I left Arcata behind me this morning and I didn’t feel at all sad about it. It was easy to find Hwy. 101 South and the start of my ride to Ft. Bragg. I stopped in Fortuna for some breakfast, having no idea what lay ahead.

At a town called Leggett, everything changed. This is where I picked up Hwy 1. Now, you would think that number one has some status about it. For me, it was by far the number one challenging road. I think it was meant to be a hiking trail for turtles and it unhappily accommodates motorized transport. I was ready for a relaxing road through more redwoods and shoreline, but that didn’t happen. When you are on a bike and you approach a turn and the sign has a curved arrow and 10 mph on it, you are about to motor right into vertigo. I spent around forty torturous miles on the number one highway. Frankly, I would give that historic highway a higher number.

Ft. Bragg is the best surprise of all my stops and a place I felt some connection with and I have no idea why. The only other place that came close was Klamath Falls, OR. but this place has way more substance to it.

A few months ago, I got in touch with the folks at North Coast Brewing and it wasn’t a carefully thought out overture. Joe Seta is involved with their marketing, primarily dealing with visitor services, one of those catch all terms that continually evolves. After escaping with my life and rolling into Ft. Bragg, the two of us got together. He is a real interesting guy, who has had at least as many professional incarnations as I have, from recording engineer to chef to DJ and he recently took up weaving. Other than time with my friend, Michael, I haven’t had a conversation lasting longer than five minutes.

Joe migrated from LA around a dozen years ago and he is either very knowledgeable about Ft. Bragg, or he makes up terrific stories. The town has a great history and I am not going to waste our time by pretending to be an expert. Go see what Wikipedia has to say and you will quickly know more than I do. The place has stories to tell and you only have to look around at the architecture and you know the buildings hold tales of the town, going back a couple of hundred years.   A red brick, rather austere looking building, which is now an inn used to be the town hospital. The building housing North Coast Brewing’s bar and restaurant and jazz club, was the County morgue. The town has character and it is so obvious that it does. Mendocino County has a modest population of around 15,000 and a lot of grapes. It has been used by movies because it has the look and feel of a simpler time. It was the setting for Murder She Wrote, which I think was one of Joe’s true stories.

The brewery’s business model is just that, a fabulous overall strategy and one to emulate. They have a sustainable approach and a sensitivity regarding their environmental impact. As a long time marketer, I went wild over their graphics, merchandising and how they use their money. While they are best known for the Old Rasputin Imperial Stout, they have a Belgian style ale called Brother Thelonious They have donated over a million dollars to the Thelonious Monk Institute because one of the partners is a jazz lover. They are one of the town’s largest employers and wear the responsibility well.

There are towns along the coast that have commercial harbors and fishing has been a part of their history from the time they were settled, or resettled at the expense of native populations. Georgia Pacific had a huge milling operation here and was the major employer. This area was a gigantic lumber supplier and was once covered with trees. Again, according to Joe, this area provided most of the lumber to rebuild San Francisco after the 1906 fire. When the mill shut down around fifteen years ago, the town made a decision to retool itself into a destination and they have done a superb job.

In the morning, I am taking a run along the shoreline and looking forward to it. I will tell you about it tomorrow. Before I take off, I am going to meet with folks at the Living Light Culinary Institute, a proponent of healthy living though the creative use of raw foods and a vegan diet. If you want to know why I am doing it, so do I. Very often, something gets right in front of me and my approach is to go straight at it. Joe mentioned this institute and it sounded interesting to me and that is all I know at the moment.

Yes, I know tonight’s stop in Cloverdale is the last one before the Golden Gate Bridge and I am purposely avoiding it. My time in Ft. Bragg is the perfect diversion and I am thrilled to be here. I have enjoyed staying on the surface and not burrowing into any possible revelations about this journey tonight.