Elk Prairie

October 2nd to October 4th 2013

Obama was lambasted by congress on october 1st and couldn't pass his new budget.  We were hoping it would be temporary because Oregon's Redwood state and national state parks was federally run and therefore closed.  Now that we were entering another park, we hoped that the campground was going to be open.  Actually, our thoughts were not so sophisticated as that.  Erin battled the hill.  It was agony.  Slow, long.  Halfway thru, the elderly couple (retired grandparents) passed us going up the hill.  Embarassing.  Erin was full of bile and hatred as the agony makes cycling not beautiful, or fulfilling but rather a torturous wheel ploughing her leg bones into each other.  

The ride back down the hill after all the hills was incredible.  It was a lengthy, serpentine route that required minimal effort.  The redwoods cast such a shadow though that we turned on our lights to be more visible to the many tourists in the park.  The trees are so big as to dward Erin on her bike and cars alike (See photos if they're attached).

I had fun photographing Erin and the trees and the cars while riding down the hill.  Elk Prairie is beautiful enough to warrant a rest day, and so we took one to enjoy the sights.  Erin painted, I cycled down to the coast and hiked the fern canyon, Maggie hiked down to the coast and also up the fern canyon (meeting me there at the precise moment I arrived, as unlikely as that is). Bryan lazed around camp refusing to cycle or hike on his down day.

Chatrelle mushrooms were plentiful in the forest since the rain occurred so shortly ago.  Yum! I am developing a love for foraging for food during our voyages.  I can spot an apple tree now by the silhouette alone without even the colours of ripeness.

Rigel's hike to Fern Canyon

Crescent City, California

October 1st,

We were set to finally hit the redwood forest.  Mill creek campground awaits us!  We started late having done laundry in the morning, but only 30 miles or so to go.  We made it to Crescent City by 3:30 or so and were looking for internet to update the blog.  Unfortunately, we learned that the camp ground closed! It was, in fact, double closed. Once for being out of season (oops) and once because the federal government is run by children in the USA. 

Puttering around until 5:30, it got too late to chase the errant couple up the hill only to have to problem solve a place to sleep so we were excited to learn about a state campground in town (fuck you coos bay) in Shoreline RV park.  Erin immediately hit it off with the grumpy, drunk, site host.  He gave us a bottle of smoked salmon, which is better than the glares we learned he gave an older cycling couple we were neighbours too in the park.  Jim and his wife had set up already, knew we were riding with Bryan and Maggie and saw them earlier riding through town (around 3pm) to go up the hill (a giant hill, bigger than we'd done thus far in one go. 1100 feet).  They also gave Erin a shoulder massage, encouragement, and advice about changing the front crank on her bike from the road bike set up to a mountain biking setup.  Now Erin had hope for handling hills in the future without the agony and frustration.

The campground was nice, if simply, $22 for the two of us with all the amenities though we only used the toilet and fresh water. Oh, and wifi!  More updates followed here.

In the morning, since we guessed we couldn't stay at Mill Creek (checking Bryan and Maggie's spot we knew they had anyhow), we would have to do both the whole big hill and a subsequent medium sized hill and hope the next campground was open.