Tuesday, July 5, 2011

TentSTOC IV Humboldt Redwoods SP June 16-18, 2011

I left the house Thursday at 6:30am to meet up with Rudy at the appointed rest stop meeting place at 7:00am. He was a few minutes late but we were officially on the way at about 7:25am. We were still early enough that traffic through San Francisco on a Thursday morning was not too bad and soon enough the bay area was nicely behind us. Vacation started!

We stopped in Willits just before 11:00am for an early lunch. Rudy got himself a new hat...


While we were there we ran into Bob from Fremont and we rode the rest of the way up together, stopping for a break at the One Log House tourist trap just south of Garberville. As you can see boys will be boys...


Once we arrived at the campground and finished getting all set up we rode down to the nearest market to pick up a few items to contribute to the dinner Carole was busy fixing at her and Mac's site. No one goes hungry when Carole is around!


After visiting for a while it was back to our campsite for a little camp coffee before crawling into my tent for the night. Yes, I can drink coffee and then sleep!


Mileage for the day: ~273 miles.

Friday morning we were treated to a nice camp breakfast provided by Carole and Mac. Biscuits, eggs, bacon... Yum! Then we were off to do a Lost Coast tour.



The route was beautiful but the roads sucked! There were several treacherous sections with gravel and there were lots of nice tight switchbacks. We all came through unscathed however and ended the ride with a lunch stop at the Eel River Brewing Company in Fortuna.

Rudy and I rode into Eureka to visit the AAA office for maps and then we stopped at the store to shop for the planned group carne asada dinner. It is amazing how much you can pack in and on an ST or two, we even brought back to big bundles of wood for the campfire.


Mileage for the day: ~146 miles.

Saturday morning we were all up and on the road to the RTE scheduled for 9:00am at the Samoa Cookhouse (except for Rudy who had an alergic reaction to something he ate and would not come out of his tent). There was a good turnout - about 22 people or so.



Several people were leaving after the RTE to ride up to WeSTOC in Nelson BC which was starting on Monday so we said goodbyes. Russ, a friend of Mac & Carole, and I decided to stop by the Oyster Festival in Arcata before returning to the campground. There were lots of booths selling oysters but we were not hungry at all. We walked around Arcata Plaza and window shopped and just watched all the different people. I took some pictures of the weird sculptures they have... here's one that we were trying to figure out what the heck it represented.


Then it was back to camp. It was still early in the day so I took the opportunity to go explore one of the trails and take some pictures that show the beauty of the area.



Mileage for the day: ~114 miles.
Sunday morning Rudy and I were up early, all packed up and on our way to WeSTOC by 7:00am.

Trip total: ~533 miles.

Additional photos located HERE.

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