Torture, In So Many Ways

Made it to Crescent City!  Realized some time last week that in order to be here by friday, I would have to do a seriously long ride, basically two days worth.  So I rode all the way from Sunset Bay state park, Oregon, to Crescent City, Ca.  That's a total of 136.  That is not a typo.  I rode for so long my timer reset itself.  I was on the bike, pedaling, for almost 12 hours. 


On Thursday, I camped at Sunset Bay state park in Oregon with the young British couple, and Canadian I have been riding with/seeing occasionally that weekk.  I got up Friday morning around 6, had a quick breakfast (it was still dark), broke camp and packed.  I left around 730, saw an amazing wave breaking as I passed Bastendorf state park, but no time to stop and check it out, so pushed on.  Got through the mountains relatively quickly and back onto the 101.  Stopped in Bandon (i think) for a couple of doughnuts, then back on the road. 

Somewhere near Humbug mountain (in the mountains), I got a flat in my rear tire.  I heard what sounded like a stone stuck in the tire, when I stopped, I heard the hiss.  Changed it quick and was back on the road in probably about an hour. 

When I got to Gold Beach, I felt the energy just draining from me, and lack of fuel. I stopped at subway and slammed a half a sub, saved the other half for the rest of the ride.  I hit the hill at Cape Sebastian, I felt myself just crashing a tad.  I was at around the 90 mile mark.  I looked up at the hill in front of me, as I had some water and took a moment to think about what I was doing.  I tried to take a step back and just think for a moment, "is what I'm doing safe?"  I debated for a moment, and reasoned that the road is inherently unsafe, and that I have plenty of water and nutrients in my body.  I was feeling tired, but not dizzy, so I pedaled on.

I struggled up that hill, it took a lot for me to get up that damn thing.  I hit an all time high of 41mph screaming down the other side, if that gives you an idea of how steep it was.  After that, I saw numerous, empty, awesome waves.

I hit Brookings as it was getting dark.  At that point, I was so drained, but still confident.  I didn't have the crash kind of feeling as I did near Cape Sebastian.  Since it was nearly dark, and it would take me a few hours still to get to Crescent City, I stopped to have some coffee and eat the rest of my sub. 

The ride from there to Crescent was...interesting.  It was so dark.  I had my reflective vest on.  Cars were few and far between, and a tad dangerous in one section when the shoulder disappeared.  As I neared Crescent, it was SO dark.  With no cars, I couldn't see the road signs, or even the road.  Huge redwoods loomed over me.  I focused on the fog line, and waited until a car would come to get my bearings.  I had a tad of vertigo at times, nearly falling over, did I say it was dark?

Delirious and ecstatic, I rolled into Crescent City at around 930pm, a full 12 hours since I had left the campground at Sunset Bay in Coos bay.  I got to Miles' house, and surprised him since he thought i was likely to arrive the following day.  I immediately enjoyed a cold beer, and hung out with him and his friends. I had a shower and did laundry.  It felt amazing to put on clean, dry clothes the following morning after having a great nights sleep.

We went camping over the weekend at a friend's ranch in the mountains east of Crescent City.  The camp area was awesome.  Complete with a running creek, and a deep water hole that I made sure to jump into as we left today.  We hung out with friends, had a fire, ate food there saturday night.  Did some work around the ranch, got back and surfed today.  That area was 'brilliant' (as my brit friends would say, they say that so much, haha) stunning forest covered mountains, with long, brown grassy fields.  The wind in the trees, birds flying overhead, so peaceful and serene.

Going to update and summarize the day journal this week and post some pics.