underneath the giants
Starting location: National 9 Inn, Fortuna, CA
Ending location: Standish-Hickey State Park
End of day cumulative mileage: 787.5
With my front rack broken I would need to send home two panniers and one trunk rack worth of gear home. So this morning the first thing I did was figure out which gear I didn’t need anymore. I ended up sending home most of my camping gear, except for my hammock and my sleeping bag. I figured I could just spend the rest of my nights in motels, since I had done that for the last three nights anyways. I ended up spending almost $50 to send home four priority boxes full of stuff, but with the front rack and panniers gone my bike felt a lot quicker, so I figured I might be able to get home one day quicker to recoup the cost.
Ironically, the day I sent home all my camping gear was the day the sun decided to show itself. Today was a beautiful day. Actually, maybe it was even a little warm for biking. Luckily I spent most of the hottest part of the day on a scenic side road called “The Avenue of the Giants,” which was a road parallel to highway 101 that ran through the redwood forest, so it was very well shaded.
Tonight I’m staying at a state park called Standish-Hickey. I originally pulled into the state park to ask the ranger how far the nearest town with a motel was. The ranger replied there was a town a little over a mile away, but it wasn’t much of a town, there was no motel there. She didn’t know how far it was to a motel. So I decided to stay and camp there. At least it was only $5. I guess I already recouped the cost of sending my gear home.
It’s cheap because it’s a hiker/biker site which is shared. I’m sharing with three other guys, Tommy, Asa, and Noah, who were from the Atlanta area. They had flown into the Seattle area and were on their way to San Francisco. Cool group of guys. Very chill. Probably because they had soooooo much pot with them… No I did not partake, I’m chill enough as it is…
I had shipped my tent home, so I’m left with my hammock and sleeping bag. I strung it up between a couple of giant redwood trees. That should be fine, since I’m pretty sure it’s not going to rain tonight, except that I had mistakenly packed my bug spray and had sent it home.
There’s a ton of mosquitoes out. As I’m writing this, I’m getting bitten all over. My forehead feels all warm and tingly, I bet it’s covered with bites already. It’s gonna be a long night.
