Day 9 - Crescent City, CA - Eureka, CA

Day 9 - Crescent City, CA - Eureka, CA

Bike(s)    First - Giant Innova - 37 miles
                Second - Specialized Roubaix - 43.3 miles

Day's Run: 80.3 miles
Total elapsed miles - 528.5

July 11, 1961 - Slept in this morning and got a very late start at 11:00.  Replaced yesterday's spoke in Orick and broke another 5 miles later.  Made disgustingly slow time most of day.  Fixed spoke in Trinidad  (last one).  Reached Eureka at 4:10 and was directed to P.O. where I got mail and $20.00.  Haven't broken first one yet.  Really made time from Eureka on up here to Burligton S.P..  Averaged 15 mph uphill.  Got ride last few mies on a flatbed truck uphill.  S.P. full again.  Squatted in a burned-out tree stump.  Made popcorn, went to campfire circle.  Took sponge bath, washed out wool socks.
P.S.  Bought ten spokes in Eureka.  Hope tires last 250 miles to S.F.

     I recall well that cheating uphill ride.  An advanced-middle aged working couple, the female half of which decided I should be a Mountie and repeated her suggestion several times in a somewht strident voice several times during my time in the cab.

     Made disgustingly slow time on June 28, 2011 as well, also getting of at 11:00, this time after a visit to the local commercial aquarium. The first leg, beginning just a couple of miles from the motel, ridden in a light rain, was on the Giant hybrid and took me over the second-highest summit of the ride, a headland of about 1,250 feet.  Going up was a grind and coming down was harrowing, with the pavement being wet, the shoulder narrow, the white fog line likely slippery and trucks and motor homes nipping eagerly at my heels.
     Made it in one piece, however, and caught up wth Bob in the burg of Klamath, where I replenished fluids and ate a couple of breakfast bars.   Several more long but more gradual climbs later, all on the interstate, Bob and I met up again in Orick for lunch.
     Met my only other rider of the day in the cafe, Robert, 56, northbound.  Robert's clothes, Robert's bike-trailer rig and Robert's person had clearly been well-used.  Not only did Robert have no fixed itinerary, he paid no attention to speeds and days' runs.  I don't know if he was literally homeless or not, but he clearly spent a lot of his life sitting on his bike and sleeping on the ground.  We had a pleasant chat at the luncheon counter.
      After one more climb and partial descent on the interstate I turned off onto the Prairie Creek Redwoods scenic route.  After a grueling 30-minute climb I was rewarded with a gentle six-mile downgrade through redwood forests - wet, cool, verdant, sweet-smelling, it was exactly what a primeval forest should look and feel like.
     I took another alternate, "scenic" route off the interstate through Trinidad. The first four miles were all right - gently rolling, little traffic.  But then the road literally began to break up, with stretches of gravel and eight-foot wide pavement on the edge of a sea cliff, all in a dismal North Coast drizzle. I eventually made my way back to Interstate 101, with its smooth pavement, gentle grades and wide, bike-friendly shoulders and made the last 20 uneventful and, admittedly, monotonous miles to the watefront town (12,000-plus population) of Eureka in about 80 minutes, finding Bob in our budget motel (where we reconfirmed you pretty much get what you pay for) at 8:00 P.M.
     Got two clear reminders I've made it to California: the first scent and sight of eucalyptus trees; looking for local TV news and getting San Francico