Day 69 - Tuesday November 10th

Arcata, CA to Burlington SP, CA
57.63 miles
4:20.28 hrs
33.1 max
13.2 avg

Late last night Alex and Nick told me that they were going to stay an extra day in Arcata, CA. This was not the news I wanted to hear for if I would have known that earlier on today I would have continued riding yesterday to make it to San Fran so that we could meet up later. It turns out though that if I would have done that I wouldn't have an ultimate tournament to look forward to in Santa Cruz!

So, today I set off towards the great city of San Francisco, alone. Late departure was inevitable since I had a spoke to repair that morning and I didn't want to wake everyone during the process. I waited till most people were up and then proceeded to take care of the important task at hand. Of course after repairing my wheel everyone was making breakfast so I stayed around a little longer to eat and socialize.

By 11am I was finally off and I had two options in route. With high hopes of making it to Santa Cruz by the upcoming weekend for an ultimate frisbee tournament, I opted for the shorter route on 101, avoiding the large climbs of 'the lost coast' and the extra 30 miles. I thought long and hard about this decision, constantly asking myself if I would regret not going on the lost coast. When it came down to it there was nothing in the wilderness of the lost coast that I could not see on my next trip out west and it would give me something to look forward to. Plus, with the overcast and rainy weather the ride along the lost coast may have been very limited in view.

So, instead of setting my hopes on the potentially gorgeous views and untouched landscapes of the lost coast I opted to make it to the majestic redwood forest. Upon arriving at the redwoods and touching my wheels to the pavement of the "Avenue of the Giants", I felt reassured that I had made the right choice in route. I ended up camping at the Burlington SP. The camp site was gorgeous, with massive redwoods all around in a hazy mist. It looked like a scene that you would find in Lord of the Rings.