Day 22 – McKerricher State Park, CA – 65 km
This was a tough day of riding, although not particularly long. We climbed two long fairly steep hills in succession. At the summit we were at the highest point on the California coast, although the actual coast still wasn’t in sight until we finished the descent. It was stunning to emerge from shaded forest to full sunshine and the bright blue sea pounding the rocky sea stacks and beaches below.
The ride continued up and down as the road follows the contours of the coastline. We arrived at the campground exhausted. In the darkness, just before going to bed two guys arrived on foot – we camp in designated “hiker/biker” sites, although we rarely encounter hikers. In this case, hitchhikers. One from LA (45-ish) who didn’t say much but liked to smoke weed. The other from Oklahoma where he recently lost his job as a horse walker. I didn’t know such a thing existed. I asked where he was headed. He said “here”. And when he heard we were from Canada, he mentioned that someone had told him there might be work up that way. “But you need a passport to go there, right?” Yup – it’s a foreign country for Americans, just like Mexico. Something about this whole situation brought to mind Steinbeck and the Grapes of Wrath – the depression era and the mass migration of Okies and other dust bowl farmers to the promised land of California. I was surprised when he brought up politics. He called Trump an idiot and said he was voting for Hillary.