Day 14 - Over the Hill (Brandon)

 

This was our last day riding through the redwoods, and it was a mix of sadness for leaving the beautiful trees, and anticipation of being beachside once again. We headed out from our unplanned hotel stay at about 7:30 with full knowledge that we had a lot of elevation gains in our future. While hanging out “riverside” yesterday we cultivated a pretty sweet hill climbing soundtrack on Christi’s phone, so we were ready! Christi may post the fill list at some point on future blogs.

One of the 30ish Eel river crossings

After crossing the Eel river a few more times, and climbing some small hills, we stopped in for some fuel before we split off onto hwy 1, and the real challenge began. The place we found was called the Peg House. It was a really cool biker stop, with some decent snack options, and a grill that hadn’t opened for the day yet. 😢

Two large cookies and a “super” gatorade, “elite” athlete fuel

Our next planned break would be at the top of the largest single hill we would summit this trip. I bought two tall boy Hazy Little Things to drink at the top, but we had to earn them with 1800ft of hill climbing. While it wasn’t the steepest grade we’ve encountered, it still starts to burn the legs after a while. Adding to our struggles, I got another flat. 😢 The road itself was in great condition, and not heavily trafficked, so the lack of a shoulder wasn’t a real obstacle. Once at the top we had our beer break, it was awesome, you can read more details in Christi’s blog. 

This sign didn’t lie

Once break time was over, we had a lot of downhill, and we took full advantage, hitting some high speeds down open roads, with smooth asphalt. It was like a rollercoaster ride! Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end; in this case, that meant one more 800ft hill to freedom, and our first glimpses of the Pacific Ocean again. While on our way up this hill we saw our first fellow cyclist in days and we exchanged “hello’s” as he sped past us up the hill. We continued trudging along until we found the ocean, and it was a glorious sight!

Our first glimpse of the Pacific after days in the woods

Another few miles and we were at our campground on Westport beach. It was a great little private campground with incredible beach access! As we rolled our bikes into our campsite, we noticed the gentleman who had passed us on the hill an hour or so earlier. His name is Tom, and his wife’s name is Flo, from Sacramento. We had a great time talking about bike adventures, and linking them up to the blog. It turns out that Flo just retired from nursing after 43 years, and had some great knee pain remedy’s for Christi, who’s knee was bothering her after all the hills. They were a really friendly, and great neighbors, even supplying some coffee the next morning to get us going for the crazy long day we had ahead of us. 

Tom and Flo. Thank you guys!

Once we got settled in we headed to the beach to jump in the ocean. After a little convincing I was able to get Christi out past ankle deep water. She was hesitant at first, but once a couple large waves knocked her backwards and she was completely wet, she loosened up and had a great time. After the beach time, we ate some Jetboil dinner and called it a night, we were running on “E” after all the hills!

We actually saw this distance to San Francisco twice today... 20 miles from each other 😩

-Cheers