Among Giants

Day 21: Crescent City to Trinidad, CA

Today's Distance: 69

Total Distance: 977

It's a perfect day for a bike ride!  I woke up super stoked to see some redwoods today.  All I know is they're the largest/tallest trees in the world and live for thousands of years and I've never seen one in real life.  I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure they're the oldest living things that I'll ever see in my life, so how could I not be excited?!  Although, as I've learned with all amazing sights on a bike, I'm going to have to work for it.  The day starts with a climb through the Redwoods National Forest to a triple summit called the Crescent City Hills.  Three summits. No bueno.  The first is the most challenging as I climbed to over 1200ft in elevation over a few miles.  As most hills that are at the start of the day, it was challenging.  Some people like the harder stuff first because you don't have much fatigue at that point, but I prefer mine in the middle of the day. It just takes me some time to get warmed up and I'd rather not have to warm up on a steep hill.  Either way I did it.  Difficult but manageable.

I was surrounded by redwoods from the get-go but it was hard to fully appreciate them because I was just focused on climbing the hill.  It felt like the further I climbed the more impressive and bigger the trees got.  I'm pretty positive giants live in these woods.  I didn't see any, but I'm sure they're here.  Once I hit the first summit, I head downhill for a bit and then another climb to summit #2. Same thing for the third and last summit obviously.  I think the civil engineer(s) who designed this road must have some kind of beef with me.  Why else would they lead me to a summit, only for me to go downhill and then do it again, and then go downhill again, to climb the hill for a third time?  Why not just a straight, level road?  Haters.

As I was finishing the final summit, "Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service started playing.  It's already a very significant song for me, but it may have never been more appropriate than in that moment.  I started to look around at the huge, majestic trees surrounding me and maybe it was my surroundings or maybe it was fatigue, but I was completely overcome by emotion.  I began to pray and was just thankful for this moment in my life.  I carried the burden and hurt of something that's been weighing on me heavily for a very long time up that mountain and made the decision to leave that behind as I started my descent.  Without going into detail, I'll just say this issue was one major reason for going on this journey and I'm relieved to leave it all behind.  The wind dried my eyes as I flew down the hill for the next 3.5 miles and a gorgeous view of the coast was waiting for me on the other side of the Crescent Hills.

It was a pretty level ride from there to Klamath and the Trees of Mystery.  At a huge Paul Bunyan & Babe I met a couple babes from Seattle (see what I did there?).  They were on a bike tour themselves down to the Bay Area and possibly beyond.  After a quick chat, I took off to go find some food.  I ended up buying some fresh smoked salmon and salmon candy aka salmon jerky.  It was delicious but I smelled a little fishy the rest of the day.  After a few level miles, boom, another set of hills.  I taught myself a trick while climbing hills, where when I get tired I'll actually shift into a harder gear and make it even tougher to climb for as long as I can stand it, and then I'll shift back to the previous gear.  It kind of tricks my muscles into thinking they're getting a break without me actually having to stop.  I'm sure this is something cyclists do, but it was definitely self-taught in my case.  It's just my way of telling my muscles, "Hey guys, things could be way harder.  Get over yourselves and stop being so selfish."

Eventually I left Del Norte County and crossed over into Humboldt County and another set of redwoods. These even more impressive than the ones from earlier in the day.  When I finally hit another summit at around 900ft, it was all downhill for about 5 miles or so. Not a steep downhill, but one that allowed me to coast and just enjoy the view.  I even got the courage to practice riding with no hands. I thought I was so cool haha.  Along the way I stopped at a couple spots to check out some extraordinary trees.  The first was the "Cork Screw Tree", which was a tall, twisted tree just a little off the road.  The 2nd stop was the appropriately named "Big Tree", which is a 1500 year old tree that's over 300 feet tall.  I definitely plan to come back to this area one day because I'm sure the hiking is fantastic. 

When I got out into the open again, I passed by Elk Prairie Campground which is probably where I should've stayed for the night. But I had a few hours left of light and a lot of energy, so I just kept going.  They weren't kidding when naming this place too. I ended up seeing Elk everywhere!  Got stared down by one and also got caught up in an elk crossing.  When I made it to the little, dingy town of Orick I stopped and got a sandwich.  Right as I got ready to leave, the weather changed dramatically to super gray and cloudy.  I passed a few lagoons along the way to the town of Trinidad where I would be sleeping among the redwoods tonight.  And of course, as always, I ended up racing to beat the sunset.  Today was challenging and incredible and definitely one that will leave its mark on me forever.