Day50

Jedadiah Smith State Park (Rest Day)[MAP]

Currently reading the brand new, unread book that Paul (day 42) gave me. It’s called “Arabian Sands” and was written by Wilfred Thesiger who spent several years of his young life travelling with Arabs in Saudi Arabia in the 1940s. Very interesting and not the sort of book I would have picked up to read myself. These Arabs could look at the footprints of a camel in the desert sand and tell you whose camel it was, if it was pregnant and how fast it was going. I think the Arabs thought more highly of their camels than their own wives.

Bought a helmet mirror at the local bike shop.  It’s ridiculous how close some of the logging trucks will pass by on roads that have plenty of room.

I’m gonna use the extra warning that the helmet mirror gives me to stop my bike and get off the road completely. A friend reckons it’s because loggers equate cyclists as being hippies. Hippies of course are bad for the logging business, chaining themselves to trees, etc, so it’s only natural that a logging truck would want to give a cycling, tree-hugging hippie a bit of a scare. I’m considering putting a “HUG A LOGGER” sign on the back of my bike but that would probably start me getting run off the road and abused by left-wing, tree-hugging, liberal hippies in their gas guzzling SUVs.

Redwoods, Jedediah State Park (Day 49)

Redwoods, Jedediah State Park (Day 49)

Day52

Harris Beach State Park[MAP]

Dirk and I reach the Oregon border (Day 52)

Dirk and I reach the Oregon border (Day 52)

At the campground last night I met a great Dutch guy, Rodge, who had started in Calgary three weeks ago and was heading south. Makes me feel totally inadequate knowing that I having been riding for seven weeks and still being in California. Totally great enthusiastic guy and I hope to meet up with him again at some stage to ride together.

Yesterday I had started riding south back towards San Francisco. After meeting Rodge last night, I felt inspired to head north and see more. And so I did.

Just before the Oregon border I met a German cyclist, Dirk.

He saved me from being accosted by an aging hippy who had cornered me outside the supermarket. The hippy was complaining to me because no one had told him how much his balls were going to hurt when he rode all around the States in the ‘60s eating mung beans that he’d soak all day in his panniers. Dirk is a German radio DJ from Munich being sponsored by Tatonka to ride around, literally, the States. I was instantly envious of his stylish matching all black pannier bags and clothing. I could not compare, my multicoloured, fading get-up garb and plastic bags full of food dangling from my handlebars were a poor match. But as we were both heading north we decided to ride together a while.

Harris Beach State Park (Day 52)

Harris Beach State Park (Day 52)

Day53

Bullards Beach State Park[MAP]

Day54

Honeyman State Park[MAP]

Day55

Beverly Beach State Park[MAP]

Oregon Dunes, Honeyman State Park (Day 55)

Oregon Dunes, Honeyman State Park (Day 55)

Dirk has introduced me to the delights of Dairy Queen ice-cream blizzards with crushed up Snickers. I wanted to introduce Dirk to the joy of early morning riding, he wanted to show me the joy of evening riding. We both got our own way and unfortunately ended up riding from early morning to late afternoon.

It’s great to have a riding partner, and as we learned, unusual to meet anyone else riding northwards along the coast. Didn’t take long to realise why; with fifteen to twenty five mile per hour headwinds that made balancing on the bike a task in itself. At one point it took me three attempts to get back onto the bike. At every tourist info centre we stopped at, we get a very surprised “Oh” when they discover we are riding north. Everyday we would be passed by a dozen or more cyclists heading south. Woosies.

Day56

Cape Lookout State Park[MAP]

Dirk has been harassed by terrible bike problems, he is up to his 13th broken spoke and has even had his wheel rebuilt. Today he broke his clipless pedal.

This morning Dirk reported in to his Munich radio station to do an update of his ride. I got to say a few words to the DJ, which will be on the radio tomorrow. Too bad I don’t know German.

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2 Comments

  • I was enjoying your journal until I took offence by your comment “left-wing, tree-hugging, liberal hippies in their gas guzzling SUVs.”
    .

  • henryfork wrote:

    Thanks for taking the time to comment and let me know of your displeasure, it brings me great pleasure.

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