Day One: Riding Crescent City to Eureka
We woke up pretty tired from the drive the night before down the Stunning Oregon Coastline. Nevertheless, we put our gear on, checked out our bikes and headed next door to Denny's.
We went over our route at the table and saw that we had two large climbs, the first was a 1,300 ft climb in less than two miles! Since we have never really practiced climbs we just assumed it would be tough and we would do our best.
OMG! We got about 500 ft up the hill and had to break. The huffing and puffing could be heard over the sound of cars passing by. Jason started taking off all his extra clothing, Joseph and LP kept they're jackets and warmers on because the cool breeze off the pacific was in their word "cold".
The climb was grueling LP only took breaks to wait for Joseph and Jason and at some point, for the sake of moving forward Jason started walking the bike up the mountain until a spot would somewhat level off for a few hundred yards. This climb went on about an hour and a half. In Jason's words, if it was not for the cool air off the ocean blowing into the trees,he wouldn't have been able to do it.
Finally, at the very top LP was waiting and said that it is "all down hill from here". Jason will never use the phrases "uphill climb" or "downhill from here" so nonchalantly for the rest of his life now that he has experienced the literal meaning!
As the three of us took a big death to head down the hill, LP shouted "LETS DO THIS! THIS IS WHAT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! It sounded similar to Brad Pitt's line in TROY, where he said " immortality! Take it! It's yours!".
Thank god for downhill!! The feeling is hard to convey in words. The wind picks up, the speed of the bike goes faster than you can petal and so you stand on one pedal and let that awesome cool Pacific air dry off the beads of sweat. You come around the corner and the bluest of blue water appears before you with the coastline crashing into the Pacific. It's truly a moment of bliss. The entire struggle of the climb melted away as we headed down towards the ocean with the sun shining on us as we left the forest with the trees.
We pulled over to take some pictures at a vista point and met a couple David and Lila sic? that had driven from Yellowstone and continuing down the coast to their residence in San Diego. Very nice couple and they gave us all the best wishes on our journey to San Francisco.
At e vista point wee also ran into a group of girls that were tracking from Astoria Oregon to San Francisco as well! These girls were impressive. They camped each night and packed everything they would need for their journey. It made us look a bit like light weights with our hotels and bed and breakfasts along the way HA!
Our second climb began in the Redwood state park and we took an offshoot on the Newton B Drury road in the Pr airie Creek redwoods State Park, this would take us through the redwoods. Again, grueling climb. We ascended to 900 ft with a few stops but fewer than the first climb. Jason got frustrated with his clip on shoes and said that he was going to slow to even stay on the bike without falling and couldn't clip out in it e before falling. So, in true Florida fashion, he packed the bike shoes and put on his flip flops!! But kept his socks on HA! Surprisingly, he did much better when he got into gear that was familiar for him. he also had a sleeveless shirt on in the chilly forest but said he loved the cold air on his skin- he is such a wild card.
The ride downhill was one of the most majestic scenes ever. The redwoods on either side of the road are ancient. They have stories to tell if we can could only listen to them. It sounds crazy, but these are not just trees, they are infinitely more.
We cleared the redwoods and headed through Elk Prairie where herd of elk stay year round in the meadows, they lie in the grass like cattle and have no reason to
Do anything beyond that- such a hard life!
We ate lunch/ dinner in Orlick at The Palms restaurant cafe. Nice little restaurant and very accommodating on bringing pitchers of water for us to gulp down. We also stopped at a small furniture store to ask for directions and found that wood shop owners cannot collect the beechwood off the shores, they have to be brought in by others and the shop will purchase e wood from them, must everything be regulated??
Our next 40 miles was a blur, gorgeous, but a blur. We had to make it to Eureka before sunset and still had 40 miles to run and it was 4pm . The route took us along the coast but there were hills, smaller than the two large ones but they still took time. But the downhills again made up for it. The loneliest stretch was between ar ate and eureka, the terrain was flat but boring. We checked into the Quality inn and the lady gave us a room right reside the jacuzzi and sana!! We unwound for the day and ordered dominos pizza.
Fun fact: we have climbed a total of 12,234ft we felt it!!!
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