Cycling in Northern California

Now my 2nd time cycling in Northern California, I have come to appreciate it more.  There's something about it that is distinct from even Washington and Oregon just to the north, and I like it.  

From Crescent City I followed the Adventure Cycling Route through a number of National and State redwood parks and along the coast; it is quite a special section of the Pacific coast, in my opinion.  One of the best places in the world I've ever cycled.

I met this Swiss couple on the road.  They were cycling from Alaska to San Diego.  What a great stretch of the planet to explore by bike!

 Trinidad, CA

 I took a day's rest at a hostel in Arcata, CA.  A very crunchy/hippie town in NorCal.  I liked it :)

I met up with my friend Zach in Eureka. 

He was to cycle with me from Eureka to SF, where he resides.

We had a late breakfast in Ferndale, CA, the access point to the Mattole road and the Lost Coast.  A breakfast that later proved too late and too large....

 The 2 climbs to enter the Lost Coast are like no others I've done.  The first, 6 miles and almost 2000 feet of altitude gain over a consistently steep grade, it took us 50 minutes ascend. 

 

 The 2nd climb of almost 1000 feet comes immediatly after you descend the first and it starts out even steeper than the first.  So steep that at one point Zach had to walk and, while I managed to persist a bit further, it put me into such distress that I thought that my late/large lunch was going to evacuate and I too had to stop.  I have come across climbs like these nowhere else: extended steep grades that immediatly put you into the red zone and demand all you have to turn over your lowest gear.

After ascending the 2nd climb, however, the glory of the landscape welcomes you.  Descending into and traversing the lost coast beach is a cycle touring gem.

It required climbing another 2 challenging 500 ft climbs to reach our campground that day.   With over 4000ft of climbing in less than 40 miles from Ferndale to our campsite, 65 miles cycling total on our day, both Zach and I agreed: that was the most difficult day of cycling we've ever done.
This video shows ascending and descending the first mountaint, ascending and descending the second mountain, and onto the lost coast beach.

The next day, leaving our campground to exit the lost coast my front derailuer cable snapped and left me with only my low front gear.   Many miles away from a bike shop, I was on my own.  Fortunatly, I had packed a spare derailuer cable and with some borrowed tools of some fellows hanging around the general store that is Honeydew, I was able to fix it.   Success!

The ascent to exit the Lost Coast, while larger at over 2000 ft climibing, is less steep and therefore more manageable than the entry climbs, and affords a nicer view,

 And the descent leads right into the 'Big Tree Area' of the Avenue of the Giants.

This is part of the 10,000 acre Rockefeller Forest, the largest remaining contiguous old-growth coastal redwood forest in the world.

Leaving the redwood forests and mountains back to the coast takes you over Leggett pass.  Another climb that requires you to put down some hurt.  But the descent on the other side is like no other.  With 1500ft of altitude loss, winding turns, smooth roads and few to no cars, it is one of the best descents I've ever done.  woohoo!!

Crossing into Mendocino county it was back to the coast

And south into Sanoma County

I knew the first section of my trip would be a bit fast. With my friend Zach's schedule and my desire to avoid Sonoma County weekend traffic, things got a little compressed. What's more, on the last evening of this section when we were 60 miles from SF, I received a phone call from a bike shop in SF where they said in order to get a dynamo installed I would have to arrive SF by 1pm the next day.  We thought we were finished for the day after 65 miles, but we decided at 530pm to go another 20 miles to the next campground before dark (7sh) in order to get to SF by 1pm the next day... After 22 days cycling over 1240 miles, it was a hell of an effort to arrive before dark that night O_o

The first leg of my trip, 1320 miles from Vancouver to SF took 23 days, 21 days cycling and 2 days rest.  About 63 miles day on average.