Dave rides his bike to school

Above: This one’s for you, Paul.

Above: A view down Avenue of the Giants.

Above: On my way out of the redwood groves, on the way to Stafford.

Wednesday, 5/31 3pm
Location: Stafford, CA
Coordinates:
40.4556 N
124.0557 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 62
Today’s destination: Trinidad, CA

Greetings, folks! I just stopped in the Eureka Chamber of Commerce to get out of the rain, so I’ll try to make this quick…

Most of my day yesterday was spent riding through redwood groves. If you’ve never seen the redwood trees of Northern California, you’ve got to do that some day. Redwood trees are amazing. They’re taller than most of the skyscrapers in San Francisco, and they live for over a thousand years (if they aren’t cut down by loggers). Riding through a redwood forest is a unique experience because even in the middle of the day, it’s really dark and cool, because very little sunlight makes it to the ground. But when you look up, you see rays of light coming through the trees. Incredible. Actually, my neck started to get a tired from looking up all the time. At the end of the day, I stopped in a “town” called Stafford. There isn’t actually anything in Stafford, as far as I could tell. Not even a store. The only thing there appears to be an RV campground. Well, works for me.

My plan for today was to ride through Eureka, CA and Arcata, CA. However, at about 12:30pm I ran into a rainstorm, so I pulled over in Eureka. I’ll have to see what the weather looks like for the rest of the day and if there are good campgrounds nearby. In any case, I’m not likely to get to my original destination of Trinidad, CA. No big deal; I had a rest day coming up soon, so I may just use up that buffer.

My other reason for stopping was because Tori was going to look into signing me up for health insurance, since my Broadlane insurance expires today. To my surprise, when I gave Tori a call, she had already signed me up, and it’s all taken care of. I had been concerned about whether I’d be insured after today (5/31), so that’s a big worry I don’t have to think about anymore. Thanks Tori! Actually, thanks to Mike also, because Mike put Tori in contact with the right people to get everything set up.

After Eureka and Arcata, there aren’t really any decent sized towns until Portland, so I may be about of touch for about a week or so. I’ll do my best to keep everyone up to date, but there’s no telling what sort of cell phone coverage or Internet access I’ll have north of here. I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll check back in as soon as I can!

Above: Just before heading up the mountain to Leggett. This is the last ocean view until Eureka, CA.

Above: Tori actually took this pic while she was visiting me in Mendocino (I should have added it to that posting…). As we used to say in high school “Check ya later, nits”. Whatever that means.

Tuesday, 5/30 7am
Location: Leggett, CA
Coordinates:
39.8459 N
123.6940 W

Previous day’s mileage: about 56
Today’s destination: Stafford, CA

I’m at a loss for words right now. Tori left at about 6am to drive back to San Francisco. Today is going to be hard. I miss her already.

We had the most incredible weekend in Mendocino. Everything was perfect. For the most part, we just relaxed and took in the views in and around Mendocino. We ate some great meals, walked around town, and napped alot.

Yesterday (Monday), it was time to get back on my bike. According to the map, the route yesterday included the biggest ascent on the whole Pacific Coast Highway. Since Monday was Memorial Day, Tori didn’t have to work.

You would not believe how supportive Tori was throughout all of yesterday. To start off, she offered to do my laundry in town while I headed off on my bike. She also went to Longs and bought some supplies to make my life easier, like smaller bottles for my detergent and shampoo (the ones I had weighed a lot), a mini roll of TP (to save space), and a nylon wallet (so that I could leave my nice leather wallet at home). On top of that, she got lunch food, so that I wouldn’t have to carry it on my bike. When Tori caught up with me in her car after doing all of those errands, she stopped at EVERY pulloff to cheer me on. She would yell “Woohoo!! You’re doing GREAT, Dave-o!”, everytime that I rode by. I felt like I was doing my first triathlon with Team in Training again. She even drove behind me to block the cars that were zipping around the winding mountain road. When you’re trying to ride you bike across the country, it doesn’t get any better than that…

The day capped off with a climb from sea level to almost 1,800 ft., over the course of the last 15 miles. For about 2 hours straight, it was continuously uphill. Needless to say, it was a challenging ride, but with Tori’s support, I could have done it twice.

Thank you so much Tori.

Above: On the road to Mendocino, CA.   Above: the MacCallum House, which is the B&B in Mendocino that Tori and I are staying in for Memorial Day weekend   [Continue reading this entry]

Above: on the way to Anchor Bay, CA   Above: Me eating breakfast, Anchor Bay, CA, 7:30am, 5/26    Location: Anchor Bay, CA 38.8030 N 123.5796 W Previous day's mileage: about 56 Destination today: Mendocino (to meet up ... [Continue reading this entry]

Above: My first rest stop of the trip.  This store is in Lagunitas, CA, a little less than 30 miles from the Presidio in San Francisco.  I've ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hey everyone! You wouldn't believe how much effort I've put into buying, preparing and packing all of the gear and clothing that I'm taking with me on my trip. All told, I've spent several weeks getting everything ready. Because there ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hey everyone!  Welcome to my travel blog.  Over the next several weeks, I will use this blog to keep you up-to-date on my progress, as I ride my bicycle from San Francisco to school at the Kellogg School of Management (at Northwestern University) in Evanston, ... [Continue reading this entry]