Ride of Mystery

Earlier in this blog I mentioned that it had been recommended I ride north to south to avoid the headwinds. Of course, the first two days of the trip I had the wind bang on my nose. The person who previously remained nameless, however, now deserves full recognition - Scott Penzarella, take a bow. The wind has been stiff at my back for the last several days. Had I been able to fly spinnaker off the front of the bike yesterday I could have gone dozens of miles with nary a turn of the pedals. Riding in the other direction, however, would have been a morale crushing battle.

Nothing about yesterday's ride was even vaguely morale denting. Rolling out of Cresecent City (on a cloudless morning) one comes across a sign welcoming you to the redwood forest and for the next several miles you climb: steady, not steep but climb....and climb...and climb from sea level to about 1200' in seven miles. The road, however, is smooth and relatively free of traffic. The air is clear and the trees, well the trees are incredible. I've seen a lot of redwood trees but these are big, not just now and then but every...single....tree is huge and they are lined up right along the road.

What would it take to cut down this tree?

It's early in the day and cool and I am loving this climb. Then I get to the top and start loving the descent. The altitude evaporates ove the same distance that it was gained and the coast comes into view. I waxed melodic about the Oregon coast but the California coast is no slouch.

Having done the climb and the descent, Klamath soon approaches. Coming out of Crescent City I had seen a sign extolling the "Trees of Mystery" 14 miles ahead. Enering Klamath I see this sign. What exactly are the trees of mystery? Redwoods!

That's right, the trees that blanket the entire California coast from the Oregon border to Santa Cruz are trees of mystery. Of course, the Winchester Mystery House in the South Bay was likely built from "Trees of Mystery" wood. Perhaps that's what makes the house mysterious. But do you know what's really a mystery? Why does a national forest, one of that last areas of old growth redwoods left celebrate this amazing gift of nature with.....

That's what it would take to cut down that tree.

...Paul Bunyon and babe the blue ox - characters built entirely on their ability to decimate a forest in the blink of an eye. This photo does not do justice to the monstrosity of these figures. Look at the people in the lowed left corner. These thingas are HUGE. If only we could get Paul and Babe to face off against the T-Rex in Oregon. Now that's something I'd pay to see! I even came up with another haiku.

A man and his ox
Real or myth?
Trees of Mystery

A few people had told me that after Klamath I needed to get on the Prarie Creek Redwood State Park road, allowing me to bypass Highway 101 for about 10 miles. This sounded like a good idea so I headed that way and ran into this.

Surely that applies only to cars and not to bikes. This thought was bolstered when I found that I was bale to ride my bike under the gate - didn't even have to dismount. I started cruising down the road enjoying the absence of traffic when I saw a tractor coming the other way. As I approached the tractor slowed, stopped and a park ranger stepped out. OK, let's find out what he has to say, I thought to myself as I pulled alongside him.
Marty (For that was his name): I didn't get out to stop you. I need to fix this pothole here.
Scott: Cool. So bikes can ride through here?
Marty: Yeah no problem. There won't be any cars so enjoy the ride.
Scott: Uh, why's the road closed?
Marty: Well. we sweep it once a year but there was a problem with inmates at the facility so they didn't come out.
Scott: Uh, OK. (This sounded more like an explanantion of why the road should be open but since he had been nice and I was the beneficiary, I didnt's press it). The result was that I spent the next eight miles free of vehicular traffic, slaloming back and forth across the double yellow line running the length of the road. It was glorious.

Marty fixin' to fix a pothole

Wednesday's ride was fairly long at 86 miles with 5,226' of climbing but it went quickly as things flattened out after the initital climbs and the tailwind gave a push. I arrived in Eureka and once again checked into the local Best Western. Eureka was a pleasant surprise as the city seems to be making an economimc recovery. The Old Town has been dramatically rennovated with numerous shops and restaurants and the art scene appears to be important. I chose the Oyster Bar and Grill as Humboldt Bay accounts for something like 50% of all the oysters harvested in the US. Their specialty is the Kumamoto so naturally I had to sample. Outstanding.

Now that's a mural.