We woke up shortly after 6AM and got ready to head out. Rob and I walked across the street to Subway to pick up breakfast while Katherine had her light breakfast of crackers and Orange Juice as she tried to recover from her food-poisoning adventures from the night before. Rob and I each had a foot-lunch breakfast sandwich and we were still hungry afterwards (they need touring cyclist portions).
It looked to be a very beautifully sunny day. We rode through the old town of Eureka in the crisp morning air. We then had to get back on the noisy and dirty (with road-side debris) shoulder of Hwy 101. We took the alternate route as recommended per our guidebook, except we decided to slightly modify it with our own route. It ended up as a phenomenal ride through a quiet and flat country side road through farm fields.
We first stopped at a market in the town of Fernbridge with a population of 59 people (according to the town sign), just across from the local dairy plant. There we read a memorial sign that discussed how the local river had flooded to over 26ft in 1964, resulting in a loss of 29 people. We noted that this was also the same tsunami disaster that had struck Crescent City in 1964.
After passing by many cows, chickens, birds and dogs in the farm fields we arrived in the town of Rio Dell. Katherine stopped and asked for the best place to buy groceries from 8 firefighters who were putting up a flag pole outside their fire department. They recommended we stop at the town of Scotia just a mile down the road.
Scotia is company owned town, with their largest employer being the largest Redwood mill in the world. We had lunch outside the local market. It was a brisk day but the sun kept us nice and warm.
We got back highway 101 for a short while until taking the exit for “Avenue of the Giants”. This was an old logging road which was now a scenic road which winds through forests of protected Redwoods, the incredibly wide and tall trees that can grow to a few hundred feet tall and be up to 2000 years old.
At the entrance of the avenue, we ran into a motorcyclist at a road side turn-out. He had a beautiful blue Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle, but was more interested and envious of our mode of transportation. It turns out he had done quite a bit of research into touring cycling equipment and had wanted to do a similar trip as ours. He mentioned that there was a annual run through the Avenue of Giants which we both agreed would be a phenomenal run. He wished us a safe journey and we continued on our way to the State campground in the Redwoods.
With next to no traffic, the ride on our bicycles through the narrow, windy road through the Redwoods was breathtaking. The view of the trees as we cycled past them were incredible. It dawned on us that there was simply no better way to enjoy Avenue of the Giants than on a bicycle (especially on a quiet, off-season, beautiful sunny day like today). Even a bicycle was almost too fast! The best alternative that came to my mind was perhaps an electric covertable car, silent with an open-roof.
We came across a tree called “The Immortal Tree”. This tree had survived a lightning strike, the resulting fire, attempts by loggers to cut it down, and the strong winds over numerous centuries, and was still alive and well. The Redwoods have a tremendous ability to survive, but now only 4% of original Redwoods remain due to logging by people.
We continued further down the avenue to arrive to the Hiker/Biker campground. The campground was apparently in a very worthwhile setting despite the lack of hot showers, according to our guide book , but we found a sign stating that it was now closed and only for group reservations, and that Hiker/Bikers were to go to the main campground 1.6 miles down the road. This was not too disappointing to us as it meant we would get hot showers and more importantly, dry firewood for the cool, dark evening, which was quickly approaching.
We had a great chat with the campground host Wayne (who had a lathe in his RV for turning wood!) and Rob purchased some firewood for us for the evening and brought it to our campsite on the back of his bike.
We quickly set up camp and had dinner (chicken stir-fry for us and the usual Sidekicks for Rob) and enjoyed the nice warm fire which Rob did a great job in getting going. Later on the motorcyclist we had met earlier arrived at the campground and stopped by very quickly to say hello.
Although probably not as breathtaking as the hiker/biker site would have been, we never-the-less enjoyed camping in the Redwoods, especially being very close proximity to bathrooms, showers, water, and even hot water for dishes (touring cyclists have such boring requests don’t they? 🙂 ).
Trip Around The World 
Leave a comment