Hopkins 4K for Cancer

July 28, 2006

China Camp, CA
93 Miles

This was the last full riding day of the trip, the last day in which we would be making significant progress towards the coast. Once in China Camp, we would only be moving a few miles South (even a little East!) to cross the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. But now, leaving Stockton, we still had the coastal range standing between us and the bay area. We had seen it in the distance since we had first descended on the hot central valley the day before, just as we had seen the Rockies looming in front of us in CO (only they were a bit higher). Now, however, this range was the gateway to the end, and we barreled towards it through the Sacramento River delta area that morning.

The priest of the Episcopal Church we stayed at in Stockton climbed onto a scooter that morning and led us through a maze of back roads until we were out of the city. We were thankful for his help! After releasing us from his guidance at the city limits, a group of us, Garrett, Derrick, Katie Ross and I broke out into a ridiculously fast pace line in the flats leading up to the mountains, nearly burning ourselves out with excitement. Everyone else was pushing similarly hard. We pushed through a number of orchards that are common to the central valley as we neared the foothills of the coastal range.

The coastal range was more than a simple up and down. In fact, it spanned a good 40 miles of westerly travel. The passes were not more than 1000 ft high, but the terrain was quite bumpy. The hills had an interesting dry orange-like hue to them. The roads were more numerous, curvy, and compacted than what we had been used to, indicating that we were moving farther into suburban landscape. Things slowly turned greener as we descended into the valley of the town of Concord, where Jess was waiting with an amazing lunch donated from a variety of local restaurants.

After lunch, there was one more pass to head over. My last ride, I couldn’t help but bolt ahead as fast as I could, putting all of my effort into this last bit of progress. Upon reaching the top over a steep rise, I instantly felt, for the first time, the coastal breeze. I smelled the ocean, the temperature dropped at least 10 degrees, and I could see in the distance a conglomeration of clouds that commonly sit over top of the bay area. I caught up with Garrett and Derrick and descended into the bay town of Richmond with them. At this point, Derrick started talking about “having made it”. He was right. We had reached the bay, shortly opening into the Pacific a few miles away. The San Francisco skyline could be seen across the water. Soon, after navigating through the city streets, we had reached the foot of the bay bridge, the 6 mile stretch of road that we would have to be shuttled over to reach the peninsula north of San Francisco. As we crossed in the van, we could see more of the skyline to the south, but more importantly, the Golden Gate Bridge was faintly visible in the distance to the Southwest.

Upon reaching the other side, we climbed back on our bikes, and finished the last few miles by traveling north along the coast to China Camp State Park, curving along the hilly coastline characteristic of the West Coast. Our campsite was nestled in a beautiful, shady section of the woods, and was only accessible by walking in. It provided the perfect tranquil atmosphere for us as we took the next day to reflect on our entire trip, and to rest before our final ceremonial ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. The end was near.

-Ryan t