PowerCycle

09/25 Landed in Eureka for the night. A bike shop guy told me the Motel 6 would be the cheapest place I’d want to stay at. I’d stopped in to see if they had a stock of Brooks saddles I could check out. They didn’t. Other than a ridiculously overpriced KOA campground (surprise) there’s no other camping for 20 miles. There are a lot of seedy-looking motels in this city. Lot’s of transients too. Bound to happen with the 101 passing right through. The history of this city is interesting. They actually expelled all the Chinese citizens at one point due to a perceived immigration problem. There’s a downtown historical district that I’ll go check out in the morning.

The hiker/biker area at the SP last night was packed. I ended up having a German car/backpacker stay in the area I was. I’m all for sharing my spot if a CG is full but he pitched his tent less than 5 feet from mine even though there was plenty of space. That’s just way too close. I kept thinking something was outside my tent which woke me up a lot during the night.

When I was leaving this morning a few of the other riders and I stopped and watched 2 huge elks fighting it out next to the road. First time I’ve ever seen that. They just banged into each other for 10 minutes at a pretty slow rate and then the loser turned and walked away (the one on the right won).

My Suunto Core watch is dead. Looks like the days of getting rained on finally did it in. I have the back off and the battery out– maybe in a day it’ll dry out and work again. I’ll have to call the Suunto people when they are open and see about some warranty work since it’s under 2 years old. It’s definitely not the battery like I thought. Cost me $6 to figure that out. Now I have no idea what day it is. If I notice an increase in crazy pickup drivers towing boats/ATV’s then at least I know it’s a weekend day.

Rode on the 101 a lot today. It gained “freeway” status a few times and I got the feeling that drivers didn’t like me being on the road during those parts. One 18-wheeler buzzed me so close that the wind blew me down into the embankment. Fortunately it was paved so I was able to come to a clean stop, rubber side down, as they like to say. I’m also noticing that it’s pretty damn hilly around here. My elevation gains for the day have been higher than they were in most of Alaska or through most of the Rocky Mountains. Makes it a bit harder to get in more than 50 miles.

Had the typical morning fog again. It didn’t lift until 2pm. It kind of stinks riding in it because it’s cold to start with–probably about 58 F or so. So now I have to wear my rain jacket which always results in my shirt getting soaked from sweat. Lunch ended up being inside at a cafe but they had the door open so I had to order hot blackberry cobbler just to stay alive.

GPX Track