Day 172: Merced

After a relaxing morning in Yosemite, including visits to the Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite Museum and Indian Village, we set off into the unknown. That is, we did not know the exact route (or the terrain that we were going through) except for the fact that were going to head down the valley on 140 rather than climb for 8 miles on the 120 with a steep incline.

On arriving at Maraposa we were fortunate to come accross a Tourist Info where we discovered that a route towards San Francisco that we had considered taking was predominantly through agricultural land and so was devoid of tourist accommodation.

So Plan F was adopted that swiftly evolved into Plan G, which was to ride another 37 miles to Merced (80 miles total for the day). Then, rather than continue cycling toward SF, catch the train to Martinez, which would result in a 50 mile cycle rather than 142 miles (accross mainly flat lands with a strong headwind!)

Arriving into Marced as the Sun was setting: