Redwoods! California! In-N-Out Burger!

Carson Manor in Eureka, CA

It's been so incredibly long since I've been in a library. I used to visit at least once every two days to upload pictures to the blog and what not. But riding a century or more every single day has consumed so much of my time and energy. Plus, California's libraries aren't open on Mondays. It's the same thing in Wyoming and Montana except those close on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I don't really get small towns. 


Anyway, I'm in California! The seventh (Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, and I guess British Columbia so 8th) and final state on my 4000 mile tour of the American west. Northern California has been quite the whirlwind so let me tell you a little about that. 

The damn piece of metal that did it

Descending from Crater Lake, I decided to attempt the 130-mile day from my campground to Crescent City, CA on the coast. I knew I probably wasn't going to make it that far, but I wanted to go as far as possible. The ride was uneventful since it was on a very slight downhill grade. I lost most of the 8000-foot elevation from the Oregon coast to Crater Lake in the first 45 miles. I ended up making it about 97 miles all the way to the California border before disaster struck: flat tire #5. I've been too stubborn to replace my broken hand pump before I have a word with the staff at Paradise Garage in Columbus so, if I get a flat in the middle of nowhere, I'm stuck. You'd think it'd be something I want to replace soon. But I refuse!


So, there I was, on a totally deserted road, immobilized by a flat. Thankfully, there was a rest stop about 100 feet down the road so I camped out there for the night. Unfortunately, the rest stop was right outside of a tunnel so, all night, all I heard was people constantly honking for fun as they went through the tunnel. I promise it was well-lit and only 100 or so feet long so there was no reason to be honking. But I guess they didn't really expect someone to be sleeping in the vicinity. 

A redwood!!

The next morning, as I was eating breakfast, a man named Howard and his wife Linda saw me looking like my dog had just died and offered to drive me down to the bike shop in Crescent City. Wooooooooohooooooo! They were great and Howard himself plans on biking the Pacific Coast soon. I got all of my tire issues resolved at the bike shop and stayed in town for a couple of hours to psychologically recuperate from problems that arise from biking 700 miles in 7 days. 


I headed down Highway 101 with a new resolve afterward because I was finally in redwood country! This region of California is one of the places that I've been looking forward to visiting the most because it's the only place in the world that the giant redwood grows. The tallest tree species in the world, redwoods tower up to 379 feet with trunks up to 26 feet in diameter and live to be 2000 years old. 

Stole this from Wikipedia for legit reasons

They're generally visible from Highway 101, but there is a branch road called Avenue of the Giants that takes you right through the most monstrous, oldest trees in the world. If there is one place on my travels that I suggest you go, it's the Avenue of the Giants. Biking down that road is an experience every bit as humbling as a night sky exploding with stars. You feel so small, so insignificant, in the presence of life so much grander than you, alive since an ancient time that you couldn't possibly conceive. Seriously, go there. And take a bike. I know my suggestion to bike rather than drive seems biased, but this is an experience you want to take at your own pace. I went on a Sunday night at sunset and the road was completely silent. I don't have any pictures of the road because of how enamored I was by it; it didn't even occur to me to photograph anything. 

I'm being kicked off the computer.. finish later. bye.