Ride Day 76 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

 My ride from Patrick's Point State Park to Crescent City was gorgeous once again, 56 miles 5000' of climbing and 85 degree heat that made it sort of like work.  The Pacific coast is very nice all along it.  I did not get much out of Patrick's Point State Park because everything there required lots of walking along trails to see and I just am not able to walk far enough to do that.  So I pretty much sat around resting and watching the big trees blow in the wind. 

I left early in the morning before 7.  The weather was cold at that hour but it was clear with a headwind of 10-15 mph.  I enjoyed the ride despite the tough riding conditions.  Big Lagoon was a good looking area with a saltwater lagoon and the on the other side of the road was a freshwater lagoon.  The beach along there was covered in trees and other debris washed up over the years which made it look even more isolated than it was.  My road was ok but in some areas, like curves, the shoulder disappeared and it was a bit scary.  I had no real close calls but my luck can't last forever.

There were two big grades that were work.  The cold morning quickly turned into hot dry weather blowing in my face.  It made me use a lot of water and my lips got a bit wind burned but not so bad that it lasted until the next day.  I met a few other riders that were interesting to stop and talk with.  A couple from Canada were planning on spending six months riding around the US.  They asked me about where I had been and what the conditions were.  They did not always like the things I said like the 120 degree heat and the high steep climbs along the way.  They told me they wanted to go to all the national parks and I asked them if they knew how many parks that would be, they did not have a clue.  It would take well over 6 months to bike to all the national parks in the country.

After cresting the big grade south of Crescent City, I got to my planned campground and found it closed.  So I had to continue all the way into town in the 85 degree heat and bright sun to look for a new place to camp.  I found a place called Village Camper Inn on the north side of town.  The people running it were nice and friendly so I will stay a couple of days to redo my laundry and rest up before I hit the rolling hills of Oregon next.  I have to redo my laundry because I used a harsh detergent for my last wash and the soap made me get heat rash everywhere I was sweaty which was just about everywhere....More later.
 

Ride Day 76 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 74 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 74 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

These numbers for the data like distance, time, speed etc are all wrong because the big redwood trees blocked the gps signals but the elevation profile looks right as does the map.  The distance was about 56 miles not 14.

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...

Rest Day at Weott

I took today off and Karen and I explored from Garberville to Weott along the Avenue of the Giants.  The huge redwood trees are impossible to catch in a photo that does them justice.  I took a few pics anyway.  I did not ride today.  The campground at Weott was very quiet and we slept better than we did at the Best Western the night before.  The rest was likely good for my knee that swelled up on me but I will know in a few days as I head further up the coast and hit more big grades.  Tomorrow is Eureka and Arcata if everything goes well.

Ride Day 73

I road from Leggett to Garberville today which was a very short ride of about 28 miles but it had some grade to it so it was not a piece of cake.  I was planning on going all the way to Weott but when I arrived in Garberville my knee was all swollen up and hurting a bit.  I was a bit worried about making it worse by continuing to ride on it so I stopped in Garberville and did some internet catching up at a place called Treats.  I enjoyed talking to the owner of the ice cream store, she was helpful. 

While there playing with my computer, Karen called me up and told me she wanted to drive up to meet up with me.  That was a convenient excuse to stop riding for the day so that is what I did.  I popped 800mg of ibuprofen to see if the swelling might go down and sat down to wait for Karen.  After finishing with my wifi junk, I rode my bike around town to get a feel for the layout of Garberville and went to get my haircut at a local barbershop.  Deborah had a shop just off the main strip so she gave me my buzz cut.  I enjoyed chatting with her while I got buzzed.   

The swelling was quickly going away on my knee.  I do not know why it puffed all up on me but I did ride 70 miles and climbed 6700 feet in the previous two days so maybe I just over worked my tired old body.  I do hope this was a one time thing cause I just do not need any more problems with my tired old body. 

We checked into the Best Western in Garberville when Karen got here.  It was good to see her again so we hung out at the hotel for the most part but we did go out for a sandwich later.  I am not too impressed with the Best Western beds though.  They use a heavy duvet cover and a sheet set on the beds and the heavy blanket made me sweat but the sheet alone was not enough to keep me warm.  There was no in between choice so I slept poorly.  I think I slept better in my tent lately than I did last night in the fancy hotel.

Karen wants to spend the day at Weott so that is what we will do.  We just ate breakfast here at the hotel and are packing up the truck and the bike to hit the road and do some local exploring.  My knee is still stiff this morning but it is not swollen so hopefully it will be nice to me.  More later.

Ride Day 72 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

Ride Day 72 by jimfrogs at Garmin Connect - Details

The time, speed, distance etc are all wrong for this ride because the big redwoods were blocking the gps sigs for most of the ride but the map and elevations look right to me so I shared it.

Ride Day 72

Fort Bragg to Leggett 46 miles 5000’ climbing.  Today was a hard ride for an old man like me.  I had rolling hills for thirty miles then a 500’ climb followed shortly after by an 1800’ climb.  I had to work on my tempo to get through the day.  At first I was pushing too hard on the pedals and getting winded then I would have to stop and rest a bit to let my heart slow down and my breath to catch up.  Then I let up on the pedal power, put it in grandpa gear and just started to spin with as little effort as I could to maintain motion going up the hill.  That worked out much better and I spun my way to the top of all the big grades today.  I am also getting into shape for riding long distances up and down lots of grades.  My first day out of SF I was too gungho remembering how I rode at the end of my last long ride and assuming I could ride like that again right off the bat.  I paid for it with cramps that day but have not had cramps since I eased up on the gas pedaling. 

The coast was once again gorgeous to ride along.   There was just beautiful views lined up one after the other.  I finally stopped taking pics of so many because there are just so many.  Then I turned into the redwoods.  I had just gone through the lumber company museum in Fort Bragg so I was thinking about how they raped this forest only a bit over a hundred years ago.  As I rode through the new young trees, I saw lots of stumps left over from those heydays of logging and clear cutting huge swaths of 1500 plus year old trees.  We are lucky the species survived.  The old stumps of redwood resprout and usually as many as five or six new trees start growing from the stump and for a big tree even more.  So eventually the redwoods will again tower if people don’t let the corporations hack em down again.

I got my tent rifled through at the last campground.  The only thing missing were some of my prescription meds.  The rangers seem to think they know who did it and are going to try to get them back but I doubt if I will ever see them again.  That was irritating because now I am going to be thinking about theft all the time.  Such is life though and I am over it already.

An abalone fisherman also died in the camp that same morning.  Tourists saw him floating facedown and by the time he was pulled to shore he was already gone.  The news today said three ab divers died last weekend.  The divers need to be more careful in the rough weather that was pounding the coast yesterday.  The salmon season here is open but the boats have nor been able to get out except for a few hardcore fools.  They are getting less than a fish per rod.  Rockfish opens up here on May 15^th and com salmon on the first of May.

More later.