Day 18
Wednesday, 16 June 2004
Eureka, CA to Garberville, CA
77.7 miles, 6h04m, 12.8 mph
Elapsed Time: 8h52m, Max speed: 42.0mph
Total Climbing: 2719ft, Max elevation: 694ft
Total mileage: 1009.9
We actually got an early start for a change. We were up at six and on
the road shortly after 7:30. The weather was fine and there was even a
nice tailwind as the day went on. There was only one small climb in the
first 25 miles and we made excellent time.
For the first time since Washington we moved away from the ocean, up
the Eel River Valley. We rode through miles of dairy cow country, and
were peppered by lots of little bugs, hopefully not maneaters.
The first part of the day was like this.
When the valley narrowed, the Adventure Cycling people tubed us with
the route. In order to avoid the light traffic on US101, they ran us up
the other side of the river, up and down a bunch of steep hills. Down
below, across the river, we could see the cars moving slowly up the
valley floor, with a tailwind no doubt. D'oh!
Eventually we reached the small town of Rio Dell, where we grabbed a
quick snack and moved on to Scotia, across the river. Scotia is one of
the few remaining company towns in the United States. It is owned by
the Pacific Lumber Company and there is a big lumber mill in town.
They have this little plaque that explains everything.
Can you read it?
After a couple of miles on 101, we entered the famous Avenue of the
Giants. There was surprisingly little traffic and the trees were
suitably inspiring. There were only a couple of hills and we made great
progress. It's hard to take good pictures of those trees--it's dark and
they are too huge. Still, I made a couple of attempts.
That's a big tree...next to the pickup truck.
We stopped briefly to see "The Immortal
Tree," which is a big tree that has had a tough life and it looks like
hell. It's main purpose is to draw people into the adjacent gift shop.
The Immortal Tree is getting a little thin on top.
Avenue of the Mole People
Nothing special about this one, it was
just laying there...resting.
There was a lot of this.
We stopped for lunch at Weott, where there is a store and a post office
and not a whole lot more. There was a guy grilling "famous" hot dogs in
front of
the store, so I had a 1/4 lb dog with kraut. I did not regret it later.
We were able to resist "The Eternal Tree House" at Redcrest, but we had to visit the "Drive Thru Tree"
at Myers Flat. For $1.50 we got to ride our bikes through the tree as
many times as we wanted. JT took a picture of me riding through but it
didn't come out, so here's a picture of some unknown people driving
thru.
The Mystery People Driving Thru. By
the way, that tree is still clinging to life.
For the same $1.50 we got to ride onto
the less famous "Drive On Log"
A little farther down the road we stopped at the town of Miranda for a
drink. Since we were away from the coast we didn't have the constant
cooling breeze, and the day was getting hot--probably in the mid-80s.
An ad in the window mentioned that there is a Best Western in
Garberville--the town that we planned to stop in for groceries. The
idea was to spend the night camping at Richardson Grove State Park, but
now--well certainly everyone must have noticed by now that we are
partial to Best Westerns. I called Linda, our travel agent, and she
made reservations for us, even though we were only about 12 miles away
from the motel--you can never be too sure about getting a room. Anyway,
we got there and it's a really nice room. No limo service like there
was at Eureka, but still a nice place.
Garberville seems to be a nice little hippie town. There is an
establishment called "The Hemp Store," which must sell rope or
something. We saw lots of people going to see a movie at the single
screen theatre on main street. We ate dinner at a nice restaurant and
returned to our well-appointed room for the night. It's tough being us.
Tomorrow we climb out of here and ride back over to the coast. So far
we've been lucky with traffic because "the season" isn't really in full
swing yet. We're hoping for one more week of relative peace.
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"JT and BC's 2004 Pacific
Coast
Ride" Copyright © 2004 By Bob Clemons. All rights reserved.