Sunday, July 16
We had a good breakfast at the Holiday Inn and continued driving N on hwy101. We stopped at the Redwood National Park to bike 20 miles. It was a crazy uphill through the redwoods, fast downhill to a small single track parralleling the ocean. The single track was a bit wild with several areas where we had to lift our bikes over downed trees. We biked through Fern Canyon and back to the campground. Parts were fun, but overall a bit crazy (and not a very scenic ride). Svea is super strong and cranked it hard on the uphills.
We continued N and stopped at the Tress of Mystery. A gondola ride in the woods through amazing Redwood forests. Apparently, this is where Paul Bunyon and Blue live. Being from MN, I'm quite certain they are actually from there but I think those in Northern CA might fight for the legacy.
We crossed into OR and found the best camping spot of the trip! Right off the road, on a tall bluff over the ocean. Beautiful, scenic spot. We walked down the woods trail to a nice overlook onto crashing waves and the ocean hitting giant rocks to watch another spectacular sunset. The coast is beautiful with big beaches and large protruding rocks all over.
Monday, July 17
We woke up in OR! and continued driving N to Florence. We stopped at Safeway for a quick lunch and to restock our food and then went to Sandland Adventures for the afternoon. We went for a crazy sand dune ride. It was unexpectedly fast and was totally trilling. It was soooo fast! We were awed at every hill, twist and turn. Kyle was our driver and we rode with a family of 5 with 3 small children (too small for that ride in our opinion). We went back to the Adventure land park and drove GoKarts. Super fun!!
We are amazed at the size of the trees here. Big forests, big logging rigs, stacks of logs, wood is everywhere!
At Florence, we turned E and drove to Eugene, OR. We went through small towns including Nimrod, which produced many laughs in the car. We camped for the night just E of the Blue River at the Delta Campground. We had a great site right next to a quiet creek with giant cedar trees. The trees had neat moss all over them, it was a thick forest and we had our second campfire of the trip.
