Home of the Banana Slug and Neil Young

5/21 - La Honda, CA (45 miles)
We became aware of an area along hwy 1 known as "Devil's Slide" which apparently is eroding the hwy from below. No cars or bikes are legally allowed to cross it, so we detoured into the hills south of San Francisco. Unfortunately, it began to rain very, very hard. This wasn't such a big deal on our 2 mile climb, but the 2 mile descent was miserable. Miserable for 2 reasons: you no longer need to pedal so you no longer produce heat and you are traveling much faster so the wind-chill is magnified... so we were pretty much hypothermic once we rolled into La Honda; second, your breaks don't work very well w/ a loaded bike and wet rims. We were pretty much breaking as hard as we could and still could not stop. The local La Honda Cafe became our salvation and refuge. We had a huge meal, dried off, warmed up and then acquiesced to the owner's suggestion of camping on the back cafe patio. Rachel went to the "Church in the Redwoods" service and got a local taste of Christianity. The next morning the 6 inch long banana slugs were everywhere and weren't adverse to tickling. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hangout w/ Neil Young.