best rest day ever...and the best trees ever!

No pics in this entry, unfortunately...reliable WiFi has been scarce!

After our first redwood adventure, we hit a day that was long, cold, sleepy, windy and tiring. We spent the day fighting to gain distance and wakefulness, none too successfully. When we finally pulled into the Eureka KOA, we were all sorts of happy to learn they had a hot tub. Just the thing our sore, tired muscles needed. We soaked for close to an hour with some other bikers and went to bed, happy in the knowledge that we had a rest day at the KOA to look forward to.

And you know what? BEST REST DAY EVER.

We spent the day reading, blogging, playing silly games on our phones, enjoying the hot tub (again...), and revelling in the knowledge that for one day, we didn't have to pack up, go anywhere, set up camp, anything.

And right around dinner time, the day got even better.

How?

We happened to be standing out by the main entrance at the right time...in order to see our favorite group of eleven teens and their two counselors pull into camp!!

After we ate, we joined them for an evening of trading stories and giggles and mostly just laughing. It was sorely needed. Zac and I certainly enjoy each other's company and occasionally get into giggle-mode, but nothing quite like we did with the apogee group. We went to bed in even higher spirits, ready to tackle the road again.

The next day was...weird..in that it was utterly unremarkable and routine. I never thought I'd see the day when biking for 6 or 7 hours, eating chef boyardee out of the can and sleeping in a tent would feel routine!

But the day after was anything but ordinary. It's not every day a couple of Midwesterners get to frolic in the Avenue of the Giants! For 30 miles, we got to ride in the cool shade of the redwood forests. When the opportunity arose, we dismounted and frolicked to our hearts' content! Usually, this meant whenever we passed a tree with a hollow base...

We stopped at some tourist-trip-ish places, like the immortal tree and another drive-thru tree. But frankly...they were REALLY fun tourist traps! And provided some great photo-ops!

Yup. It's official. The Redwood Forests have been (and will probably remain) my favorite part of this trip!

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!!

oofta

What an interesting few days it's been...
there's been...
-pea soup fog
-becoming one with my bike
- the first on-the-road fight
-and an awesome group of teens biking from Eugene to San Francisco!

The pea soup fog was outside of Charleston. We had spent our rest day there, mostly hiding in the tent in our long underwear and wool socks, trying to keep warm. It was mid-50s, gloomy and kind-of raining by the end of the night. And that semi rain and fog didn't lift when the sun came up!

As we started our first climb of the day, the air got progressively colder and the fog got progressively thicker. Also, I feel the need to mention that we were on Seven Devil's Road. By the time we climbed the 4th hill, I figured out why it's called Seven Devil's Road. And I didn't like it one bit! The fog had enveloped the world completely,for all we could tell. It was equal parts creepy and cool, with more than a little unnerving thrown in. Needless to say, I was a whole lot of glad to be away from the devils!

I had decided a few days ago that I wanted to get some clips for my bike. I've heard all about how they make for more efficient biking, wastes less energy, allows you to engage more muscle groups, that sort of thing. So I decided to become one with my bike. It didn't go so well. The test rides were just fine! But the next morning...I didn't even make it out of the campsite before I was staring at the sky and feeling 5years old again. But I kept on keeping on and things went much smoother...fir about 16 miles.

And then we encountered a hill.

I got mostly up the hill and just wanted to stop for a moment for a drink of water. I git my right foot out just fine. But in the process of getting my left foot out, I lost my balance. My bike pulled me down. And this time, my foot stayed caught in the clip, resulting in a leg twisted at a weird angle...And a Charlie horse. in my butt. Ever had a glute muscle Charlie horse? If you haven't, I hope you never do. It's a horrible feeling, especially when there's still 17 miles to go...

So thanks to the cramped butt muscle, I woke up cranky and frustrated this morning. My right clip was being sticky and I was having a hard time getting my foot free. Zac loosened it a bit, but it still wasn't cooperating. So when we were starting our 600ft climb and I once again crashed and burned, I absolutely lost it. I was frustrated beyond belief, sore, and once again (literally) lying on the side of the road crying because I couldn't get out of my clips.

And Zac was losing his patience too. We tend to feed off each others moods, for better or worse. He had spent half the day and night yesterday dealing with cranky frustrated Lindsay, and was running out of positivity. I'll spare you the details of the fight that ensued, but the end result was Zac going teacher mode on me when I needed caring boyfriend mode (though in his defense, I *was* kind of acting like one of his students...), and me glaring at him and telling him I was mad at him and was just gonna be mad at him for a while.

(But flying down a mountainside and being greeted at the bottom with a gorgeous ocean view is good for cooling down tempers!)

Around lunch time, we ran into a group of cyclists also headed to San Francisco! A group of eleven teens from all over, including Italy, going from Eugene to San Fran in 20 DAYS. At the peak of their trip, they'll be pulling 60 mile days! Color me impressed...we max out between 40 and 50! Turns out we were all headed to the same campsite...they pulled in just after I got a wonderfully warm shower. So after dinner I decided to track them down for a group picture, cause they're awesome and I wanted a picture to go with the story!

(If you're reading this - GOOD LUCK!! I hope we'll run into you again...you guys made a rough day better for me. Happy trails!)

Warm showers adventures

Once again, our Warm Showers hosts have proven to be AWESOME.

We decided to stop in Coos Bay after only 20 miles (I know, I know. ONLY 20 miles? What a show-off...but trust me, once you start pulling 30 or 40 mile days on a routine basis, 20 does feel like an "only"!). We had emailed Janet and Robert a couple days ago to see if we could stay with them. We were met with an enthusiastic "of course!" I found out when we got here that part of what won Janet over was this blog...but more specifically, reading one of my older entries about how "Our spirits were low. I cried. It happens." She and Robert had done some touring in the past where she cried because of the hills too...so
needless to say, she could relate!

And let me tell you, from the minute we got to their house until we went to bed, there was nothing but laughter. They have an English Mastiff (I LOVE when we stay with people who have big dogs!!!) and a bunch of cats...and a partial recumbent tandem bike. Wondering what that looks like? It looks like this:

We took it for a quick spin down the block...and it was an experience, let me tell you! It was so disconcerting to have zero control over the steering of a bicycle...every wobble felt so dramatic because I couldn't correct it, and I had no braking capabilities whatsoever. But it was a heck of a lot of fun, and Janet said she could hear our laughter/shrieks from down the block.

She also helped me complete a quest I was on for Papa...he wanted me to go on a distance runner's pilgramige in his place. Steve Prefontaine was an Olympic legend in the '70s; holding something like 7 distance records, or some absurd thing like that. He was killed in a car crash when he was in his 20s...anywho, he was buried in his hometown of Coos Bay. So I was on a mission to find his grave, and maybe even run a lap at his old highschool track.When I told Janet I was planning to bike out to the cemetary in the morning to try to find his grave, she offered me a ride out. Well, we had a heck of a time finding him! I ended up looking up a picture online so we knew what we were looking for...and we drove around the entire cemetary looking for it. At one point I got out of the car at the main office building to see if there were any signs or directions...and I hear Janet shriek from the car, "Oh my god I FOUND IT!!!" Turns out, it was right up the main road...we had driven right past it when we pulled in. We giggled probably more than was appropriate in a cemetary...but I like to think Steve would have appreciated it.

A greatly anticipated rest day is scheduled next...we'll bike to Charleston, about 9 miles away from Coos Bay...and then not do anything. Well, maybe bike into town to see a movie, but more likely than not we'll just hang out at camp and read and walk and enjoy not biking 30 or 40 miles!

No more birthday blues!

I think it might be safe to say that the Birthday Curse has been broken!

For those of you who don't know, I haven't had the greatest of luck when it comes to birthdays as of late. 23 - got robbed, first a couple days before, then a couple days after.
24 - lost my job two days before
25 - diagnosed with mono the DAY of my birthday.

Needless to say, I was a little hesitant to see what 26 held in store for me. Fall off a mountainside? Attacked by cougars? Broken bike? Anything was possible.

Instead...it held a whole lot of wonderful :)

We started the day with shivers...55 feels mighty chilly when you've got a day of biking on exposed roads ahead of you! But we tore along a stretch of Oregon's more forgiving flatlands and made really good time. I had decided somewhere along the road that what I wanted for my birthday was...toasted marshmallows. So when we stopped for lunch in Yachats, I grabbed a bag of marshmallows for later that night.

We pulled into camp early (before 3 even!) and had plenty of time to shower, lounge around in the sunlight and just hang out before our stomachs started demanding food. So we built ourselves a good campfire, roasted some sausage, actually heated up some baked beans (rather than just eating them cold out of the can...) and roasted the ENTIRE BAG of marshmallows. It was wonderful! Zac gave me a beautiful pair of earrings and life, as they say...was good.

The day after was a little rougher. We did a solid 42 miles (longest day since Pre-Portland) and it was our 5th day biking...also the most consecutive days on the road. There were some hefty hills and some...not necessarily hefty hills, but lonnnng slow climbs. I haven't quite decided which is harder - the short, steep climbs or the long, gradual inclines. I'm beginning to think the gradual hills are worse! At least with the steep inclines, I can anticipate an end to them! The slow climbs just feel like they take forever. But at least there were some pretty vistas to cheer us on!

But it made getting to camp that much nicer at the end of the day. Though I did encouter 'tour stomach' upon arrival. Zac had warned me about how much food my stomach would demand...and oh boy was it demanding food! I suppose my bright green sleeping bag is appropriate...I certainly feel like the Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy!

Okay. This is what the trip is SUPPOSED to be like!! Fun, challenging - but not impossible - with time at the end of the day to relax! As far as I'm concerned, everything Pre-Portland was training. The trip ACTUALLY started July 17th when we left Portland.

Here's what I learned after we left Cape Lookout, the World's Most Perfect Campsite Ever:

1000 ft climbs suck. They're hard, they hurt, they're exhausting, they're no fun.

1000 ft descents? awesome. freaking. AWESOME!
It's a weird sensation to go flying down a mountainside. The wind rushing by essentially deafens you and brings (literal) tears to your eyes. But it's so much fun to watch your bike chew up the distance you fought so hard to climb, leaning into turns to keep your momentum and bracing your body to keep your balance.

Or if you're Zac, hitting potholes halfway down the mountain, having your waterbottle fly up to smack your butt and then fall off (the waterbottle, not the rider!) so you have to break and retrieve it!

And even more surprising was the moment, 100 feet from the bottom of the mountain, when we encountered this:

Sand dunes. On the side of a mountain.

(and an old record player, on a sand dune, on the side of a mountain..)

It was an incredible and unexpected find. It made me grateful that there was a slight incline in the mountain before the dunes. It forced us to slow down, which meant we were taking in the scenery when we got to to the dunes, rather than flying by them!

We stopped for lunch shortly after the Big Hill at the Pelican Pub and Brewery. I had tasty tasty fish'n'chips...and (brace yourselves!) a beer. Yep. I voluntarily had a pint with lunch...and LIKED IT. Strange things happen while you're on vacation...

We pulled into our campsite by 4.30...which was so nice. We could take our time, take hot showers before dinner, and still have plenty of daylight left to read and relax and chat with other bikers. Of course...we might have been more inclined to stay out and chat had it not been in the 50s! Sorry to hear you've been sweltering, Chicago, 'cause we've been shivering our tails off! Well, when not biking anyway.

The next day was (dare I say it??)...EASY.

We had only planned for 32 miles...taking a break after the 1000ft climb day, preparing for a day with a couple bigish hills. 

What I hadn't anticipated was how very easy flatlands felt after so many hills! The distance we planned to cover before we stopped for lunch...we finished in the first hour. We stopped to do a little whale watching...couldn't get any pictures of the whales, but the vista made us both wish we were pirates:

There was still a bit of a climb to tackle...but I don't think we'll ever have a completely flat day. Oh well! The path itself was beautiful:

Note the Tiny Zac for size comparison!

And the view from the top was well worth the climb!

(and we're kinda cute too!)

We got to Newport (5 miles from our campsite!) by lunchtime...which meant we could enjoy some drool-worthy seafood for lunch. We got a fried clam appetizer, Zac had calamari'n'chips, and I got clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl. Nothing like biking 25 miles to make delicious food even tastier!

We decided to frequent Bike Newport (http://www.bikenewport.net/) where Zac got some gloves to cushion his hands (I'd done so towns ago! it really does make a difference) and I...did laundry?

This place was quite possibly the coolest bike shop I've encountered. Downstairs is your typical bike shop...but upstairs, they have a "day hostel" for cyclotourists! Shower, laundry, tv, computer, internet, chargers...everything you could hope for when you're on the road, ready to use! It's really quite neat...and it was nice to sit on a couch for a couple hours.

And it's REALLY nice to feel like we're on vacation.

Cheers!

Pictures! for funsies!

The Rockies from the plane

Typical contents of our food bag

You guys. The new Canadian money is TRANSPARENT. AND HAS BRAILLE. So cool!

View from our picnic spot on Stanley Park, Vancouver

Somewhere in Washington...it was pretty. And waaay high up.

Our campground in Port Townsend

Wildlife  count: a couple bald eagles, 4 deer, a couple fawns, some seals, a whale...

James, the great Dane of Cas and Ian, our awesome hosts in Bremerton

Need some rosemary?

book HEAVEN