Day 22. The Redwoods. Crescent City to Patrick Point, CA

A 58 mile challenging day from Crescent City to Patrick Point St. Park in cool but blue and sunny skies and lots of climbs today. 

We're into the California Redwoods now along  the Pacific Coast. 

 

We had some occasional ocean views today, early and towards the end of the day but for the most part we were riding through coastal forests along the headlands. 

 

101 was our primary road for today's travel and mostly a good ride with light traffic until the afternoon hours.  Not bad for a Sunday. 

And then we saw the Redwoods for quite a while-massively wide and tall. 

"Big Tree" is 1,500 years old, 300 feet tall, and just a short hike from the Newton B. Drury Scenic highway.   It was a great and quiet road through some beautiful and almost primeval Redwood forests. 

Around 4:30 we're ready to find our hiker/biker campsite for the night. We're hoping to find a spot where we can hear the ocean waves crashing against the rocky shore. 

Angela and I have set up camp, all showered up and now heating our water for backpacker Mac-n-Cheese to go with our nuts and pretzels with Nutella for dinner.  Shortly after this picture our friends Sabine and Heinrich from Hamburg found their way to our area and we invited them to share our nice camping space for the night. 

Bear proof boxes were provided so we put all of our food and toiletries into one pannier and stowed them for the night to avoid unwanted intrusions from the wildlife. As dark settled in later in the evening Sabine and Heinrich saw a skunk passing through our campsite. A good night to have a bear box!

We took a 100 yard stroll to the Pacific to watch the sun set. If you look closely at the rock on the left and on the right you'll see two sea lions relaxing as the sun sets. 

And there she goes. The sun sets and silhouettes Angela gazing at the sea lions. 

Another good day in the books. 

Drew, backpacking along the coast, invites all of us to share the fire he has built.  On leave from the Army, he's taking a few days to hike north along the coast to Klamath. He's stoking the fire with a telescoping tube powered by his lungs.  Thanks Drew.