The day started with continuing south along the Pacific Coast Highway. This part of the coast is undeveloped and naturally beautiful with its rugged shoreline. In most places, the road is very near the shore. Actually in same places, the road has almost slid into the water so they were doing repairs.
Next I said goodbye to the coast for the last time on this trip and began my trek inland. First over the mountains, then into the rolling valleys near Sonoma and Napa. If I were a wine connoisseur, I could have spent weeks sampling all the wine that comes from this region. As I am not, I just enjoyed the rolling hills with grape vines and vineyards everywhere you look. I couldn’t even imagine how many bottles of wine come from this region alone.
After the vineyards came the flat fruit and vegetable region. I stopped at a fresh fruit stand and picked up some strawberries and cherries to enjoy on the trip. The California strawberries sure look pretty, but the Minnesota grown strawberries are much better tasting.
From there I went north around Sacramento on the freeway and headed northeast towards the Sierra Nevada mountains. There was quit a temperature change between these locations. In the Sacramento area, the temperature reached a whopping 72 degrees, the first time it had been above 60 on the whole trip. This changed quickly as I began climbing in elevation as I continued east. When I exited the freeway, it was raining and 45 degrees.
I then started riding through the mountains. The roads and scenery are beautiful.
Tomorrow I will complete the loops I had planned for this area and start working south towards Reno and Tahoe areas and then continue with more loops in the southern area of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
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