Day 11 - Monday 9/21/2015 Crescent City to Arcata

The alarm went off at 4:00am - the car left the hotel, turned onto Hwy 101 South and as the day dawned, crossed the California border and drove to Crescent City.  The car was packed - crackers, cheese dip, fresh tomatoes and garden goodies, a great selection of beer and a bottle of wine.  Arrived in Crescent City and after driving through eleven different motel parking lots - finally spotted the white BMW with Colorado plates and a bike rack.  Ah, it's 6:45, must be at breakfast.  Walked in and greeted old friends.  You gotta love a good surprise, even if it didn't turn out exactly as planned - but that's a story for another time.  Thanks to a great friend for the wonderful surprise - was great!

Look who joined us for breakfast:    No hints for USC grads.  Bummer, do  you know who the surprise guest is?

The day started out with fog and drizzle.  After enjoying visiting with our guest at breakfast, the guys took off and headed toward the redwood forest.

Cycling notes from Jerry:

The morning fog was pretty heavy - as in almost rain, as of breakfast time, yet by the time our surprise visitor left us, it was just "marine layer" as they say down south.  Trouble was it never burned off and it was damp and overcast all day.  Other than the brutal climbing that was done (4100 ft) it was a better than okay day because we turned off hwy 101 just out of Klamath and went to the coast via a small parkway in the redwoods national and state parks.  This was just spectacular as all trucks were gone as well as most travelers.  We were cycling through incredible forests, with good roads and ALL DOWNHILL other than the first mile or two.  What a ride -smooth roads, high speed & incredible scenery.  We even saw several herds of elk in a preserve called Prairie Creek Elk Preserve.

Notes from Tom:

I chuckle at "marine layer"--for those of us who speak plain english it's plain old fog.  Whatever you call it, we rode in it all day.  We made 71.25 miles, and the first 71.00 was in the fog.  We had our biggest climbing day at 4100 feet, which also resulted in our lowest average speed of 13.4 mph.  

The surprise visitor this morning was the highlight of the day.  I can't thank him enough for tracking us down through the schedule and this blog.  Our apologies to him for not taking a rest day--that caused him to have to stay an extra day and drive a lot more miles.  What a GREAT surprise.  Thank you.

The redwood forests are amazing - the roads were somewhat narrow, but the traffic was light for most of the day.  As always, it is important to follow traffic rules - slower traffic keep right!  

An elk herd near the highway - worth stopping for - and a great lunch spot.  Look at the size of the cut log.  The tree was 1,000 years old - cut to make room for the 101 by-pass.

As I finish my story of the day - I wanted to share with everyone some insight into how we "methodically" plan out this trip - you lay all the maps, travel books and computer and figure out how many miles to ride in the next day or two - then try to find a place to stay within that mileage range.  Keeps things exciting.