North of Half Moon Bay to North of Clarence (16.53 miles/26.61 kms)

Woke up this morning and the tent was wet from the light rain last night. Luckily I had thought of it last night and covered the Wheelie with the poncho. As always, after a rain it takes me longer to wipe the tent dry, but it still tends to be moist when I pack it up and it’s wet when I set it up again like yesterday.

I started out a little after 8:00 and after a mile I hit the first construction stop. The flagman had me wait until traffic cleared, held traffic in both directions, and then sent me through on my own. This one wasn’t too long. I just love coming to the other end and seeing the faces of those drivers as I walk by.

This was actually the first of two more stops I would encounter today. The second one was longer and the flagman had me wait until the supervisor showed up as they were going to transport me. After she saw the Wheelie she just let me walk through. This was a longer one, maybe more than a quarter of a mile, but she followed me in her truck with the lights flashing. When I got to the end there was a long line of vehicles stopped and several people were out of their cars. I got some funny stares, and a few waves and thumbs ups.

As I started back up she told me to wait because she wanted to escort me across the long bridge just ahead because she didn’t think there was much of a shoulder. It think she was being helpful because there actually was a fairly wide one. She held north bound traffic and had me walk in the left lane with her behind me again. When we got to the other side of the bridge I thanked her and asked if she could do that all the way to Picton. She laughed.

I encountered one other stop where they held me until traffic cleared and then had me walk through on my own. Funny, but this young flagman was from the Netherlands. One more time I got to talk Dutch. He was very cheerful and told me to take my time, as sometimes the drivers have to wait a long time anyway and expect a long wait. I thought about sitting on the guard rail in sight of those drivers and having a snack, but that would be cruel.

Walking along this section of road is beautiful as I never really lost sight of the ocean. The weather was perfect, with sunshine and a cool ocean breeze. The road was level and fairly straight. Sounds ideal, which it was for about ten miles, but then the traffic pattern changed and the shoulder mostly disappeared. I had passed all the major construction zones so there were no more traffic stops. Instead of those calm periods of no cars between the string of cars, it was vehicle after vehicle. Not that it was real heavy traffic, but constant. There was virtually no shoulder in some places. I generally move onto the dirt shoulder and keep walking but was unable to. I would just move over to the dirt shoulder and stop. It was a constant move over, stop and wait for traffic to go by, and then move back onto the roadway.

I had hoped to make it to a restaurant called The Store, to possibly get food, but by 3:00 I was still three miles away and knew I couldn’t make it before they closed at 4:00. I was so tired of the stop and go that I decided to stop for the night.

Along this stretch of road I had seen lots of wonderful places to camp. Today I probably crossed 4/6 rivers and streams where I could have camped. There might have been another river a little further but I didn’t want to take a chance, so I just stopped here. I am away from the road, yet close enough to the ocean that I can hear the breaking of the waves.

Tomorrow I will stop at The Store and hopefully get something to eat. Ward, about eighteen miles away, is the next place with food and accommodations. I’ll see where I’ll end up tomorrow.

I settled in early enough that I’ll have a chance to get cozy and read my book while I listen to the ocean in the background.

Best wishes to all,

Ted