Another outstanding day of riding, and the longest distance of any leg on the tour- 100 miles in total, including my "extra" miles back & forth to Miranda for dinner ;-). Today was a pretty diverse day of landscapes to cover, including rocky coastline at the start, then flat river delta farmland, and some broad tidal bays & estuaries near Eureka, before heading up the Eel River valley and through Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the "Avenue of the Giants." I've ridden some of this area before when I came up here in 2019 with Carol Dyer and rode the Tour of the Unknown Coast, a very challenging ride through the redwoods and over the coast range twice. We met Tim O'Boyle on that ride, and Tim joined me today for almost the entire ride. It was great to have someone along to talk with and share lunch and coffee along the way. Thanks Tim!
As has been typical, the scenery was spectacular. First was a great set of coastline sections south of Trinidad, which I think has become my favorite northern California town.
This section even included a few nice gravel grinding segments ;-) And some interesting wildlife... Those things lying on the sand are harbor seals!
Next up was riding around the port and through downtown Eureka, a pretty cool old hatbor & lumber town, including a working harbor with fishing fleet, and some great old Victorian houses.
Then out into working farmland near Ferndale...
...and on to the Avenue of the Giants!
Riding the Avenue of the Giants is really hard to do justice with just photograph, which all begin to blend together! But what it feels like is riding for miles and miles down the nave of a huge natural version of a European cathedral like York Minster or St. Peter's basilica in Rome. The scale and majesty of the place is just stunning...
At any rate, we finished riding in Phillipsville, where Tim's wife was generous enough to meet him to give him a ride home after 80 miles riding one-way with me from his home McKinleyville. I checked into my airbnb, and then rode 3.5 miles back to Miranda to get dinner and some groceries for breakfast-- a long, but very satisfying day! Tomorrow's ride, while about 20 miles less than today, will probably be the most challenging physically of the whole tour. After riding inland up the Eel valley today, I'll need to climb about 2500' up and over the coast range to get back to the shoreline tomorrow morning, and finish the day at one of my longtime favorite places along the NorCal coast- Fort Bragg. Cheers!
Avenue of the Giants is just amazing, for sure. I remember enjoying Ferndale with you too, all the historic buildings. The gravel in Trinidad was NOT my favorite, but you two seemed to enjoy it. Glad you could ride again with Tim. It's just a lovely area there, spectacular riding .
ReplyDeleteThanks, Scott. I really enjoyed tagging along with you on this day!
ReplyDelete