Day 23--AVENUE OF THE GIANTS

September 27, 2000

Marine Garden Club Redwoods to Standish Hickey SRA

We left our beautiful redwood campground at 9 a.m after a tasty camp breakfast of scrambled in tortillas, and continued along the Ave of Giants for about the next 20 miles.

We stopped at a small grocery and bought things for lunch and then pedaled 4 miles to the Franklin K. Lane grove and picnic area to eat it. Franklin K. was Woodrow Wilson's secretary and the first president of the Save the Redwoods League—or something with that purpose and a similar name.

I read on a plaque at that grove that redwoods can live to over 2000 years old; the giant sequoias live to over 3000 years old and can grow to the height of a 30-story building. I've seen groves owned by "The Citizens of Mass," "The Garden Club of America," Lady Bird Johnson, and by Dag Hamerskjold, among others.

We followed the Eel River all day—actually, we've been on or near it, it seems, since entering CA. We took one of the guide's "alternate" routes today and found a good place to skinny dip in the river. The cold water felt soooo good, particularly on my feet. It was very hot when we were not in the redwoods.

The Eel River near where we skinny dipped.

A mile or two out of camp we met Jim, another cycle tourist. He had started in Seattle and is on the way to S.F. He's from somewhere around Yosemite and has to be in SF by Fri, so he's catching a ride tomorrow. The cad. Tomorrow is the infamous Leggett Hill (2000 feet of elevation gain over a relatively short distance) followed by a tough shorter but steeper climb. Anyhow, Jim asked me to wake him in the morning since I'm an early riser.

Susan dwarfed by a fallen redwood trunk

On Avenue of the Giants; notice that the tall trees make it dark enough to cause Jessica's reflector to shine; notice also that I always manage to get Jessica's back. I wonder why that is?

A touristy wood store tucked into  the redwoods

When we got to camp, we found a little grocery directly across the road. We bought a six pack of assorted beers Lost Coast Brewery Beers: Redtail Ale, Downtown Brown, (that Craig of the Arcata Bike Shop had told us about), and other local brews. Red Tail is brewed in Ukiah and Downtown Brown carries a label by an Arcata guy. We are sharing this sampler with Jim and Kevin, who showed shortly after I got out of the shower. We left Kevin with Will  three days ago. He did a double day today and rode his first century.

When we got to camp we unloaded the food, sat at the picnic table and wolfed everything in sight—sardines in mustard sauce on Triscuits, salmon cream cheese on Triscuits, turkey, avocado, and swiss on sourdough, just turkey & swiss rolled around the cream cheese etc. Then decided that our "appetizers" would suffice as dinner. Got the stove out only for coffee.

Today we saw a covey of California quail cross the road, their little topknots bobbing. While looking at them, I almost ran over a good-sized snake crossing the road. Also saw a little water snake at our swimming hole. At times we were level with the Eel River and at others we were hundreds of feet above it, seeing it as from an airplane. At one of the latter we could look down at an osprey sitting on a wire, fishing the river.

Time to put this machine and myself to bed.

Miles: 46.56

Route: Marine Garden Club Redwoods to Standish Hickey State Recreation Area; 46.56 miles in the 3 H's = Headwinds, Hills, & Heat. Traveled from Weott to 1 mile north of Leggett, mostly on Ave of Giants and 101, which was sometimes a 4-lane freeway and sometimes a narrow 2-lane road. Also took Rt 271 for 6 miles.

Weather: It was hot when we were not in the deep shade of the redwoods, don't know the actual temperature..