Day 16 | Leaving 101 on shaky terms
Distance
43.6 miles
Elevation Climbed
3,414 ft
Landscape
Mix of arid and lush forest through valleys
Weather
Mostly sunny, 65+ F
Lars’ Notes:
Today, we started in our typical biking outfit, shorts for me, long pants for Kirsten, our sleeves, to keep our arms warm, sour biking shirt and a windbreaker, Temperature has been reliably in the 50’s when we start, sometimes warming as the day advances.. Today, it did get much warmer, I ditched the sleeves and the windbreaker before long. We had wonderful temperatures today, in the low 80’s. Our ride started in the Redwoods again, along the Avenue of the Giants for about 16 miles. Today wasn’t as magical as it was yesterday, but beautiful nonetheless. After the Avenue of the Giants, it was back to Rt. 101. The scenery was right up my alley, mountain views and dense forest. What wasn’t great was Rt. 101, in some sections it was two lanes in either direction, with a speed limit of 65 mph; basically like biking on I-95! The shoulder was OK on the inclines, but the descents were a white knuckle ordeal. Debris, rumble strips and small shoulders with vehicles whizzing by at 70+ mph. I was relieved to exit for Old Rt. 101. We exited the freeway at about mile 22 for a side route. Surprisingly, as we made the turn, we saw a gorgeous woman hauling golf clubs on what seemed like someone’s yard. It was Lise 🙂 She found a 9 hole course that looked more like our yard than a course. She was on the eighth hole. We stopped, invited her to join us for lunch, but she declined. We decided to push on.
About 100 yards from where we left Lise, “Old Rt. 101”, proved to be older than we expected. It actually stopped being paved. After some pondering, I decided to walk my bike a few hundred feet to check out what lay ahead. As I crested a small hill, I noted that the pavement continued a short distance ahead. I waved an unimpressed Kirsten ahead and we traversed the gravel road to the pavement. Pavement might be a generous term, it was pretty rough! Kirsten hated it, but I was relieved to be off the terrifying freeway. Despite the poor pavement, and slow progress, it allowed us to take in the scenery…at least that’s what we told ourselves. Eventually we had to return to 101, not a superhighway at this point, but very stingy with the shoulder. At one point, I actually got run off the road by a logging truck, who showed his sympathy by blasting his horn at me. I OK thank you (middle finger may have been deployed). 4 out of 7 climbs faced us in the last five miles, but we were determined to finish by 2:00. Since our legs have graduated from training to road shape, we sailed through the climbs and met Lise at our meeting spot with minutes to spare. We concluded the ride at the end of Rt 101. California Route 1 will be our next main route.
Kirsten’s Notes:
For the first time in a few days we were able to emerge from our typical cool weather uniforms after a few miles and oh how wonderful that was! We spent most of the day cycling through wooded valleys following the same path as the Eel river so were mostly in direct sunlight (hello fingerless glove tan!) but had some cool relief as we went in and out of tree cover. Periwinkle wildflowers were a new addition to the scenery on this ride to add a nice pop of color to the white and orange cover we have seen most often.
We were stuck between a rock and a hard place with our options today: take a longer, sometimes hillier, light traffic unknown surfaced side road (old 101) or a narrow shouldered, heavily trafficked, more direct highway (new 101). Both did us dirty today in certain sections with closed and unpaved areas, road that makes you feel like you’re riding a jackhammer, narrow shoulders and inconsiderate drivers. Dad managed to find enjoyment on the jackhammer road taking in the sights; my vision was too blurred and body too numb from full body shaking and pothole dodging to appreciate the experience in the moment. At the end of the day though I can suck up the bodily discomfort for both of us to feel more at ease without cars moving at highway speed past us on narrow shoulders. More likely to see Sasquatch on the side roads too…
We had a shorter day that typical today so we are ready to attack tomorrow’s 4 mile climb that the locals have said is a ‘BIG hill’ – we’ll see about that!
