Portland to San Francisco Bike Trip - Day 9

Day 9 Stats - August 27, 2006

• Klamath to Eureka
• 70.73 miles, 2920 ft. elevation gain, 501.61 miles total (21,695 elev)
• Ride time 5h 41m, trip time 7h 10m, start time 09:03am
• Average speed 12.4 mph, max 33.3
• Cities visited: Klamath, Redwoods State Park, Orick, Trinidad, McKinleyville, Arcata, Eureka
• Total flats to date: Aimee:1, Pam:0, Preston:1

A very pleasant cycling day, despite heavy (and cold!) fog through most of the morning and early afternoon.

Started off with another delicious breakfast at the B&B. Climbed our biggest hill of the day (around 1000 ft.) right out of the gate just south of Klamath. Met two recent college grads biking together from Vancouver to Mexico in 3 weeks. They were both pulling Bob trailers with about 40 lbs. of gear, and one of them had a double chain ring!

The next hour was the highlight of the day as we slowly descended through huge groves of giant Redwood trees. The heavy fog lent an ethereal aurora to the trees and it was very peaceful and beautiful.

There wasn't much in the way of cities until Trinidad, so we pedalled most of the morning and had almost 40 miles done by lunch time. We were all feeling quite cold from the fog so we opted to eat a hot lunch in a diner. After lunch, it felt even colder and we pedalled quickly through to McKinleyville (a very nice community), where we took a side route from Hwy 101 and travelled along a dedicated bike path for quite a while. Bike paths are always a treat because we can completely relax without having to worry about cars. The fog finally lifted around this time as well, and we enjoyed lackadaisical biking "California-style".

Just before McKinleyville, we met a heavily-loaded down couple from Montreal (mountain bikes, 4 panniers each) who were just about to finish up in Eureka after biking down from Cannon Beach over the last two weeks.

The bike path ejected us into Arcata, which had a very nice bike lane system (a result of the college there, we surmised). We eventually found ourselves back on Hwy 101 again for the final miles into Eureka. 101 in this area is a 4-lane divided highway, but it has a huge shoulder, so it's quite safe, although quite loud too. The views of the bay leading into Eureka were quite beautiful.

Like Arcata, Eureka has an excellent bike lane network and it took us quite a while to traverse this city of 30,000 people (a megalopolis by coastal city standards). It's interesting to see the sorts of stores that pop up when a city reaches this size: Target, Costco, Applebee's, Winco, Harley-Davidson Store, etc. It was a little strange being back among the megastores after a week of mom and pop stores. Eureka is apparently famous for the large number of Victorian-style homes, and we did see quite a few as we made our way through town.

Stayed at the Bay View Motel ($120/night for two-bedroom suite. Newly remodelled and pretty nice. Felt good to have a long hot shower after the cold riding day. Grabbed dinner at a Mexican restaurant, restocked our supplies at Winco, and then back to the hotel.

Despite the cold and the fog and the lack of views, today was one of the best cycling days. The miles went by quickly, everybody rode well, and the roads either had excellent bike lanes or were side roads with very little traffic. We also passed several schools with signs indicating that the first day of school is tomorrow, so hopefully that bodes well for a significantly reduced amount of traffic on the roads in the coming week.