The real journey and challenges begin

---

I put on my waterproof pants for the first time and packed away my soggy gear, my entire tent was sopping including the inside after this. That day was one of the toughest looking back as I still wasn't in bicycling shape, the previous day I had done about 70 miles so my legs were sore to and as I rode my waterproof gear made me sweat. It rained so heavily for hours that the road had little streams running down and I remember pushing my bike up a huge hill that went on forever and seeing Kane cycling up and disappearing around a corner. My morale was very low as the rain managed to get inside my head despite my body being mostly dry, I was suffering and almost scared being out in such heavy downpour. Would my gear stay dry? My electronics? My phone? I made it the 50 miles or so to the campground and the rain by this point had stopped, everything inside my panniers seemed a little damp but ok at a guess. I set up my went tent, chatted to Kane and a few other cyclists, two of which were a French couple named Justine and Jenson who were very nice. The campgrounds were very well set up for cycle tourists with waterproof lockers that had recharging stations. I had a hot shower that I didn't know then was the best one of any campsite along the coast of the states and went to sleep after some short dinner and left the next day with Kane, both of us complaining of our wet gear. We farewelled the others and got going, pretty soon afterwards though Kane got out of sight and disappeared, I wouldn't see him again until I got to La Paz in Mexico. I fell short of my target of 70 miles for that day, but made it 50 to a different campground, I was exhausted and disappointed to be then only cyclist there, slowly however the French couple, two other guys and another young couple made camp in the hiker biker section. The young couple from the mid west had just gotten married and were very nice, the sort of people you trust very quickly. They were both having gear problems on their bikes and had to tackle the hills in high gears which I didn't even want to imagine. They said this trip was their honeymoon,me walked to a nearby beach and watched the sunset most of the way but walked back to the campsite before it got too dark as we were scared of losing our way through the forest. Thought they were both friendly I wasn't drawn to them so I decided to start on my campfire using wood I had purchased earlier from the camp host, he'd even thrown in a whole tin of lighter fluid as he was headed to California the next day and didn't care. I ended up needing most of it to get the fire started as the wood though dry just wouldn't give off anything other than a small impermanent flame. After it died down again one of the other campers showed me how to start it properly using shavings of wood, that worked and I had some warmth. I went and had a shower that used a push button that needed to be pressed every 5 seconds to keep the sharp burst of almost hot water going and went to sleep for the night. It rained and my tent got wet inside all night. When I got up the next morning I saw that my food panniers had been almost completely emptied out by what must have been raccoons. I'd left a small gap that they'd used to monkey out nearly everything I had, rice, oatmeal, jars and other foods they couldn't get it. My jar of peanut butter had been carried off somewhere by them, they obviously didn't like the idea of giving up on it. I'd had container of aspirin gel capsules with a loose lid that I saw they had eaten most of. At first I was angry enough to hope it would kill them, then I remembered they are animals and don't deserve to die for eating food that I shouldn't have left out. I hoped they were ok. After I packed up and was heading out of the campsite I took what remained of the lighter fluid to the park host who gave me some granola bars, he was an extremely nice person. That day of riding was pretty flat with some great scenery and I made it to a bicycle shop where I bought a mirror to attach to my helmet. I did another 50 miles to the next state park and went to the area for cyclists which was kind of crappy, hardly any flat spots for a tent. The French couple Justine and Jenson the night before had given me some good advice about what to eat when on the bike, they were making soups every night. I made up the meal from the 6 different types of vegetables and once I'd eaten it I realized the cold was getting to me, I was coming down with something. I went to my tent early and had a fevered sleep almost expecting to have to get up and start vomiting in the middle of the night. The soup saved me from succumbing to it I'm certain of it and I got up the next day feeling woozy but undefeated, I could keep riding to the next campground. I was still glad to be on the trip but the brush with sickness in the United States made me feel vulnerable and far from home. That day there was some beautiful coastal road with some towns that were popular and full of tourists. The weather stayed ok, just a few clouds and to do the last 15 miles to the campground I followed my Garmin's advice and went up an awful road that was almost traumatic. It was very skinny and very busy with many pick ups and four wheel drives rushing past me the whole time, with a huge hill thrown in. When I made it to the park I spoke to the ranger who didn't mention to me that the designated hiker biker area had been relocated to a numbered site due to it being unusable. I rolled in close to sunset and couldn't find a descent spot for my already wet tent, there was no one else around either and the prospect of sleeping here actually made me feel depressed. Still, I set up the first part of my tent in the least muddy spot I could find. I walked out to use the restroom and saw three other people at a spot further down, then I saw three bicycles. I walked closer and saw that two of the people were Justine and Jenson, the French couple. The third person, a short, stocky man with glasses from Alaska introduced himself as Matt and he seemed to know his stuff pretty well when it came to bicycle touring, this would be the start of my time getting to know this man who played an important role in my trip.touring.

---