Day 27 – Bicycle Touring Standish-Hickey SP to Humboldt Redwoods (Burlington). Redwoods and Avenue of Giants

I had a hard time getting what felt like solid sleep. The campground was a bit noisy near Highway 101 and being so close to the restrooms, the door slammed hard shut late into the night. Plus my legs were a little tight from all the days climbing.

Nevertheless, I woke up early and was out of camp by 7:30. I was highly motivated to pack quickly by the aggressive and swarming attacks of the mosquitoes.

There was hardly any moisture in the air when I woke and the day was already getting warm. It turned to hot in a couple of hours.

I followed the south fork of the Eel River for the first half of the day. For once the ride was mostly downhill with some interspersed uphill sections. Overall, a fairly easy day.

I stopped several times to try to upload the previous days blog. It would look promising but the first few times it didn’t work. So I continued down waiting for a better connection.

I came up on a stranded trucker that had a heavy load shift and shredded one of his tires. He flagged me down and asked if I could get a mobile signal. I told him I didn’t think so, but I would try. It ended up I had one bar and he got a call through to his dispatch to send for help. In this case Verizon beats T-Mobile.

At a random pull out on the side of the road, I had a perfect signal with data. But it was blazing hot in the sun and noisy, so I took my chances to go to the next town and work there.

At the next small town market I got some food and checked the connection, but it was a no go. I did meet a fellow bike tourer here and his name is Jay. Like most of the cyclist I meet, he was heading southbound. Jay sounds like a full-time tourer. His current tour brings him out of Montana to the coast of Oregon, California and then back to Colorado. We talked for sometime and then finally we went our separate ways. At the town of Garberville, over half way through the ride, I was finally able to upload the blog.

The days ride was beautiful with landscapes of forested mountains, Eel river in the valley and increasing redwoods. When I got to the “Avenue of the Giants” road, it went off the charts striking. I got some good pictures, but I’m excited to review the video I captured when I get home. 

I’m camping at the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, Burlington campground. It’s an incredible campground, under huge redwoods. When one of the huge black birds flies under the tree canopy, you can hear the eerie wind of their wing flaps. The campground is completely full and I can see why. There are actually 2 sites for hiker /biker camp. I’m the only one in the first one and there is a couple in the second one. The sites have bear lockers for food storage. It’s the First campground since Big Bear City that’s had them. Maybe I’ll get to see my bear.

After midnight and the next day, the forecast is for rain. I already had a long 81 miles to go to the next identified campground. So most likely, I’ll be looking for a hotel to stop in for tomorrow night.

Ride summary: 3/10 difficulty, 46 miles with 2089 feet of climbing. Was clear skies and hot most of the day. Winds were not a factor. Today’s ride detailed GPS. Tour totals: 1275 miles (47 / day). 74,714 climbing feet.