Pacific Coast Tour – Day 26 – 28; Brookings, OR to Eureka, CA – The start of the Redwoods

Day: 26
August 12, 2021

Distance: 28 miles (1030 total)
Harris Beach State Park (Brookings, OR) to Jedediah Smith State Park, CA

We essentially had a day to kill based on the date we set with Andrew’s mom who will be riding with us soon so we decided to use that extra time to detour up to Jedediah Smith State Park.  We had at least two bike packers recommend this campground to us, and one of them was that guy we met back in Washington (Kitsap) who was rating parks, so we really trusted his judgement.

To get to the state park was relatively easy with little time on the 101 highway.  We had high aspirations of leaving early to give us more time to hike in the afternoon, but for whatever reason it was a slow morning. Made even slower with our necessary grocery stop. I think we made it out of Brookings at like 10:30am. 

It was a super foggy morning so there weren’t many views leaving camp. Once we hit California we went through a lot of farmland and pastures. The fog did start to lift around lunch when we awkwardly breaked in a cemetery (which is way more pleasant than just the side of the road).

The last seven miles of the ride (which were all detour from the main route) was a lovely forested drive.  When we got to the campground it was still really early and we had the majority of the Hiker Biker sites to choose from. Naturally we chose the biggest one with a nice spot for the tent nestled between the massive redwoods. 

Our referrers weren’t wrong. This park is really cool. We spent a large chunk of the afternoon hiking and exploring the area.

After making it back to our campsite to marvel at our little stand of redwoods some more, a couple of older bike tourers spotted us and came over to talk. They apparently ran a small business selling touring gear and maps in a past life and now just have tons of paper maps that they bring to campgrounds to share with fellow bikers; so they gave us some more detailed maps of Northern California that we plan to use to plan a reroute if the 101 or CA 1 get to be too much. So we swapped stories and learned tips from our elders, like building a tandem with the shifters in the stoker position instead of the captain, and eventually said farewell so they could return to their own vacation plans. Shortly afterwards we were even able to pay it forward and share a few maps with another biker.

Day: 27
August 13, 2021

Distance:  58 miles (1088 total)
Jedediah Smith State Park to Elk Prairie Campground

The morning ride was similar to yesterday (and not just the 7 mile back track from the campground). The ACA route took us on the edge of Crescent City along the ocean.  It was a little foggy out, but what we could see was still pretty cool, including their lighthouse.

South of Crescent City we were back on the 101 which is under a massive amount of construction right now at “Last Chance Grade”. Most days it’s only open over night and between noon and 3, but on Friday (i.e. today) it stays open after noon through Saturday.  Even when it is open, it’s only open to one way traffic for a stretch, switching directions approximately every half hour. We killed a little bit of time in Crescent City eating snacks and picking up some forgotten groceries, but figured we may as well get ourselves in line for the closure. Well the closure was on top of a massive hill so time wise we were golden.  It was actually really nice because they had the middle lane coned off to keep cars from passing each other, which really just meant a bike lane for us! Climbing the crazy hill we did eventually catch up to the line of stopped cars. We “zoomed” past them while they were stopped waiting in line. (By zoom I mean a whopping 4mph on the uphill).  We leap frogged with a lot of the cars as they got to move forward, and then got stopped again. Several drivers cheered us on, and others joked that we would beat them. 

Once we reached the flagger, she said we could either ride in front of the line of cars, or in back when she lets the next wave through. We opted for the latter since that would grant us car free roads afterwards. And the views on the downhill were glorious, so it was awesome to not have to share them with cars.  While waiting at the top for the 30 min segment of cars to pass by we figured we may as well have lunch there so we did. The flagger was impressed with our bean burritos.  It was nice waving back to all the cars we passed earlier as they finally made it through the one way closure.

After the big closure at “Last Chance Grade” there was one other closure of one way traffic, but otherwise pretty nice. Traffic was in chunks thanks to the construction which made for pleasant riding.

In Klamath we stopped at the drive through tree tunnel which of course we drove through. Afterwards we had one other major climb, luckily not as bad as the first one. But this climb led to some almost magical downhill riding through the redwoods down into camp, lasting at least 5 miles.

The campground we’re staying at is known for elk, so we’re hoping to spot some in the morning. It’s adjacent to a large meadow surrounded by redwoods, the juxtaposition is really neat.

Day: 28
August 14, 2021

Distance:   50 miles (1138 total)
Elk Prairie Campground to Redwood Cabins and RV Resort (Eureka)

There was a massive fog over the prairie when we first woke up dampening our hopes of seeing elk. But it lifted pretty quick and we were able to watch elk across the field while eating breakfast! It was really neat. Although while we were distracted with the elk, a brave steller jay came over to our table and started pecking at our spice bag! I could only run so fast to shoo it away with my mostly full mug off hot coffee. Luckily no real damage done, but a few holes in our outer bag. (I don’t know why he went for the spices when the granola bars were like right there. Dumb bird.)

After our usual 2 hours of striking camp, we waved goodbye to the other bikers and went on our way. We did get a closer view of the elks on our ride out of the campground as well.

Today was a relatively easy ride especially compared to yesterday’s hills. There was a particularly twisty and rolling hills portion that was really pretty, and because of the curves cars had to go a lot slower which was nice. (Too twisty etc for me to get any on the ride pictures though). There were signs measuring your speed all over it, most of the time we were well under the recommended speed at like 5mph, but we clocked one at 30 which was exciting.

Once we made it to Trinidad we opted to stop for lunch. We were hoping for pizza, but when that place wasn’t open, we had to settle for delicious goat cheese veggie burgers and garlic fries from the Lighthouse Grill. Darn.

After Trinidad we followed the “scenic drive” instead of the 101, which as the name suggests was very scenic, and the mist was even lifting so we could see a lot of the ocean. We even had a chance to watch some surfers, although the waves didn’t seem that great.

After Trinidad we were mostly off the 101 on bike trails or very quite roads which was really nice even if there were a couple gravel spots and sections of washout.

So our original plan for tonight was to camp at the Redwood Cabins and RV Resort which has H/B tent sites. But we had a note in our spreadsheet that it was a little ‘sketchy’ and thus to consider buying a full tent site. Since every campground we’ve been to this far has been full to regular campers, so we weren’t expecting that option. Everyone else we had talked to seemed to be either moteling or warm showering in Eureka. And we had gotten random comments from people about it being a ‘sketchy’ area. So as soon as we had service this morning we frantically reached out to several warm showers host hoping for a place to stay tonight.

When we hit McKinleyville (basically two towns over from Eureka) we decided to kill some time in hopes of hearing back from a host. We visited the world’s tallest totem pole, swung by the store, and then treated ourselves to ice cream. But after an hour and a half we decided we better get going.

We made our way to Arcata (1 town over from Eureka) pretty quickly and had our first experience of stereotypical California college town. In one of the park squares there was a large drum circle which includes people juggling and spinning.

As can be expected, no one bit at our super last minute request for a warm shower host, so we decided we’d check out the campground, and if we got a bad vibe we’d get a hotel. Well if you read our locations at the top, you probably realized we decided to stay at the proposed campgrounds. It’s our most expensive night of camping for sure, but it’s a campground and still way cheaper than a hotel so I’m happy to stay here! The H/B area was secluded behind the bathrooms, but being so close to the city we requested a less secluded area, and they gave us one of the tent sites that were still available at the same rate which was super nice. And they had free showers and laundry (not free) on site, as well as a well stocked camp store. So we were happy to clean ourselves and our clothes while we drank beers (Andrew was starting to smell pretty bad-I obviously smelled fine because I don’t smell bad, but it’s still nice to shower and have fresh clothes!)

Tomorrow we’re excited to be meeting up with Andrew’s mom who will be joining us for a ride through the Avenue of the Giants.

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