Surviving the Sprawl (San Fransisco to Stinson Beach)

The last few days have greatly tested my physical, and mental endurance. Yesterday was one of the biggest storms I have ever experienced, and definitely the biggest storm that I have ever camped through. I was forced to take a lay over day in Samual P. Taylor state park, if I would have collapsed my tent it would have gotten so wet that I would have had no where that was even semi dry to sleep. It rained so hard, that even under the grove of redwoods where I was hidden, all of my stuff became soaked. My tent got to the point of almost being useless, it became so saturated with water that it dripped through. Every single article of clothing, my sleeping gear, all of my food, and all of my cookware became so wet that it came to the point of being worthless. I more or less slept in a puddle last night, so this morning when I saw that the clouds were starting to break up I became so excited that I packed up and left my campsite (with all of my stuff soaking wet... The state that it is still in.) by 7:45. The one good thing about staying in the state park for an extra day was that it allowed me to go to the food bank. A local, Ace, told me about it after showing me different plants that I could eat, and make into teas. He did this so that no matter what happened I would always have something to live off of. As he showed me he told me some Indian story about the origin of medicine making sure that his lesson wouldn't be lost. It won't be, I have been constantly looking for Indian lettuce, not because i will ever find enough to fill me up, but I feel like a bad ass eating it. When he finished showing me native plants and had some tea that we brewed he told me "you know if you don't want to waste a bunch of time collecting plants there is a food bank on Tuesdays and Thursdays." I was sold going to the food bank first thing the next morning. It wasn't open yet, and so I didn't feel so bad about taking food out of the mouths of the homeless (I'm homeless... Seriously I swear to you I'm becoming more and more like a homeless person) I helped set up the food bank. When I went through I got a bunch of food, but after riding with it for a day I may have to get rid of some of it somehow. It all takes some preparation to make, and is extremely heavy. I haven't decided because the pound of ground beef I took does sound considerably better than the nuts and dried fruit that I have, to my dismay recently run out of. Riding the last few days has been very tedious.

Making it through San Fransisco by bike is not as easy as it seems. The city limits weren't very hard to get through, and actually extremely fun to ride. (I hit a new speed record of going 39 mph bombing Hayte St. with my fully loaded bike.) Once I got out of the city into east Merin though things became slightly different. The neighborhood sprawled for what seemed like forever. I became extremely frustrated, and depressed trying to make it out of such a densely populated area. Constantly having to stop at every red light, watching the thousands and thousands of soccer moms driving their screaming kids from point A to B; having no regard for anything except for making it home to cook an organic dinner stressed me out so badly that I'm happy to say I loath east Merin. It seemed as though everyone was acting so environmentally conscious, riding bikes, eating locally, but to me it seemed as though they were doing exactly that, acting. No ones was nice there, there was no since of community, or compassion for anything except for what was seen to be as cool. The people where just big city suburbanites trying their hardest to fill the role of the yuppie which they have been deemed. (A wave was not returned to me once the entire time was riding my bike through that city. I feel like the point of riding a bike there was to show not only how fast and strong you are, but also that they have enough money to afford the nicest carbon bike on the market.) I can't express how deeply joyed I am to be out of that city, and a lot of its surrounding area. I will hopefully be out of Merin today and be done with this county, but I'm not sure. I have been loosing motivation in the last couple of days. Not only physical exhaustion, but my mental capabilities are starting to collapse kind of. I am becoming increasingly more lonely. Before it was my goal to make it to San Fran, and now that I've made it and am though the city I am kind of lost, kind of feeling as though I bit off a little more then I can handle. I guess there is no bailing though, and really the only thing that I can do is ride. I just hope that I hit a second wind soon.

Tim

p.s. Sorry for a lack of pictures I have been lazy about taking them.