Lighthouse Crescent City, amazing how good pictures are with my little point and shoot camera

For breakfast we all went in the mini-van to a restaurant on Hwy. 101 next to Ocean World where I stopped yesterday.  After breakfast, I headed down 101 while the rest of the crew went back to the KOA and broke camp.  Larry and Kylie were going to Ocean World and then on to enjoy other sights of the ocean and redwood forests along the route.  Dale and I agreed to meet in Orick for lunch.

Oh yea, I’m in the land of Giant Redwoods.  This is the section of California I most wanted to be sure and ride, I can forgo riding back into San Francisco with all its traffic and the wine country north of San Fran I want to save for another adventure.  Thus tomorrow will be my last day of riding on the West Coast.  The size of old growth Redwoods is awesome they look as if they go all the way to heaven, we can be thankful a small portion of these beautiful trees were saved from the axe.  First I pass through Del Norte Coast Redwood State Park and am dazzled, next Prairie Creek Redwood State Park and then skirt the edge of Redwood National Park on the coast line.  Each park with larger and more spectacular trees to ooh and aah, my neck strains to look skyward at these magnificent species of trees compliments of mother earth.  I hope and pray our governments continue to preserve them for future generations to enjoy.

Just before Klamath I stopped for a quick picture of Paul Bunyan and his oz Blue statues at the Mystery of Trees tourist stop.  I’ve been through this park a couple times so did not go in but wanted a picture for my journal.

Paul Bunyon and his oz Blue

Standing at the base of Paul Bunyan statue

Another pleasant surprise was seeing a herd of Elk lounging in the front yard of a home just outside of Orick which I thought you might enjoy seeing pictures of too.

Bull Elk in front yard of a home

The rest of the herd

Today had been a good ride seeing the Giant Redwoods and Elk.  The hills were tough but manageable.  However, the last six miles of today’s ride on Patrick’s Point Drive was anything but fun.  Well, maybe it was fun if you were a Motocross-X rider, which is what one particular section of this road reminded me.  As I came over a hill and started on the downside the road went every which way due to upheavals.  I literally had to stand on the pedals throwing my body first one way and then another to keep from crashing.  A couple of time Spirit and I were totally sideways in the road fighting to keep upright.  Thank goodness there were no cars coming from the opposite direction as I was everywhere trying desperately to keep from crashing.  Thank goodness I used to race motorcycles or most likely I would have ended up crashed on this road.  The entire six mile stretch of this road is anything but a road, it’s a disgrace to California for a scenic stretch of road to be in such pitiful condition.  When I finally made it into Trinidad Dale was waiting for me.  I was still fuming, ranting and thoroughly disgusted with Patricks Point Drive
when I pulled up to the car.  Dale’s immediate reply was Larry had told him I wouldn’t be happy riding this road and he was damm right about that.  Anyone who reads this and plans to ride the Pacific coast, stay off of Patricks Point Drive it might just kill you.

When I finally calmed down from my harrowing experience, Dale had bad news for me.  There is a fire on an Indian Reservation in eastern Oregon and his team has been called in to fight it.  He will have to leave first thing in the morning.  Not good news for me.  Dale did say he would first drive my mini-van down to Ferndale, my planned final destination for the west coast, for me.  Then Larry would drive Dale back to Suzy’s place to pick up his truck.  Thus, I’d lose not only Dale as a SAG driver but Larry and Kylie would be gone, too.  Well that’s life and I just had to deal with it.

Across from where Dale was waiting for me there was a grocery store and we decided to go over and see what we could buy for dinner and replenish our beer supply.  I needed a couple beers to further calm me down from my unexpected moto-cross ride.  The meat department manager was at the grocery was grilling chicken and ribs out front of the store.  Since it was the end of the day the manager made me a great deal on a couple chickens and a slab of ribs for our dinner.  A couple ribs, a half chicken and a couple beers later I was fully recovered from my wild ride.

Dale and I enjoying a couple of cold ones

On the ride back along Patricks Point Drive to the state park Dale agreed this road was about one of the worse he had ever driven on.  When we arrived at our campsite we discovered there wasn’t a level spot for Dale’s big tent.  I asked myself is anything else going to go bad tonight?  Fortunately dales large cache of Ensolite pads he was able to arrange them so that we’d be able to sleep on a fairly level surface.  I learned Dale sleeps in his tent between 60-90 days annually while on forest fire duty and the bulk of carrying a large tent and pads is well worth doing.  Thank you Dale for having brought all those pads they work great.

Kylie and Larry were down on the beach playing when we arrived at camp.  Larry kept sending me pictures of all they were doing which I thought was quite weird as they would be back at camp and he could show me them then.  Turns out Larry thought he was texting them to Charis back home.  I enjoyed viewing the pictures anyway.   By the time Kylie and Larry did make it back to camp, Kylie was definitely beginning to be cranky from two long days of having fun on the road with dad.  Dale and I enjoyed a couple more beers while sitting at the campfire Larry had built to keep us warm and make Smores (roasted marsh mellows laid on top of a piece of chocolate and squeezed between two graham crackers are simply delicious) for all of us.  I declined in favor of another beer.  Before turning in for the night we further discussed the game plan for tomorrow.  By delivering my van down to Ferndale they would have almost a two hundred mile drive back to Suzy’s home.  Given Kylie was a bit cranky and in need of a good bath, Larry said he’d take her on home, another eight hour drive for him, after dropping Dale off.  All of this information gave me second thoughts about doing tomorrow’s ride but I didn’t mention anything to them as I wanted to sleep on it before making a final decision.  By this time it was getting dark and the fog was rolling in making it chillingly cold to the bone for this old guy, at least, so we went to our tents to snuggle up in our sleeping bags and a good night’s rest before another long day tomorrow.