Early this morning I was up and got ready for my hike. I looked over and saw that Cora was still asleep. Or I assumed that she was still asleep, as all I could see was her sleeping bag, which looked like a giant yellow caterpiller, but I couldn't tell which end was the head and which end was the foot, as both ends were zipped up tight. I just needed my shoes and then I started off on my hike. I decided to take the same long loop that I did before, so I headed up the Tea House Trail, along the Ridge Road, then down the Serenity Path and Tipi Trail back to the pools and the sleeping deck. I had a great hike, with nice views from up on the ridge. I only passed one other person, and she sort of smiled as we passed, saying hi to each other.

Roots, at Harbin.

When I got back I found that my hike took just over one hour and so Cora was still sleeping. I laid down and got a bit more sleep in also. When Cora finally woke up, we then went to get her some coffee, and then later went for breakfast. Harbin has a coffee bar, so Cora was able to satisfy her cafine fix with a double latte. We then roamed around Harbin, taking some pictures and trying out little paths. We went to the waterfall where Cora had a picture of her taken a few years before. Cora then put me in the same pose that she had been in and she took my picture. Hopefully it will come out being a good match to Cora's own picture.

We hope to have more people join us for this Harbin option next year. It is so beautiful and peaceful here. The hippies were still celebrating the summer solstice. It was all so very cool. The only problem with coming to Harbin is that you just don't want to have to leave. Cora and I both wished that we could stay here longer.

Donny, feeding the gate dragon at Harbin.

Before heading out, we decided to hit the hot pools one final time. By 10:30 we started to think about going. Finally, by 11:00 AM we were all packed and riding out the gate, sorry to have to leave Harbin behind. Back down in Middletown, we stopped to make phone calls and to visit the ATM. Finally we were ready to start the real ride.

I had forgotten to bring along the new route for this morning, but I thought that I had it correct in my mind. I was remembering the name as "Western" or "Mine" or something, so when we came upon Western Mine Rd at the correct location, then I knew we would be ok. I also sort of remembered something about part of the road being dirt, but that would be ok.

Cora, climbing up the dirt Western Mine Rd.

The road was paved at the moment, so off we went. After about 0.8 miles the pavement stopped and it was graded gravel. Some places the gravel was thicker, so we had to try to stay out of the deep gravel by keeping in the car tracks. The road was just steep enough so we were both in our lowest gears and going about 4 mph. I was thinking that my extra load was actually helping me, as the extra weight on my back wheel would help to keep the tire from spinning out. I would just try to pedal smoothly, keep traction with my wheel, and hope that my front wheel kept going forward. Cora was in her element, as she was a mountain biker first and a road biker second. Since Cora rides her road bike off road all the time, she was able to technigue her way up the loose gravely road.

At about 3.2 miles we got to the top of the hill, and were glad to see that the pavement started up again. Cora and I stopped for a snack of oranges and Troy's special PBJ sandwich. It was now smooshed and gooey, but still delicious. We also nibbled on the trail mix.

I remembered it being 8 miles of downhill to get us back on the route. We started riding and it turned out to be about 4 miles of eazy rollers along the ridge and then about 4 miles of steady downhill. So after 8.0 miles we joined up with Hwy 128. Our downhill road was called Ida Canyon Rd. Coming from Harbin to this point was 17 miles, which was about 6 miles further than just coming from Calistoga. Cora was impressed that I had found a route both to and from Harbin that had minimal traffic.

We had about 10 miles of easy riding to get over to Jimtown Store. It was now 2:00 PM, so we stopped for lunch. The rest of our tour would have been here about 4 hours ago. During lunch I called the Tour emergency number to report in, telling them that we were fine and would be along later, so that they would not start to worry about us.

After Jimtown lunch, Cora and I headed on the short route. I was planning to make the route even shorter by cutting through Healdsburg, but instead I couldn't find my way back out of town so we ended up getting back on the route and my "shortcut" actually added about 4 miles. We road up Dry Creek Road and were turning left onto Lambert Bridge Rd when we met up with Troy, Ken, Jeff Olsen, and Guy, all of whom just finished doing the much longer option of going up Geysers Rd and over through Cloverdale. So Cora and I were happy to see that we were no longer way off the back.

These were all fast riders that we met up with, and I could hardly hang with them, being that I was still hauling our extra stuff. But Cora had been getting stronger day by day through the tour, and so today she was able to keep up with them up the short rollers that we were facing now. Finally I had to mention to Cora that I didn't want her to wear herself out too much today, as we had Coleman Valley to climb tomorrow. After that Cora was ok to ease up and let the others go.

Guy, climbing into the Ice Box, in Guerneville.

Guy hung back with us, and we stopped in at a winery just after the Sweetwater junction. We only needed water and a rest while Guy did some wine tasting. Once refreshed, we headed off again. We were an hour behind the last SAG stop closing time, but were still on a good pace. Cora wanted to buy a bottle of wine for the wine and cheese party, so we stopped off in Guerneville. Cora managed to find room in her Little Joe to carry the bottle of local Merlot. We finally arrived at Casini Ranch just a half hour after the wine and cheese party started.

Cora inside her tent.

Kim and Jerry, checking on routes.

I didn't care about the party, though, but just putting tents up and getting to my shower. That done I was happy to hang out with a glass of wine and a few cookies, then not get in the dinner line until at the very end.

After dinner a bunch of us "marched" across the river to the Blue Heron in Duncans Mills and had a few beers for me and some more wine for Cora. Later back in camp, Cora, Phil, and I sat in the field to look at the stars. Cora mentioned that the stars were spinning, and I corrected her, saying actually the Earth is spinning. And Cora said "No man, I need to hurl." and proceeded to crawl and lost her dinner. And Phil laughed his ass off. Finally feeling a bit better, I walked Cora to her tent and we said good night.

Go to the next day.