Map courtesy of AAA

Sunday July 25th 12:50 PM - Crescent City KOA to Elk Prairie Campground

We got a nice early start this morning to head into Crescent City for breakfast. Then we headed up the big climb into the long steep hills between Crescent City and Trees of Mystery. Tad lost his mirror on the way down, which made for excitement for him and quandary for me when he did not show up behind me.

We stopped at Trees of Mystery and had a bagel and some fruit. we watched Paul Bunyan talk to kids for a while and the attached some Trees of Mystery signs to our BOBs. Now we are having lunch in Klamath. I will write more when in camp.

We had a delightful ride from Klamath after the 2nd monster hill. We entered Prairie Creek Redwood State Park. It was great, there was all these great big trees with Reddish colored bark, I was wondering what they are called :)

We saw Cork Screw Tree and Big Tree. What made the day so great was that we finally saw the sun for long periods. We got to camp and sat in the sun for almost an hour. Then we played some frisbee. We saw Bill, the guy from San Diego, and met the Swede Alec. Supposedly Lorenzo and Jason will be here sometime soon.

Till Later,
Dan and Tad

Monday July 26, 1999 - Elk Prairie State Park to ????
We had a nice stay at Elk Prairie. We met back up with Bill (from San Diego), Alec (from Switzerland I think), Jason (from the UK) and Lorenzo (from Berkeley). We got a pretty early start and stopped at Rolf's to have breakfast. It was expensive but more food than we could actually eat. We left there and rode to Trinidad and went into a mini mart for a Vanilla Cappuccino.

It looks like it might be clearing up. We are planning on heading into Arcata and going to a bike shop for a little repair on my rear derailer. The cable housing got smashed by the connection to the BOB Trailer.

After that we will try to find a AAA and pick up a camping book to try to figure out how to go past The Eureka KOA and find camping.

(continued 9:55 PM)

We got the bike fixed in Arcata. We also washed the bikes at coin-op car wash. We were struck by the amount of slackers around the town. There were teen age and twenty year old bums everywhere. The hippies are alive and well in Humboldt county.

By the time we left Arcata it was cold and foggy again. We rode hard into Eureka and found the AAA office to get a camp book. After evaluating our options we decided to stay in a Hotel in Eureka. We are sitting watching the Giants in a wild game with football scores.

Until tomorrow,
Tad and Dan

Map courtesy of AAA

Tuesday July 27, 1999 - Eureka to Richardson Grove State Park
We slept so well in the hotel in Eureka that we got a very late start. Before even leaving the hotel room I (Tad) got another of my now infamous overnight flats, on the rear wheel of course. While we were getting ready, Bill dropped by and said he might stay an extra day there.

We started off the morning looking for a place for Breakfast. Bill told us that there was a Denny's up the street but we missed it. Instead we stopped at Carl's Fine Omelettes. Breakfast was excellent.

We then stopped by a grocery store and picked up some fruit and Top Ramen for the day's food. While in the Grocery store we ran into a guy in full cycling clothes and he offered to show us a way out of town while getting off of HWY 101. It took us on a Gravel road and was a nice way out of town.

We finally got moving and stopped in Fortuna for some drinks and a rest. The funny thing is we ran into the same Swiss Couple that we ran into the day before at an identical Mini-mart (Aztec Grill).

We then continued riding on 101 until we came upon a couple from Seattle. They where going as far as Weott. We talked to them for a few. We then played leap frog with them for a while and turned off on The Avenue of the Giants. The Avenue of the Giants is a side road that weaves through the redwoods.

We took our time and enjoyed the redwoods. We tried to stop at Weott at the Store but it had been closed for at least 3 years. So we continued to Myers Flat where again ran into the Swiss Couple. It is almost like we were following them around. We had the most amazing sub sandwich for $4.50. I could not even finish it. As we were leaving I had another flat.....argh!!!!

After Myers Flat we rode on to Richardson Grove. We arrived there just before 8:00 pm at 79 miles for the day.

Tad and Dan

Map courtesy of AAA

Wednesday July 28, 1999 - Richardson Grove SP to Mac Kerricher Beach SP
We started off in search of breakfast and were sorely disappointed. We stopped at Tree House and had the worst breakfast burrito ever, enough said. We met Stefan, a minimalist long miles italian cyclist. He said he was doing 90-110 a day, I guess that was miles.

We continued on to Leggett and turned onto Hwy 1, we stopped and got some broken cookies. We saw lots of touring cyclists but none that friendly.

We then headed on up the much maligned Leggett Hill. It turned out to be tough but not any tougher than any others. We hit the top and had a victory banana. Then headed on down for a quick and curvy descent. Only to reach a much shorter but tougher Rockport hill. On the hill we met Will a fellow BOBer from Orange County going to Oregon U.

We stopped in Westport for another great sandwich, then headed on a tough ten miles to camp, where we found will relaxing.

We decided to go to the Purple Rose in Cleone for Mexican food, while locking up our bikes a guy asked us about our Cannondales. We talked for a few minutes and he introduced himself as John Daniels, a restaurant owner from Fort Bragg. He apologized for keeping us from putting our name on the list and made sure we got put higher on the list with the Hostess.

We then headed for the bar and got our round of Margaritas which John sneakily bought for us. We then got our table and enjoyed our dinner and 2nd round of Margaritas. We found out that the name of John's Restaurant was Derillios so go check it out and thank him for being a nice guy.

Then we went back and enjoyed a camp fire and beers and swisher sweets with Will back at camp. Overall it was a very good day. The Mendocino coast is gorgeous we had a great day of sunshine and coastline. Perfect!!

Till Later,
Dan and Tad

Thursday July 29, 1999 - Mac Kerricher Beach to Manchester KOA We woke up a little late after staying out with the fire. We were looking at the day ahead and decided that since Manchester Beach State Park did not have showers and the KOA had showers and a hot tub that we would share a site with Will.

We started late but had a great day of riding though curvy great road and with sunshine from 1 PM on. There were cute little small towns like Mendocino, Elk and many others. We stopped early in the day at Fort Bragg for Breakfast at Denny's then on to Safeway and the bike shop. As we were leaving Fort Bragg, we were sent through some road work where cars were held back, it gave us 30 minutes of no traffic highway. We had incredible views from bridges and down into steep gorgeous little coves. We also passed the steepest section of the coast. It was as steep as Painted Cave in parts.

The last part of the ride Tad and I pounded through because of the short mileage. We had a nice tailwind and some great hills. Dan tied the speed record at 43 mph.

At the KOA we went to the local store and got some firewood, beer, and marshmallows. We had some great R n R with WIll and went to bed late.

Till Later,
Dan and Tad

Map courtesy of AAA

Friday, July 30, 1999 - Manchester to Bodega Dunes
We got a late start out of the KOA because my pump decided to come apart and lose a piece. Dan finally found it and I was able to inflate my tires and get moving.

Since we split a site at the KOA with Will from Orange County we were able to sit in the Jacuzzi for a while.

We met a couple, named Aryn and Ceril, that was also touring. He was from Paris and she was from Berkeley.

As we were bicycling along we stopped in the little store at Stewerts point. The proprietor of the store was loudly talking about how the cyclists should not be on the Road. We decided to take our business down the road.

We then stopped at a little store about 10 miles down the road and had a sandwich and some drinks. We met a few nice people and petted Rose Bud, a chocolate lab. A couple pulled up and the lady handed us a brownie and the husband preceded to tell us the Pope driving the limo joke and an El Segundo Joke.

The views from the bluffs right before Bodega Bay were fantastic. The wind was blowing hard and the water was a fantastic blue.

When we got to the Bodega Dunes park we were surprised by the number of other cyclists in the hiker biker camp. We met a couple of guys from San Diego that said they had done this trip three times before and it had never been this cold before.

Dan and I went out to dinner and I had another infamous mystery flat while we were inside. Dan rode back to get the pump from camp and I started walking the bike. (Not a happy time!!) Again there did not seem to be any holes in the tube.

Until next time,
Tad and Dan