Yesterday we rode from Scotia to Redway on the Avenue of the Giants. The total ride was something like 35 miles, but probably 30 of it was on the Avenue itself, a scattering of small towns that break up a huge stretch of Redwood forest. It was a good ride, although not quite the sensory experience of the Prairie Creek park before.

There was a highlight of getting homemade blackberry popsicles from a roadside self-service stand. It turned out that the stand was part of a 3 acre farm with a small rental cabin, and we got a little tour that was a great diversion.

There are some great groves through this area, and the ride was a pleasure though. I think what made the two rides so different is just our level of fatigue and the sense that we're not moving nearly fast enough to make it to San Fran on the timeline we intended. Every hill seems like a bigger obstacle than it should now, and we've got the looming spectre of the mountains ahead around Legget. We got a map booklet in Crescent City that showed elevations along our route, and right away Legget stood out.

There are 4 hills leading up and through Legget that look pretty ominous to us at this point, and every time we struggle up another climb, I know that they are not far off in our minds. Today we'll get to test ourselves on them, as there's a 27-mile stretch to Legget, and another 16 or so to Rockport on the coast. The last part to Rockport looks like the worst one to me, climbing something like 1200 feet up from the valley (although then we get to ride down really fast on the other side). Maybe we'll get to that today, but we might end up staying in Legget if we are too slow on the climbs going in there today.

On the positive side, we decided to spring for a room in a motel last night, and it turned out to be a really great place. We've been debating that because we really wanted a hot, private shower and a bed for a night to rest up, and when it was getting darker last night our option seemed to be this one place that had both an RV park and a motel. While we didn't want to pay the extra $50, the motel option was too hard to pass up. It ended up that we got a great, huge room with a kitchenette and a nice comfy couch in addition to plenty of room for our bikes and gear. It was great to have the little change of pace.

On to the mountains! Wish us luck. :)

-Andy

PS Happy Birthday, Dad!