Day 10 Burlington Campground to Leggett 42.5 miles (total miles 426)

Brutal day on the bikes today.  As we rode inland from the redwoods the temperature soared until it peaked in the afternoon between Garberville and Leggett at 98 degrees. Here is Catalina waiting for breakfast at the campground in the redwoods. 

For the first 15 miles or so we were still on the Avenue of the Giants which looks like this.  That is Grandpa up there. 

Lunch in Garberville. At an Italian cafe.  Perhaps we found a happy medium between vegan sandwiches on nutty bread with sprouts and the Happy Meal. It was so hot all I could get down was a Salad and lots of ice tea.  

Popsicle stop with 10 miles to go in the 98 degree heat. 

A bit further down the road we came across Confusion Hill... a throwback old tourist trap that sucked us in. That is supposed to be the worlds biggest freestanding wood carving.  

With 5 more miles of hills we ran into a group of bikers from Fresno who we have crossed paths with and met over the past 3 days.  They were riding without packs with some support pickups and were kind enough to haul our tired bones the last 5 miles with their truck.  So we cheated a bit but still rode 42 miles mostly up hill in the heat.  

Our original campground is no longer a state park but turned over to Mendicino County and now run on a first come no reservation basis.  Since every other campground has been full so far we thought it prudent to find alternate lodging.  The only motel in 10 miles had one room left so we grabbed it and are happy crashing at the Stonegate Villas and old style motel that is perfectly adequate. 

Tomorrow brings the two final big mountain passes as we cross back over the coast range to the ocean on CA highway 1 which will take us the rest of the way down the coast to San Francisco. We are still on schedule to reach the Golden Gate on Sunday July 7. 

Day 9 Eureka to Burlington Campground 54 miles (total miles 383.5)

Somewhere today the little Canon camera vanished.  Probably fell out of my handlebar bag when the bike tipped over at a rest break and I didn't notice.  Regardless it is gone so I will only be taking iPhone photos from here on and will be doing shorter posts if I have to type on the phone.  I think the iPhone pictures are better than what the blogger iPhone app posts.  It just shrinks them a lot.

In any event we had nice riding for the morning out of Eureka with a tailwind and pulled into Fortuna for lunch.  Catalina was happier with today's choices!

Soon after Fortuna we pulled off Highway 101 to ride through the redwoods. The old highway is now called Avenue of the Giants and runs parallel but through redwood groves.  My pictures of the redwood groves are gone but here are some of our campground.   

Day 8 Elk Prairie to Eureka KOA 48.5 miles (total miles 329.5)

We awoke to a misty morning in Elk Prairie and were on the way at 9 am after saying goodbye to the elk that were blocking the path to the bathroom and showers this morning.

No big mountains today but lots of little ones as the rolling terrain brought us back to the coast where we had our mid-morning apple snack along side a coastal lagoon.

It was pleasant riding for the most part.  My Adventure Cycling map which is usually reliable took us on a variety of side roads away from busy highway 101 that were much hillier but with nearly no traffic. Some of the views of the ocean were quite spectacular.  This is near the small town of Trinidad where we had lunch.  

Catalina was not particularly happy with the healthy lunch options available at the little vegan cafe we found in Trinidad. Next time she won't be so quick to demand "just stop at the first place we get to. I'm so hungry even my back aches!"

Back on road after Trinidad the map guided us off the highway again to a bike path north of McKinleyville which was supposed to take us along the dunes and coastline through McKinleyville to Arcata.  For the first 5 miles we had a beautiful paved bike path along the dunes until....whoops?  Where did the bike path go?   This looks more like a horse trail or mountain bike trail not something for a tandem and trailer.

Doesn't look like it but this is at least a 10% grade....nothing to do but push the heavy rig up.

A mile later....whew, we got our bike path back!

The map took us through deserted country roads into Arcata where we bought groceries and rode another 4 miles down the road to the Eureka KOA. 

Day 7 Crescent City to Elk Prairie Campground 35 miles (total miles 281)

Today was a tough day in the mountains.   Riding out of Crescent City we hit hour first mountain almost immediately.   It was a good 4-5 miles to the summit at what the signs said were 6% grades so about an hour of solid endless climbing except that over the summit there were to more summits to cross.  I kept hearing Phil Liggett in my ear announcing "and the elastic band is stretching...oh, he's cracked!"  Here we are taking some rest breaks part way up.  

And a view back at Crescent City and Crescent Beach from the road

First Redwood!

The higher we climbed the more we were riding in the shade of giant redwoods so there was that.  Finally after the third summit we descended off the mountain to see the ocean again

The arrived at the tourist trap called Trees of Mystery where we had lunch and found a 60' talking Paul Bunyon.

Leaving Trees of Mystery we had two more mountains to cross until we finally left highway 101 to descend into the Redwoods National Park where we found our campground called Elk Prairie for good reason.  Arriving at the campground the signs all said "campground full" which one would expect on a summer weekend but they had plenty of room in the hiker/biker section at the rear which was nicer than most of the regular spots   We camped among the redwoods out of cell phone range of anything and didn't ride back into coverage until the middle of the next morning when my phone started beeping like crazy with all the stored up texts and emails.  Here are some photos of Elk Prairie Campground in Redwoods National Park.  

Day 6 Harris Beach to Crescent City 31 miles (total miles 246)

Today was an easy day of riding compared to yesterday and compared to the mountains in the redwoods of Northern California yet to come.  We had nice sunny weather as we rode through the town of Brookings Oregon, our last town in Oregon until we reached the California border.  Two college girls were there taking pictures and took ours for us but from too far back so I took another of Catalina.

After crossing into CA the bike route took us off the main highway onto back roads along mostly farm land.  We rode for about 20 miles through rolling terrain until we found the little town of Fort Dick and had lunch at the Fort Dick Market which looks exactly like any small town Texas market. 

Just past Fort Dick we passed Pelican Bay Supermax Prison which is somewhat famous as being the most maximum security prison in the country where all the prisoners are in solitary lockup.  Didn't look like much from the outside.  

After that we rode the final 9 miles into Crescent City.  We had planned to stay at the one campground in town that accommodated bikers....the rest are just gravel and cement RV parking lots.  But after considering the choice of paying $35 for a patch of grass next to a sea of RVs vs another $20 to get a "suite" at the Penny Saver Inn, the cheapest hotel in Crescent City, we went for the room after checking  it out first.  Not bad, they have wifi to make Catalina happy and let me post to the blog as it takes forever to post via 3G on this old iPad.  At least it is clean.  Lots of motorcycles out front so I guess we are with that crowd for a change instead of the RV set we see at the campgrounds.

One advantage to older style motels with outside entrances when you are biking is that you can get a first floor room and wheel the bikes right inside.   It is somewhat more conspicuous to wheel a tandem and trailer into a new style Holiday Inn Express past the front desk and down the hall to the elevator.  I haven't tried that yet!

Since we arrived pretty early....around 3 pm it has been a chance to do laundry at the laundromat a block away.  I think it has been 30 years since I have been inside a coin-op laundry.  Prices have gone up.  It now takes 12 quarters to wash.

Tomorrow we are making an early start as we have two big mountains to climb.  The biggest so far on this trip.   Will be a chance to see if I am riding myself into shape or not.   If we make it over the mountains without dying we will be camping among the big trees tomorrow night in Redwoods National Park a few miles north of the town of Orick.  

Day 5 Humbug Mountain to Harris Beach 52 miles (total miles 215)

Today was our longest and toughest day yet so we got a relatively early start, breaking camp at 8:30 am and had a nice morning ride of 23 miles into the little town of Gold Beach.   We had sun and rolling hills and unlike yesterday we were following the shoreline so we had lots of nice views.  Here we are taking a mid-morning breakfast of fruit and granola bars as all we had for breakfast was coffee and hot chocolate and some morning views of the coastline. 

We had lunch in Gold Beach which is the only town we passed through in our 52 miles of riding today. Most of the terrain was wilderness parks with scattered small farms wherever the terrain flattened enough.   Crossing the Rogue River into Gold Beach was a bit stressful as we had a narrow sidewalk to navigate over a long bridge, but we made it in time for lunch.  Hey! They have wifi!

First thing after lunch we encountered a steep mountain climb over Cape Sebastian.  The road wound straight up for over 3 miles and when you are grinding along at 3-4 mph that amounts to about an hour of chugging up hill with a 50 lb. trailer and 80 lb. girl on the back.  Hop on a stairmaster for an hour after riding 30 miles and you'll get the same effect.   The plunge back down to sea level after cresting the 1000 ft summit was a screamer.  My hands got numb from the constant braking and the disc rotors on the tandem got red hot to the point that the metal is now discolored.  With all that weight in back the bike really wants to go on downhills. 

The last 20 miles or so into Harris Beach State Park were just one up and down after another.  No sooner would we make it down one hill then the next would start.  No really high passes but just constant hills.  And the afternoon fog had rolled in so we couldn't see much.  We could hear the ocean crashing on the rocks below for most of the ride and we passed a dozen scenic viewpoints but all was shrouded in fog.   Yes there is an ocean down there!

Finally in camp, and this is a very nice campground by the way, after a dinner of instant potato soup, cheese, crackers, and baby carrots it is time to crash and read.  On this trip we seem to be climbing into our tents at 9 pm and waking up with the birds at dawn around 5:30 am.  Except for Catalina who usually crawls out around 8 when breakfast is ready.