PDF to SFO or Bust

No caption needed 😂 September 21st, 2020      Rise and shine! It was hard leaving behind the cozy cabin and showers, not knowing if we were going to have showers at the next stop. But we did have 25 miles of Avenue of the Giants left to bike, and that makes for a good day in the redwoods. Sadly it would be our last day in the redwoods, but we were excited for a change in scenery moving forward. We rolled out around 9AM and every small town we came across looked abandoned. Some buildings were boarded up and others had “closed” signs on the door collecting dust. We were happy to see that the “drive through” tree had a money box outside the entrance to put your fee into. Hoping others follow the same honor system.  Looking up inside the “drive through” tree     The coffee shop Brandon talked about was super cute and had a lot of crafty items inside to purchase. One thing I was impressed by was the world map on the wall that people had placed a pin needle on t...

  After booking a cool little cabin at Redcrest Resort, and a quiet night of blogging, we were excited to have a relatively easy 40 mile stretch of riding through the redwoods. We got a bit of a late start, but it was okay because there were few food options on the way, and 40 miles would go quickly with so many giant trees to keep us company. After eating a couple slices of leftover pizza for breakfast (yes, the same pizza from Eureka 😂) we were on the road around 9am. We decided to stop for coffee and pastries at one of the few operating businesses along this stretch of the Avenue of the Giants. It was called Rise and Grind, and it was operated by a young artist, but we didn’t get her name. The coffee was good, even though I’m not generally a coffee guy, if you add enough sugar it all tastes great!  “Look up at the coffee sign Christi!” While we were enjoying our brew, I received a phone call from an unknown number... I’m on vacation, so I let it go to voicemail... It was t...

  September 20th, 2020      Eureka turned out to be bland, so we were more than happy to hit the road again. My keen eye spotted In-n-Out Burger as we were rolling out of town and Brandon was insistent on grabbing a burger for breakfast. Compared to the one in Kaiser, OR this establishment was a ghost town. With our stomachs full of burger, it was time to get peddling again.      The roughly 20 miles to our lunch stop was over before we knew it. We initially took the wrong exit, but this turned out in our favor. I spotted a local fruit stand that had fresh apple cider; the cider was refreshing on what was turning out to be a warm, muggy day. Few miles down the road we found Eel River Brewing Company. The food looked appetizing, but we weren’t incredibly hungry so we decided to skip food and just sample the beer.       20 miles to go to our stop for the day! We were heading back into the redwoods! Again we were traveling through back...

  We were a little slow to get loaded up this morning, but we had a relatively easy 40 mile day, so I wasn’t too worried. Our late start proved fortuitous, as we happened to roll past an In-N-Out burger just as it was opening for the day. My eyes lit up when I saw the sign, and I had to stop in for a double-double.😋 This was 3 miles into the ride, so I had not earned a burger, but I didn’t care, it had been several years since my last double-double.  No lines! After our breakfast burgers it was back on the road towards our lunch stop at Eel River Brewing company. It was a flat 20 miles on the highway, and we were locked in and riding fast, before we knew it we were there, before our burgers had time to settle. We decided to skip lunch and just grab a beer. After Eel River brewing it was back on the highway steaming towards Avenue of the Giants, and our home for the night at Redcrest resort. We had originally booked a campsite in the state park, but the fires had temporarily c...

  September 18th, 2020 After being abruptly woken up to rain sprinkles on our faces (no rain fly on the tent), we packed up and the tires hit the pavement at 8AM. Since arriving at Elk Prairie Campground, we had been jonesing for an elk sighting, and we weren’t disappointed! As we rounded the corner out of camp we spotted a small herd of elk, consisting of a few doe and younglings; no large bucks in this bunch. They were very skittish, and pranced across the meadow as our bikes clicked by.  The miles rolled on without much picture taking, until Brandon got his third flat tire. Had to document that! We have developed a method for changing out his tires and have gotten relatively fast at it; we’ve had lots of practice 😂. Great view of the Big Lagoon after Brandon’s flat The ride to Trinidad, our lunch stop, was relatively uneventful after this, until we found Patrick Point Road. It was a climb to get to the top and consisted of rolling hills and washed out pavement in places, b...

  After a great night around our first campfire of the trip, we were abruptly awoken at 6AM by raindrops coming down on us inside the tent. Due to the nice weather, and starry night sky we decided to leave the rain fly off the tent, and it proved to be a great idea, until it wasn’t. We only had 50 miles to ride today, but after our early natural alarm clock, we decided to get geared up and hit the road. We were pretty excited for real beds, clean clothes, and a day off in Eureka that awaited us after today, so we were motivated! About 10 miles in, I got a flat tire, the first in a few days, but I wasn’t able to identify the cause, so I put a new tube on and kept going. The road today was narrow, without shoulders for large sections, so we got to share the road with cars often, and there were a few serious hills for the first half of the ride. By the time we made it to a lunch stop in Trinidad around noon we were famished! A clif bar for breakfast was not enough food for the miles a...

  September 17th, 2020     The climb out of camp was just as bad as we thought it was going to be. 9 AM was too early to be sweating like that, but we made it to the top! The highway was sketchy at this point, with limited shoulder and multiple semi-trucks passing by, it was unnerving. We were happy to see the shoulder widen as we got into Klamath. One thing I’ve quickly learned on this trip is that the passing lane sign usually means excitement when in a car, but when on a bike it means that you are about to start climbing up a hill. Oh how I loathe those signs and we will see more on this trip.     Our first stop this morning was at Trees of Mystery. Despite coronavirus, there were still people milling about at this attraction, and I can see why! For $20 you can do a walk through tour of the redwoods, many of them growing in odd directions. They also had a cool canopy in the trees you could walk on if you aren’t scared of heights. The sky tram was also a sweet...

With only 25 miles on the schedule, we slept in a little late today and didn’t get onto the road until 9:30. We were greeted with 800ft of elevation gains. Who needs coffee when you can hit your max heart rate for 40min straight, first thing in the morning? It certainly wakes me up, you guys should all try it. 😜 After climbing back up to the top of the hill we had climbed the night before it was all smooth sailing downhill into Klamath and the “Trees of Mystery.” That was a lot of fun, we saw a ton of redwoods, learned some facts, and bought ourselves ice cream cones when it was done.  After the “Tree’s of Mystery” it was back on the road with only about 10 miles to our destination, woohoo! We were both famished though, so we started looking for a place to grab a bite. When I saw a sign for an Indian Casino in Klamath, with a restaurant, I was sold! 🤑Unfortunately when we got there it was a ghost town, the casino was locked up along with the restaurant, and the adjoining hotel ha...