Santa Cruz beach time and Marin mountain biking

 We took a break from home remodeling and November Seattle weather to visit friends and family in the Bay Area.  We spent a lovely weekend in Santa Cruz for a wedding of a dear family friend, and enjoyed a quick dose of beach time.  

 Chad and I on the pier at Santa Cruz

Sea lions hunting

Riverwalk RV Park to Richardson Grove State Park, CA

We said goodbye to August today in a blaze of heat-- after about 1:30, the thermometer didn't drop below 90 until we were done riding. Ugh! We left Riverwalk this morning around 8:30 and absolutely flew until we reached the Avenue of the Giants, where we intentionally slowed down. They are truly amazing-- I feel awed by their presence, and they radiate a quiet, calm energy that makes you want to stop and reflect, really acknowledge all the history these trees have lived through. Some of them are up to 5,000 years old. Can you imagine? They've been around since biblical times!

There was a distinct contrast, of course, between the quiet, cool, calm of the redwoods and the intense heat (and traffic) between redwood groves; also a contrast between the elegant naturalness of many of the trees and the schlocky-but-fun tourist attractions along the way.


We stopped at the immortal tree, which apparently has lived through fire, flood, and disease, which apparently redwoods are equipped to do as a survival mechnism. We also visited my personal favorite, the drive thru (bike thru?) tree.



Chad and I also found a Califorina house in our price range! Here we are checking it out-- I think it's a good fit for us!



We continued on through the heat, stopping to take a dip in the Eel River, aptly named because of the lamprey migration that happens in the river every spring. We also stopped in Garberville, a town in the middle of nowhere-- hot nowhere, actually-- with more hippies than I've ever seen in one place! They also had a great natural foods store with really nice folks.

When we reached our campground at Richardson Grove, we walked down to the Eel again for a swim at the end of our ride. The river was wonderfully rich with life-- we saw lots of lizards and frogs, tons of insect life, and lots of little fingerling trout.
We took a dip in an amazingly deep swimming hole where a family was playing in the water, and then hiked back up to enjoy our last night in the Redwoods.

I borrowed a patch for my sleeping pad from a man a few campsites over-- Sam, a really nice guy. Chad and I started to get ready for dinner, and, realizing it was Shabbat, got out some bread and candles, and then lamented that we had forgotten to buy wine to celebrate the Shabbas. Just then, Sam came walking over to offer us a bottle of wine, since he was so impressed with our endeavour! It was quite amazing. We accepted and spent the evening chatting with Sam about all kinds of topics, from politics to racial relations to transportation and urban planning. We were very grateful for good conversation and great wine, with just the right timing.

Today's stats: 60.76 miles, 2205 ft of climbing, 10.9 mph avg.

Crescent City to Patrick's Point State Park, CA

Today was incredible!!! We took off from the Econolodge around 8:15, took a quick stop at the grocery store, and began climbing shortly after leaving Crescent City, up, up, up into the Redwoods. This climb was supposed to be one of the harriest in terms of narrowness, steepness and heavy traffic, but when we started up it the road was under construction and the entire right lane was closed to cars (but bikes were no problem). As we got further up they had traffic stopped in both directions but allowed bikes through, so we basically had the road to themselves, which was a blessing.

We continued over the summit and down the descent in solitude, as the road wound back down to sea level.



We came upon the Trees of Mystery, a goofy tourist attraction with a talking, 100 ft tall Paul Bunyan statue who was accompanied by an equally large Babe the Blue Ox. At first we thought it was a recording, but then the statue started asking us where we had ridden our bicycles that day and where we were headed, and told us to be safe! A very funny tourist attraction, actually.

Soon we started our second large climb of the day, back into the Redwoods. The climb was really steep-- too steep for me tugging the trailer-- so Chad took my backpack out of the trailer and wore it the rest of the way up (and still finished the climb ahead of me!). At the top, we took a small hike down an interpretive trail that explained the process of a road removal project that had been completed there. It was pretty incredible-- it is not that they just let the plants grow up, they actually regrade the hillside to its original topography, using heavy machinery, so that you cannot see at all where the road was. The idea behind this technique is that the natural drainage of an area is the best state for the area to be in.




Along the trail we also saw some of the biggest Redwoods I've ever seen.... they were very spiritual trees.



We enjoyed a nice descent back down, and stopped to take some pictures of Corkscrew tree, aptly named!

We continued on into Orick with the sun beating on our backs as we emerged from the Redwoods-- my thermometer said 98 degrees! We finished up our day at Patrick's Point State Park, which is one of the most incredible state parks I've ever visited. The hiker-biker spots were tucked behind some fantastic ocean cliffs-- a short hike took us out to the shore, where seals were bathing in the last rays of sunlight before sunset. The cliffs, seals and sunset made this one of our favorite days yet.



Today's stats: 58 miles, 10 mph, 3572 ft of climbing.