Day 23, 9/6/08

Got off to a pretty slow start today. Slept in til past 8, then took a very long time to get out of low gear. Enjoyed the motel's "continental breakfast" of coffee, pb & j on wheat toast and old fashioned glazed donuts. Brother Tom called and visited for a few minutes.

Once we got outside, it was really nice weather, partly sunny, warm with a cool breeze. Feeling like I needed a little more to eat, we rode down the street and found a bakery. We bought day old ham and cheese croissants at $1.99 each which we had warmed up. We found a place outside in the sun and ate the croissants with ranch jalapeno dressing, americano espresso and another cake donut.

Feeling satisfied now, we pushed off. It was now 12 noon. We had our first tough climb just south of Crescent City, around 1,200 feet. By then it had warmed up and the climb, which seemed to go on and on had no shade. Up at the top though, we enjoyed riding through Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park, our first taste of redwoods on this tour. Pretty amazing.


Had a close call on our descent from Del Norte State Park. As we were beginning our descent and building up speed, I was in the lead and could hear that something large was coming up behind me and coming fast. I was starting to tense up and then things looked worse as I noticed that the shoulder in front of me disappeared in the upcoming curve to the right. I was riding the line as a gigantic RV passed fast on my left leaving me what seemed like mere inches. Sam was following a few bike lengths behind and saw this happen and feared that whatever the RV was towing may clip him as the RV rounded the curve. Sam decided not to wait to see if that would happen and took his chances "off road". He was lucky that his bike didn't get tossed by the rough ground or a flat from the glass he road through. Obviously we were both feeling relieved that we weren't run over or tossed aside.

Just before Klamath, we stopped at a place called Mystery Trees. They have a gondola that takes you up in the redwood forest to see some cool trees. We didn't do the tour, but browsed around the gift shop and American Indian museum a bit. After a pit stop and water refill, we were back on the road.

South of Klamath we faced the second big climb of the day that took us to one of the best rides so far on the tour, the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. Once we climbed into the park, the rest of this 10 mile ride was pretty much flat or gradually downhill. All the while, we enjoyed the breathtaking beauty of being in a redwood forest. It was especially enjoyable for Sam, who has experience working with trees at the Natural Resource District in Nebraska and had always wanted to see the redwoods and sequoias. At one of our stops we sat on a giant redwood log alongside the road and ate lunch. Refuled, we hit the road again.

The town of Orich was our last town to get groceries before riding to Patrick's Point State Park where we planned to camp for the night. We stopped at the market and picked up a few things for dinner. Outside the market while we were packing our grub into the panniers, some kid rode up and tried to rope us into eating diner at their spaghetti feed to benefit their church. Funny kid, but we politely declined.

Our campground was around 14 miles away. We were at the end of a long day and this will be an unusually long ride hauling groceries. We put on our cold weather gear as the temperatures were dropping. Along the way we were witness to a pretty nice sunset. We finally rolled into the campground at 8:30 pm. It was dark and we were cold. After we found the hiker/biker sites and pitched our tent, we hit the showers which were a short walk from our campsite. The shower is not included in the $3 per person/night fee, but at $0.50 for a 5 minute hot shower, still not that bad.

Rejuvenated from our shower, we cooked dinner. Tonight's menu was another concoction created while shopping back at the market. Sauteed chicken breast with onions combined with instant mashed red potatoes, can of french green beans and topped with french fried onions. We also threw in a can of chicken gravy that had an expiration date of 8/06. We are hoping that will not create a problem. Anyway, it was all very tasty. Finally got into bed around 12:30. We are completely satisfied with our 58 miles for the day, especially given our slow morning, late start, and all the climbing we did.