Something happened when I entered California. Visibly it quickly turned from logging dominant landscape to agriculture dominant landscape, but something more subtle changed. After crossing the border the 2nd half of my day, the wind shifted more to my back, the weather seemed to clear a bit, and things became just a little familiar, if but only in my head.
I was cruising along a quieter, straight road and I started to feel as though something was applying a force to the back of my bike now and again, such that I felt as though I had to grab a little tighter to stop from falling back....
After arriving Crescent City that evening I picked some dinner and supplies and made my way to the outskirts of town where I found a picnic area on the beach. I enjoyed sushi and beer to the sunset and made my rough camp, no tent for fear of being seen by the cops..
The next morning was chilly, around 40 degrees, and wet from all the dew, drenching my sleeping bag. I awoke with cold and numb feet, which made more difficult the immediate 1200 foot climb out of Crescent city.
It can be risky business cycling on the Redwood Highway. South of Crescent City a construction stop light stopped me at the bottom of a steep climb. As cars lined up behind me, I observed the oncoming traffic pass through 1 tight land that curved between the construction and a rock face that blocked my view around the corner. The light turned green so I let cars go before me so as not to hold anyone up behind me. But then the light turned yellow so I had to move fast to beat the the green light in the other direction- it was impossible to know how far it was beyond the blind corner to the other light, where I could get caught out against oncoming traffic.
I had to shift in to my large front ring and stand up on the pedals for maximum effort to have a chance at making it up the incline before traffic started at me. In the end, I had to wave at the first oncoming car just starting towards me to wait for me to pass before traffic could proceed. Now that was a challenge!
(not the same location)
Later that day I entered Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, a gem of California/America's landscape:
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