Rainy Californian Redwoods

Torill and I have been hunkered down for the last two days in Northern
California at Standish-Hickey State Park in the midst of torrential
rains and high winds which have dolled out quite the beating up and
down the coast. The campground is deserted save for the 10 or so
unfortunate souls in the hiker biker sites.

A Brit, who we have been running into since Westport Washington, had a
massive tree branch fall on his bike last night; destroying his rear
wheel. A call to a bike shop in Eureka and an Amtrak bus delivered
package later though and he already has a new wheel in place. One of
the benefits of choosing a frequently traveled cycle route!

I think we'll head on tomorrow regardless of the weather. It's pretty
depressing here and the forecast doesn't look overly promising for a
while. Time to continue south. We're about 4-5 days of riding away
from San Francisco. The next days' ride starts with the biggest climb
yet; 2000 feet and then right down to sea level and back up to 700
feet. The climbs have been manageable so far; the roads are well
graded and most of the time there is a comfortable shoulder to ride
on. The drivers continue to be very courteous; except that is for
the horrible RV drivers. Wow, they are terrible.