Day 22
September 3rd 2008
San Simeon, CA to Oceano, CA
51.8 Miles
I got little sleep last night. Even though I went bed earlier. Frankly I go to bed earlier and earlier each night. Once the sun goes down there really isn’t much else to do. It also means I get up earlier as well. This morning for instance I was up at 5:30am. It’s not light enough to ride at that hour, in fact it is still dark, but I was done sleeping.
Still it isn’t the odd hours that prevented me from getting a good night’s sleep. It was the fauna hanging around San Simeon State Beach. At some point in the middle of the night, the coyotes started howling. And there were a lot of them. On this whole trip I hadn’t really concerned myself with the wild animals I might encounter. Back on day two, in Fairholm campground, one of my fellow tourers warned me that I should hang my food in a tree so the bears wouldn’t attack me. While I was leaving Bandon really early I remember hearing two distinct growls on my way out of the park. They were loud and low, making me think that the animals who produced them were near and large. But I wasn’t terribly concerned because I was already on my bike and pedaling. While I was packing up to leave Garberville one of the motel employees told me a story about a cyclist who was mauled to death by a cougar or mountain lion, he wasn’t sure which one. He encouraged me to have my mace ready while I rode the rest of the trip. I didn’t even pack mace.
Honestly I thought these concerns about wild animals were nonsense. Just like country folk warn you to be careful in the big city. But last night, after only a couple of hours of sleeping the sound of the howling coyotes woke me up. It wasn’t a lone mournful cry, but what sounded like a pack and they were moving, From my perspective they were loud enough to be very close by, maybe already in the campground. My fevered imagination ran wild at the thought of being attacked. I heard a twig snap and I was sure they were sneaking up on me right then. I sat up, opened my bivy and looked around. No one but the Wiccan, who was fast asleep. Maybe they already tore her throat out and were waiting for me to fall asleep again so they could do the same thing to me. I realized I was being paranoid and that I should just go back to sleep again. Right at that moment I heard the pack start howling again. I could tell they were far off in the hills somewhere. I laid back down, but didn’t fall asleep again for quite some time. After a few more hours of tossing and turning and dozing and waking up, I heard the coyotes again. They were coming back. I sat up to get better perspective. Now they sounded much closer this time and I decided I’d slept enough and got up. I looked over at the Wiccan, still fast asleep. I guess I could take comfort in that, Still I was awake so I started packing up slowly hoping it would get light enough for me to ride. Around 6:30 I headed out for Cambria, which was about 3 miles south. I figured I could get some breakfast there and wait until it got lighter.
After breakfast I spent the rest of the morning riding into San Luis Obispo. The library there would be a good place to catch up on the blog and research the next few days. The weather which started out cool and foggy cleared up as I rode into town. It started to get warm in fact. I may have complained about the heat before but in general I preferred this weather to the cold and wet of the Oregon coast. I could tell that today was going to be beautiful. I spent a few hours at the library and then headed out of town. SLO is inland from the coast by a few miles and when I left town I started angling back toward the Pacific. As I appraoched Pismo Beach the fog rolled back in. I suppose I was the one who rolled back into the fog, but either way it got cold, and hazy. Wow, just like Oregon. I soon found myself in the town of Grovers Beach. I knew there was a laundromat nearby and took some time off the bike to get my clothes clean.
One of the lonely roads I have traversed
Laundry Day
While I was sitting there watching the dryer tumble, I realized how lonely I’ve been lately. I do talk to my family and my girlfriend almost every night, but I’m here by myself. The other day Brant thought that it was a good thing to be alone. it opened you up to meet other people. I did that, and guess what, I don’t like them. Ok its not that I don’t like them, it’s just that, after awhile, strangers aren’t the people with whom I want to share the highs and the lows of this adventure. I’ve observed that the mileage goes slower when I’m by myself. I go to bed earlier and earlier, when I’m by myself. I worry about nonsensical things like being attacked by coyotes when I’m by myself. I finshed my laundry and rode the last few miles into the Oceano Campground, the fog got thicker and thicker. They no longer offer hiker/biker sites, since they had too many problems with transients. I had to pay 25 buck for a regular tent site. No one to split the cost of the campsite with, when I’m by myself. Bummer. I sat at the table in my campsite and studied my maps and guide book. In the next site was a group with two tents, lots of food, and two dogs that liked to bark. I was less than 50 ft away and yet I felt like I was a hundred miles from the nearest human. I don’t often get like this. It might have been the fog or the quickly diminishing light. I took comfort in the fact that in just a few days, I would get see my girlfriend.
Maury
PS Apparently I take less pictures when I’m by myself too. Sorry.
