Day 6, Best Western Plus Wine Country Inn and Suites to Olema Campground, 44 miles

Fog!  We walk out of the room to breakfast and see fog, well, low continuous clouds, but it’s cool.  Len and Toby ride the first leg, 12 miles on flat terrain with a good bike lane.  A huge improvement over yesterday afternoon where there was no shoulder and continuous traffic.  Sure glad I wasn't riding!  After climbing a low hill, Len and Toby meet me where I’m waiting near Pepper Road.  The fog hovers over the hilltops.

During the second leg of the ride, the fog lifts and the air warms.  The vistas are of prototypical California coast farmland: dairy cattle in green, grass-covered fields with scattered lichen-covered boulders and occasional small lakes.  Groves of eucalyptus surround small farm houses along the road.  As we approach the coast, we see more and more cyclists.  Our first view of salt water is Tamales Bay which opens to the Pacific Ocean to the north.  It’s low tide so we see mud flats offering a morning meal to snowy egrets and other smaller shore birds too distant to identify without binoculars.  Toby is waiting for us next to the Tamales Bay B&B.

We rack Len’s bike and Toby and I complete the final leg to the Olema Campground. The Hog Island Oyster Bar is hopping - at least 50 hogs (Harleys) out front.  We figure a couple of old guys in spandex would not be welcome with that crowd and move on.  A few sail boats moored in the harbor remind me of the BVI and I feel the withdrawal from that amazing trip yet again.

The wild flowers along the road are in full bloom.  It’s sunny and 75 degrees with a slight headwind, but who cares - the California coast doesn’t get any better than this!  When Toby and I arrive in Point Reyes Station, the tiny town is hopping!  There are cyclists everywhere (both motorized and otherwise.  We stop at the Point Reyes Station Cafe to make a dinner reservation.  When I give the hostess my name she says we already have a reservation.  Len beat us to it - great minds think alike?  We cycle another 2 miles to the campground where Len is already setting up his tent.  We discuss the general laka…, a deep philosophical principal of the Algonquin tribe,  among other important ideas of the day while consuming Porter Creek Syrah and Acorn Dolceto.  All in all, a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon. I rescue a damsel in distress, Erica, our neighbor who’s never camped before and only erected her tent in her living room.  Later when Len invites her to share a glass of wine, we are unceremoniously rejected.  Guess we should have sent another emissary.

Dinner at the Point Reyes Station Cafe is excellent, including local oysters, mission figs with honey and pistachios, Rafinelli zinfandel (first bottle was corked, but the second was right on) and main courses of yellowtail and chicken ponzinella (our best guess).  Now we’re back at the campground enjoying the last light of day and the cool of the evening while the mosquitos begin to have their way with us.