Circling the U.S. Chapter 47: Northern California

We spent an extra day in Harbor, Oregon, before crossing into California. The morning of Thursday, October 17, started out raining buckets with an uncertain forecast. Rob wanted to take Max and Michelle up on their offer to let us stay an extra night. What he really wanted was to spend some time in their kitchen cooking dinner. When the rain stopped he biked to the grocery store for dinner and camping food. He made a delicious dinner of mac and cheese, green beans, and a salad. Two other cyclists, Fran and Nick from Canada, joined us. For dessert Rob had picked up chocolate brownie fudge ice cream and carrot cake. No surprise on the carrot cake, his favorite. The chocolate brownie fudge ice cream was for me. Too bad we couldn't take the leftovers along with us when we left early the next morning.

We enjoyed getting to know Nick and Fran. They had been on the road for several weeks and were almost done with their adventure. 

Five miles from Harbor and we were in California.

Friday, October 18 -  Monday, October 21, 2019

Calfornia greeted us with a long climb, 1200 feet over 5 miles. I struggled, had to stop a couple times just to catch my breath. But the beauty of every climb is that it will end and this one rewarded us with a view stretching to infinity on the California coast.

At the bottom, as I came to a viewpoint, I saw a camper that looked exactly like the one our Colorado friends, Pat and Dean, just bought. And the couple standing outside could have been Pat and Dean. They looked to be the same age anyway. As I slowed down beside it, the woman said, "That was some hill you just came down."

Maybe it was because I had Pat and Dean in my head that prompted me to say, "Would you make us a cup of tea?"

The woman stopped for a minute, then said, "Sure."

And just like that we had afternoon tea with a lovely couple. They were headed to Half Moon Bay to camp even though they booked the campground before they found out their daughter wasn't going to be living there anymore.

The Dove dark chocolates Rob picked up the day before were a perfect accompaniment to our Earl Gray tea served in Ellen's red mugs. Ellen said one had broken and she wasn't sure she needed to replace it because, "When do we ever need four mugs?" Now she knows.

Ellen and Steve really don't look at all like our friends Pat and Dean, but they were just as nice.

We're definitely buying a camper just like this one day. And I'll have cookies and tea for any touring cyclists we meet along the way.

The stunning coastal scenery didn't stop at the California border.

With 90% chance of rain overnight, it was a tossup - camp or motel? By late afternoon the sky was still clear and we found the Chinook Resort, a no-frills private campground in Klamath (after riding 47 miles) for $20, so camping won. The rain started around 7:30, after we'd had dinner and cleaned up. And by the next morning it was done.

The campground was on the Klamath River, a popular fishiing spot. In the morning the rain had stopped, but the weather still looked undecided as to its next move.

On Saturday morning, October 19, we took our time leaving the campground, waiting to see what the weather had in store for us. The campground lounge had wifi and a fire going so I spent some time looking up places to stay down the road while Rob talked fishing with the campground manager. The campground also had a camp store and sold beer and wine. Rob noticed a bottle of Merlot for $7. I said no, I wasn't going to carry it and we didn't have the budget for it. But the manager took a liking to Rob - it was probably the fishing talk - and gave it to us because, he said, "You're riding far." 

We stopped for another breakfast at a diner in Klamath. Obviously we weren't in any hurry to put in miles. When another customer came in I couldn't see him but could tell from the conversation that he was another bicycle tourist. I was surprised that he didn't seek us out, since I'm always curious to find out about other cyclists - where they're going and where they're from - and our bikes were right outside. When I went to pay the bill, I noticed he was a young kid. He said he was out for his first road tour, riding from Seattle to San Francisco. He asked, "Are you out for a little ride?" I said, "Yes, just a little one." The cashier asked where we started. I said, "New Hampshire." The young man had to pick his jaw up off the floor.

The day's ride took us inland through the coastal redwoods. We stopped several times to gawk and to take a couple short walks. 

There were other trees besides redwoods, many of them covered with moss that shimmered in the sunlight like something out of a fairy tale.

The coastal redwoods are in areas that are either "old growth" or "new growth." Of the original coastal redwoods, only about 4% remain. Can you imagine cutting down whole forests of trees that are over one thousand years old? That's greed for you. Thankfully some good citizens caught up with the logging companies before all the trees disappeared.

The coastal redwoods differ from the Sequoias in that they are thinner and taller.The trees can grow 3 feet a year until they stop growing; then they add girth. 

We rode a monumental 16 miles to Elk Prairie Campground. That evening we met Will at the hiker/biker site and invited him to help us with our bottle of wine. Then Nick and Fran showed up and joined us and we all shared stories of our adventures. 

Fran got a flat tire but between them they had no tube that would work. With ten miles to the nearest bike shop they figured she'd have an easier time hitching a ride than the both of them, so Nick rode on ahead. Fran got a ride and waved to Nick as she passed him by.

Will is about our age, an African American from Louisiana, cycling from Vancouver into Mexico alone, on a leisurely schedule. He told us about stopping at a cafe in Washington where the owner made a plate of pancakes just for him. He said, "I hate pancakes, but you better believe I ate every one of them. I told her they were delicious. And wouldn't you know it? Those pancakes got me up a 27 mile long hill. I should have worn a shirt that said, 'Fueled by pancakes.'"

We talked about the stories we'd heard of bikes getting stolen. Will said, "Wherever I go, my bike goes." He takes it into Walmart with him - the aisles are wide enough for four carts - and grocery stores. He says, "If they don't want me to bring in my bike, they don't have my business."

Elk Prairie Campground earned its name honestly. In the morning as we were leaving, this is what we saw.

Sunday, October 20, was another day for taking our time. In the morning we went for a short hike in an old growth redwood forest where I took lots of pictures. 

That's a fallen tree in the foreground.

Then we came to the town of Orick, which doesn't have much. But it does have a Snack Shack that serves elk burgers and shakes. We shared a burger and we each had a shake. We ran into Nick and Fran again. That was a surprise because they'd been planning to take a bus somewhere but hadn't counted on the buses not running on Sundays. So here they were and they joined us.

I'll remember Nick's infectious laugh and both of their attitudes of taking everything in stride. Fran lives on Vancouver Island and Nick lives in Montreal. Hopefully we'll meet up with them again some day.

We stopped at a visitor center and learned how the coastal redwoods reproduce. In the new growth forests the lumber companies had overseeded from helicopters with both Douglas fir and redwoods. The trees are now overcrowded and the forest service is working on thinning them. 

Then on to Patricks Point State Park for a total of 25 miles for the day. The park had a variety of trails we wanted to explore but first Rob had to fix a flat tire. So we only had enough time for a short walk before dinner. 

We started the day, Monday, October 21, with a short walk down to Palmer's Cove in Patricks Point State Park to look for sea lions. We saw only beautiful coastal scenery, no sea lions, but we heard them, and then saw some out on the rocks on our way to Trinidad.

From Trinidad it took us an hour to ride 5 miles along the Trinidad Scenic Drive. The road is in terrible shape, filled with potholes, narrow, no shoulder, and the pavement completely gone in places, but we didn't mind a bit having to go slow as we stopped often to gaze in awe and take pictures, at the stunning coastal views with sea stacks and rocky shores. We even saw some surfers out in the water. I asked one of them how they avoided the rocks. His reply: "Stay on the water."

Then we had 10 miles of not-much-fun riding on Rte. 101 which at this point was a divided highway. We arrived in Arcata by noon (for a 26-mile day) with time to wander about the town looking for internet service, surprisingly difficult to find in a college town. Our usual fallback, the library, was closed on Mondays. We stopped in a bike shop to have our chains checked. We ran into our friend Nick, lugging a bike box for his return journey to Montreal, who told us about a coffee shop with internet 7 blocks up the street.

We chose Arcata as our destination Monday night so that we could meet up with Noah, my cousin's son. It's fun seeing how these kids are growing up. Noah is a student of geography at Humboldt State, spent time in China and Tibet last summer on a school trip - a much different experience than going as a tourist. He is also passionate about slack lining. I am ever amazed at all these sports young people have available to them; many were unheard of back when I was that age.