Bikation day 3 - Willits to Fort Bragg

Day three was originally planned to be a 70 mile ride from Willits to Fort Bragg starting with 25 miles along the 101, crossing over some hills to the 1, then 20 miles south on the 1. However, the previous day on the 101 was so unpleasant that we decided to simply ride 35 miles on highway 20 from Willits to Fort Bragg. Ridewithgps,com did not want to route us on the 20 at all and riders were posting very negative reviews of the road. On the other hand, whenever I looked at the road with Google street level, it looked better than the 101. After a lot of research we decided to take the 20 over to Fort Bragg. The rwgps app created a route for us to follow. Love that new feature.

Highway 20 had some spectacular views and quite a lot of climbing, but it was more downhill than up.

Highway 20

Just as we got to Fort Bragg Amber's rear derailleur cable snapped which was good timing because we had just finished a ton of climbing and we were only a mile from Fort Bragg Cyclery where Mark was ready to fix it for us. Plus there was a coffee shop next door while we waited.

Mark is awesome

Once we got the bike fixed we headed over to the Skunk Train station and purchased some tickets for the 2pm train.

A lady at the Willits Expresso stand had recommended we visit the Pomo cliffs so we headed there while waiting for the train. There was a powerful southerly wind while we were there. Guess which way we were headed tomorrow?

Pomo cliffs

After viewing the cliffs we had some lunch, then headed up to the Skunk Train for a 90 minute trip inland and back. There's only 3.5 miles of restored track, but it was a lot of fun and the train was surprisingly full for mid-week.

Skunk train

After 30 minutes (yes, the train travels at 7mph but at least it left on time, unlike Amtrak) we arrived at the turn around which has some lovely hiking trails. We were able to walk around for 30 minutes before the train left.

Hiking trail at the Skunk turnaround

Once the train returned us to Fort Bragg we were able to check into our room at the Anchor Lodge which is down in the harbor area. We got a ground floor, river view room with a balcony. This was the view from the room.

View from motel room

This was the first motel to offer breakfast which was delivered in a brown paper bag.

Breakfast

There's a lot of places to eat down at the harbor. I assume all these buildings used to be fish processing and net making businesses that have closed down and been repurposed. One of them advertised fish and chips so we decided to give it a try. They had outside seating which was very scenic but the seagulls were pretty bold.

Don't turn your back

All in all this was my favorite day.