Over the Golden Gate Bridge

This post is from a newsletter I sent out while cycling from Canada to Mexico in 2017

Hello friends,

I’ve finally crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and it feels great to have reached sunny San Francisco on two wheels, now with just over 1600 miles behind me.

After a few days cycling through and camping in the utterly magical Redwoods, the latter part of the last week was probably the most challenging so far. Some of this stretch is known as the Lost Coast and unfortunately lost it was, to endless blankets of cold fog. The white out made me realise how much the views help the effort and it was frustrating to know the California coast was just beyond, with almost every local promising us sunshine “two miles down the road” which hardly ever materialised.

I might have looked up Greyhound schedules, were it not for the company of some fellow tourers from France. They bounced up to me in a supermarket asking if the (very dashing) bike outside was mine and we quickly formed a perfect little peloton. Along the way we’ve helped out on a farm, been treated to free lunches & coffees, fought off more flipping raccoons and been put up by a lovely Californian couple who are just about to tour the length of Africa. Best of all have been the French phrases to describe, for example, the relentless short stabby climbs along this section. “Ca fait pas rire les mouettes.” (Not even the seagulls are laughing).

I’m giving myself a good few days for a “holiday on holiday” in San Francisco but no doubt will be itching to get back out there by the weekend.

Love, Elishka