Northern Cali Coast

June 28th
I woke in the morning at Kirk and Lisa's to the sound of rain. It was early, so I fell back a sleep and hoped to wait it out the easy way, only to wake up to it again. Kirk and Lisa took off for work and left me to make whatever decision I felt necessary. They offered to let me wait it out as long as I needed, but a little rain never killed me before, so I got on the road with no destination but North.

Almost as soon as I got on the road, it started coming down on me. I'd ride through twenty minutes of rain, then it would clear up for a short while, only to start misting or raining again. This is how my day went, off and on the entire 300+ miles. This stretch of highway is known as The Redwood Highway, for how wet I was all day, it was well worth it.

As I rode through the rain and towering trees heading North, I thought I was roughing it. Until, I saw a kid on a long-board skating through the hills on the 101. Skate boarding, wet as hell and moving about 2mph. I could only laugh. This highway is also used heavily by bicyclists. With the fog, I was lucky not to run one of them off of the road.

Some of the roads off of this highway are built around, and through the trees. The Avenue of the Giants is one such road. Massive trees along a thirty mile route looping off of highway 101. I did the whole goofy ass tourist deal and rode through one, just cuz. This ride was the best of my entire trip by far.

The last 50 miles heading up to Crescent City was something I'll never forget. I had goose-bumps when I finally stopped for the night, not knowing what to say, I called my dad and attempted to tell him what I had just experienced. This day was probably the best I've had on two wheels. The fog was thick and my visiblity was pretty non-existent through parts of the ride, but I used the tail-lights of cars in front of me for guidance when my goggles refused to clear from the mist.