06.14

a strange thing happened today:  it got cloudy. 

i started out the morning with a 20 min or so kyack paddle in the lake.  early, before 7.  one other person was up, but no one on the water.  other than a couple of mallards and a bunch of grebes.  it was quiet, except for the grebes of course, and relatively calm.  i almost didnt go, but mike, the park owner, sort of shamed me into it.  glad he did.

next up was to change the front tire tube.  my patch worked for a little while, then it was leaking worse than before.  so i bit the bullet and changed it out.  so far so good, seems to be working fine.

then it was down to the duncan donuts for chai and an egg and cheese on bagel.  didn't see any local coffee shop, nice doesn't really seem to have a downtown.

 i started out up through the hills, looking a little familiar, like east tennessee.  a baby ospry was yakking away, wanting food, i guess, as i rode up past the blue lakes.

then i hit some familiar names:  mendocino and the russian river valley.  wine country.  dried, yellow grass mixing back in with the green.

i hit the famous rte 101 at capella, turned north and started the final leg of the journey.  

then willits, 'the gateway to the redwoods'.  only there aren't any redwoods there.

at first i thought about stopping just north of willits, but i was feeling good and had plenty of daylight.  with three days to finish 170 miles, everything i got done would be that much less to do in the end.  i could take a little time to enjoy the redwoods when i did get to them.

one more climb, ridgewood summit at just under 2,000 feet.  funny how, after doing so many 6,000 - 8,000 foot passes, 2,000 seems so low.  but it's not about the elevation, but the change in elevation.  1,000 feet of climb is a 1,000 feet, doesn't matter the elevation.

i made it to leggett, where the famous rte 1 coastal highway turns inland and joins up with 101.  the pacific coast trail follows rte 1 from seattle to mexico.  heavily travelled bike route, most riders go north to south because of the winds.  i, of course, was continuing to ride into the wind now coming from the nw. 

just a mile or so past leggett, i was getting into tall pine forest. the road changed back to a 2 lane winding through the forest, i stopped at standish-hickey state recreational area.  they have biker/hiker campsites set aside for us.  at rock creek campground, it's a communal, group site.  there were 3 other cyclists there, a couple from boston and a young teacher from los angelos starting his summer break.

i got in an hour or more before dark, time enough to head across the street to the peg house for a welcome beer and burger.  80+ miles for the second day in a row.