Day 20 -Harris Beach State Park to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

65 miles (105 km) – Total so far: 1,176 miles (1,892 km)

Distance 65 miles (106 km) Time riding 5 hours 22 minutes Max speed 32.5 mph Average speed 12 mph Left at 7:30 am Arrived at 3:50 pm

Beers in the Vista Bar went down well along with the end of Dodgers Pirates baseball and a burger. They didn’t serve any other type of food, but pretty much anything goes down well. This actually was pretty good.

Brookings is the biggest town I’ve passed through on the coast. I sat in the supermarket cafe catching up with the Ashes win and the rugby and football for almost 90 minutes. It was a misty cool morning with no sun until mid afternoon. The mist was a mixture of moisture and smoke from the grass and forest fires burning only about 5 miles away.

6 miles and that’s Ore-gone and into California. I am not sure how many American States police their borders, but California does. It is forbidden to take any fresh agricultural products in. After a short time the bike route leaves 101 and travels through a farming area on quiet roads until Crescent City. This is a sprawling place and not in the least attractive. It had a good visitors centre though to pick up some maps and realise this was the last place to stock up with food other than a couple of gas stations.

Until then the day had been pretty flat, but after Crescent City the 101 goes up on a family notorious hill. It is steep and goes up to nearly 1200 feet, that is to be expected, but it is windy and has very little shoulder. It is probably the most dangerous bit of road I’ve come across so far. Most cyclists will ride it in the afternoon also, and today there would have been about 20 headed over going south. Probably similar headed north. I had passed 6 so far, and I knew there were others from the campground starting later.

After the descent the road passes through an Indian reservation (the Yurok tribe), which has its casino and gas station. This was my chance to get a couple of beers for this evening. After another decent hill (only to 800 feet this time) a descent, and the cycle route veers off through Prairie Creek Redwoods Park. This is part of the Redwoods National Park also. After a climb up to 1,000 feet the ride is particularly rewarding. Coming from the north it’s the first real sight of these trees. The ride is a gradual descent though an incredible canopy for about 7 miles until the ranger office and the campground. A great way to end the day.

These coastal Redwoods are the biggest trees in the world. They grow up to 380 feet and can be 22 feet in diameter. The bark alone can be up to 12 inches thick. The live to be close to 2,000 years old. In 1800 redwood forests covered more than 2 million acres. But after the gold rush came redwood fever and very many were logged. The National Park was formed in 1968 to help preservation. About 80,000 acres remain.