Whether to go north, east or south was something we left up to the last moment. The intention, a few months ago, was to look into the routing and plan some destinations about a week or two before heading out. In practice, the process of getting rid of stuff, packing, and spending a bit of time with people we care about but will not see for a while – it took longer than we planned. We were running two days late, and still squeezed in one more lunch with a friend before pointing our bikes in the northbound direction.
Why did we go north? The thinking was that it’s too hot to go south, and going east also promised weather too hot to our liking in spots we wanted to explore, like Arizona and New Mexico. Coastal California weather is just perfect for riding pretty much any time of the year. I love it when it’s sunny, I love it when it’s gloomy, I even love it when it’s stormy.
The traffic of San Francisco, the windy Golden Gate Bridge, the very familiar stretches of highway 1 – there was a feeling of nostalgia to that, as it was the way we first experienced California, years ago, in reverse, making our way south from Vancouver, BC.
At some point south of Fort Bragg we started looking for a place to camp. Alex was eager to find a stealthy spot, but checking out one overgrown nook left him with dozens of ticks clinging to his pants. After furiously getting rid of them all, we decided that a developed campground is going to do just fine instead. We found a quiet spot in a state park, surrounded by trees but close enough to the ocean that you could still hear the waves crashing on the shore if you listen closely.
The following day, after packing up and continuing further north, we wondered aloud if we should, you know, make some plans. Just a little bit. On the one hand, this part of California is very beautiful, you could spend a lot of time exploring it. On the other hand, we actually did exactly that already. It was all very familiar. Where to from here? We knew the snowpack in the Sierras this year is going to persist longer than ever, so that’s out. We also were dog tired after a week of hectic final preparations, and I noticed that it was difficult to actually relax and enjoy myself. So we found and booked a small cabin among the redwoods north of the town of Trinidad. The plan was to try to chill for two days and come up with a plan.
The Wi-Fi topped out at about 4 Mbit/s. The wood burning stove required regular addition of firewood to keep the place at a comfortable temperature. We drank tea, ate rosemary bread with raspberry jam and came up with very little in terms of plans. But we did chill.
We also checked the oil levels in our bikes, and found them lacking. Not desperate, but something to take care of at the next convenient point.
As far as plans, we figured we’d check out Oregon Caves, and mapped out what we believed would be a scenic route: a bit more of the coast, then inland along Klamath River, then cutting northwest across the Pacific Coast Ranges, such that we’d never have to ride any freeways.