Friday May 22, 2015

What a great day of riding. It is amazing what a day’s rest does for you. We started of following the coastal bike path to Cleone.

We crossed the rail bridge.  Ralf took this photo yesterday, but I thought I would use it today, as it is on the coastal bike path.

This is where the trail falls into the sea.

At this point Ralf discovered that he had lost his flag and cycled back 2 ks to find it.

After we left the small town of Cleone we started our first climb, not too steep but we knew it was going to be a long day of climbing and it was.

The fog came in from the sea and covered the coastal road and up through the wooded hills. We had our lights on for a while and of course were wearing our hi-vis jackets. I never was very keen on riding in the fog, but it made it very scenic.

After Westport and the first set of hills, I thought we had done the “big” climb. I asked Ralf if we had reached the top and he very quietly said no we have a little ways to go yet. I then realized we hadn’t even started the ‘big’ climb. 1,451 metres of climbing over about 10 kms, the grade never got steeper than 9% and we just kept peddling. When we eventually got to the top after a few false summits, we had a 4.5 mile 7% grade downhill. The funny thing was Ralf had to wait for me more times on the downhill than he did on the uphill. I don’t like going too fast especially on curvy roads.

As we were climbing through the great forestry area we heard the tell-tale signs of an air-horn and the chain saw. It was so sad that in this beautiful area they are logging.

We arrived at the very small Town of Leggett and noticed the signs for the “Drive-Thru Tree”. We had to make a detour and visit it.

It was such a nice area, picnic area, gift shop and of course the tree. It is purported to be over 2,400 years old.

We were hoping to have a good lunch in Leggett but nothing was open and we were told to go 2 miles down the road and there would be a place to eat and a small store. We had an ice-cream at the Chandalier tree and spent some time taking photos.

Across the road from the State Park campground was the store and cafe/restaurant. They had the best burger Ralf has eaten (so he said), that shows how hungry he was. I had a lovely salmon burger which was really good. We went across the road to the campsite and registered – $5.00 each hiker/biker. A nice site, but a little buggy – mossies abound.

We chatted to a young couple (Stephanie and David) who are cycling for Habitat for Humanity and met up with the Dutch couple that we saw on the road a couple of days ago (Froujke and Paul).

We are now definitely in Redwood Country.