if there’s one lesson that Spokes has taught me in the past 72 hours, it’s that you can do all of the logistical planning in the world and the unexpected will still turn those plans entirely upside down. sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. day 2 was a case study in said duality.
context: roughly three days before our team’s departure from Stanford’s campus, we received word from a previously-confirmed Warm Showers host in Oakland, CA who said that they would no longer be able to host us. this time crunch presented quite a challenge, as many other hosts were understandably unable to accommodate our large group on such short notice. consequently, the morning of our second day was largely overtaken by a housing scramble.
day 2 began with an array of emotions - ongoing day 1 challenges, emerging knee pain for one of our teammates, and the stress of not knowing where we were sleeping loomed over an otherwise optimistic routine of packing up camping supplies from our San Francisco host’s backyard, slathering on chamois cream, planning our stops for the day’s route, and fueling up with oatmeal, coffee, etc.
energized by a solid night of sleep and lively conversation with our host and his two other cycle-touring guests, Mary and Emma, we felt ready to tackle the day… with the one small caveat of not yet knowing our end point. Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond; campgrounds, churches, hotels - the options were plenty, but time, not so much. myself, Parth, Timothy, and Joel divvied up outreach responsibility with our gracious host’s locational recommendations in mind. after hitting many frustrating dead ends, I decided to check my Warm Showers messages one final time, at which point I saw a 14-hour old confirmation message from a host in San Anselmo. fast forward a few phone calls and we had arranged a stay in a cabin on his 24-acre plot of land up in the mountains between Marin and Point Reyes.
housing crisis narrowly circumvented, we loaded up Ody, Joel’s family’s trusty Honda Odyssey, and, after dropping off our new friend Mary at a doctor’s appointment, said farewell to SF and hit the road. our first stop was Baker Beach to check off the crucial bucket list item of dipping our back wheels in the Pacific Ocean. photo evidence present :)
after this brief stop, we were off. San Anselmo’s location meant that we biked over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was absolutely beautiful and honestly surreal. water roaring below, we powered out of San Francisco, weaving through some tourists on the bridge’s narrow lanes. we are just beginning this journey, but the feeling of reaching massive landmarks like this via bike, experiencing them in a fully immersive way rather than speeding by in a car or train, is truly indescribable. we climbed a couple of gnarly hills continuing north past the bridge, followed by exhilarating descents through redwood trees and lush greenery for about 15 miles total.
i don’t believe that everything happens for a reason, but i do think that our housing challenges today were meant to be. both because today’s bike ride ended up being breathtaking (in a visual sense, although also respiratory, i suppose) and because… well… read on and find out.
as if the universe recognized our team’s disappointment about yesterday’s seal-less journey, today’s trip was delightfully animal-intensive. Timothy and Sophia encountered a deer, our team met a friendly dog while resting at Dunphy Park in Sausalito, and the host’s home was complete with three horses, two cats, a (presumably tame) python, twenty (locally award-winning?) chickens, and two incredibly sweet dogs: Winston and Cookie. the horses were also super sweet (one of them, pictured, was very fittingly nicknamed Lover Boy), despite their tendency to accidentally (and mildly terrifyingly) stand barricading us outside of the gate to our living quarters.
animals aside, the house was beautiful. nestled on top of a very steep and windy hill, (which he thankfully offered to shuttle us up in his car), the views of the Bay were like no other, miles of forest expanded below, and, once the sun set, a bright full moon and millions of stars were visible up above.
it was during dinner with the host's family that Vincent decided to take a COVID rapid test after feeling a bit under the weather, which, much to everyone's dismay, came back positive. night two for the remaining six of us concluded huddled around rapid tests on the garage floor, which thankfully all came back negative! we will continue to test in the coming days and hope for the best. Vincent is doing well so far and our last minute hosts could not have been more kind or accommodating despite the circumstances. at the time that i'm writing this post, plans are still very much uncertain, but the house’s massive plot of land means that there is ample space for Vincent to pitch a tent for the time being and move into the cabin to quarantine once we leave in the morning. today was… an emotional rollercoaster to say the least, but the health and safety of the team are of course the most important things and, with the help of generous strangers, we are going to make it work.
in case you needed a cliffhanger-esque ending to encourage you to follow along tomorrow, here it is for ya! much more to come from the spokes on day three. knock on wood, it can only get better from here.
till next time,
aja
back wheels in the Pacific :D
Winston!!!
Scott’s mountain selfie action
Lover Boy and Sophia
Winston perusing the property
rapid test central
