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


Copyright 2002 DeLorme. Topo USA. Data copyright of content owner.



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.