NorCal holiday loop: Santa Cruz -> Mendocino -> Eurika and back!

[JRD]

Up early for tidepooling. Lot to see along the rocky Pacific coast. Crabs and limpets. Star fish and abalone. Great Egrets stalking the pools for fish and crustations. Over to The Waiting Room for some coffee and the best almond croissants on the West Coast.

Awake and energized, I headed up north. Stacked up with a group of bikers out of Fort Bragg. They were a slow group on matching Harleys, and I was unable to pass in the windies, so I settled in for a slow cruise up hw1 along the coast and then up through the redwoods to Leggett.

Paid 15 bucks in Leggett for a photo op under The Drive Thru Tree. Had a German tourist take my photo under the giant.

Back on the 101 for a bit to Garberville. Passed countless tourist traps and camp sites and bilboards for bigfoot-themed rest stops. Gassed up at Garberville and then headed down The Lost Coast  for a detour to Shelter Cove for lunch and lighthouse passport stamps. Quick jog over to the black sand beach for a walk down one of the most desolate and inaccessible stretches of Ocean in California: the only sign of other humans the summer homes of millionaires who fly their private planes in and out: a real juxtaposition of the natural and unnatural/pristine and corrupted.

Got back on track back up to Garberville again and then North, towards Eureka. Pulled off and ran the length of The Avenue of the Giants. Always stunning. The speed limit is 55 but every vehicle on the road was doing no more than 40, myself included. Rides like that put you IN the environment instead of just riding past it. Stunning ride.

After The Avenue, it was a straight shot up 101 for an hour to Eurika. The highway got fast and cold and windy as I did the last leg. Five hour on the bike and I was happy to stretch my legs when I got in.

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Edit: I don’t know why the photos only ever work half the time. I’ll figure it out later.