74.9 mi / time / 13.1 mph avg. / 4550 ft. climbing
Staying at Clam Beach County Park

On the first bike tour I ever did, leaving from my house, Joel rode with me from my parents’, through Chicago, and to the southern portion of the lakefront path before he turned around and went back home, and I continued alone to Atlanta. Just that was an emotional moment. So leaving alone this morning after a whole week riding together? Oof. I was teary-eyed for the first two miles out of camp. It was a second goodbye to my parents too. What finally snapped me out of it was realizing how awesome the bike and I must look rolling down the winding road between the enormous redwoods, lit by the dappled morning sun.

I have a lot of adjusting to do. I’m used to being on my own, but never have I transitioned from such a social bike touring experience (with Joel, Mom and Dad, and the Coast Caravan riding the popular Pacific Coast Route) to such a solitary one. And at the same time, the riding will get a whole lot harder, with climbs that make Oregon’s coast look like a pancake in comparison. But I think the engine was well primed this week, so I feel like I’m ready for it (and today’s result strongly supports that).

The sky was clear when we went to bed, and shockingly, it was still clear in the morning, for the first sunny morning of the trip so far. It was also the coldest at 48 degrees. I was again spoiled by camper-delivered breakfast, and the even scored a whole bunch of extra food from Mom to take with me. The ride down CA 199 back west to Crescent City might have been even more awesome than CA 197 yesterday. There are a LOT of big redwoods in this area. I kept waiting for the fog to hide the sun as I neared the coast, but even more shockingly, it never did.

The whole day would remain sunny, and utterly spectacular. Oregon was excellent, but at least on this day, California beat her. I spent half the time awed by the beauty and half sad that Joel didn’t continue on for one more day. The day alternated between redwood avenues and coastal vistas similar to Oregon, but somehow the waters here didn’t seem quite as forbidding. I feel privileged to have ridden through some 40 miles of redwood groves; when counting up the National Parks I would see on this trip, I almost didn’t include the Redwoods, I guess because it’s a state/federal partnership, and it’s so spread out. But it totally exceed my expectations, in no small part because the main features (the trees) can be seen and experienced just by riding through it, and moving at bicycle speed is a perfect way to do it. Late in the day while on another nice quiet oceanside 101 alternate, I passed an area where I could hear the sea lions barking away, but unfortunately could not find which rocks they were on 300 feet below.

In a change from the previous week, lunch was cobbled together on the roadside from stuff I’d packed (sweet rolls, cookies, hard boiled egg, cornbread, and cheese). For dinner, when I eat in camp, a can of chili and a can of soup is something I normally enjoy, but since today I had cornbread from Chika, cheddar cheese from mom, and oyster crackers from some restaurant, it was perfect, I had to do it!

I picked that stuff up (along with a beer, I’m not roughing it that much!) in Trinidad and then was lucky to grab the last campsite available in the fairly brutal “campground”. It’s $8 for bikers, but no one else from the Coast Caravan is here; instead, on one side is a fat old pink-haired woman who beats her dog, with an unseen man in the tent, and on the other, some young hippy/druggie/punks who sound like a tuberculosis clinic. So not so pleasant, but the beach is just over the small dune, and I got a chance to watch the second ocean sunset of the trip. Bye-bye Pacific, it was nice getting to know you. Tomorrow, for the last time, I’m going to evacuate your Tsunami Hazard Zone good and hard!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2012 at 9:28 am and is filed under 2012 Bike Tour, bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.