Pacific Coast Tour (Written by Omid, Cody, & Sahriar)
Hello! The Pacific Coast team has just passed San Francisco! Below are 3 accounts from Cody, Omid, and Sahriar from last week. Sorry for the lateness – internet access has been limited.
Enjoy!
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Written by Sahriar June 12th (Story Group Class)
The church that we stayed at treated us to an fabulous breakfast this morning that consisted of casserole and gingerbread pancakes. I was surprisingly the first person to have all my stuff packed this morning and I was in one of the first pods to set out, but we didn’t get very far before we all decided to stop for some mini golfing and go carting.
The ride to lunch was a little gruelling and consisted of some really long hills. Sarah and Adam made us a wonderful lunch with bread, bologna, salad, and lots of fruits and snacks. A few of us also decided to get some slurpees afterwards but we were disappointed when we couldn’t get the Bumblebee Blast slurpee that we had seen ads for.
I rode the rest of the day with Jenny through the beautiful Oregon coast which had large stretches of forest interrupted by the occasional sand dune. Other than the scenery, the highlights include almost being run over by a really big RV, and being honked or yelled at by practically every other car passing us on a bridge (apparently we were supposed to walk our bikes on the shoulder). When we got to our destination in Coos Bay (a church), we were pretty shocked to learn that one of the riders had fallen of her bike and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches, but thankfully she wasn’t too badly injured.
Written by Cody June 18th (Arcata – Humboldt Redwood, Burlington Campground, California)
Today was the first day back on the bikes after a day off in Arcata, California. The Global Agents for Change being the finely tuned machine it is had decided that this morning everyone would be waking up at 7 am to be on the road by 9 am. Come 10 am most riders had set out for our lunch in the friendliest (and so modest!) city, Fortuna. The ride out was an easy (and loud/busy) ride down the 101 highway and through Eureka’s Old Town before a gentle climb and coast to lunch.
At lunch time it occurred to the group that perhaps the key for the facilities in Arcata might be better served by remaining in Arcata. Brad and Eva decided that it would be a fun idea to cycle back to Arcata to return the key and pick up some forgotten documents at the same time. (We are a very finely tuned machine indeed). They both deserve huge accolades, along with funny looks, as this meant turning today from a 53 mile day ride (that distance is according to the directions; the reality is always far longer with several extra hills thrown in) into a 100 plus mile ride; in cycling lingo, a century. Having rolled into camp around 8 or 9 this evening both were pretty characteristically non-plussed about the whole thing, but thoroughly satisfied.
The second half of the day terrain wise was not particularly noteworthy – gentle undulating hills meant the miles just rolled by. We were fortunate enough to have the sun come out after a cloudy start to the day. The appearance of the sun raised spirits so high that an impromptu party was called at exit 663. Impromptu meaning we had no idea what the directions we had meant and couldn’t decide if we were where we were meant to be, or if we had overshot our exit number by 400 or so. The party really got started when Graham informed us all that he had a flat tire and that it might be nice to spend some time fixing it.
After an exciting game of patch the punctured tire we continued on in blind faith that maybe the distances on our directions were correct, even if exit numbers, highway numbers and road names were not. I’m not sure the distances were correct but we found the campsite either way with plenty of sunshine to spare, which meant swimming in the nearby river. Hooray!
After the sun dipped down behind the trees everyone headed from the rivers beach back to camp for camp set up, a touch of slack-lining and our pasta dinner. All in all a relaxing day – a fair distance in fair weather.
Tune in tomorrow, featuring Death Mountain! Same bat-time, same bat-channel.
Written by Omir
So today is the big day, it is my turn to recapture the events that unfolded today in a few paragraphs or less; however, I don’t think a mere scriptural re-hash of events could really capture the emotions that I felt today, and so today’s blog entry will be in the form of a rap.
California Countryside, Blue Sky Was Sitting High
Now Your Boy Was Riding Fly, Turquoise Tide Up On My Side
Grahams Ipod Amplified As I Followed Codys Stride
Partial Lane I Occupied So No Cars Could Pass Me By
Now The Day Started Real Chill, Smooth Roads Hardly Real Hills
In The Distance Echoed Shrills From Highway Maintenance Drills
