Ride Day 74

Today I rode from near Weott to Arcata KOA campground 57 miles and 1500' or so of climbing.  Not too tough of a day even in the temps that started at 39 and went up into the nineties I heard.  It was nice having the day off yesterday with Karen exploring the big redwoods but today was back to the grind of riding.  I felt good all day.  There was a series of three or four big grades on the way to Ferndale following the Aventure cycling map instead of just taking 101 all the way.  I have a beef with ACA sometimes.  Their routes sometimes seem to seek out mountains to climb rather than a simple direct route.  Today the ride along 101 may have even been a better series of good views than the ACA route was and it would have been far easier to ride than the road to Ferndale which was a rough surface with lots of grade along it and very few good views unless you like lots of cows.  But such is life the argument over small roads vs larger roads will never be settled.  I took it in stride but laughed as I sweated my way up the big grades with 101 in the distance all flat with new smooth blacktop instead of the teeth chattering road I was on. 

I got to Eureka and almost got a hotel for 50 bucks but then thought about the bad Best Western night of discomfort in their bed and I decided to just pedal on to Arcata and stay at the KOA campground in my familiar tent.  I also met up with a friend of mine David that I had not seen in about three years.  He passed me while I was riding along 101 going into Garberville.  We went out and had coffee and chatted for a while as we watched all the people that came out due to the sudden heat spell wearing pretty skimpy clothing.  Thanks David for the coffee and visit.

At the KOA I just caught up on my business and had an early night because I want to ride as close to Crescent City tomorrow as I can then hole up in a campground for the weekend to let all the drunk drivers have the road to themselves without me on it.  More later...