Dave rides his bike to school

 

 Above:  One of my favorite pictures of the trip so far.  This is Redwood National Park in the rain/mist.

 

Above: Across the street from the RV park at which I stayed last night.  I took this picture just before departing, in all of my profound wisdom.

 

Above: Goofy Dave, wearing his goofy raingear, arriving in Crescent City with the rain still coming down…

 

Friday, 6/2 10pm
Location: Crescent City, CA

Coordinates:

41.7511 N

124.1822 W

Today’s mileage: about 25 (Ah!) 

Tomorrow’s destination: Gold Beach, OR

 

It rained all night long!  I could not believe how hard it rained.  When I woke up this morning, it was still pouring.  Because I couldn’t pack up my tent in the pouring rain, I decided that today would be laundry day.  So I washed all of my clothes, and when I was finished, it was still raining.  I read a few chapters of Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell (which by the way, is excellent), and when I was finished, it was still raining.  I ate a little breakfast, and when I was finished, it was still raining.

You repeat this enought times, and eventually a pattern emerges…  At around noon, I decided that I could be wet in Klamath, CA, or I could be wet making my way north.  Taking advantage of my legendary dexterity and nimbleness (ahem), I managed to disassemble my tent while it was still under the rainfly.  As a result, I was able to get the fabric of the tent to a dry, covered area without exposing it to the rain.  As for the rainfly, I just bungee’d it to my bike trailer.

Anyhow, I hopped on my bike at about 2pm and survived the single most harrowing bicycling experience of my life.  After 4 years in kollege, you’d think that I would have figured out the following truism:

When it’s foggy, rainy, and hard to see at sea level, it’s REALLY foggy, rainy, and hard to see at 1200ft up in the mountains.

The ride from Klamath to Crescent City would have tested the true grit of any cyclist.  I won’t go into detail because I don’t want to scare me poor mum, so let’s just say this: I won’t be doing THAT again.  Mom, I’m safe and sound, so no need to worry!

When I finally pulled into Crescent City a little before 5pm, I decided that I’d had enough of the rain.  I booked a room in the first Best Western I saw, and now I’m sittin’ pretty with dry clothes and a comfy bed.  Yeah, yeah, I know, a hardcore bikepacker would have camped out.  Well, a hardcore bikepacker would also be sleeping in a rain puddle tonight. 

 

Random musings:

–After I descended down from the mountains, I rode past a guy getting ready to go surfing in the wind and rain.  I thought to myself, “Doesn’t that dude know it’s raining cats and dogs right now?  You’d have to be crazy to go surfing today!”  He looked at me with a perplexed expression that said, “Doesn’t that dude know it’s raining cats and dogs right now?  You’d have to be crazy to go biking today!”

 

Tags: Travel

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