Day 14- Big Bertha (Christi)

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Mandatory 1,800 elevation gain beer break on a RV cushion left on the side of the road

September 22nd, 2020

    We managed to get a 0730 start out of Garberville this morning. As we entered the freeway the first sign we passed showed 199 miles to San Francisco! Not the exact mileage, since we will be leaving highway 101 for highway 1 once we get to Leggett, CA. Within an hour and a half we had gained 1,000 ft and our legs were feeling it. The dread set in for the climb we knew was coming in a few hours (aka Big Bertha, more to come on that topic later). 

    We found a cute grill across from one of the original campsite stops (we were unable to book this one because it was closed for coronavirus) about 15-20 miles in. The Peg House grill was closed, but we were able to fill up our water bottles, consume a Snickers, and drink some Gatorade. I also found this super cute gnome on the back patio garden area.

Water comes out of his mouth 😂

    Next up was the turn onto highway 1 and the 1,800 foot elevation gain was about to begin! It felt like we climbed forever, but the good thing about this was the grade was manageable in “granny” gear. I know everyone will be surprised when I say this, but Brandon got another flat tire on our way up! This counts as number five. The culprits were two small pieces of metal shavings. At this point I’ve given him so much shit about the flat tires, that I decided to time him on how fast he could change the tire. Record time! 14 minutes and 38 seconds!

This picture brought to you by Gator Skin tires 😂

    

    As we got to the top, it was mandatory beer time! I found a sweet RV couch cushion to rest on on the side of the road. It was comfortable until the sun got a bit too warm. So we pulled out the camp chairs and enjoyed our tall boys, to the amusement of multiple drivers that passed by. 

Nerds

    What goes up, must come down! We were off to the races, heading downhill! I kicked Brandon’s ass at the downhill, maxing out at 40mph, versus his 37. There was a lack of shoulder on this road, but we also lucked out with a lack of cars on the downhill sections. This gave us free-reign of the lane. Well-timed playlist songs that popped up on the downhill were Highway to Hell by AC/DC and Bicycle Race by Queen.

    We pulled into camp at Westport Beach RV & Campground at a decent time, so we rushed to put our tent up and headed to the beach to cool down in the cold Pacific Ocean waters. Our wonderful neighbors (Tom & Flo) were gracious and shared Arnicare gel/Doterra muscle rub for my sore right knee and back after climbing Big Bertha. Brandon will cover more info about Tom & Flo in his post 😊. 

Our evening views weren’t too bad

    Before bed I discovered my sleeping pad had a decent-sized gash in it, not sure where that came from, but I finally got some use out of the tire tube patches I brought 😂

Road stats: 50.18 miles and 3,911 feet elevation gain; max speed- 40MPH

Road kill: nothing on the road, but found a crab on the beach 

Weird things in the shoulder: broken wrench, 5 CO2 canisters, pee bottle, mask, aviator sunglasses (kept these, and they will be making future appearances in the blog posts)