Not too early of a start today, as we didn't have near the miles to cover as I have had to in the past 2 days. Coffee, breakfast, load up and go... for only about 1/4 mile before the first kitsch stop of the day - The Disturbing Sculptures Art Gallery. Had I known it was so close, I'd have just walked down the day before, it was still pretty early so the gallery was closed, we did get some photos outside.
The entire day today would be on US 101 or CA-1 right along the pacific coast. Lots of views that look like this today:
A few miles further down the road was the Trees of Mystery - there is a tram that goes to the top of the mountain, but we didn't want to pay $16 each for the ticket in. So photos with Paul and Babe were taken and postcards were purchased.These sculptures were huge! Look close and you can see Erin standing next to Babe's leg.
We hopped off of US 101 for a bit to ride a scenic byway through the redwood forests for a bit - these trees are incredible. It is hard to believe that there was so much of the west coast covered with forests like this before we cut them all down.
The next stop would be to see the worlds tallest totem pole - 160 feet (49 m) tall and weighs 57,000 pounds (26,000 kilos). While we were there a local stopped and told us that it wasn't really the tallest one, they added the little thing at the very top so they could claim that it was.
A little further south, we entered Humboldt Redwoods State Park and stopped for a quick hike on the Drury-Cheney trail - more of a stroll through the woods... really, really BIG woods.
We even found a Hi-viz troll hiding in one of the trees...
We stopped for some lunch at The Chimney Tree - The hobbit trail isn't there anymore, but the little grill makes a mean corn dog!
More miles on US 101 that goes back and forth between 4 lane highway and 2 lane windy road until we turned off at the beginning of CA-1. We took a break here to drive (ride) through a tree.
I was a bit disappointed that this drive through did not give me a cheeseburger. We did meet a couple of other riders here from Australia who had been in the US for 7 weeks just riding around the country. They said it is actually cheaper for them to ship their bikes over here for that period of time rather than renting them.
We loaded back up for the last 40 miles to Fort Bragg. The road out to the coast was by far the twistiest road I had been on for the entire trip - it really reminded me of NC-80 in the mountains at home.
We got to the hotel, got unpacked then headed across the street for some Mexican food at a great little taqueria - best chile relleno that I have had in a really long time. After this, Erin called it a night and John and I went down to North Coast Brewing to try some local beers.
This was the most fun day I have had on the trip since Kate and I were in the Dakotas. I do enjoy traveling alone, but it is a whole lot more fun to share days like this with friends!!
No comments:
Post a Comment