Monday and Tuesday - destination Garberville....

Monday morning came – another very nice sunny day – the undecided stayed with their first gut feeling so it was the 7 riders who took off right after 8:00 a.m.  The other 4 riders and the support vehicle took off ½ hour later and made their way through some nice farm country taking in the smells and scenery along the way. 

  

  Found some “bare naked ladies” as we were told by a local – had seen some extraordinary pink flowers which almost look plastic – a long stem with no leaves and only pink blooms at the end of the stem – therefore the name “bare naked”.  They look to be in the lily family.

We all stopped in Rio Dell for coffee – met up with some other cyclists there who had done lots of cycling and when we told them our husbands were doing the “The Wildcat” they said they must be real studs – they also said they probably be like kittens tonight.   The Wildcat is known for its 30 miles of twists, turns, dip and rises and some of the most spectacular ocean scenery in America. We will find out later today.

The grocery store in nearby Scotia was well stocked so we did our groceries for supper – it would be a pasta dinner so the cyclists could load up on carbs.  Early check in at the cabins allowed us to unload all the luggage and groceries so the vehicle could go and locate the 7 cyclists in case they needed extra nutrition or had problems with their bikes.  Spagetti sauce was soon simmering in the crock pot and some of the others got in the van and left to track down the cyclists.  Now the waiting would begin…the locals told us that by car this particular route takes 3 hours so it will be interesting to see when the first cyclists would show up.

Just after 3:00 Bill shows up, sits down and downs a beer – he tells us how hard the ride had been.  For Bill to admit that, it has to have been hard.  The condition of  the road makes it so much more tense when they are flying down the steep grades.

 Loose gravel, narrow roads, big trucks, sharp curves all added to the mix today.  John comes in next, too hot and dirty from fixing a flat that he wanted to shower before  he had a beer.  John was next, exhausted and  rightly so – he earned his beer.  The other 4 cyclists all came in together just minutes after that – all bedraggled and tired – hungry and thirsty.  Bernie had hit a rough spot, went down, got patched up and rode the last part a bit sore but he made it.

It’s interesting how you run into the same cyclists along the way – the three we had coffee with in Rio Dell were at the café across from the cabins when our cyclists came in so they could access for themselves  whether they were “studs” or “kittens” – I think “kittens” described them best after that gruelling 113 kilometer ride.

Another cyclist we keep bumping into is Sherry – we first saw her a few days ago and one of the first questions asked is, “where are you from?” – when she hears that we are from Ontario, she proceeds to tell us that she was in Ancaster on the Easter weekend and had stayed at Ed Witvoet's place – she is a member of  “warmshowers.org” and since Ed is as well, she ended up at his home.  She was on her way to London from there and Ed tried to get her to stay at John VanderSteens but he was on a cycling trip that weekend so they did not meet up.  Now they have met each other – it’s indeed a small world.  Sherry travels fully loaded with her bike so works hard….

High 5’s all around for all the cylists – I think I can brag a little bit about Joe making it – at 71 he can be proud of himself for doing the ride.  The cyclists all admitted that this was the toughest cycling any of them had ever done.  The first hill of the day was the steepest and hardest.  Along with the rough road conditions, they had to deal with climbing temperatures – it got up to 85 degrees today and the sweat just poured off with the climbing.  They had to buy water because they ran out….a first for them on this trip.  The downhills cooled them off quickly – only to be met with more up hills so it was a constant warm up and cool down.

We were looking for shade at the cabins too – no A/C while cooking supper  - thankfully we had picnic tables outside in the shade and that was where we had  supper.  Home made blackberry cobbler from the local café was our treat of the day.   Some decided to try out the hot tub after supper to limber up those muscles that had been overused during the day.  It would be an early night for the cyclists. 

Leftovers had just been put away when Sherry and Kelly (another cyclist) show up to camp out near the cabins – we quickly offer them our leftovers and along with a cold beer they were ready to pitch tents.  It’s all about hospitality. 

Tuesday’s ride would be a leisurely ride continuing along the Avenue of the Giants and the next stop would be in Garberville a mere  54  kilometers away so it was not going to be an early morning.  Everyone could sleep in and eat breakfast whenever.  We did assemble at 9:00 for our morning prayer before setting off and the rest of the ride today will be shown in picture mode. 

 Arrival in Garberville was just before 1:00  - just in time for lunch there.  We were all starting to wonder if we had taken summer clothes along for naught but have discovered otherwise - at 1:00 p.m. the thermometer on one of our bikes was registering 30 in the shade.  We checked out downtown and headed back to our air conditioned units quite quickly.   Because of the lack of rain in this area the hill side surrounding Garberville is very dry - the only green is the trees.

Tomorrow's ride is going to be on Highway 1 along the coast again so it should be cooler.