California

We finally made it to California. We had to go through an easy peezy fruit inspection at the border. All they asked was if we got any and I said no and on we went.

The route took us towards the countryside, trying to get away from 101. We hit Crescent city and prepared ourselves for a huge climb, 1300 ft, that was coming up in a few miles. We did it just fine, only took about 45 minutes, and then we had to prepare for another one after. Oh it was a long day, lots of climbing but we are done with it and thats that.

On the way down we stopped to check up on a cyclist that had a flat tire. His name is Brendan and he had just started. He is from Vancouver, BC and he doing the same exact route as us. I'm sure we''ll run into him lots.

On the way to the campsite, we had to go through this highway filled with redwood trees. It was probably the most amazing thing I've seen this trip. It was getting towards dusk and the fog was rolling in. It complemented the mysterious and old trees perfectly. We rode through that forest so slow that Brendan had caught up and passed us. I took so many pictures but none of them did the trees any justice.

The campsite was alright, lots of mosquitoes. We were a bit too tired to do anything with all those climbs so we just went to sleep after hiking around in a big circle.

Back to reality

Getting up with the smell of bacon and eggs was wonderful. I'm sure all of us had forgotten what it was like to wake up without a sense of duty. All of George's friends, and ours too, had cooked breakfast for us. Then they all pushed us out of the campsite so they can take pictures of us as we rode along the highway.

It was a fairly easy ride. Nothing much happened and the scenery was the same the whole way down, beautiful. After looking at constant beautiful coastlines and beaches, I started to feel as if everything was the same. I wanted to get to the California border as quickly as I can but we had to make a stop at Harris beach, 7 miles from the border.

The campsite was great and we saw our friends Kelly and Matt. We also met an older touring crowd, David and Richard. They were heading the same way too.

Night came in quickly but we were able to make it out to the beach for the sunset. The setting of the sun marks the end of the day but I just don't understand what is so great about it. People were practically lining up at the beach to watch it. Right after it was finished, I mean immediately right after, people just got up and left. I just don't understand.

George's Day

We had a fairly tough day ahead of us. We started our around 10 because Steven wanted to ride along with us part of the way. He was a nice enough fellow and we were glad he wanted to come along. We rode well into the foggy hills and I talked with him quite a bit. We were able to catch small glimpses of the Oregon landscape through the high trees. The road we took was completely free of cars and that made things so much more enjoyable.

We made it into a small town and that was where we split with Steven. He wanted to dry some his stuff in the twinkle of sunlight we rode into because the night before all of his things got wet. He started out with a hammock, which proved to be too cold for him. Then he went out and bought a $23 dollar tent that did not hold water. So for two days straight he did not get any sleep. We left him at a park where he layed all of his things out and took a much deserved nap.

In Langlois we stopped at a market where we bought lunch from a cute worker. There we ran into Adam again, we hadn't seen him for two days. We had caught up with him because the day earlier he had biked a good 70 miles. It was nice running in to him in the middle of nowhere.

Near the campsite, we stopped at an awesome viewpoint called Battlerock. What made it even better was when our old friends Kelly and Matt came by. Such a surreal moment because we thought they had dusted us in the wind and were miles ahead. We had a nice chat and Matt gave George a warm beer to celebrate his George's birthday. Oh yes, George's 21st birthday.

We had to get to the campsite early because George's buddies, Brandon and Craig, his family, Dad and Derek, and our buddies, Eric and Kevin, all came up to the campsite to celebrate George's big 21. They cooked dinner and breakfast for us and brought some ice cold drinks for all of us, except Heidi because she is a little baby. We all deserved it for our hard work and many thanks for all those guys that came up, you all don't know how much we appreciated that gesture.

Racing towards the Sunset

Late as always, we left camp. The night before it started to rain so that kept us under the weather a bit. The rest of the day did not rain but it was gloomy and overcast for the most of it.

A pretty uneventful day. 55 miles of good riding, oh boy did that day in Newport do us good. I stopped and tried to get some good pictures but nothing came up. After awhile the coast just starts looking like any other coast. The mountains, any other mountains. Still pretty to look at, but too many pictures of the same things.

We got into camp a little early and met the people at the hiker-biker site. For the first time on the trip we met some hikers. I talked with them and tried to grasp what their hiking was all about. They hike with all their gear for about 15-20 miles a day. Sometimes there are trails but there was no avoiding the highways. They would just walk and see where they get to. They are the real troopers. Walking is tough already without all that gear. My hat goes off to them.

During the evening, our friend Steven came rolling by. I talked to him a bit more. He had come all the way from New Orleans to do this trip. He had started in Newport and everything still felt like a dream for him. His enthusiasm was infectious. We talked long into the night. We slept and it started to rain during the night, again.

Dune

We took advantage of our stop in Newport to do our laundry and catch up on the news. But my eye caught the Tour de France and I watched as much of that as I could. Watching those guys is definitely disheartening though. They are racing for a good 100 miles every single day while we are dying out everyday at 50 miles. The only thing we can say is, nah there really isn't anything we can say. Those guys are mutant cycling machines.

What I realized was that while our legs were getting the workout of their lives, our upper body was rapidly deteriorating. If you look at those cyclist doing the tour, their biceps are non existant. It is bad news for us because we have a big dragonboat race the three of us have to get to after this trip.

It was a long day of riding because we took many sidetrips. We stopped by this site called the Devil's churn, the devil owns many things scenic things apparently, and hiked around there for a bit. Right after that site, we climbed a big mountain that led us to a small viewpoint. I think we just climbed that for the sake of climbing because we knew it was going to be foggy up top. It was quite a difficult climb because it was our first big climb with full gear. I believe it was about 1000 feet in two miles. Pretty steep for the likes of us.

Heidi had a flat tire along the highway. George and I were a bit up ahead but I turned around and biked back for a mile to see where Heidi was. She had thrown all her things off her bike and was trying to change her flat tire. I made her do all the work so she would get a crash course on tube changing. A bike rode past us and asked if we needed help. His name was Steven and we let him go on his merry way. Heidi got everything fixed and away we went.

George had the bright idea to visit the sea lion caves. $11 to go in an elevator that brought us down to a cave filled with sea lions. Supposedly it was the world's largest, it wasn't. It was only America's largest. We met this cool guy that worked there that told us of his travels. He had biked the coast about six times now and he told us of certain spots of interest. We left the sea lion caves a bit wiser, a bit poorer, and a bit angry at George. He owed me a McDouble after that sidetrip.

We had a quick stop at the Darlingtonia Botanical wayside. We saw those carnivorous pitcher plants in their natural habitat. Then it was straight to the campsite.

I ran into that guy Adam again while walking up to the hiker-biker site. I said some hellos and headed to the site. It was filled with bikers. I did not get to meet all of them but I did meet a guy named Cody. He was heading to Montana, I believe. He started in Santa Cruz about nine days before. That meant he was riding about 80-90 miles a day to get to this campsite. Later that day we also saw Steven again. We said hello and talked a bit about our trip.

The campsite was known for its sand dune. We were a bit skeptical so we had to check it out. We walked and walked on this trail that seemed to lead no where. Then there it was. Lo and behold the biggest sand dune I've ever seen smack dab in the forest. It took tremendous strength to climb that sucker but it took just moments to run back down. George and I had a dumb long jump contest that only proved that sand is sandy.