Monday June 1, 2015

A wet and windy night, so glad that we had a motel room. It was cool and foggy when we were ready to leave and it started to shower as the ride progressed. It was a wet ride.

The scenery was very pretty.  The bridge leaving North Bend has no shoulder and is very busy, we knew about the bridge as Janet and Stephen are ahead of us and I keep checking their blog.  They had written about the bridge and taken pictures.  We opted to walk our bikes over the bridge, it did have a sidewalk, too narrow to cycle along.  As we climbed out of North Bend the scenery changed again from sand dunes to forests.  Due to the rainy conditions Ralf could not get his camera out of his handle bar bag and he couldn\’t take photos of the lovely areas we were cycling through.

The forestry area, is being clear-cut, but we did notice a lot of areas with new plantations.  This area is primarily, cedar and pine trees, no beautiful redwoods here.  The route was rolling hills and a couple of climbs, the scenery ranged from forests to sand dunes back to forests and back to sand dunes and lake areas.

We are staying with a warmshowers host just outside of Florence in a beautiful wooded area. We have our own room above the garage, he has a spare room in the main house, but another cyclist is occupying that (Trevor) he decided to stay an extra night because of the weather.

Chris had made us a great salad of kale, bacon and avocado for lunch. After we had settled in, I was able clean and dry the bikes and wash our cycle clothes.

Chris is a really interesting guy, we had a great chat with him during the afternoon and evening. He made us a lovely dinner of buffalo stew, asparagus and quinoa. That should keep us going tomorrow. Although the forecast is for more rain and cool temperatures, although the tail wind.  Chris has offered to let us stay an extra night if the weather is nasty tomorrow.  We really should keep going but the bikes are clean and we really do not like cycling in the rain.

No photos today due to the weather.

Sunday May 31, 215

My friend Celeste is concerned about some of the places we stay and bed bugs. How about slugs on your pillow!! I woke in the night and felt a wet “thing” on my pillow. Surprisingly I did not scream, I got up took my pillow outside of the cabin, noticed the black slug on the pillow case, removed the pillow from the pillowcase and went back into the cabin. Of course I had disturbed Ralf’s sleep and he asked very sleepily what I was doing, I told him I had a slug on my pillow. He didn’t scream either, he assumed I was dreaming. Next morning when he checked the pillowcase, there was the tell-tale signs of slug snot on my pillow case.

Woke up to sunny skies, but by the time we were leaving the sea fog had rolled in and we were cycling in cool temperatures and fog.  Despite the weather it was a nice ride.  We passed through this small Town and had to take a photo of the Greasy Spoon Cafe, the smell emanating from the cafe indicated why it was called the greasy spoon.

The next small Town had a couple of woodworking stores.

At the back of the store Ralf spotted this nice little red number (needs a bit of work), I thought it might be a TR4, but I am not sure.

We had one big hill to climb, but the view at the top was worth it

We came into Coos Bay which is a large lumber Town, lots of lumber mills and mountains of wood chip.

We had lunch and then headed out to North Bend, an adjacent Town which is also predominantly lumber.  Spotted this Train museum on the way to North Bend, only open on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

We decided to stay in a motel although it was warm and sunny when we finished at 3:00. The forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow.

Saturday May 30, 2015

A very lazy start to the day. Out of bed at 9:00, a lazy, relaxed breakfast. I eventually went to the laundromat at 11:30.

After the laundry was done, I did a very perfunctory bike cleaning, really I just cleaned the drive trains and oiled them.

Ralf went to the supermarket to get lunch and dinner. After dinner we went for a walk up to the historic life boat station.

We thought the light house was there as well, but it wasn’t.

There are some very funky little shops in this Town.

The mural on the wall of the cinema was cool, how many movies can you spot.  Yes the Sound of Music is pictured.

It was nice to go for a walk through the Town and to the life boat station together.

When we got to the museum, they were about to close, but the volunteers kindly stayed open for a little while longer.

The lifeboat station and museum is at the top of a very large hill, when they had to launch the lifeboat, they went down over 100 steps to the lifeboat. The museum was interesting, it has some rooms set up as they would have been when the coast guards lived there.  Including a very cosy loo!

Why was the station at the top of the hill? Because the lumber company owned the land around the dock and gave them the piece of land at the top of the hill for the life boat station!

We had a lovely dinner in our little cabin. The internet was very sporadic, and I was unable to update the blog.

We will check the weather tomorrow at the Port Orford weather station, hopefully it will be a  nice day.

Friday May 29, 2015

We said goodbye to the German couple and the Brit, and Ralf indicated that he had thought about his answer from last night. He told the young guy to travel as soon as his studies were finished and before he started a family. “That was the answer I was looking for” he smiled at his partner who didn’t share his view. She wanted to get started on her career and have children. It is different for a woman, the longer you wait to have children the tougher it is. I said that when you get to our age you have already accumulated so much stuff and for some people it is tough to then make the decision to leave it all behind. A lot of our friends still do not understand why we are doing what we are doing.

It was another dreary, cold, grey day along the coast line of Oregon. One of the other cyclists we had chatted to about this area told us it was beautiful. It would be if you could see it.

Our original plan was to cycle to Gold Beach, (45 kms). We were cold and wet and I was all for finding a motel and getting the washing done etc. We decided to have a second breakfast and look at our options. Option one, find a motel and stay in Gold Beach, Option two continue cycling to the State Park near Port Orford (88 kms) Option three cycle to Port Orford (90 kms) and take a rest day tomorrow (Ralf’s birthday). Option four stick to doing the 45 – 50 ks a day and keep cycling until the predicted storm comes through and we take a rest day.

After a great lunch at Double D\’s Cafe, we decided to push it to Port Orford, we were feeling good and the boat was available today so we could have two nights under cover for $29 per night and a rest day.

While we were discussing our options, the four American cyclists saw our bikes and decided to eat at the same café and then three other American cyclists heading southbound saw all the bikes and came in as well.

The importance of cycle tourism to a small community at work. If we all spent $10.00 there was an extra $90.00 spent in this Town now add the cost of accommodation and you can see how cycle tourism can make a difference.

When we left the café, we could feel a temperature change, it was actually getting warmer. We had opted to stay along the coast line and Hwy 101 rather than going inland and hills as per the ACA maps. I don’t think it reduced the distance by much but it did reduce the climbs. The sun came out and we could see the beautiful coastline.

We made really good time, cycling the 90 kms in just over 6 hours including our 45 minute lunch break.

We were a little concerned about the wildlife in Oregon.

At some stage on the Pacific Coast, I had missed the 20,000 kms mark on my garmin, we didn’t take photos or record it on the blog. We passed the 10,000 km milestone in France and had recorded the garmin on the blog. I decided that when the garmin read 22,222 km I would take the photo. The garmin clicked over just as we were cycling downhill into Port Orford.

We arrived at our little boat cabin at just after three o’clock and there was no-one about.

Ralf called the phone numbers, apparently the owner was at a funeral in California and the camp-host had been rushed to hospital after lunch as he had fallen. Eventually someone came and opened the boat for us and we got settled in to our very humble abode.

The shower block is clean and good hot showers for 0.25 cents. There is a laundromat across the road and a grocery store about 500 metres down the road.

We are taking a rest day tomorrow, it\’s Ralf\’s birthday.

Thursday May 28, 2015

Although we were up early, we were late leaving. Andreas and Emilio peppered us with more questions and we discussed drafting, eating and hydration.

I made breakfast for all of us, cheesy omelets, we shared our toast and peanut butter, but not our yogurts!

An easy ride today. The route kept us away from Hwy 101 for most of the route, which was nice as 101 looked quite busy. We saw quite a few cyclists today, I think most of them were on a supported ride as they were carrying very little.

We are now in Oregon and the difference in the car drivers is already noticeable. Although we were on quieter roads, they gave us lots of room. Californian drivers were crazy, they would overtake with little regard as to what they could see around a bend or on a blind hill.

There were some interesting buildings on the route today.  The Bank in Smith River, which is now a bar.

This house was made completely from Stainless Steel.

We kept seeing these rows, I asked a lady what they were and they are Easter Lilys that they grow for the bulbs.

We arrived in Brooking at 12:30 and had lunch in the supermarket café. Although it is cool and grey skies, we knew we had to camp and there was a hiker/biker site at the Harris Beach State Park.

We checked in $5.00 per person and then were told that the water had been turned off for a water main repair and wouldn’t be back on until 4:00.

I am getting fed up of being cold and cycling under grey skies. No sunshine in Northern California and the prospect of sun in Oregon is limited.

I really dread camping now, I hate being cold and I am looking for any excuse to take a motel and to persuade Ralf to stay in motels. Although he isn’t really enjoying the camping, he is looking at the cost of motel versus hiker/biker sites.

We resigned ourselves to a quiet, cold evening inside the tent. Then once again other cyclists showed up, Ralf lit a small fire and we had quite the gathering, two Germans, a Brit and four Americans. For some reason we didn’t exchange names, which is such a shame because the Germans and the Brit were really nice people, very interesting. The Germans had cycled in Sri Lanka for a month and really enjoyed the cultural differences. The Brit was cycling from Vancouver to Mexico, he had taken his last semester at the University of Toronto, because of the timings of the semesters (finishing in April in Canada and starting at the end of September in the UK) he could afford to take almost six months to cycle the coast.

The German fella asked Ralf if he was to do it again would it be now or at 25. Ralf’s answer was he was a career soldier, so to give up his career would have been tough for him. I said that I had travelled when I was younger, and it was fun, but doing it at this time of life is good, because we have more time and no deadlines. It wasn’t the answer he was looking for.

The Americans when they joined us dominated the conversation. They chatted about their travels in South America, expecting us all to be impressed. Then they looked at Ralf and I and asked where we had started from, expecting us to say Seattle. We told them we were heading north because of the route that we had already taken through the US from Tampa, Florida. “So you have done the Southern Tier before the Pacific Coast”. Well, actually we are cycling around the world! They left shortly after that.

When you have a great evening around a camp-fire chatting to really nice people, you forget about the inconveniences of camping and enjoy the experience.

Wednesday May 27, 2015

We were going to have a lie-in, but as usual I was awake at 6:30. We were up and had left the motel at 8:30. It was a cold ride and hilly. The climb started almost immediately and it was a long climb, 477 metres over a 15 kms stretch. There was even road-works half-way up the hill. The traffic guys let us go through on our own and we peddled as fast as we could. The roadworks area was about a mile long, but they couldn’t keep the downhill traffic waiting that long. A works truck guided the traffic through, very slowly, while we were still peddling up the hill.

It was a very long hill and we had three false summits. Which meant we had a short downhill and then climbed again, a short downhill and then climbed again. I said to Ralf, we will know when we are at the top because there will be sign for the trucks indicating the downhill grade. I was right, we eventually saw the sign and had a very fast, cold downhill.

We got into Crescent City cold to the bone and had a second breakfast and then called Katie our warmshowers host. She met us at the church hall and showed us where to put our stuff. The church provides a big kitchen, with a shelf in the fridge and a shelf in the pantry for cyclists. Other cyclists have left food in the pantry that we could use. Most of the food was soups and noodles, with a few tins of beans. There was also four packages of freeze-dried meals. The church even provides towels for the shower and a small toiletry selection. Katie told us we would be sharing the room with two young guys from Mexico. The community room is big, with eight to ten round tables, two sofas and a TV.

The shower was hot and powerful, we were soon warm again. I finally got to update the blog with a fast internet connection and Ralf went for a ride around the Town.

Crescent City was hit by a Tsunami in 1964. There were eight deaths, and the flood waters were 20 feet deep. Buildings were knocked of their foundations and a fire from the oil storage tankers burned for five days.

All along this coast line we have noticed the Tsunami warning signs. When we go towards the coast there will be a sign that indicates that you are entering a Tsunami Hazard area and when we cycle back up into the hills the sign will indicate that you are leaving the Tsunami Hazard area.

The lighthouse can be accessed during low tide. Katie called the Chamber of Commerce for information on the tide. Low tide was between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm.

Ralf had time to get out to the lighthouse, he opted to take photos from this side of the causeway, as he had other things he wanted to get done like grocery shopping, going to the outdoor store and to the bike shop.

If it wasn\’t for the blue on the boat and the colour of the dock, you would swear this was a black&white photo.  No just another grey day on the Pacific Coast.

Ralf said this was the scariest looking mermaid he had ever seen.  If he saw anything like this when he was diving he would give up diving.

The ladies arrived to get the dinner and tables prepped for tomorrow, the church provides a dinner on the last Thursday of the month and often feed up to 50 people who need help.

The temperature has dropped below 10 degrees and is very damp. I am so glad we are inside tonight.

Andreas and Emilio arrived mid-afternoon. Two young Mexican guys in their early 20’s. They bought their bikes and gear in Seattle and started to ride south! On their first day of riding they cycled 140 kms! They have very little experience of long distance biking and no experience of touring. They asked a million and one questions from what we eat to how much butt butter to use! We showed them our maps, and I was going to give them the one we have just finished – San Francisco to Crescent City, but they had maps on their phones they were using and took photos of the route from the ACA maps. We chatted about where we had stayed, the hiker/biker sites and the scenery and the distances we had cycled. We warned them about the two hills, the one they would have to cycle up tomorrow and the Leggett hill to Fort Bragg. They have 10 days to get to San Francisco, which they should have enough time, with a rest day.

They were most interested in riding techniques, how far we ride and how much we eat. We told them everything we know, we felt like Yoda – two old wise cyclists sharing our knowledge.

Ralf had bought salmon for dinner, it was lovely – salmon, baby potatoes and green beans. He also bought a dozen eggs, we will have omelet for breakfast.

Tuesday May 26, 2015

A good ride today, although it was chilly and foggy again. We passed Humbolt Lagoons State Park.

There was supposed to be a herd of Elk near this RV park, but we didn\’t see any.

We stopped in Orick for a cup of hot chocolate and a snack, a very run-down Town.

We opted not to \’call\’ these windmills (17).

The morning’s ride took us through the Robert Drury State Park. It was very pretty with redwoods again and we saw a few Elk.

The Robert Drury State Park is very similar to the Avenue of the Giants except it doesn’t have the roadside attractions and there is much less traffic.

It was a beautiful ride, although it was cool and foggy as we climbed through the forest.

We had decided that we were going to spring for another motel stay.

The amazing thing was as we came over the last hill the sun came out and there was blue sky, what a contrast. There was a difference of 10 degrees.

We were going to stay in Klamath but the motel was over $80.00.

We decided once again to carry on, we were told that there was another motel called Trees Inn and it was cheaper. We did have a good cheap lunch of chicken ceasar wraps, before heading down the road again.

Although the sun had come out we decided to stay at the motel, because it was going to be a cool night (any excuse). It was $70.00 and had recently been renovated. Across the road from the motel was a great museum with the largest collection of Indian artifacts.

Apparently this giant lumberjack (Paul Bunyan) waves his hand and talks.  They have someone in the store, watching as kids climb on him, and he speaks and tells them to get of his feet.  He was being renovated, while we were there, as a branch had come of a tree and snapped his arm off.

Although the motel was really nice, the internet was very slow and I was unable to connect and update the blog.

It was cool to watch two swallows make a nest.  The owners tried to prevent them building their nest by putting small nails up.  They used them as supports for the nest.

Tomorrow is going to be a very short ride to Crescent City, hopefully the internet at the church will be good.

Monday May 27, 2015

We left Robert’s place after making a lovely breakfast of omelets, we used our pans, as Robert has a no animal product policy with his pots and pans. He did allow us to eat our eggs but we had to cook them in our own pans. It reminded me of being at Daniel’s house with the kosher kitchen, only using one set of pots, cutlery etc for meat and another for dairy.

We headed out of Fortuna on the 101 and came of the highway in Eureka. The highway had a wide shoulder and as it was Memorial Day, the traffic was fairly light.

Eureka has a pretty downtown, with some very interesting buildings.

The private club was originally built by the Carson family a very rich lumber merchant.

The pink house was built for his son as a wedding present – it was originally pink – did he like his son, I wonder? I guess he must have done as the house was across the street from his own.

We found a coastal bike trail out of Arcata to McKinleyville which was very nice and again had some very interesting architecture along the route.

Don\’t allow the dog on the bench.

We followed the coastal bike trail all the way to Clam Beach State Park where we had planned on staying tonight.

We took one look at the state of the camping area and the toilets and decided to carry on. It was disgusting. There was no shower, a dirty long-drop toilet and some very “interesting” people already drunk set up at the site, for that the cost was $8.00 per person.

We carried on to Trinidad where there should have been camping options, there wasn’t. We discussed a motel, but there was none available in Trinidad.

We carried on towards Patrick’s Point where there was a hiker/biker camp site.

It was a lovely, winding road with little to no shoulders but very little traffic. As we cycled the weather got progressively colder. The sun had disappeared and the sea mist was rolling in. Along this route there were several motels/hotels and RV parks with cabins. One RV park wanted 129.00 for a cabin! A nice looking hotel wanted $100.00 for a room, too expensive for us, although both of us were getting cold at this point and were not relishing the idea of a cold night in the tent.

It looked as though we were going to have to camp, when we found the last motel along this road before the State Park – Patrick’s Point Inn $66.00 for a room. Patrick’s Point Inn is very old and tired, but the sheets are clean and so are the towels.

Sunday May 24, 215

A later start to the day. Although I was awake at 6:00, Ralf was sleeping soundly next to me. I knew we had a relatively short ride to Fortuna (warmshowers) and I wasn’t too worried about how long it took us to get there. I knew part of the route was going to be on the highway and the rest of the route was through the remaining area of the Avenue of the Giants.

We cycled another 35 kms through the Giants, it was so quiet this morning, very little traffic. I have often read that cycling through these redwood groves is like being in a cathedral. I am not sure I would describe it quite like that. It is quite dark in the groves, with the light filtering through the canopy, it is very peaceful.

The trees are so ancient, you feel very insignificant amongst them. They are described as immortal, they live so long and even after falling, they take so long to break down, that new trees grow on their decaying wood.

We connected to Highway 101, it was quiet today as it is Sunday and we had a good ride into Fortuna.

We had decided to cycle into the Town and have a second breakfast, then call Robert to let him know when we would arrive. It was a good second breakfast and then we headed uphill to Robert’s place!

As usual, Ralf has gone to get supplies and I am trying to update the blog and checking on warmshowers for the future.  I lost wi-fi connection and then chatted to Robert (the blog) didn\’t get updated today, sorry.

We made dinner for our host, we had a wonderful vegetarian dinner with veges, sticky rice and tofu, it was really good.

Saturday May 23, 2015

Another great day on the bike I thought it was supposed to be downhill all the way to Myers Flat, it wasn’t.

We left the campsite at 8:30 after saying our farewells to Stephanie & David and Froujke and Paul.

We had commented to Stephanie and David that it always took us a couple of hours to get ready in the morning and we have still not managed to cut the time down.  David said it always took them a long time too and was glad that even seasoned pros, took time to get moving.

Ralf was laughing at Stephanie and David’s tent site, it was such a mess and he thought it would take them more than a couple of hours to get going.

The sun was out and we had blue skies for most of the day. We took our leggings of for the first time in a week or more and it felt great.

We stopped at the various road-side attractions, of which there are many.

The gravity defying confusion hill;

the Grandfather Tree;

the log house tree;

we decided not to stop at the chimney tree or the Big Foot café.

We stopped at one intersection to grab a snack and an old hippy fella, told us about this well. “It is pure water, I used to drink it all the time but I have been away for a few weeks in Mexico”. We had a look at this well, which was a plastic tube coming out of the hillside!

We stopped in Garberville for lunch. Once again, Ralf sent me in to do the shopping as the area seemed a little run-down and there were a lot of vagrants around.

The route today took us through the Avenue of the Giants. The road runs parallel to Hwy 101 and runs through groves of redwoods. When you come up to a particular grove it is so beautiful, the trees crown the roads and the light is incredible. The trees are massive the camera cannot do justice to them.

I personally wished that there were no cars on this road or that the 101 wasn’t as close. You could still hear the hwy, even though the trees deadened the noise somewhat.

We were going to stay in Myers Flat, but I had misread where the state park campsite was and we had to cycle another 8 kms to Weott. It was worth it. It is a beautiful site.

Gnomes live here. We went to the Visitors Centre and read all the information.

We were the only cyclists here for a couple of hours, we had sat down for dinner, when they all started to arrive. First two male cyclists arrived, they set up on the other biker/hiker site. Two more guys arrived and set up on the wrong site, they had to move to our site. Two girls showed up and were setting up when one more guy (Mark) showed up and started chatting to us. Another two guys showed up and finally Froujke and Paul. We have seven tents with a total of 9 people on this little site, three Americans, two Dutch, one German, one Brit, and two Canadians – four heading north and five heading south.

After dinner Ralf and I had a little wander around the campsite, it is very neat to see all the tent sites amidst the redwoods and some in the trunk of a redwood.

It is 8:24 pm and Ralf is snoring gently next to me. I will have to wake him up so that he can get ready for bed!