in a surreal, otherworldly mist, where you could barely see in front of you. We saw not another soul on the beach, so it was a quiet afternoon.

Dinner that night was at the Mayan Fusion Restaurant. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but the food was Central and South American themed with a bright and fun interior design. We had a pulled pork torta with tortilla chips and a black bean salsa, and it was fabulous. Another trip to Cowlicks was in order, and we jazzed up our selections with their truly outstanding hot fudge topping. The dense fog layer lifted by the end of the day, just enough to get a bit of a sunset.

For our last day in town, Richard introduced me to a Jay’s Essential Ride. He does these things all the time, and they are nuts. Jay finds routes that are usually off the beaten path, and almost always hilly. When I say hilly, I mean a sustained climb of 8-10% over seven miles. Richard was struggling with the idea because he was not sure my e-bike could tackle something like this, and even if it could, he wasn’t sure I’d like it. But he wanted to do it too, so he got all shut down while processing it. He really didn’t need to struggle with this though. I figured, why not try it out and see, and it turned out to be super fun for both of us.

We parked off highway 1, just after the turn for Branscomb Road. There we assembled bikes and headed up the climb. I am happy to report that my bike and I made it all the way to the summit and I hardly had to exert effort. However, just about twenty feet before reaching the top, I did notice that the pedal assist cut out. I looked it up and I’m pretty sure I was “pushing the motor to its limits” with the sustained steep climb. Seven miles, 8-10% straight up, 2700 foot ascent, there’s your limit. Good to know.

As soon as I started descending, the motor cooled right off and it was working again soon. I think if we had stopped occasionally, or if the ride had any downhill at all, it would have been ok. The descent was exciting and I’m glad my bike has hydraulic disc brakes. I was riding those suckers all the way down. We got to the bottom triumphantly and enjoyed a little walk on the beach before heading back to camp. It was a big deal for me to be able to keep up with Richard on a Jay’s ride because it offers proof that this could be a whole new way of biking together. I just won’t burn as many calories as he does.

We had an awesome dinner using a King Arthur Flour pancake mix and the fresh strawberries we had picked up at Gowan’s Oak Tree. Topped a couple of perfect pancakes with sliced strawberries, eggs scrambled or over easy, and pure maple syrup. YUM! That didn’t preclude one last ride and visit to Cowlicks. We timed the ride home with a stop at Glass Beach and a perfect spot to catch the sunset.

Fort Bragg is a repeat favorite stop for us and we could be happy running that playlist on repeat many times before getting bored of it.

Total miles from Navarro Beach: 25.4, 14.9 mpg, 1 hour 8 min (including dumping and filling water). Site 64 great! Originally reserved 66 and that is a double site with 67; not so good. 63 and 65 are also double sites, shared with other campers. Really good cell for ATT but only so so for Verizon. Not much solar, but private enough to run generator without disturbing neighbors.