Bonus Week

San Francisco is now 150 miles away. This week has been one of slow progress, accumulated fatigue, and a whole bunch of unexpected fun experiences.

Jay’s daily riding mileage typically around 50+ miles has been reduced to 40+ miles. The hilly terrain is the biggest factor. He has also been required to ride long stretches on the “not bike friendly” US 101 which is a four-lane freeway with a median and a speed limit of 65 mph. Road shoulders are sometimes wide and protective; more commonly they are narrow or simply don’t exist. It is a white-knuckle experience when logging trucks, big rigs with their trailers, or long fifth wheel motor homes zip by at or above the speed limit. Yikes!

Land of Redwoods

However, there have also been experiences one can only dream about. Once we reached Crescent City, we began our journey through Northern California’s redwood forests. The long hill climbs are still arduous, but the views are magical. The downside of cycling in redwood forests is that there is no cellphone coverage. We now have a plan to meet somewhere on Jay’s cycling route to reaffirm or update our evening location plans. As Jay entered our meeting point in Orick (a speck of a city), Helen, parked on the side of the road, yelled “Hey sailor, lookin’ for a good time?” or maybe she just shouted “Jay!” We continue to agree to disagree.

Tiny House

Helen secured an Air BnB at a Tiny House in McKinleyville for Tuesday evening’s stay. Finding accommodations during the high summer season has become a journey in itself. With Helen driving the Prius we can work around this problem. At the end of Jay’s ride, we put the bike on the car and drove to the Tiny House located down a number of small country lanes to the top of a very steep driveway. 

The Tiny House was half of a prefab home on wheels that was towed and permanently placed at the back of someone’s yard. It was small but sufficiently comfortable for a one-night stay with a TV, bathroom, stove/oven, sink, couch, and faux fireplace. It was so small you had to go outside to change your mind.

Our next day meeting point was Ferndale, a small town surrounded by cattle and dairy-oriented hay and corn fields. Ferndale is a quaint town with beautiful old Victorian homes and an old-timey downtown. Helen noticed that the Humboldt County Fair was scheduled to start the following day. Events included a pig race. Can’t miss that! More later on the pig race. 

Avenue of the Giants

At the end of the day’s ride, we arrived early enough at our hotel in Rio Dell that we had time to drive a section of the Avenue of the Giants (the giants are California’s majestic redwoods). The “avenue” is surrounded by both private land and the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. On the private 

land, there are trinket and bead shops and redwood-ish based tourist attractions such as House in a Tree in the tiny town of Redcrest. This ‘house’ is a large (20’ across) room carved in the underground remains of a giant redwood felled long ago but still supporting new growth from its root system.

The next day, Jay cycled the full length of the Avenue. The rough road surface in the private lands changed to silky smooth once Jay passed into the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. The redwood trees so shaded the landscape that he needed to remove his sunglasses to get a clear view of the road in this environment of tall giants with moss covered limbs. This wonderful world of cycling ended when road construction forced him to detour back onto US 101. Another white-knuckle ride ending with a steep mile long climb. When he arrived at our Garberville hotel, he was worn out.

The Pig Race

As Jay cycled among the “giants,” Helen returned to Ferndale to attend the opening of the country fair. Being the first of 100 people to enter the fair ground, she got an official “Humboldt County Fair 2023” pin. Just before the pig race was an unannounced race of small dogs. One chihuahua stopped to pee before completing the race. Anything can happen at a county fair! Helen “bet” on the pig with the green bandana. Yep, our swine won! Yay! If you make yourself available, any trip is full of unexpected adventures.

Two Days of Rest

Jay had been cycling for eighteen days, typically with a one-day rest after five or six days. We planned to make this a fun trip, but increasing fatigue was starting to take the “fun” out of this journey. He also had to consider that the next 50 miles of his cycling route from the interior to the coast, which was more challenging than anything he had faced before. The route included 20 miles of consecutive hill climbs on US 101 followed by a monster 1,600’ climb for a total climb of 5,000 feet. 

We decided on a two-day break and deployed the Prius on this next section of the bike route. It was a smart decision. The climb, starting in Leggett, was more treacherous than imagined. The 3.5-mile climb was on a curvy road with numerous (maybe all of them) blind turns. There was no shoulder. Just a white line on the edge of the road followed by a drop off the mountainside. The 14-mile downhill ride was another “scare your pants off” experience of sharp turns. 

For our two days of rest, we rented a small camp cabin at the Westport Beach RV Park. Here we had our first chance to walk on the volcanic dark sandy beaches of the west coast and get our feet wet by the cold, rolling Pacific Ocean. An unexpected experience is just how cold summer is along the Northern California coast. People in the RV park walk about in shorts and t-shirts, we wear long pants and don our jackets. 

A highlight of our stay in Westport Beach was a trip into town (at the headlands, which we learned is

a cliff that drops right to the ocean) to attend the annual Westport Volunteer Fire Department’s fundraiser. We enjoyed live music, a vegan Oyster mushroom with carmelized onion sandwich, beer, wine, perusing the craft tables and crowd-watching. A big surprise was the helicopter that circled overhead twice, then landed in the field right next to the event. It was a rescue helicopter from the CALSTAR fire department.

Albion River RV Campground to Gualala Country Inn

We returned to cycling with a pleasant 44-mile ride down CA Highway 1. This coastal highway, so far, has been an enjoyable ride with a smooth road surface and roller coaster like hills that provide some momentum to climb the next hill. As a result, the 3,000 ft of climbing did not feel stressful.

This RV campground is the domain of truck-driving, ocean-going day fisherman. Fish cleaning is common as well as tall tales of fishing exploits lubricated by a bottle of Jim Beam. One afternoon and evening there was enough for us. It was cold and windy, windy, windy. We put up the sides of our canopy to block the wind (we thought we'd need it for the sun). 

In the morning we quickly ate breakfast and packed up, fighting the wind the whole time. Jay was planning to ride to Gualala (pronounced wa LA la), but soon discovered the wind was blowing against him and the fog and mist were thick enough that Helen had to turn on the windshield wipers.  Jay decided this was not a day for riding a bike. We drove to our next stop, the Gualala Country Inn, checked in, settled in, then the power went out. We decided to take a rest and in an hour the power came back on. 

 Everything in its place! We pack the Prius the same way all the time so it all fits.

We had an enjoyable time at the Westport Volunteer Fire Dept. Fund Raiser. 

    This fire truck did double duty as a beer dispensing piece of equipment at the fund raiser.

 There are lots of interesting signs explaining how some things came to be. 

The sand at the beach was black, a first for Helen. Because the water was so cold, Helen was willing to wade out as far as ankle-deep, but no further. There were others on the beach in swimsuits. Not me!

The inside of our cabin was big enough to set up our little portable table, where we ate breakfast because it was too cold outside for us.

I cooked breakfast on the picnic table outside and we took it inside to eat. When I came back outside, I found this little gift for us!