A truly remote place close to home. One doesn't have to travel that far to learn and be amazed.
After a heartfelt visit with family in Eureka and recovering for a couple of days while visiting, eating, cleaning ourselves, laundry and bicycle maintenance, reconnecting briefly with my lost nephew, we took off almost too late to ride 50 miles to find the lost coast of California and found it by sunset!
If the brutal head winds didn't come from the south, the ride from Eureka to Ferndale would have been easy, but, really, there wasn't much to complain, because the sun and blue skies made up for it.
There was only one more turn after lunch in the beautiful little town of Ferndale, before the up grade percentage of the road to Petrolia exceeded my expectation.
Really? 18 % with a loaded bike is no joke! This beautiful little windy road sustained mainly a 13% grade which is hard to take if it is 6 miles long and has these higher grade % hidden around a few corners a few times. But getting up to 1800 feet was faster that way. "More buck for your bang" (or how do you say it?)
When the Lost Coast found us, it won me over in an instant! Breathtaking beauty and the sweat and suffering was all but forgotten. Maybe that is why it is lost: you forget everything here, but just stand in awe!
Our pace slowed on the downhill and the flat road next to the ocean.
You don't want to miss a beat of the vast beauty that envelops us, swallows us and leaves us without a name or a word...maybe a melody or a song as the sun slowly sets, leaving us speechless.
We don't say anything while riding along, seemingly in slow motion while the day announces it's end. There is no fear in knowing that nature in it's power, could swallow us up and not even spit us out.
A fleeting thought of camping near the roaring ocean and shoreline, nestled in the dunes, but na.......Petrolia is only 4 miles away and we have somebody awaiting us there. So, we continue, climbing along a river inland for a short while and while my legs should be aching, I feel nothing but joy and gratefulness to find myself at the Lost Coast.
Petrolia is a sweet little place. A tight community with open minded people of all ages. We were greeted with open arms by a couple and their young friend visiting from south Africa. It was dark by the time we arrived. A 640 acre tucked away ranch just out of Petrolia. The lives, the history of this couple, but also their family, friends and ancestors is partly written down in books and and I fear I don't have the time, nor the brain capacity to comprehend how far the stories reaches in the States, but all over the globe. I wish I could just inject myself with their stories, with all they have learned and gone through. It would take so much time to read up on them or listen to them and understand their broad influence (one could, because they have done a lot of good in the world to be famous for it and all, building Universities, Camps for kids of all ages and challenges, the arts and a lot more.... This is not the place to disclose names and I won't).
The couples handsome son and grandson greeted us in the morning. He is the youngest of the couples five grown kids. He called himself the "baby" of the family while his four year old son added: "....but he is the biggest of them all"
There is so much to learn so close to home and - again- I love other peoples life and, yes........ my own!
