Day 11: Klamath to Fortuna, CA

August 10, Klamath to Fortuna, CA

82 miles, 14 mph

Like many days, this one started foggy and hilly. Unlike other days, within a mile of starting, it began to rain. I recall earlier in the trip telling people that, "once we reach California, we don't have to worry about it raining." This, clearly, was punishment for making such a definitive prediction. Gets you every time.

To add injury to insult, we started the day with two 500 foot climbs. One of these climbs I was basically expecting--an ascent up US101. The second, I wasn't. Earlier in the summer, I had driven from San Francisco to Seattle and hiked in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. The route I drove was through the scenic alternate to 101 (Drury Scenic Parkway)--the road we were biking that morning. I swear I didn't remember a high climb (or descent). But, there it was. Seems like it's easy to miss these "subtleties" in a car.  But, the (mostly) gradual descent from the top of the climb was well worth the pain. It was through the heart of the redwood forest and the scenery was magnificent. The giant redwoods simply dwarfed us. By this time the rain had abated (although it was still foggy) and we made numerous stops along the way to take pics and to simply appreciate this incredible park. Drury Parkway rejoined US101 shortly after Elk Grove where, unfortunately, no elk were grazing. But, we did see elk later on, outside of Orick.

Leaving Prairie Creek Redwoods, we rejoined the coast--made a brief coffee stop in Orick and cruised on towards Eureka and Fortuna--our ultimate destination. The beaches and landscapes had a distinctly California feel to them. We saw wide, sandy beaches, eucalyptus trees and US101 became a less-friendly 4-lane highway. Before today, when US101 entered a town, it more-or-less became main street. Here, there were exits and entrances to these towns off the highway. This meant that we had to be very careful about dodging fast-moving traffic that was transitioning on and off the highway.

We made a strategic blunder in that we waited until hitting Eureka before having lunch. Eureka was at about the 62 mile mark which was pretty far beyond the 45 - 50 miles we usually wait before dining. We were pretty ragged by the time we hit town, and the wind, fog and heavy traffic on 101 had worn us down. We dined at a pretty decent Vietnamese Pho place. I had 3 Advil for dessert.

The remaining 20 miles or so to Fortuna was a bit better. With food in our bellies and a flat road (at least for a while) we felt a little more human. Here, the road hugs the sheltered South Bay for a distance before turning east and heading uphill to the town of Fortuna. As we gained altitude, the fog cleared and the temperature warmed. By the time we arrived at our destination (another Best Western--yay!), it was at least 75 degrees and sunny. We dined at a local brew-pub, near the hotel.