Right after the hotel we met a terrifying 4 miles stretch of road with our shoulders. The first 2-3 miles were uphill. There was a lot of construction along the way (many of these coastal roads are falling into the ocean) Oddly there were a lot of trash trucks on the road that morning too... going around the curves on the ocean the wind really picked up- making us have to stop for a break in traffic to ride through since it was too hard to hold a line while riding.
After that short section though, we got a big shoulder, and it was either flat or rolling, minimal climbs. EASY in comparison- really just because of the shoulder. Made the miles fly by...
In Davenport we stopped by a berry farm and got some perfectly ripe strawberries- Swanton Berry Farms. They had a 10% discount for people who bikes in (with a helmet) and a touring cyclist log they wanted us to sign.
Later in the year they have all sorts of other berries,including Olallieberries- according to Wikipedia,
"The olallieberry (pronounced oh-la-leh) is a cross between the loganberry and the youngberry, each of which is itself a cross between blackberry and another berry (raspberry and dewberry, respectively). - its basically 2/3 black berry and 1/3 raspberry - so we plan on going back, probably by car, to pick our own and get some of their delicious jams. Oh, also a pay your self honor system in place. www.swantonberryfarm.com
We stopped by a hostel-I doubted they'd let us stay inside because of the dog- but since they in the middle of no where, we thought for sure we could at least camp there. I couldn't believe it when they said no! There is nothing around! Its one of those silly rules that defies logic- there are many other hostels that allow camping when they are full, or for people with pets. And I'd expect a hostel whose logo says "a place for everyone to stay" would work something out for two cyclists riding through. The guy there did mention that the lumber company about 10 miles up the road lets people camp on their land sometimes, so to go ask them.
The office for Big Creek Lumber Co was up a big hill- but luckily it was worth it! They gave us a free camping permit for their property across the street on the ocean (on a bluff, so not right on the beach) There was even a convenient building for us to step up camp next to that blocked most the wind. Although there was a phone or something ringing inside the building all night :)
View after the climb
The wild flowers are everywhere!
They are one of the best things about biking this route vs driving- that we can see the fields of them but we are also going slow enough to see the 'details' on the flowers as well.
just a few -
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