Morning started with a hearty breakfast shared with the cob workshop crew.  It takes good food to build a house with mud.  Kirk gave me a tour of his cob/strawbale house, which features a sweet cob rocket thermal mass heater with built in cook top. 

The project for the “Start to Finish“ workshop is a cob bathhouse with a hybrid solar/rocket stove water heater.  While firing it the night before for cobbie showers, the tank actually boiled!

The visit was too short – I needed to blast on and get nearer to my next destination – Harbin Hot Springs.  Hugs goodbye to Kirk and Heidi and a gift of Cherry Green & Blacks Chocolate, and off I rode, sailing down the ridge to Gualala.

The ride south remote stretches of Highway 1 was long and challenging, climbing over headlands and dipping back into coves. In places sheer cliffs appeared with no guardrails for protection:

South of Fort Ross the highway crosses cattle guards and climbs over 500 feet yeilding dizzying spectacular views, then swoops back down to sea level in a series of dramatic switchbacks:

It was a relief to reach Jenner, turning East to follow the Russian River inland towards warmer temperatures and closer to the hot springs.