Hey there, California!

We have successfully made it to Cali!

And of course...look who we bumped into at the border:

 

I freakin' love these kids. I keep hoping to cross paths with them again...

The first day in California was a little rough. The weather couldn't seem to make up it's mind as to whether it wanted to be hot or cold...I fell off my bike (again...the count is now at 4...) because of my clips, and the day ended with a 1000 foot climb just south of Crescent City.

But the worst part of  it wasn't actually the climb. It was the fact that our campsite was still a couple hundred feet from the top of the mountain. We knew that it was a 2.2 mile road to get to the campsite. As we turned off 101, I briefly thought, "I really hope these aren't 2.2 DOWNHILL miles..."

After the first turn downhill, I started to get suspicious. As we started picking up speed and turning more corners, I was no longer suspicious.

I was MAD.

There really should have been a warning at the top of the hill: "Hikers and bikers, beware! This campsite is back at the bottom of the mountain you just climbed!!"

So the first day in California didn't really win me over.

But the second day? The second day was FREAKING AWESOME!

Zac and one of our campsite-mates had gone campsite-to-campsite the night before, asking anyone with large trucks if they would be at all willing to give us a ride up to 101 in the morning. And they actually found someone! An awesome skydiver named Kevin...who incidentally thinks we're crazy for biking all the miles we're biking. Yep, the person who voluntarily jumps out of planes think's *we've* nuts...

But he loaded our gear into the back of his truck and drove us up the hill. And Zac (okay, and me too) got to fulfill a childhood dream of riding in the back of a pickup truck!

 

And then the Redwood Adventures began.

I've always had a fascination with the Redwood forests. I'm pretty sure Ride a Purple Pelican, one of the books of poetry I read as a kid, had either a poem about or illustration of redwood trees. But you should have seen me a year ago, laid up on a couch at mum and papa's, sick with mono...and giddy as a kid on Christmas, having just realized this trip would take us through redwood national park!

On our lunch break, we noticed a sign for "Drive Thru Tree." We asked the waitress about it...turned out, across the street there was a living redwood tree that had been carved out after a fire, allowing people to drive through it. It was a total tourist trap, but since we weren't in a car, we got to bike through it for just a dollar apiece. And it was SO COOL. We nerded out about it for quite a while, and got a couple pics. This one's my absolute favorite:

There was another big hill to tackle on day 2 in Cali...but the descent made it worth every foot. Not because it was the most spectacular downhill...it was actually pretty moderate, with occasional plateaus and minor uphills that kept our speed down.

And I'm so glad for it. Because the redwood forest was breathtaking.

It was just the right combination of warm air and cool shade and...well, there are no words to properly describe redwood trees. They're just so...BIG. And these aren't even the giant Sequoias, either! These are their baby cousins! Admittedly, I might have been singing "Colors of the Wind" to myself...it was a very Pocahontas kind of environment. But we took our time, stopping at some particularly spectacularly large specimens, taking pictures, climbing into crevasses in the trees...

Yes, we're standing inside a tree

 

(this is taken from inside said tree, looking up)

 

And at the end of the day, our campsite had this view:

 

So, yeah. The redwood forest portion of California was pretty spectacular! Every bit as good as I had hoped...and there's still a 31 mile stretch through the Avenue of the Giants to look forward to!!