Big day today as we make the largest climb of the trip, Legget Mt. You can see it above on the Map #3 profile, the BIG spike in the middle. A long, gradual uphill with a ten mile run out on the  other side. SWEET!!!

Cold again this morning. The Nutella becomes unspreadable in low temps so Joe heats it in a hot water bath each morning, NICE!!! (red light is from my headlamp).

Somewhere up there is the top of the climb . . .

. . . and we switch from Hwy 101 to Hwy 1 which we will basically follow to Dan Diego. ‘Team Peckish’ (Denise, Jenny and me) are short a rider because Denise’s bike is in on the top of the van until we get to Ft. Bragg and it’s bike shop. She has a noisey rear hub and is worrying about it seizing up like mine did!!

We couldn’t start the climb until be stopped to see the ‘Drive Through Redwood’ . . .

. . . which was unfortunately closed for the season or just not open yet at 8:00am . . .

. . . either way we didn’t feel like trespassing so had to settle for this dramatic painting!!!

First switchbacks of the trip . . . .

. . . and up we go . . .

Words of encouragement . . .

. . . and the traffic that there was, was quite courteous!!!

Finally at the top, yippee the big downhill. On the way down I had a flat and eventually everyone passed me. Hugh stopped to help and soon Joe showed up too. He was riding sweep today. A half mile down the road my rear tire flatted again (need a new tire). After stopping to help again, it was Hugh first down the rest of the hill, then me and then Joe about a mile behind.

. . . at this point, on sort of a flat area, my bike started handling very weird. Hard to describe but if you ride a lot you know when something is wrong. I stopped at a Call Box pullout and checked the tire again to see if it was flatting. Nope, so on I continued. I knew we did not have cell service here because Joe, Hugh and I had tried to call Denise who should have been at the bike shop now to buy me a new tire.

I continued on and the bike felt VERY unresponsive. I would need to be hauled in by van, so looking ahead and seeing a car far in the distant,  I made a u-turn to go back to the Call Box and call Tom for a lift with the van.

I made it across the road and onto the shoulder when the tube on Connie’ s fork snapped and down I went.

When I came to, the folks who had been approaching were stopped and getting bandages out to stop my finger from bleeding. I wish I could remember their names but can’t. They were on their way for a two week mountain bike adventure. I assured them I was OK (although my vision was ‘wavy’) and asked them to tell Joe what had happened when they met him ahead as he descended the mountain.

By the time Joe arrived I was pretty much’ back to normal’ and he now had a cell phone signal. He called Tom who was just leaving the bike shop with Denise and he responded to pick us up. In the hour we waited for him to arrive, we began calling bike shops in an effort to find a replacement fork. Looks like the closest replacement  might be in San Francisco. Going to be a few days in the van for me and Connie!!! Blood on my water bottle from wherever I snagged my finger in the fall.

I had landed on my left shoulder and the left side of my helmet had a crack in it. I put Connie’s pieces together and from here she doesn’t look to bad because the fork stub is inserted in the steerer tube, although you can see the fork has sort of a ‘rakish’ angle . . .

. . . as I tired to move her across the road, into the sun, this is what happened, again. (white medical tape my good Samaritan’s left me to fasten my bandages, hanging from the handlebars).

. . . catastrophic failure. Once in camp, Tom took me to the hospital for ex-rays of my noggin, and things were fine. The ‘spacy’ head feeling would be gone by morning and my ‘wavy vision’ had cleared. The ER doc was from Green Bay and went to medical school in Madison. FUN!!!!

Thirty six degrees at 7:55am and some of us were ready to roll . . . if for no other reason than to warm up!!!

We needed to drive through Eureka, CA and it was rush hour . . . including this chap who had LOTS of cans loaded on his bike heading to recycling!!! Am I back in Thailand??????

Busy road but beautiful eucalyptus trees along the shoulder . . . .

. . . on the way out of Eureka was this wildlife refuge . . . funny species to be protecting!!!

Soon we passed one of the PG&E power plants that were back on line, its turbines whirring away at full speed . . .

. . .  and this redwood lumber mill was back in operation since it had electricity now to power the saws, Hundreds of thousand of board feed of raw product AND lumber ready for shipping.

. . . another river with hardly any water. Not sure if CA didn’t have a good snow year or if this amount of flow is ‘normal’ for this time of year.

For the next several days we would ride through the ‘Avenue of the Giants’, huge preserves of the giant redwoods . . .

. . . which are REALLY hard to capture with a camera . . . TOO BIG!!!

. . . big tree . . . big rider

Jenny stopped to buy some organic eggs at a stand in Pepperwood, sort of an enclave of folks holding firm to the 70’s. A variety of egg colors!!!!

We were ahead of the group so stopped at Shotz and had lunch and an iced coffee. It was actually in the 70’s!!!!

I left Connie across the street at the hitchin’post . . .

. . . cute puppy, reminding me of our pooch. Locals were walking by and giving her cookies!!!

Back onto the ‘Avenue’ where the temps promptly dropped about 20 degrees!!! Nice riding because most of the cars are on adjacent Hwy 101, but VERY shady.

If you don’t see this reflector and get to close . . . good luck at the hospital. That tree is not moving!!!

Got to remember to look up every once in a while . . . stunning!!!

As we rolled into camp, I had a nice chat with our camp host, Kip. He was rebuilding the carburetor of his 1991 Dodge motor home. Looked like he knew what he was doing!!!

We waited an hour and a half for Tom to arrive with the van and trailer. He had to wait for stores to restock their meat departments’ after the ‘run on meat’ during the power shutdown yesterday. We had a nice chat with Brad and Stella who were walking their pup Joey around the campground. They live in Pismo Beach and we will ride right by their home!!!

PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The power went off at 2:30am and the 300 foot walk to the unlit toilet/shower building was a challenge to say the least. Hey . . . who is that breaking into one of our test at 7:15am??? Just Jenny returning to her tent wearing just about everything she had brought along, just like the rest of us, because the overnight low temp was 25 degrees!!!

It was a cold camp along with a thick fog that just started to lift at 7:30am . . .

. . . my panniers were frozen !!!!!!

As we rolled through our first town of the day, Akin, there was the Palm’s Motel that had an indoor type herbarium that was probably . . . 80 degrees. If we could have only slept in there last night!!!

Trying to become a platinum bicycling city by having green painted bike lanes . . . town population 289!!!

Nice operations center for the Redwood Park Operations, maybe they should have saved some money to pay the electric bill for their parks. (there would be much more to the story to come . . . )

We have seen elk crossing signs since Oregon and I have not seen a one . . .

. . . but there might be some ahead at Elk Country  . . .

. . . can you say ‘baiting’????

. . . and sure enough a mile down the road was the resort with LOTS of No Trespassing Signs and elk (evidently the elk cannot read English) . Paying guests only. But you could see them from the road bedded down in the long grass.

We took an undeveloped road for a ways that ran right on the cliffs over the ocean. We have been seeing lots of this Pompous Grass along the way. Not sure if it native to CA. Also lots of surfers along the way . . .

. . . mmmmm don’t think I will stop at this place to fill my water bottle.

Cal Fire Rural fire station. Tried to talk to some of the boys but they were all in a meeting.

Lots of trails along the beach and lots of people put walking their dogs. Beautiful setting!!

Here was an example of a well repaired area where the road had slid away. Instead of just patching it, the bed was replaced and reinforced and plant, trees and forbes planted to hold the soil. Expensive to do right!!!

A surfers paradise!!!

. . . and for seals looking for chow, too . . .

Here they are in the shallow water . . . looked like they were having fun!!

Denise and I were supposed to cook tonight. But Joe had trouble getting the ingredients for the Corn Chowder, with chicken or tofu, Texas toast and green salad we were going to make. The local utility for northern California, Pacific Gas and Electric, had turned off the power the night before at 2:30pm because of high winds, The shutting down of power affected over 500,000 people, including many of the people in line ahead of Joe at the grocery stores buying whatever they could, The power company said the electricity might be off for 5 days!!! Joe was able to get us spaghetti, sauce, cheese and bread. We had four cans of Clam Chowder Soup. So soup, spaghetti with ragu, salad and grilled cheese were the emergency rations we were able to rassle up for the night. The power came back on at 2;30am after the winds had subsided. Whew!!!

Everybody left the table with a full tummy!!!

This great pair of guides were soon to be history on this trip. Ryan was being ‘airlifted out’ by another ACA guide who was driving up from Reno to pick him up and get him to the airport in Reno. Tom, an ACA guide who lives in WA was being ‘parachuted in’ to fill in as the second guide for the rest of the trip.

One final photo of our august group. Goodbye Ryan and hopefully no surgery is needed!!! It had been quite a 48 hour period. An ADVENTURE to be sure!!!

Rest day and we all stayed in yurts! Yippee . . . even stayed warm during the night.

The usual breakfast routine before we headed off to Redwoods State Park. Rich and Jenny compare routes on the map over coffee.

For those of us who never ventured past downtown over the rest day, we finally see the marina in Brookings as we head out of town.

We are crossing into California today and literally right on the state line is the last change to by weed in Oregon!!!

Welcome to California . . .

. . . and across the street is the welcome to Oregon sign, much nicer than the OR landing of the ferry we took from WA across the Columbia into OR. On the OR side there was only a pile of trash and an outhouse!!!

And gas was notably more expensive in CA. Gene, a local in Fort Dix, riding a bicycle, told me it is the ‘special CA blend additives’ that make the price so high . . .

. . . and here was the nicely named ‘Pelican Lake’ correctional facility, the only one like it in the state, where the baddest of the bad go. Sounds like our ‘Super Max’ back in Boscobel, WI. For the second time we have seen a prison with no name or reference to what it is. Easy to tell though from the guard towers and multiple fences.

On a nicer note was this local artist who was VERY skilled in using horseshoes welded together to make creations . . .

. . . and he had quite a display!!!

Oregonian’s are just as anxious to get their coffee in the morning as Washingtonian’s seemed to be. Here was the result of someone not getting enough milk in their double latte. They mowed the place down with their car!!!

Per every other crossing I’ve made into California there was the ever present vegetable inspection station . . . they just waved us though!!!

Our first view of the California, not surprisingly it looked a lot like the Oregon coast!!

Several of us saw this sign and questioned if the ‘local fine’ was for turning left or taking the bike lane!!! How do they collect?????

As we passed through Crescent City there was a scenic lighthouse right along the pier. Very Nice!!

Most of the signs along the beach are old and faded, but they all had the newer ‘No Solicitation’ sign added. I’ve been amazed at the size of the homeless population we have seen along the way in WA, OR and now in CA. It’s appears to be epidemic proportions!! People sleeping everywhere!!!

Crescent City’s version of the Queen Mary . . . tours provided, too.

Great views along the way as the sun rose higher in the sky.

A big downhill from the top of this bluff down and across the bridge.

Soon we entered the joint National/State sections of the redwoods, an ecotype we would be following, on and off, for the next three days.

. . . however this was sort to of disconcerting. In many cases there ended up being NO shoulder, and uphill!!!

Oh yeah . . . those redwoods are BIG!!!

Mile after mile of tall giants that have stood for hundreds of years . . . a camera can really not capture the size and grandeur of these trees.

Hey wait a minute! At the ‘Trees of Mystery’ there was Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. I thought they were from Bemidji, MN!!!!

The trees keep getting bigger. Connie liked brushing up against something almost as old as her!!

Very little traffic along the way made for a GREAT ride . . .

Oh and sometimes the behemoths are right out into the road. One needs to pay attention whether in a car or on a bike . . .

We finally landed in Redwood State Park our home for the night . . .

Great burgers cooked up by Anne and Pam. Mike and I are the only veggies on the trip and the group has been VERY accommodating. Here Mike gets his veggie burger, served from the pan on the left.

Four kinds of salad to accompany the burgers . . . really hit the spot after a long day!

Dave and Joe discussing the next options for cabins or yurts . . . it was going to get cold tonight and four of the gang had secured a cabin.

A quick map meeting before the sun went down and everyone was in their tents IMMEDIATELY. The low tonight would be 25 degrees. Water bottles froze and there was frozen condensation on the tent fly’s!!!

We are all staying in yurts for the two nights and David and his family had a yurt between our three. They are leaving to head back to their home in Vancouver, WA and were kind enough to give us their extra firewood. Thank you David!!!

My back is acting up again and I could hardly get out of bed on our rest day. Here Denise, my road wife,  retired physical therapist and sadist/dominatrix leads me through the “cobra’ exercise that is supposed to help. She was reassuring and my back actually seem to get better. She prescribed 10 reps, six times a day. Sometimes when she has back pain while riding, she stops and exercises alongside the road!!!  Got to get some Ibuprofen, too.

Not for the faint of heart!!!!

Ryan was riding sweep yesterday and while on the last mile of the ride, swerved to miss a truck that was not yielding to him. Unfortunately, he went down hard and after 3 hours in the ER came to camp with his two broken arms in casts!!! End of the ride for Ryan . . . but at least he didn’t hit his head!!! He spent a restless night in the yurt with Rich and me and will fill his hydro cordone prescription today which will hopefully give him some relief.

Most were vanning the 1.5 miles into town today because they had too much laundry to carry on their bikes. Rich, Denise and I decided to bike in and first . . .

. . . have a nice breakfast that was something other than Instant Oatmeal. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMM!

Some of the gang at the laundromat . . .

. . . where we met Tom and Jan who are from the UK and traveling the same route we are AND are also staying out at Harris State Park.

. . . and we met Ebony, who with her cutie pup Sadie, was doing some wash before she headed into San Francisco by car. She had spent a month at a campground neat Klamath where she worked for free lodging. She is making plans to head back to Spain and rejoin her family after a 17 year absence. A singer, you can checkout her Facebook page at:  Ebony Str8upruesound

Joe is driving the van today and helping with breakfast since Pam and he had cooking duty last night. Here he is at ‘0 dark thirty’, by headlamp, ’ slicing strawberries for us to put on our oat meal. Such service!!!

Ryan is a taskmaster and doesn’t allow any breakfast or lunch prep until 6:55am. However, coffee is served earlier via French presses. Dave, Gina, Ann and me are allows in line trying to ‘push’ the five minutes ‘plunge time  . . . but he is strict . . . FIVE MINUTES EXACTLY!!!

. . . ahh, finally that first cup. YUM!!!

These folks were set up right outside of the bathroom. A tent inside a tent. Must not like bugs, although at this time of year there a virtually none!!!

Soon we were on the road and although the scale of this photo does not do a good job of representing the 300 foot headwall of timber in front of us as we exited the campground, we all wondered how we were going to get over it. But we did!!!!

Once again, Oregon DOT looking out for us!!!

More fantastic views as we skirted the coast in the morning light.

Shadows are harsh at this time of the morning . . .

But as the sun rises the colorama comes alive!!!

Lots of geologic activity along the coast and there are many slide areas. Usually there are signs warning drivers and bikers . . . but as a cyclist one ALWAYS needs to be aware.

Coastal communities seem to have a fascination with BigFoot and dinosaurs . . . here is one of several dinosaurs parks we’ve seen along the way. Nothing moving here . . .

. . . except this poochie who was  back and forth in the window like a duck in a shooting gallery!!!

Hope Joe saw this and stopped by Ray’s for the meat bonanza (whatever that is). Could be some good eatin’ for our carnivores!!!

Along the way today we met Gerald who is biking from Canada to South America. Safe travels!!!

. . . mile after mile of coastline.

I was curious about the type and size  of house that must be up the hill from here, with having such an elaborate, and expensive, entry gate . . .

. . . I looked back and saw part of it but their must be more hidden out of view.

Several more miles of beach and  . . .

. . . we arrived in Gold Beach, a town of several thousand. There was an Apostolic Church, on the main drag, that was really rockin’, as I road by.

Click above to hear  sample!!!

Great local art on the municipal building!!!

Not sure what this deteriorating tug was all about but there must be more to the story. Not really ‘sea worthy’!!!

What a coastline . . .

. . . and if you have an RV, you can just pullover anywhere it is safe and enjoy a nice picnic lunch and some sunshine!!!

 

Soon we crossed the highest bridge in Oregon . . .

. . . here it was a LONGGGGGGG way down . . .

. . . looked like a giant erector set (for those old enough to remember what that was).

. . . but it had a good shoulder, no 18 inch elevated sidewalk and a chest high guard rail. Bicyclists were not going to fall over this one in high winds!!!

When you are biking along at 13 miles an hour you have time to take in visually what is presented to you. Here was a local ‘art display’ presenting what, maybe a message about modern transportation, waste of natural resources, returning to the rock of the earth . . . or maybe it was just some hiker or kids having fun. A rock on every post!!!

Communication both data and cellphone coverage have REALLY been a problem for us along the way. The state parks we stay in do not have wifi and cellphone coverage is almost non-existent. Thus, a hard time keeping this journal up to date. Tomorrow is our rest day and as Anne and I rolled into Brookings, OR and Harris State Park, our home for the next two night, there were three cell phone towers right out side the park. Shouldn’t be a problem here!!!

Since check-in was still two hours away, Anne and I went downtown to look for the laundry and scope out the other necessities one needs for a rest day and met Patti. Very friendly and she gave us the 411 about everything Brookings had to offer!!

Coldest morning of the trip so far a chilly 32 degrees . . . hard to climb out of the sleeping bag and into cold clothes. They say there is no bad weather just bad equipment. But when it is this cold . . . yikes!!!

Anne has her saddest face on after she discovered her sandwich, which she left laying on the picnic table of the adjoining site for only five minutes, had been ‘discovered’ by one of the crows that cruise the campsites just waiting for a little snack to appear. The other night Glenn had to ward of two pesky raccoons with a stick!!!

. . . good advice, but it also reminds me of emJay and my weekend martini tradition. I miss you, Smoochie!!!!

This research facility was up ‘in the middle of nowhere’. Staff must have one heck of a commute!!!

Along one of the timber sales I saw this Christmas card laying in the ditch. I moved it to the fog line so the other riders behind me could enjoy it. Actually I think Santa has a tremendous resemblance to Wade, one of our riders from the 2017 Northern Tier. Wade, hope things are going well for you and you are continuing to make progress!!

What a great’ running water’ fountain advertising gimmick for this septic system company!!!

Once again we continued to climb . . .

. . . and climb and soon we were on ‘Seven Devils’ road and above he clouds!!!

Great vistas . . . and more timber sale activity.

After my flat the other day, I repaired it in camp and as I pumped it up, the tube blew out, sounding like a shotgun blast. Everybody in camp came running!!! I needed a new tube so today I stopped in town to pick one up and there was Anne, having her front wheel inspected by mechanic, Mike. She had hit the wheel on a curb or some hard object and he was recommending a new wheel. He didn’t have one but suggested a bike shop in Crescent City, CA. He trued it up the best he could and she was on her way.

Mike’s store will become a TREK dealer in December and he was in WI last January for the intensive six day TREK mechanic school held in Waterloo. We agreed the best thing to do might be to get out of WI in January like I did by biking in Thailand, and avoiding the whole “Polar Vortex’ phenomenon! Make sure to visit Mike at: South Coast Bicycles

Geesh . . . 100 year old trees are a ‘dime a dozen’ out in the Pacific NW!!!

I’ve seen two Ocean Spray cranberry juice factories on the ride and wondered where the bogs were located . . . here was one they fill with water pumped in through the white riser tubes in the field.

Back along the coast and 65 mile temps, and a tailwind, . . .  all was good . . .

Kodak moment around every corner . . .

There are always lots of people walking the beaches. Many times with their pups. I bet there are lots of good sniffs!!!

48 degrees when we woke up and no rain . . . things are improving!!!

We are now off the coast for a bit and climbing in BIG timber country . . .

. . . lots of highline clearcut logging operations . . . this is where many of the trucks loaded with logs come from !!!

Funny!!!!

As we rode through Umpahati, there was a Coast Guard cutter trying to get to the open ocean through the waves coming in through  the break water. They finally made it after several attempts.

Rich and I took a short detour UPHILL to view the Umpahati lighthouse. Still a working lighthouse, it’s 2 ton bezel cut lens, ground in Paris, France, beams out into the ocean.

On the way up to the lighthouse we passed out of the tsunami zone. I wonder how accurate this blue line is!!! Hope the locals never need to find out.

We rode along the Oregon Sand Dunes monument area today and in some locations the dunes are fighting with the roadway for the same space!!!

miles and miles of sand . .

. . . of which some has been opened up for dune buggies, hopefully a minimal acreage. These areas, environmentally, are very fragile

. . . at our map meeting last night Ryan had briefed us on what has been described as the ‘most horrific riding experience’ on the Pacific Coast ride. The 1.5 mile long high bridge we needed to cross. Soon it came into view . . . gulp!!!

. . . no shoulder, no ‘riders on bridge’ flashing lights and high winds. What could go wrong???? Lucky for all of us, nothing did go wrong. Four of our riders got ‘coal-rolled’ on the bridge, including me. BUT . .  as I crossed the last high span there was no traffic coming behind me and I could see a large truck in my rear view mirror. As we rode off the bridge, I could see it was a fully loaded logging truck with its four way flashers on, that had held traffic back as I rolled across the last quarter of the bridge. I gave the driver a thumbs up, he flashed his truck lights, and we both went on our way. A redemption in my mind for all the ‘other logging truck experience’s we have had!!!

Soon we were along the coast again, the sky was blue, the temps above 60 degrees and we rolled into Charleston, and Sunset Beach State Park, our home for the night.

Ryan and Mike had cooking duty tonight,  and produced a wonderful meal of peppers stuffed with rice, hamburger or tofu, a BIG salad and roasted Brussels spouts!!!

. . . Jenny helped out with the salad. Ryan likes to take a ‘hit’ of olive oil every once in a while just for the fun of it!!!

Mike likes to sleep with his Lynskey bike in his tent. The joke is, they have already had three tricycles from this affair!!!!!!!!

Ryan was good enough to start a fire this morning trying to ward off the chill. It was still raining but Rich and I got the breakfast and lunch chow out on time.

Even though we had kitchen duty, we managed to get on the road by 8:10am, it was 42 degrees!!!

Right away there were some great views but you REALLY needed to watch the road. In some places it is slipping into the sea. Not good for bikers!!!

Just five miles down the road I had, as Phil Ligget says, ‘a puncture’!  BIG sharp rock went through the tire and it will need a boot to repair it. There was gravel in the hole through the tube!!

The rain slowed to a stop and soon the sun actually came out, the morning light illuminating our views to the west. Beautiful time of day!!

There always seems to be traffic on Hwy 101 and even though there is a wide shoulder a rider needs to stay vigilant . . .

. . .  and remember to look down at the road once in a while!!!

There seems to be a rest stop or viewpoint every 10-15 miles along the Oregon Coast. Mostly state or federal property. The birds have this scoped out of course and are patiently waiting for the next group of tourist to drop some ‘chow’ they will be happy to clean up!!

Seagulls are everywhere . . .

Talk about a million dollar view . . .might even be better than the Yellow Farmhouse,  Snaren!!!

Rich and I pulled in for a little lunchy and met Janet and Larry from N. Carolina. They were touring the coast before heading back to the Carolinas. Good luck Larry!

We no more left Janet and Larry and it started raining again . . .

so in Walport, we stopped at the Goren Bike Coop and got a piece of boot from Rick, one of the retired volunteers, at the bike coop . . .

. . . and, he let us use the bike wash to get some of the grit off our drive trains. The 70 years olds who man the coop during the day leave at 2:00pm so they can go home and take a nap. Nice!!!

. . . another bridge to cross that at least has a wider shoulder. Many have no shoulder and when there is a car, a logging tuck and you all meeting at the same time it can be a ‘perfect storm’ for disaster. The logging trucks generally do not move over and don’t cut you any slack!!!

. . . another tunnel today, but it was a shorty. They do all have the flashing light system letting motorists know there are bikers in the tunnel.

We tied up with Gina and Pam at a lighthouse overlook, and although we all look stellar . . .

. . . it’s hard to compete with the coastline views.

. . . Connie and I wish you were here, Smoochie!!!

Great sand dunes along the way . . .

. . . and million dollar views. We arrived in camp after the rain had stopped and tried to dry off our wet tents. Unsuccessful!!!