Cold, foggy, and damp, we rolled through Arcata/Eureka this morning for the first 15 or so miles. We didn’t get too much ocean or forest, but it was great to not be sweating first thing in the morning. Shortly after the first rest stop, we had a huge and dramatic hill to conquer. It was about 12% for 2 miles! Foggy, bumpy, hole-y, and steep, we slowly pedaled our way up through the clouds. The scenery (though limited in the mist) was cool and forested, and the few houses we saw on the way up seemed quite mystical. The summit was followed by the downhill, which was both exhilarating and scary! Afterwards the temperature increased a lot, and we quickly shed our layers.
Then we hit the Redwoods, and our surroundings were stunning. This has personally been my favorite National/state park to cycle though! It’s magical, and super fun, and winding. Not to mention mostly shaded, which helped a lot with the growing heat. We only had 57 miles, so we took liberty to explore a bit and spend some time at rest stops. That put us at an arrival time of 2pm at the campsite! We got showers (25 cents a minute, I cut mine down to five minutes— the longest of the team, haha!) for the first time in four days. Some of us went on little hikes around the Redwoods, and now we have to get to bed to rest up before one of the hardest days of the ride tomorrow. We have 92 miles and almost 7,000 feet of climbing!!! Goodnight!
— Marielle