Slept in a bit this morning, at least as much as I could with a fully functioning lumber mill only a wood fence away. Bought coffee and limped up to the laundry room to warm up my clothes. Amazingly, once I got rolling again, my hell was fine. I'm somehow training my body against its pedestrian tendencies. Weird.
I found a bike shop in Eureka (pretty town by the way, lots of Victorian crap). I needed a new rear tire as the tread on my current one had been erased to nearly nothing and I was concerned that it might go. I had been running on hybrid tires, smooth in the middle for roads, but with some grip on the sides. I traded them in for some slicks, but slicks that are just as wide as my hybrid tires (700x32 for those out there geeky enought to know or care). I got them "to go" and planned on swaping them out later when I got to camp.
It remained cold and windy and damp by the coast and then as I went inland, it became gorgeous. In fact the weather was just about perfect right as I turned off U.S. 101 for "The Avenue of the Giants," a 32 mile stretch of scenic highway through the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. Amazing.
Early on I ran into an Australian couple who were touring the entire coast, from Canada to Mexico. They rode with trailers (the first I'd seen so far, though they are quite popular with bike tourists according to online forums.) Nice folks.
Made it into camp after a leisurely ride down "the avenue" and set up camp among the redwoods. Changed out my tires adn gave them a test spin around the park. My bike felt so different without the extra 50lbs of panniers weighing her down, but I couldn't yet feel the difference of the slicks. I'm sure I'll notice tomorrow.
For the day:
Rolling time: 5:06:40
Distance: 62.62 miles
Avg speed: 12.25 mph
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