Chuck and Barbs Epic Journey

5-15-13

Well I raced through the blog last night to update ya’all and it was late after hiking, so I was thinking that there wasn’t stories to tell, well believe it or not there was….( for those that don’t know me I have a hard day if I don’t come through with some sort of story).

On the road from Fort Bragg it was foggy and heavily overcast. You can review the photos from that day. Well we were climbing steep grades right next to the coast and we knew it was a long way down to the water but only saw fog. Kinda like climbing the stairway to heaven ( ya know there could be a song in that title…). Anyway, we came around the corner and there on the other side of the road guess what we saw, your wrong if you guessed the Dali Lama…… it was this Swiss guy in shorts and a T-shirt sitting on a rock, above the ocean bluff, staring into the fog bank and smoking a cigarette. It was a roll your own cig, so my first impression was that this guy was really bold to be getting stoned while riding steep winding roads in the fog. But whats left of my sinuses indicated it was just good ol tobacky. Me being the curious sort, I asked him where he was going and be said Tierra del Fuego…..now I’m starting to second guess my sinuses… Me being up on my geography quickly informed him he wouldn’t make it by nightfall. He laughed and said “if I think of the total distance it is too far, but if I just ride everyday, I will get there. It turned out he had been traveling a year and a half already. He had left Switzerland gone east through Europe, then all the Stans then China. He caught a boat to Alaska and headed south. I had heard from others who had camped with him that he started in Alaska while it was still winter. And one might ask how I forgot that story……I was tired :J

Then there were these two old Canucks…yes, much older than me, who were riding south. The younger of the two had to be older than me and he said his buddy was 12 years older than him. They were going from Vancouver BC to Mexico. The older guy had shorts, riding sandals (yes they clipped in) light weight jacket and was riding a folding bike – a Bike Friday. It was freaking cold and he had just dropped 2000 feet. All he wanted was a cup of coffee.

So last story of that day ( I promise), we did the big Leggett climb and there was about an 800 foot drop to Leggett on fun curvy roads. Towards the end of the descent Barb started complaining that her rear brakes were locking up, then going away completely. Of course she figured “how to use them” so wasn’t worried. I was guessing her disc pads were disintegrating and breaking up causing the grab then nothing effect. Using the upmost concern for her safety, I told her to use her front brakes….. Hey we were only three miles from our destination…..Well we got in and it made my day…. I got to change out her disc brake pads, justifying why I had schlepped them the last 800 miles.

kinda freaky, yesterday while we were hiking amoungst the big trees, I could always hear the roar of hywy 101. We could also hear it from our cottage. the sections we drove had some minimal shoulder area, so that cautious part of my mind started working. didn't get to sleep very easy. But today being a new day, we headed out from Leggett and down the hill we went!!!!! That is until we climbed the grade to Garberville. Piece of cake and when we got to the Avenue of the Giants it was wonderous to ride the bike through. here are some photos of our day...

Eel River

Barb got excited when she saw this new tree shape, kinda like a monkey tree but not, just purdy. she wasn't even disappointed when I told her it was a cell tower......