Day Twenty
Ukiah to Calistoga, 66 miles
Patio dining in Calistoga, with a live Spanish guitarist doing contemporary flamingo, surrounded by a well scrubbed and groomed clientele makes me not want to camp tomorrow night. I’m really in Napa County now. Is this really the same planet, much less the same state, that has Eureka?
Morning started before bright and early, in Redding, still a three hours drive from my ride re-start at Ukiah.
Recall that I had rented a car in Ukiah, stuffed the bike in the back and beelined it to my niece’s wedding at Cascade Locks, Oregon, on the Columbia River. It was an all-weekend affair and was a splendid gathering of family and friends.
Pertinent to my cycling trip, I had to take the bike because the newlyweds, Emily and John, are committed cyclists. With about 40 of their best Portlandia cycling friends, we cycled to wedding site from Portland. I picked up with the group in Troutdale, and my ride with them was 32 miles. After last week’s 400 mile dash from Coos Bay, it was a harder 32 miles than I want to say, but it was fun to ride with a group for a change.
A 40-foot staircase equipped with bike wheel grooves is at the Eagle Creek Trailhead
So today started at 4:30 AM in Redding. I had breakfast at the Fork Cafe in The Forks, a one stop light village just outside of Ukiah. It was your typical local diner, except for the amazingly warm feel that emanated from the server. I didn’t catch her name, but she seemed to know everyone who came through the door, mostly older retired guys whom she treated like favorite uncles, putting a hand on their shoulder as they ordered, bringing them up to speed on her daughter’s first week at school, asking about them and theirs. It was just so cozy.
I returned the car, clipped the bags onto the bike and was off by 9:15. Not a bad start considering where the morning really started, but it was already 80 degrees and climbing fast. Eventually it hit 93, with a heat index of 95. Today’s ride: 66 miles, about 8 hours out there.
95°F Heat Index
“Use Extreme Caution. Sunstroke, muscle cramps, and/or heat exhaustion possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity.“ - National Weather Service
The key to this is staying aware of what’s going on internally as well as externally. Hydration is key, but there are other things to watch for. For instance, how far am I down the fatigue well? Too far and I won’t be able to climb out today. When it’s super hot and I feel chilled, that’s a marker to find some shade, stop moving, drink and eat some fast-acting energy, and focus on breathing. I did, and it worked out fine. I’m feeling pretty fresh tonight. After 1,000 miles of riding, my conditioning had better have—and has—improved. That helps not to just go faster and longer, but also to recover more quickly. This all has a bearing on goal setting and adjusting. With my legs of yore coming back, I can be more strategic and take some more informed risks, like riding all day during a heat index warning.
Police cars don’t use their horns, they startle you with a kind of shrieking feedback in their loud speaker. I don’t even know what to call it. Getting brapped?
Midday, I got brapped hard.
Officer Zwetsloot wanted a word with me.
Oh no! I realized I was recharging my blinky back light. Was I being pulled over for a broken tail light? Nope. Apparently, the highway I have been riding for hundreds of miles, US 101, had become a “No pedestrians or bicycles permitted” freeway. Officer Zwetsloot was open and pleasant. So was I. This was a completely different scenario than my altercation last year with the deputy sheriff in Kinney County, Texas. [Editor’s note: I’d thought that Kinney County was the one hit by the flooding on the Guadalupe River but that is Kerr County.]
Officer Zwetsloot said bikes can’t be here, so he would give me and my bike a lift to the next exit. He noted that there are No Bikes signs at the onramps. I said I didn’t take an onramp, I was just riding the highway out of Hopland and did not see a sign saying I needed to exit.
When I asked, Officer Zwetsloot said he has been an officer for less than a year, and the job was “fun”. I’m sure he meant Type 2 fun. I sensed he became a cop for the reasons we hope people become cops, to help people out of messes we get ourselves into. Once the bike was in the car, he motioned for me to sit up front, then asked, “are you carrying any weapons?” I said “no”. Then he asked if he could frisk me. Sure. Pleasant and cheerful, but never not about the business. I was impressed with his ease and balance.
Off the freeway at Geyserville, I put the bike back together, got a selfie with him and was off.
It had become a furnace. I had to slow down. It wasn’t a decision; I just couldn’t put much power to the pedals. The effort to stay focused on the road made it harder to enjoy this vineyard landscape while riding. Though I was off the ‘dangerous’ freeway, I was no longer riding a shoulder wide enough to park a semi. On these county roads, there was effectively no shoulder. Cars and trucks whizzed by at nearly freeway speed right at my left shoulder, as I rode on the left side, not the right side, of the white fog line. I held my line, stayed predictable, and sometimes just pulled off and let traffic de-complexify.
Still, I noticed enough to see just how big this grape business is here. Every grape vine (bush?) has it’s individually unique habit. By my reading, a grape vine is most productive through its 25th to 50th year, and can continue to live for centuries. Each individual vine has its own way, and there are millions of them here. Is grape production more like herding than farming? Funny where the mind goes on a bicycle.
I can feel it as the temperature falls out of the 90s and into the high 80s
This being California, there is one, last, long hill to crest before Sonoma County becomes Napa County.
Less than five miles into Napa County is my destination, Calistoga. In the whole ride of 1000+ miles, I have not seen a town like this. To me, it feels boujee, not bougie (there’s a difference). Sure, it’s an upscale place, but not tacky, not elitist. Maybe it’s because they actually make something that is uniquely fine here. Quality permeates the place. There is design and purpose to the wine, and to the town.
My hotel is an example. I find a deal on the Hotel Tonight app. It’s a good deal. And the art deco restoration of the hotel is truly excellent. Dylan runs the front desk. Like Officer Zwetsloot, he’s friendly, professional and firm about the fact that the bike is not going upstairs to my room. He has a room near the front desk that will be perfect and secure for the bike. There’s not really a conversation to be had. He simply stated the way it is and had an excellent solution already at hand.
Dinner was a Southwest chicken salad, with the above mentioned live music and well dressed, friendly and relaxed people all around. (Me too, by the way. I have some decent around-town clothes with me).
Bart and Jason
I end up in an hour long conversation with two brothers visiting from Australia. They are on a month long tour of the Western US, and they have lots of thoughtful questions about the US as well as excellent data about visiting Australia. It turns out they have a family-owned adventure tourism business north of Sydney, so we had much in common to talk about.
The hotel has a complimentary continental breakfast, which will be delivered to my room at 7 AM. I’m not sure I want to leave early, but I should. It will be slightly cooler tomorrow, but not significantly cooler until I get close to the Bay Area. I’ve got to keep moving, but I’m definitely coming back to Calistoga.
