Double or nothin'

82 miles, today. oops

I took a long break in Brookings to make sure I wouldn't have time to go all the way to Klamath. $1.99 bean and rice burrito held me over like magic. I crossed the state line and didn't even see the welcome sign, bummer. However, I was welcomed by a man at what I later learned the locals call "the bug stop." California is so dependent on agriculture that they wanted to make sure I wasn't bringing in any bugs to ruin their crop. Actually, he just gave me some maps and said I should check out Jedediah Smith Redwood SP. He threw in that the Endor scenes for the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi (Episode VI) were filmed here. Sounded nice, thought I might check it out. Then, a duo on a tandem soared by me and caught their draft. I asked if they minded me riding along with them and they said that I should come along with them to Jedediah Smith Redwood SP. So all of a sudden, I am having a flashback to riding with Lee. We are cruising at near race pace and suddenly buzzing by these gargantuan redwoods. I have never seen trees like this in my life. They say their meeting a friend to ride up with South Fork River and that I could drop my bags at the store where we would meet him. While I only planned on riding about 50 miles today, I ended up riding almost double that. Still managed to get me normal mileage in and didn't get further than I planned. In fact, I'm about 9 miles North of Crescent City which leaves for a long day to Eureka tomorrow.

It was a nice change of scenery. Once we got just a few miles inland, I could see blue skies, thunderheads, and rolled my arm warmers down to my wrists. Jerry and Tanya, the tandem duo, had to turn back early but I kept riding with Tom further up creek till the road turned to gravel. He invited me to stay with he and his wife, Misti for the night. Turns out they had biked down to SF not long ago and were able to give me some tips. Turns out that Tom went to grade school in Fletcher, 15 miles from where I live, ad that he is going back for a reunion in the Fall. So I got to give them some tips and they got to give me some tips. If I am available when they visit, I'll take them on a ride up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Pisgah. We had a delicious mexican feast with salad from their garden and huckleberry crisp to end the night.