Day 8: Crescent City to Eureka

Today’s Highlights:

Our ride today was totally awesome!  The day started with the sun shining on our smiling faces.  In the first mile we cycled on a flat easy stretch with a view of beautiful Crescent Beach with a calm surf rolling in and mist rising into the cool morning air.  As the road turned away from the beach into a wet meadow area, we encountered two large male elk with huge antlers.  We carefully passed the one near the road, then started a big mountain climb.  We climbed almost 1000 ft in two miles, then another 200 ft in the next two miles with some nice rollers in between.  It was a great way to start the day, and the best part of this accent was our first ride through a sequoia forest.  The huge trees were amazing.  After spending about five miles above 900 ft, we had an fun ride down with more amazing views of the California coast, which at times seemed to be straight below the edge of the road about 500 feet.  Reaching the shoreline again after 13 miles there were more beautiful uninhabited beaches.

We made a quick stop at the Trees of Mystery just to take some cheesy tourist shots of the Paul Bunyan and Babe statues, then continued down Rt 101 between towering trees and open meadows.  One of the biggest treats of the day was a eight mile ride on Scenic Parkway through magnificent redwood groves.  It is hard to capture their immensity on camera.  I would have like to spend all day hiking around this area.  We made one side stop at the “Big Tree”, a sequoia that is 21 ft in diameter and over 300 ft tall and estimated to be 1500 years old.

As if the Sequoia forest was not enough of a treat, our route took us back to the coast again along Patrick’s Point Drive with more amazing views of beaches, rivers and lagoons under sunny blue skies.  Our second rest stop was in the town of Trinidad.  From there, we went on a rough road called Scenic Drive, and wow there were more incredible views of the ocean, beaches and cliffs!

Eventually, we returned more inland and spent some miles on a bike path which had an interesting old railroad bridge to ride across.  This led to a very scenic country road through farmlands in a valley bordered by mountains to the east.  It was very bucolic, however the road had just been tarred and graveled, and was a little rough to ride on.  From there we hopped on the 101 highway for a few miles, then entered the town of Eureka.

In all, we covered about 84 miles and climbed over 4400 feet today, and although it was our longest day so far it was also the most enjoyable I can remember.  We even had a few minutes before our barbeque dinner to soak in the hot tub.

Sunny California

Ahhhhh! Now that’s what I’m talking about. It was a beautiful day with lots of great views. Between Dad’s post and the pictures, I don’t need to repeat the day. But I will say, Wow those trees are big. We ride the Avenue of the Giants tomorrow. I can’t wait.

I’m happy to report that raising my seat was a success. It was hard to adjust to at first but ultimately everything felt good. Thanks for always watching my rear end, Stacia.

Chris

Pictures Of The Day:

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Statistics:
Zoom and pan the map to explore the route. Click the name or ‘View Detail’ to view more information at Garmin Connect.
I have a new heart rate monitor, so am capturing that data again. However, I had another accidental shut off of my bike computer at the top of the first climb and did not notice for three miles. Chris’s mileage and elevation data is more thorough.

Chris: